Rainmakers, Raincollectors & KM

When it comes to knowledge management business organizations are highly interested in capturing the tacit knowledge of their rainmakers. Why? Well because these are the folks that have the know how to drive revenue--they are are the hunters that keep the organization fed. If the organization could figure out (and capture) how they do what they do then institutional memory would improve and the knowledge doesn't walk out the door each time a rainmaker decides to make rain somewhere else.

The problem is that most rainmakers are too busy making rain and have no bandwidth (we'll save the incentive question for another post) to collect it. If you want revenue (who doesn't) then you need to keep rainmakers happy, if you want knowledge management then you need to inspire, educate, reward and otherwise enable the raincollectors (associates, secretaries, paralegals, IT staff) that can get close enough (through relationship building) to collect a little rain. Have them master the technologies and processes first on their own "stuff" and organically grow the knowledge base toward the edges of the organization where the rainmakers roam.

Related Tags: Law 2.0, Law2.0, KM, Knowledge Management