“A Yoga and KM connection: who knew?”, November 2025
Ancient wisdom is timeless:
Even Yogic principles align with modern Knowledge Management
In June of 2024, I attended the Knowledge Summit in Dublin (KSD) where I first met experienced and long-time KM practitioner, Ron Young. Before meeting in Dublin, I had already known Ron because his company had applied to work with my former organization as a consultant.
Being well-reputed in the community, I had known Ron to be a seasoned expert in the field. But when I met him for the first time in-person in Dublin, I was fascinated to learn that he was not only a KM practitioner, but also a certified yoga teacher and practitioner like me, and practicing for almost 40 years. What really caught my attention with Ron was that his journey was different from mine in that he had learned yoga and meditation first. This led him to be curious about the principles of Knowledge (Jnana Yoga) and then got interested in KM. My case, on the other hand, had been the different because I had been doing KM work first. I had then decided to lean heavily into yogic philosophy and practice (Kundalini Yoga) as a stress-reduction mechanism for the frustration and slow progress that KM work often entailed.
In my former life as internal KM Officer, I was always looking for ways to manage the stress, resistance, and emotional challenges that came with implementing KM initiatives in the organization. I quickly observed that KM work was a very energy consuming activity for me, so much so, that I turned to yoga as my personal coping mechanism. I used it as a shield against the negativity and pushback associated with implementing KM processes. Yoga helped me maintain focus and clarity. It helped me know how to better co-regulate with colleagues thus, effectively managing my emotions, managing “egos”, and staying centred when dealing with often difficult, organizational dynamics.
Ron, on the other hand, had gotten into KM because he had discovered it to have a connection with yogic principles relating to Knowledge. Through Ron, I was able to discover that there was such a thing as Jnana Yoga which he explained to me as essentially “representing the intellectual and contemplative approach to spiritual development through the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.” This intrigued me because while I used yoga to protect myself from KM challenges, Ron found that yoga principles enhanced his approach to Knowledge Management. This connection of Yoga with KM was new to me. I was curious to understand how ancient yogic wisdom already had their own principles of knowledge and which still apply to modern organizational knowledge work.
As a result, we started speaking monthly to explore the connections - how yoga, mindfulness, and ancient wisdom could improve KM practices. Because of our common passions, we decided to put our recorded conversations in a YouTube channel which we created and called, “The Yoga of Knowledge”. We didn’t really have any particular idea on what we wanted to do with this YouTube Channel. But it was certainly a common place to put our recorded conversations in a centralized place. And it was a way to share our conversations to other KM Yogis in the community in case there was interest.
What I learned from this and why this was important to my understanding
From our conversations, I learned from Ron how many modern KM concepts actually had ancient roots and were indirectly reflected in texts like the Vedas, Vedanta, Upanishads and particularly, the Bhagavad Gita. For example, the fundamental KM principle, “Knowledge resides in people’s heads”, he mentioned, could be found or reflected in the ancient Vedas. The concept that trust is essential for knowledge transfer were also reflected in the ancient texts, as well as understanding when to compete, when to collaborate, and when to engage in “competitive collaboration”. The Vedas apparently also highlighted what is called “Shravana” or attentive listening as a means to acquire true knowledge. Truthful and purposeful speech were also integral to communication. Like in the old times, knowledge was not considered static but living and evolving over time. Also, ancient texts reflected the belief that human relationships, trust, and ethical conduct are core to knowledge sharing.
What was most interesting, moreoever, was when Ron compared ancient wisdom principles with modern management concepts, he noticed the strong parallels. In particular, the Academics from his past lectures on this from many years ago couldn't easily distinguish between ancient and modern sources. This showed that these Knowledge principles we know of today are quite timeless, and still true about how knowledge works in human organizations.
