A disturbance in the force

We had disheartening news yesterday that our well-liked deputy director was not selected to replace our retiring director. With our deputy being the lead champion for the KM program, this definitely hits home. What makes matters worse is that we won't know who the new director will be for another month. Questions are swirling around in my head; Will KM remain a priority? Will the new director want to change the direction of the program? Will the new director want a new person leading KM? How are staff going to react? What am I going to have for lunch?

Being in the middle of a change effort, this uncertainty definitely causes problems. People were already being challenged with the changes being implemented. Can we keep the momentum going without pushing people over the edge?

Being the eternal optimist, I'm hoping that this change in leadership will bring a new sense of urgency to the knowledge management effort. A big barrier to change always been our organizational memory (the "we've always done it this way" and the "this can't change" syndrome). New ideas and new leadership may be what we need.

The challenge will be to keep things moving forward during this transition and period of uncertainty.