I Remember When KM Ruled the Office

Did you ever have a secretary? I don’t mean an office admin or receptionist. I mean an old fashioned secretary. My secretary’s name was Jacquie. Jacquie made it possible for me to succeed at my job. She managed my day, she screened my calls, she read my email and only had me respond to the important ones, she filed, she typed, she set-up meetings, she was connected to the other secretary’s and provided me with great business and office politics intelligence, she arranged my travel, filed my expense reports, made sure I was never late to a meeting, got my lunch, took notes at meetings, was able to translate my ideas into documents and presentations, came in before me and mostly left after me. We got to know each other well. So well that she could anticipate my needs and seemingly read me mind. Jacquie was a great filer. She had a system and could find documents and information in short order. She also was able to provide me information in the format I needed when I needed it. Jacquie was my knowledge manager, my confidant, and a trusted colleague.
If you never had a secretary then you don’t know what you missed. Back in the old days (late 1990′s to mid 2000′s) I was fortunate enough to have one. I was a mid-manager, but in those days we were able to have administrative support. Over time, toward the mid 2000′s more and more mid-manager’s lost their support in the name of efficiency and profitability. In my case Jacquie could still help me out, but she also had to support two other managers at a level higher than mine. I slowly started doing more and more of the daily administrative work myself. I was spoiled and it took time for me to get used to culling through all my emails, answering all my calls and messages, preparing my reports and briefings, searching for content and information, making all my travel arrangements, etc. I used to have time to think, time to lead and manage my staff, time to devote solely on my work – the reason they hired me to begin with, but now it seemed like half my day was consumed with administrivia. I certainly didn’t see where the company was more efficient or profitable by having me do my work and the work of an administrative professional.
I miss having a secretary, but those days are in the past. Jacquie won’t be coming back. Not for me, not for anyone who isn’t a senior executive, and in many instances not for them either. The secretary has become extinct for the most part. Replaced by a laptop, a mobile device, software applications, and some on-line technologies. It’s assumed that in addition to doing the work I was hired to do I can also proficiently type, file, search, meeting plan, understand a multitude of technologies, quickly learn a new application without training, negotiate my time, and understand all the organizational processes and procedures just by reading a web page. In many cases we have made a mess of things, a big mess. Jacquie understood the file and record systems. When I started storing my work products I just started to save them. I didn’t have time for putting meta-data on files, or create a file plan or strategy, or a figure out a simple taxonomy. I just saved and moved on. I did this, you did this, we all did this because that’s the best we could do. Now we have big repositories of stuff. Over time technologies got better. I do have better email now, so I can now get more of it. I have better collaborative tools so I can constantly be kept up to date and in the know by anyone who has access to me. I have better communication devices so I can be plugged in 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It’s great! Not so much.
I am an advocate for knowledge management practices. I think organizationally we can do a better job of managing our knowledge/intellectual capital. But that doesn’t mean we can and should only do it by using enabling technologies. Sometimes the answer is more human. Sometimes we need human knowledge managers to manage the knowledge the knowledge workers create. Let’s not forget the goal of KM which is getting the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people create knowledge and share and act upon information in ways that measurably improve the performance of the organization. Sometimes we need professional help to make that happen. We now call secretaries, administrative professionals. They are professionals at administrative tasks. I am not, and neither are many of you. Let’s consider this as we develop KM strategies and approaches.

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