Learning + Knowledge =?

A few years ago, I was working in a division of a multinational that had decided to integrate its learning and development (L&D) group on the one hand with its knowledge management (KM) team on the other. I was on the KM side and I found myself in a meeting with my new colleagues from the learning & development bloc. One of them looked at me and said: "What is it you do? It's something about databases isn't it? " Inwardly I sighed- and then another thought went through my head: I wasn't crystal clear on what they did either. This was going to be a long session. This article has it origins in those early conversations and the work we did afterwards. It examines why organisations may want to integrate L&D and KM, what some of the pitfalls might be, and future opportunities for the would-be learning organisation. Some Background and Definitions KM and L&D may have different origins but both suffer from misunderstandings as to their purpose and scope by outsiders. This first section reflects on these origins (and of course oversimplifies them in the process). The function that many organisations now call "learning & development " started off life as just plain old "training". It borrowed its two primary techniques from the education sector. The first technique i