Personal Knowledge Management is the Secret Ingredient to a Incredible Career

Fighting off the rise of AI with your own supercharged Knowledge

Hey Procurement Legend,

As knowledge workers, we’re at risk with the rise of AI. I know not everyone holds this view, but I’m of the view, with many others, that AI Agents will perish and handle a lot of existing roles.

However, one major flaw of AI Agents in their knowledge. They will be incredible generalists, capable of learning at breakneck speeds, but you, too, are this.

But you’re more than this.

Each of you has an incredible amount of knowledge in your brain, in your notebook, on your notes app.

What I’m going to teach you here, in part, as this will be a multi-part series (with a video series on this coming in the new year), is how to create a Second Brain/Digital Brain that will power your career and shine a light on your expertise.

People will get to know that you are that one person in this space who knows a lot about that subject.

It’s part of personal branding.

Part career survival.

Part reinvention on loop.

This is an extract from my work-in-progress book, The Future of Procurement.

As always, Friday articles are for our paid community only. Please enjoy the free preview, and if you’re serious about succeeding in procurement in 2024, figuring out how to utilise tech in this space, and how to use AI, then I’ve got you covered.

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Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is a widely underutilised skill set in any profession, yet it should be high up on your priority list as a knowledge worker. We’re mental athletes in procurement, and if we aren’t treating our knowledge with care or making it easy to access and use, we are doing a disservice to ourselves.

We’re going deep on this in this chapter. This, in part, will fuel every other skill that you have.

Seriously, this is a superpower at the personal level as a procurement pro and at a higher level across your organisation. I’m writing this book, and this chapter in particular, utilising my Second Brain in Notion, by combining my human squidgy yet incredible brain with all of my notes that I can access via Notion AI, my go-to platform for PKM for an individual but also across your entire organisation.

(#NotionAffiliate)

This chapter will cover (we don’t cover all of these today, more to coming soon!):

• What is Personal Knowledge Management

• Why Procurement Pros (and any digital professional) should prioritise Personal Knowledge Management

• Why a Second Brain should be your chosen method for personal PKM

• How to store information

• How to read efficiently online

• How to take notes better (Digtal Zettelkasten)

• Progressive Summarisation

• Executive Summarisation

• New Content

• How to prioritise PKM within your Procurement Team and organisation

What is Personal Knowledge Management?

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is a system that allows individuals to manage their personal information and knowledge.

There are physical and digital formats, each with pros and cons, but we will focus on the digital system. The physical system is referred to as “commonplace notes”.

Commonplace notes refer to a traditional note-taking system where you store insights and ideas, similar to a personal knowledge management system. It's a method used by many, including writer Ryan Holiday, who uses it for its tactile and organised approach. I’ve tried this approach, and it’s beautiful to use and makes each note feel worthwhile, BUT…it’s hard work to maintain and when PKM is a core tenant of becoming a digital procurement pro, but is likely going to be a task you can dedicate only a small portion of your time to, we need efficiency and accessibility.

That’s where the digital version of commonplace notes, a place where you can store and manage knowledge from various sources. This digital version, often called a 'Second Brain', allows for easy search and retrieval of information. This is my preferred approach and largely mirrors the concept of the commonplace note but uses tech to do much of the hard work.

When I started planning this section earlier this year (2023), I was going to write something different to what you are about to read. The changes that we’ve seen with Gen AI, have enabled PKM to be enhanced. My Digital Brain is on some digital steroids…with none of the limp side effects.

A "Second Brain" is a digital repository where you can store insights, notes, and ideas from various sources. This system can track goals, document insights, and apply them to projects or new roles. It's a way to cultivate a body of knowledge that is uniquely your own so you can easily access and use the information when needed.

Imagine every note you make in a digital format stored in one centralised place. Most people are used to making digital notes.