I was so blown away with how his examples, comparisons and references of modern KM principles could be reflected in ancient Indian Philosophy texts. And to hear that these still apply today is so uncanny. This also gave me reassurance that my applying yoga techniques in knowledge work wasn’t just a personal preference but actually gave me some validation. Apparently, similar principles were found in other wisdom traditions like Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. And since these practices were time-tested wisdom traditions, using yoga in KM, and not just as a personal coping mechanism, became more justified to me.
Moreover, I understood how Jnana Yoga's "living meditation" concept applies to staying present and reflective in KM work. Taking the time to pause and ask "why" before implementing initiatives is important. This, I painfully learned when I had implemented a weekly lunchtime learning initiative in my former organization as my first major knowledge sharing project as Chief of KM. We ran the series for almost 2 months. At the time, it didn’t occur to me to take the time to ask feedback from colleagues about the pace of the sessions. But by chance, we eventually heard from participants that they actually would have appreciated time to “process” what they learned each week. And it was only because one person in my team had thought of asking them. Later on, I had learned from a course that science-backed evidence actually recommends taking short breaks, even for a few minutes, in order for our brains to encode and engrain what we learn (NeuroMinfulness Coach Practitioner Course, 2024). So, in short, the learning from this lunchtime series would have been better learned by our participants, had I decided to stop, take a pause, ask for feedback, and then space our events out more.
I also learned from our conversations how Jnana Yoga's alludes to principles of Leadership. For one, it recognizes self-knowledge as a foundation to Leadership. I think this is directly relevant particularly when leading KM initiatives. This also aligns with the importance I give to Personal Leadership given that one must be able to "navigate his/her world first before they navigate others’".
I also heard how some ancient text reflect that curiosity (rather than reactivity) and inquiry (rather than advocacy) helps deal with fear and resistance which are often felt in the workplace. Being curious about people’s reactions to change is more effective than overreacting. This is important because successful implementation and fostering a knowledge sharing culture by the KM practitioner requires the skills of a leader, especially curiosity, keeping the ego in check, active listening skills and the ability to understand multiple perspectives.
So what?
In summary, it was very surprising to learn that modern management principles seemed to have just been "recycled" from ancient wisdom. My discussions with Ron show these to be timeless principles that don't change unlike rapidly changing technology. Naturally, this got me interested in showing this connection to next generation KM practitioners, and where we can also justify using yoga and meditation to support knowledge work. How these principles and teachings still relate to KM work today also makes me feel better in my belief that using yoga as a supporting mechanism made sense. And most importantly, clearly, I realize that I needed to emphasize this learned and lived insight more to the KM Community – that integrating mindfulness techniques into our KM practice and KM leadership to better manage our stress, foster collaboration and complex relationships make us more efficient and successful Knowledge Workers.
As a result of this conversation, we decided to do a virtual KM Community session during Global Knowledge Week in October 2025 called the “Yoga of Knowledge” where Ron presented his old slides from many years ago. In the session, he presented 10 management quotes and tested participants if they could distinguish those taken from ancient text or from modern management. They were very surprised how many knowledge principles had roots in the ancient civilizations. In addition, because of the success of our Yoga of Knowledge session in Global Knowledge Week, we decided to start our virtual series, “Meditation for the KM Worker” in January 2026.
In addition, I was also curious to use AI and asked it to identify knowledge principles in the Bhagavad Gita that apply to modern management and leadership. And just to satisfy my curiosity, given how I also strive to be a practicing Christian and consider Jesus to be a perfect example of a real servant leader, I also decided to do the same exercise and see what parables in the Bible reflected modern day leadership principles.
In conclusion, my conversations with Ron Young which started with our in-person meeting at the Knowledge Summit truly blew me away and deepened my appreciation for the philosophical foundations of Knowledge and KM practice. This reflection reinforced and validated my confidence in the power of Yoga and the importance of self-knowledge, a curious/beginner’s mindset towards impactful and authentic leadership in KM initiatives. And this has empowered me to advocate to KM conference and event organizers how Yoga and Meditation can be a viable resource that can be included in a Knowledge Worker’s arsenal of tools toward resilient and effective KM work.