On The Train (Knowledge Manages Us). Sept 29, 2006

Coming down from a meeting I was surprised to find Prof Naguib Al-Attas in the lift. At first I was not sure it was him as I always cannot tell between him and his brother Prof Hussien. As the lift slowly descended I was convinced that he was Prof Naguib but just as I about to start a conversation with him the lift stopped at my floor and went dead. I straight away joked it because of you in it today Prof. and we just laughed about it. We discussed a bit on what to do and Prof was really keen and did not mind walking the stairs down. I told him it was not one flight down but four as we have a mezzanine floor. I took him to use the stairs on the other side and I remembered the other lift core there that was facing the Knowledge Management Center (KMC). I tried the lift it was still working and the lift right in front of the KMC entrance opened. As I ushered him in his colleague remarked about the name KMC and immediately I said to Prof. ‘I know you have an issue with that.’ He smiled and said, “Yes, it’s the knowledge that manages us.” I remembered our conversation in his old office at ISTAC years ago. I agree with him that we can never manage knowledge as all of us in what ever we do the knowledge that we have that shape our belief, thinking and action. What we are trying to do in any organization now is just managing corporate knowledge.