Nobody can stop the idea whose time has come! May be as "waterfall" knowledge descends and gets manifested, goes down into many minds, seeps in and then probably evaporates as question. It almost like the water cycle. Similarly in organizations, knowledge gets accumulated, found out, used. It raises questions, debates, the knowledge gets refined, may be gets codified to the repository. 

Thanks

Good point!

other idea "water cycle"

I think waterfalls could be a stage where knowledge produce energy

When knowledge is innovation

When knowledge is value for business

Bye

Hi Carlos,

Interesting question.

Maybe your can see KM and waterfalls as follows.

Waterfalls come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, just as knowledge.

Not all waterfalls can be use to produce energy, just as knowledge, not all knowledge leads to a usable product.

A special case of a waterfall is a cascading waterfall. So one waterfall feeds the other waterfall with water, just as knowledge. Knowledge doesn't come out of thin air, it depends on other knowledge developed by other people (or the same people in the past). Even radical innovation and knowledge development depends on knowledge developed in the past.  In other words, everything is connected.

A waterfall can, given enough time, cut through rock and other stones, this can make the waterfall shallower, and the energy that it could produce may be reduces. It is dated literature but the Foster S-curve and knowledge dissemination literature could be of help here. Foster (1986) argued that the performance improvement become more difficult and requires more investments if a technology is reaching its technical limits. So, investing more and more in a specific form of knowledge may not yield a comparable improvement in utility or performance when the "limits" of that kind of knowledge are reached, until a (technological) discontinuity occurs (for example, looking at the same problem with different eyes).

Maybe a nice analog is the waterfall has become shallower and shallower, but at a certain point in time a earthquake raised/lowered one point of the waterfall. Or a treetrunk has blocked the old route of the water, and the diversion of the stream leads it to a higher height difference.

Best regards,

Herman

Herman

Great answer!!

Thanks

Your argument is very interesting

I think is a baseline for a paper

different waterfalls with complementary points of view for KM

I like "energy perspective", knowledge for business

Regards

Hi Carlos,

I think the water can be used as a metaphor for knowledge management.

The nature of flowing water can be used to describe the knowledge flow.

The nature of water is capable of flowing through the rocks on its way from upstream to downstream, indicating that the water is dynamic. the dynamic nature of water is the same as the dynamic nature of knowledge.

Water that falls on the stone at the same position constantly will definitely make a hole in the rock. Someone who is constantly learning, resulting in the accumulation of skills or knowledge will certainly be able to think more creatively and innovate. Amabile argues that creativity is a function of three

components: expertise, creative thinking skills, and motivation. Obviously, skill is one of the components of creativity. Creativity is a prerequisite for innovation.

Best Regards,

Elidjen

Thanks Elidjen,

I like your argument "flowing through the rocks" in order to identify what are rocks inside organizations?

Regards