Peer to Peer Magazine

smart moves just a few days after I resigned, I found myself hired to work in knowledge management. I planned to do a three-month pilot project for the firm's mergers and acquisitions practice group and then leave to pursue other opportunities. By the end of that three-month period, I was tackling KM projects for multiple practice groups and planning for an intranet upgrade. I realized I could build something through the KM function within the firm that would change the way we did our work and how we served our clients. Those were exciting days; I was, in effect, running a startup within the firm. My workdays began at 6:00 a.m. and ended past midnight, so we could support lawyers in our offices worldwide. The key was to act interstitially — to fill those gaps that exist inevitably between the job descriptions of established departments in every firm. In other words, when others said they didn't do windows, we stepped in. Even while doing basic, old-fashioned KM, I had opportunities to learn. We moved practice resources from paper collections to the intranet. To facilitate this, I learned basic HTML coding and Web design. Then we upgraded to a portal. In that project, I was fortunate to work with some stellar technologists who taught me a great deal — from business analysis to how to manage an IT project. Those were the days when many claimed the right technology solution could solve most knowledge-sharing problems. And then reality struck. After deploying market-leading tools, every firm learned there remained lots of work to be done to bring the people and processes of the firm into alignment with the new technology. It was about this time I started telling KM colleagues in other law firms that the technology was the easy part; the people and processes were much tougher. They laughed at me at first. It was also at this time I became more active in planning and speaking at continuing education sessions for law firm knowledge management leaders. At one session, I was part of a panel that led a provocative discussion on the importance of personal knowledge management. Early the next morning, my RSS feed reader delivered a blog post reporting on that session. By the end of that morning, two other blog posts surfaced with accounts of my session. (One post was written by someone who had not attended the presentation, but found merit in the discussion points reported by the other bloggers.) That's when I realized there was a larger conversation happening via social media, and I didn't have an effective way of participating in it. A few weeks later I started blogging. My blog, Above and Beyond KM, has truly transformed my professional life. The responsibility of writing for a growing audience forced me to read more widely and think more deeply. I often joke I've received a graduate education by virtue of the work I've done for my blog. This work also allowed me to interact with a dynamic group of thought leaders in the legal profession and in social media and knowledge management across a variety of industries. Thought leadership led me to ILTA — initially as a speaker on social media issues and then as a member of the conference 28 Peer to Peer committee for the last three years. Thanks to the generous support of ILTA's leadership, I was able to develop and test my theories on how to facilitate a different kind of educational session as I planned alternatives to traditional panel discussions. All of this fit well with my growing professional interest in how to improve the quality of conversation in educational sessions and in meetings. It was a revelation to discover how few of us have had the privilege and pleasure of participating in a well-run meeting. Working with a variety of groups (including ILTA), I've been expanding my facilitation practice, and it has become an important part of my professional portfolio. Working On the Next Curve If you've stuck with me this long, you know I intended to leave law firm life after three years. It was nearly 22 years later that I finally pulled up stakes and moved on. (As of January 2013, I've hung up my own shingle.) While my license to practice law is still valid, my professional focus now is on writing, knowledge management consulting and facilitating meetings, workshops and conference sessions. In addition, I'm working on a software development project and am helping teach a course in a master's program at Columbia University. It's a diverse mix, and the components are enriching. What I learn through my consulting and facilitation work feeds my writing, teaching and software development work, which sharpens my consulting and facilitation work. By jumping from one steep learning curve to another, I've expanded my professional horizons in directions I could not have anticipated as a graduate student trying to fund another year of doctoral work. By looking for windows when the nearest available door wouldn't open, I've made some sharp turns in my career that have led me to do work that flummoxes my senior citizen friends and acquaintances. In fact, it's been a long time since my parents understood and could accurately describe how I earn my living. Perhaps this is my personal variant of Matt Thomas' observation that in five years we will likely do jobs that don't currently exist. The difference is I'm creating those jobs for myself. I encourage you to do the same. V. Mary Abraham is a law firm knowledge management leader and consultant. She has also built a practice facilitating strategic conversations and interactive educational sessions. Active in the legal industry for 22 years, she is a frequent speaker and writer on knowledge management and social media issues. Her blog, Above and Beyond KM, continues to win commendations and readers, and sparks discussions in the legal community and other industries. Contact Mary at kmadvice@gmail.com or on Twitter @vmaryabraham.

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