(This post was originally shared on my LinkedIn Profile.)
Most knowledge management strategies focus on systems, processes, and technology. But what if the missing piece is a scribble drawing?
Knowledge Work Has a Creativity Problem
We have built our organisations around efficiency metrics and linear processes — get from A to B to C in the most direct line possible. But knowledge work does not actually work that way. It requires curiosity, reflection, and iteration. It demands that people make unexpected connections, ask uncomfortable questions, and see the bigger picture.
Those capacities are not switched on by yet another technology upgrade.
This is the premise of Radical Knowledge Management — a framework developed to bring creativity and arts-based interventions (ABIs) deliberately into KM practice. The definition of KM at the heart of this approach is broader than the traditional one: rather than merely connecting people to documented knowledge, it focuses on enabling people to find and create the knowledge they need to do their jobs — including through continuous learning and new ways of thinking.
What Are Arts-Based Interventions?
Arts-based interventions are activities that use an artistic medium or discipline to improve a process or situation. In organisational settings, the most common artistic modalities include drawing, painting, photography, theatre, music, poetry, improvisation, and storytelling.
These are not team-building novelties bolted on to the end of a strategy day. Used deliberately, they are instruments for culture change, innovation, leadership development, problem-solving, and organisational transformation.
There are at least twelve use cases for ABIs in organisations:
- Culture change
- Innovation
- Wellness
- Getting unstuck
- Sustainable leadership
- Team building
- Collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Amplifying learning
- Transformation
- Creating community
- Employee engagement
Because of the interconnected nature of these activities, focusing on ABIs for one use case tends to positively affect the others as well.
Why ABIs Belong Inside Your KM Strategy
There is a tendency to think of creativity as a bolt-on — something for design or marketing, or perhaps for the occasional off-site. The argument for placing ABIs firmly within KM rests on something more fundamental.
Knowledge is created by people. It is intangible, complex, and deeply social. In our increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, the knowledge we most urgently need cannot be captured in a database. It lives in the capacity of people to think differently, collaborate across silos, and remain curious even under pressure.
ABIs directly support those capacities. They help people tap into skills and behaviours that formal education and career pressures have pushed into dormancy. They encourage people to get out of their comfort zones, see the bigger picture, and ask different questions. In doing so, they create new knowledge — and they shift organisational culture towards one that supports knowledge sharing rather than knowledge hoarding.
As Albert Einstein observed, imagination is more important than knowledge; knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world. Arts-based interventions are one of the most reliable ways to fuel imagination in the workplace.
The MAGIC-SH Framework
For organisations ready to take this seriously, the Radical KM framework provides a practical structure organised around the acronym MAGIC-SH:
S & H — Sustainable and Human. This is the foundation. ABIs make organisations more sustainable because they help people see the interconnectedness of things and develop sustainable leadership behaviours. They also reinforce the humanity of work — critical at a time when technology threatens to crowd out the very qualities that make people valuable.
The Nine Cs. The middle layer of the framework encompasses the concepts that ABIs develop and evolve:
- Creativity — producing novel ideas and approaches
- Collaboration — building the trust that makes real knowledge sharing possible
- Communication — developing empathy and purposeful expression (improv theatre is particularly powerful here)
- Content — shaping what knowledge is captured and how
- Critical thinking — challenging the “that’s how we’ve always done it” assumption
- Conversation — opening new avenues for dialogue and insight
- Culture — shifting the organisation towards one that values learning and sharing
- Confidence — building the self-belief to ask for help, try new approaches, and share imperfect knowledge
- Change management — supporting the cultural shift that ABIs require
A, G, I — ABIs, Ideas, Innovation and the Guerrilla approach. These represent both the outputs sought (fresh ideas and innovation) and the practical approach recommended: starting small, positioning ABIs as experiments, and growing support iteratively.
M — Metrics. Measurement comes last — not because it is unimportant, but because defining metrics too early can constrain the very creative exploration that makes ABIs valuable.
How to Start: Two Practical Pathways
There is no need to overhaul your entire KM programme. Radical KM explicitly recommends starting small and iterating.
The Icebreaker stream begins at the individual or team level with short, low-stakes activities: a guided visualisation at the start of a meeting, a scribble drawing exercise during a workshop, an improvisational warm-up before a strategy session. These take as little as five minutes, but they shift the energy and engagement in the room, build psychological safety, and begin to normalise the idea that creativity belongs at work.
The Studio stream takes a larger, more structured approach — dedicated sessions, longer interventions, and formal integration into KM processes such as knowledge capture workshops, after-action reviews, or communities of practice.
In both cases, the implementation approach is the same: treat it as an experiment, start with early adopters, debrief afterwards, and iterate based on what you learn. Change management is essential — people have often been educated to believe that the arts are wasteful, and that belief takes time and consistent experience to shift.
The Hardest Part
The biggest obstacle to incorporating ABIs into a KM strategy is not logistics. It is the stories we tell ourselves about why we cannot — or should not — do it. What will my colleagues think? Are the benefits really there? Is this really my job?
Those doubts are understandable. Most of us had our creativity criticised or ignored somewhere around adolescence, and we learned to put it away as unprofessional.
But look around your team. Someone is doodling during calls. Someone uses role-play to prepare for difficult conversations. Someone plays an icebreaker game at the start of team stand-ups. The arts and creativity are already finding their way into your workplace — unconsciously. Radical KM simply asks you to be more deliberate about it.
The first time you try a scribble drawing exercise in a knowledge management workshop, you may be pleasantly surprised. The energy and engagement in the room shifts. Responses become more thoughtful and detailed. People make connections they would not otherwise have made. The knowledge that flows is richer.
A Final Thought
In a world shaped by AI, automation, and relentless change, the knowledge and capabilities that most need managing are the human ones: curiosity, resilience, empathy, imagination, and the willingness to keep learning. Those are not developed by better taxonomy.
They are developed through practice — and arts-based interventions are one of the most evidence-supported ways to practise them.
Your KM strategy does not need an overhaul. It needs a scribble drawing, and the courage to see what happens next.