Contents
- Introduction to the September 2018 Knowledge Letter
- We are what we think about all day long
- Would you like to learn how to design and run a Knowledge Café?
- It may sound corny but love is the answer
- Future Café: the future of visual collaboration tools
- Updates to my blook on Conversational Leadership September 2018
- The Henley Forum Listening Project
- Please help support my work
- Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: September2018
- Upcoming Knowledge Events
- Unsubscribe
- The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction to the September 2018 Knowledge Letter
For the second year running, I have a special Knowledge Café coming up soon to celebrate World Values Day in October.
It is a free online, virtual Knowledge Café run on the Zoom video conferencing platform.
The theme of this year's Café introduced by Charles Fowler will be to do with how we put our values into action in the community.
Do we do this successfully? What about the evidence that says we don't, such as the rise of online bullying, fake news, crime and other internet abuse? The whole tenor of social and political debate seems to be becoming polarised with intolerance and acrimony now the norm.
Levels of trust in Western countries appear to have been in a worrying decline for many years as evidenced by the much-followed annual Edelman Trust Barometer. Is this something to do with the gap between the values people say they have and the values they actually practise? What's going on? Are values-based social norms breaking down?
This World Values Café will explore these and other issues relating to values in the community . Not only will you get to have some interesting conversations with small groups of like-minded people but you will get to experience the power of the Zoom communication platform and of course the Knowledge Café format itself.
See here for more information and to register.
The Café is looking to be truly global - so far I have 62 people from 28 countries registered! Yes, 28 countries - I find that amazing.
We are what we think about all day long
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
Credit: Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is one of my favourite quotes.
When I find my mind wandering to trivial matters or worrying over things I have no power to control, I think of this quote and consciously change what I am thinking about to something of value. The more I do it, the better I get at it.
Oh, by the way, I am sure this applies to women too. Annoying that quotes from even a few years ago are sexist but I think it would be wrong not to use the original words.
Would you like to learn how to design and run a Knowledge Café?
Would you like to learn how to design and run a Knowledge Café and how they can be applied?
I'll be giving a Knowledge Café masterclass at CILIP in central London on Thursday 1st November 2018.
The thing to note about my Knowledge Cafés is that they are more than just about sharing knowledge and building relationships.
They can be applied in a wide variety of ways and at their best are a powerful sense-making tool. Here are some real-life stories to help you better understand the versatility and the power of the Café.
Take a look, I think you might be surprised.
You can find more information and can register here.
It may sound corny but love is the answer
It may seem corny, but love is the answer.
I have long thought that to help cure many of the ills in the world that all we needed to do was "to care more." To care more about each other and to care more about our planet.
To say that "love is the answer" seemed a little too twee especially in a business context.
However, since I discovered that Elon Musk using the phrase in a recent interview with Joe Rogan I am having second thoughts - maybe "love is the answer" conveys the message far more effectively.
Here is a clip from the interview where Elon and Joe talk about the future of humanity and "love is the answer."
And here is the full interview (beware 2 1/2hrs long but well worth the time)
Joe comments at the end of the clip "How do you fix that - do you have a love machine you are working on?" Elon laughs and suggests you should spend more time with your friends and less on social media.
However, it has got to be far more than that - how do we learn "to care more" or "love humanity more"? If "love is the answer" what do we need to do? I have some thoughts of my own, but I'll leave you with that question for now. It would make a good Knowledge Café question!
Moreover, if you take the time to watch the full interview, step back and observe the "conversation," Joe is a skilled interviewer and draws Elon out and gives him space to talk without interruption - tolerating long silences at times.
Future Café: the future of visual collaboration tools
One of the challenges I have in seeing the Knowledge Café more widely adopted is conveying its power as a "group thinking" or "group sensemaking" tool and how it can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
To this in end, in my blook on Conversational Leadership, I have two chapters, the first describes the various Café applications and the second is a collection of stories of how the Café has been or is being used in practice.
What I consider to be one of the more powerful of the applications is the Future Café - a Café that is intentionally designed to explore trends and issues that shape, influence or in some way impact the future.
It is not very often that I get to run such a Café at a public event but on the 28th November in central London I am facilitating a Future Café at the Visual Collab 2018 event that will look at the future of Interactive Flat Panel Displays as visual collaboration tools and their application in team work.
It's not confirmed yet, but I hope to use some innovative ideation software to capture the thoughts and ideas of the Future Café participants in a way that minimally interferes with the dynamics of the conversations (a key Knowledge Café principle).
