From the Desk of the Editor-in-Chief

Xenia Stanford, Editor-in-Chief, KnowMap and President, Stanford Solutions Inc.*

Navigating Beyond the Known

We each see the world by what we currently know. A map is only a tool to the known world. It is not the total territory before us.

A map is the past experiences of others. What do we know in comparison? Maybe a little, maybe a lot, but we do not learn without exploring our unknowns and creating new mental maps of our experiences as we go. We can learn of charted territories from others. However, the best learning is not vicarious but firsthand. It is well to see what others have seen but we must push beyond the known to discover for ourselves what wonders lie ahead.

The ancient mariners had two beliefs we would do well to consider today. First they believed it was bad luck to always sail with the same crew. Was it because they could learn little new by covering the same territory with the same people?

Secondly anything unmapped or unknown was marked "Here be dragons". The goal for the brave crew was not to follow in the wake of the ships before them. Their map was only a guide of what there was no need to discover because it was already known. They set course for the territory marked by dragons. As they mapped the once unknown it became part of the known territory and the dragons vanished.

Why KnowMap?

The intention of KnowMap is to show you the exploration of others in discovering and using new practical tools for knowledge management. Through their experiences you can share their knowledge, incorporate it into your framework and expand your knowledge. Then you are ready to move forward to the unknown to discover as yet uncharted territory.

For none of us can learn that for which we are not ready. If we do not know the first steps, we cannot move ahead. We cannot read if we do not know the alphabet. We cannot speed around the racetrack until we know how to drive. We cannot map or manage our organizational knowledge until we know what is known and where be dragons of opportunity.

It is of little use to follow best practices unless we use them to create new and better practices. It is not by learning what our competitors know that will give us the new and sharper edge. It is creating new wisdom to travel beyond.

With KnowMap you can see how others have applied their knowledge and created new wisdom through lessons learned. By learning what they know we can avoid some of their mistakes and not need to retread the same ground. We can, however, repeat their successes and in doing so sail off in search of new and even wiser solutions to our own problems.

Unknot the Magic

One of my favourite stories is that of the Gordian Knot: When the people of Pythagoras were without a king the oracle predicted their new regent would come riding into town on a wagon. Soon after, the simple peasant Gordius happened to arrive on an oxcart and was immediately crowned king. In delight and gratitude at this new fortune, he dedicated his oxcart to Zeus and tied it with a magical knot saying the person who could undo the knot would become king of the entire known world. Try as many did, they could not untie the knot. When Alexander the Great rode into town on his horse, he saw the knot, took out his sword and slew it in two.

He moved beyond traditional knowledge or conventional wisdom to create a new solution to the knotty problem. Let's ride forward and do the same.

Remember the race is not just to the swift. In this case it is to those who dare try new bold ideas and in doing so create new wisdom.

Racing with Wisdom

We admire those who can beat all records. Do we realize it takes more than speed to do so? The fastest race car driver needs more to maintain the edge. He needs knowledge of the track, his car and what works in what situations but as the way ahead unfolds in new experiences he needs wisdom to avoid the wreckage that may lie seconds ahead. The faster he goes the less time he has to plan his reaction to changing conditions.

His knowledge must be so embrained he doesn't need much time to think. However, he must go beyond the known and create new wisdom at every bend. For though he may have covered the track before, who knows what lies ahead this time?

Covering the known terrain faster than those before is made possible by the road they carved. But when new circumstances arise we must chart our own course. Will we simply be racers or the breakers of new trails?

What Are You Mapping?

Do you use a road map to see where you are or do you create your own new reality? Are you courageous enough to join the crew with no map but that which you help create? You may take the wisdom of others you find in the pages of KnowMap but until you have used them to move beyond their wake, they remain the maps and wisdom of others.

As we use the techniques we learn from these pages to map and manage, the unknown fast becomes the known. The more we know, the more we see ahead that remains to be discovered. For "The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder" (Ralph Sackman as cited in Quote File).

To learn more about the creation and intent of KnowMap, see As We Map and Manage.

Works Cited

Quotations from Canadian author Robertson Davies. Last modified October 12, 2000. www.amk.ca/davies/robertson-davies.html

Hay Creek Marketing & Design Associates. Quote File. HayCreek Studio. Last modified April 9, 1999 www.haycrk.com/Quotfile.html

*Stanford Solutions Inc. is not in anyway affiliated with Stanford University. The principal of Stanford Solutions is named Xenia Stanford.

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