Janine Weightman.
return for the effort. Attending expos, networking meetings, and regional events is helping me to establish a posi- tive presence in my business community and evolve specialist services that meet the needs of SMEs.”
KM service balancing act Janine says: “The key for boutique con- sultants is to be highly specialised and develop your own methods. This can be difficult in KM where there are so many angles, approaches and current prac- tices. Methods must have validity and provide the client with the relevant value – and also not infringe on other’s IP. The problem is, this can take time to develop, especially when research and evidence is required before going to market or to validate an approach. As a new consult- ant there are many factors to balance in terms of what’s needed to get work and what your business model will look like, so you can keep paying your bills.” So work and research need to be integrated: “The time to develop unique services therefore should be a thread through your business as you grow, continuously evolving to meet the needs of your clients and business mission. I carry on the message of one of my mentors, that KM shouldn’t be a solution in search of a problem. Yet as a business, by its nature, you provide solutions to problems. That’s where understanding your market and clients is essential. I mention this because I can draw distinct parallels between how entrepreneurs develop services and how KM professionals could better evolve projects inside their companies.”
September 2024
Role of reflection
Entrepreneurialism conjures up visions of pace and decisiveness not reflection and contemplation, but Janine says these are vital components in the journey: “Personal- ly, my service development journey started with much self-reflection on my own skills, motivations, values and biases. It afforded me the insight to identify gaps and oppor- tunities in my capability, and what would get me out of bed day in day out. I engaged myself in marketing practices to help me understand my clients and myself, as well as reflecting on innovative aspects of my experience as starting points for proprie- tary methods.” She said: “This is where the Knovoscope (a proprietary tool that draws on KM
theory in the public domain and guides conversations around KM strategy) was born; from my reflection on the early stages of identifying KM requirements, where I could have improved, and what worked well. I’ve always focused on some key theory and have structured conversa- tions in a similar pattern to help people talk beyond the surface symptoms of their KM challenges. This worked best when people could identify the alignment to their business challenges themselves, and emotionally connect with that. It meant stronger buy-in or at least the right frame of mind to discuss things further.”
Finding language
Now she is targeting SMEs rather than traditional KM clients, the challenge is how
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