If the event is of interest and you would like to experience a Future Café then you can learn more and register here.
Updates to my blook on Conversational Leadership September 2018
I have made a number modifications and additions to my blook over the last month. One key new feature is the ability to see the most frequently visited pages.
The three most popular pages of my blook over the last 30 days were:
It's not so much that these pages are the more interesting but that Google gives them a high ranking.
These two new Sales Café stories may also be of interest:
The Henley Forum Listening Project
The Henley Forum is researching Knowledgeable Practice for the next 10 years. They wish to understand how knowledge, learning and change practice might develop over the next 10 years. They are asking practitioners two key questions:
- What key qualities and skills have you relied on in doing your best work?
- What qualities and skills do you believe will be most useful and important for practitioners over the next 10 years?
In return, if you include your contact details, you will receive a summary of the report.
Please help support my work
I have been writing and publishing this Knowledge Letter every month for over 17 years and most of you have been receiving it for 5 years or more. My Knowledge Café also just had its 16th birthday!
If you enjoy it and find it valuable, please consider giving me a little support by donating $1 (or more) a month to Become a Patron.
I am not going to get rich on this but it will help cover some of my website hosting expenses.
I now have 42 patrons - 4 more than last month. A big thanks to you all.
Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: September2018
Here are some of my more popular recent tweets. Take a look, if you are not a Tweeter, you will get a good idea of how I use it by browsing the list of micro-posts.
- A big difference maker is when participants in a network (or an organization, for that matter) embrace new ways of seeing, thinking, and doing. https://buff.ly/2o0J13f #ConversationalLeadership
- Thought is not just reflecting whatever is there, but on the basis of what is known from the past, it helps to create the impression of what is there. It selects; it abstracts; and in doing this, it chooses certain aspects, which then attract our attention. – #DavidBohm
- Jordan Peterson: Overcome anxiety: Articulate your rationale by journaling to lessen your doubts https://buff.ly/2Mdhsx6 /interesting - watch the video
- The Knowledge Café: Preparing graduates for the real world https://buff.ly/2x07bj1 #KnowledgeCafe #ConversationalLeadership
- Dilbert thinks Brainstorming ineffective but he still enjoys them! https://buff.ly/2MUs892 #KM #KMers #KnowledgeManagement
- Happy birthday Knowledge Café: It all began 16 years ago today on Sept 5th, 2002 at the Strand Palace Hotel in central London. Just a stone's throw from Trafalgar Square. https://buff.ly/2MPmiWE #KM #KMers#KnowledgeCafe #KnowledgeManagement #ConversationalLeadership
- Shared meaning does not mean that people see things the same way but understand each other's perspectives well enough to accept them #ConversationalLeadership https://buff.ly/2wDvsLx
- Coffeehouse Conversations in Vienna, where strangers are paired for two hours of intense conversation. https://buff.ly/2Q1aBKj #ConversationalLeadership #BigTalk #TheodoreZeldin
- “School initiates young people into a world where everything can be measured, including their imaginations, and, indeed, man himself.” Ivan Illich https://buff.ly/2wAUfjr #education #learning
- Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity https://buff.ly/2BTthc3 #KM #KMers #ConversationalLeadership
If you like the Tweets then subscribe to my Tweet stream.
Upcoming Knowledge Events
Here are some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.
Licence: cultureQs® Professional Facilitator
09 - 10 Oct 2018, Munich, Germany
World Values Virtual Knowledge Café
Tue 09 Oct 2018, Online
The 9th International Conference on Innovation and Knowledge Management in Asia Pacific (IKMAP2018)
31 Oct - 02 Nov 2018, Hangzhou, China
CILIP Knowledge Cafe Masterclass
Thu 01 Nov 2018, London, United Kingdom
KM World 2018
06 - 08 Nov 2018, Washington DC, United States
Chief Learning Officer Forum, Fall
27 - 29 Nov 2018, Boston, MA, United States
Visual Collab 2018
Wed 28 Nov 2018, London, United Kingdom
Learning & Development Executive Summit 2019
03 - 05 Feb 2019, Orlando, FL, United States
24th Annual Knowledge Management Conference
29 Apr - 03 May 2019, Houston, United States
10th European Conference on Intangibles and Intellectual Capital
23 - 24 May 2019, Pescara, Italy
6th European Conference on Social Media
13 - 14 Jun 2019, Brighton, United Kingdom
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The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for knowledge workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.
It is sponsored by the Henley Forum of the Henley Business School, Oxfordshire, England.
You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
