KM and the Geneva Declaration 6th July 2007

It was very interesting to read the links sent by Dr. Donat Agosti
Science Consultant Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History and Naturmuseum der Burgergemeinde Bern,concerning the signing of the 'Geneva Convention' on 6th July 2007. After reading, I could not help but put this into the context of the contribution that knowledge management could make to achieving the Geneva Convention goals.

Here are the links to the Global Compact declaration signed last week in Geneva. The GC is an initiative between the UN and the business world based on the hind sight, that it needs both for a better world.

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/summit2007/GENEVA_DECLARATION.pdf

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/NewsAndEvents/news_archives/2007_07_06c.html

"Some 4,000 organizations from 116 countries -- among them trade unions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and some 3,100 businesses -- have so far subscribed to the Global Compact, pledging to observe ten universal principles related to human rights, labour rights, the environment and the struggle against corruption.

The Geneva Declaration expresses the belief that “globalization, if rooted in universal principles, has the power to improve our world fundamentally -- delivering economic and social benefits to people, communities and markets everywhere”.

The key theme that I resonated with throughout reading the Declaration, Principles and Actions was 'global sustainability'.

Surely the global knowledge economy, the development of more knowledge driven organisations, and knowledge workers, will make a huge difference to reducing the use of valuable natural resources, on the one hand, and transforming our cultures to more open and trust based on the other.

Traditional Business economies tend to be based on competition for scarce valuable natural and tangible resources, driven by scarcity and knowledge power politics. Sustainability in this economy, based on a scarcity mentality, is almost impossible.

Knowledge economies are based on cooperation and collaboration with unlimited valuable intangible resources, driven by abundance and knowledge sharing power politics. Businesses in this economy, based on abundance, are naturally sustainable.

We are firmly in the era of 'global' individuals, teams, organisations and communities, and I believe that these new knowledge driven entities will substantially contribute to bringing about a more naturally knowledge sharing global society.

I think that effective knowledge management, at the personal, team, organization and inter-organizational levels will make a significant contribution to all of this.

Ron Young

For more information:

www.knowledge-management-online.com