The 17th International Conference on Knowledge Management was held in the historic city of Potsdam, Germany. The conference was among the first post-pandemic face to face conferences, and the overall theme of the 17th edition of the ICKM conference rightly focused on “Knowledge, Uncertainty and Risks: From individual to global scale” at different levels of analysis and agency.

Quantum physics surpasses human imagination. It totally contradicts everyday experiences. Even literal and mathematical explanations cannot substitute for a non-intuitive behavior that puzzles many of us. Commercial quantum computers are in reach within this decade. History provides examples that the appearance of new technologies brought metaphors to life that may explain up to that point poorly understood knowledge domains (e.g., "brains are hardware while thoughts are software"). The author describes why the proliferation of quantum computers will be accompanied by the rise of metaphors that explain quantum effects. For one, those might help to better communicate about the best use and consequences of quantum computers. But those metaphors could also shed light on organizational performance at all. To show a practical example, the author proposes how the use of quantum metaphors could help organizations to prepare for the quantum computing era - without being exact in predictions about most likely technical implementation of quantum capabilities.