Insight Management vs. Knowledge Management

I wrote about insight mapping in the previous blog because I came across the Insight Management Academy (IMA) website.  I was looking up "insight management". 

In some ways, insight management looks very much like Knowledge Management. In fact, I came across some definitions of insight management that were literally well-accepted definitions of knowledge management. 

If I were to try to explain the difference, I would say that insight management is a form of knowledge management that is very market-oriented, future-oriented, or forward looking. While Knowledge Management can take on many different forms in an organization, insight management is more focused. 

It is not focused on lessons learned or best practices.  It is looking at the latest, most relevant data and information available in the market and internally to make decisions; it is looking to innovate and bring new solutions to the market.  It is focused on competing ahead of the market.  It's asking "what are the solutions of tomorrow?" rather than "what has worked well in the past that we can repeat?" 

To say that insight management is not paying attention to lessons from the past is an exaggeration.  As a KM professional I do not mean to say that we should ignore lessons from the past.  Lessons learned should be a foundation, a starting point, but they are not enough and unless they are continuously updated, they become obsolete rather quickly.  For more on that point, "Best Practices are Stupid" is a good reminder that sticking with so called 'proven solutions' cannot lead to new solutions and new, evolving problems require new solutions.