Knowledge Management

It was an office like any other, motivational posters adorned it’s generically bland wallpaper, dotted here and there corporate jargon boasted about achievements whilst still managing to convey a sense of urgency to do more. Chairs of varying design yet all bound by the common fact that in some way or another they were all malfunctioning in one small yet incredibly annoying manner. The unwary backside their coveted prey poised to catapult an unsuspecting victim to the floor in an embarrassing heap. Desks arranged in territorial patterns across the room allowing the disassociation of others whilst integrating the accepted . Sleeping computer monitors populating each space at varying heights dependant upon the requirements of their masters. The lights flicker to life as our hero began walking towards his usual seat, the sun still sleeping at this early hour his sunrise today would be a fluorescent one. After retrieving his uniformly bland box, decorated in a way as to tell others that despite all appearances and the simple fact that he is indeed working here still after all these years, he’s really a fun zany person. He carefully places his backside on his chair in a manner known only to him to prevent the unfortunate ejection he would otherwise have suffered and begins his day as he has done for the last 6 years “CTRL + ALT + DEL”

The monitor bursts to life and poses that never ending question, “User Name” and “Password”. As he carefully swings his legs onto his desk, placing the keyboard upon his lap in a laid back Jumping Jack Flash homage he reaches into his unlocked box and retrieves his book of passwords, peruses it for a moment before his fingers quickly glide over the keyboard. He then takes the tools of his trade from his bland box, a pen that has seen more enamel than paper , a pad of paper that has seen more doodles than work and a headset that can only be described as worn-in. As he begins to bring to life a vast array of applications on his monitor, pausing briefly each time to remind himself of the most current password for each, his mind begins to wander as it has done increasingly these past few months. For our hero is a troubled person of late, certain events have been given more thought than that which is normally deemed safe and as a result have began to play heavily on his mind. For the last 6 years Frank has been working in a call centre for one of the largest banks in the country and up until recently that’s about as exciting as it got for Frank. But a recent promotion changed all that.

He was now a Manager of Knowledge, and not just the Knowledge of his co-workers here in the bank but that of the world. He had always been a small cog in a very large machine, now he was a small cog in a very large machine indeed.