Welcome to the Gurteen Knowledge Log for 2002 - 2010 inclusive. See the side panel for other years.
In this blog I write about items of interest that I have found on the web, experiences or insights that I think you will find useful mainly but not strictly limited to the area of Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning.
Like the rest of my site - it an eclectic mix.
If you like the blog you may wish to subscribe to my newsletter where I collate my best blog posts from the month plus other material and distribute it my email monthly.
Or you may subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog here:
I wanted to give some money to charity over Christmas so I decided to make a few more Kiva loans. You can see my loan portfolio here. I have now made ten loans of which three have been fully paid back.
What I like about Kiva is that I get to decide who my money goes to. And if I am lucky I get to see an update on how the money is spent. It's a great idea and makes giving so much more personal and rewarding. The loans and repaid to me without interest and I can then use the money to make further loans. The repayment rate is an amazing 98.94% and 81% of the loans are to women entrepreneurs. Here are the full stats.
I am not telling you this to show how good I am - each loan is only $US25 after all. What I am hoping is that you might take a look and make some loans yourself and help support this way of giving.
I have made the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn an open group.
The major advantage of this is that discussions are now indexed by search engines and anyone on the web can read the discussions. It is also now possible to Tweet interesting discussions.
To contribute to the group, however, you still need to be a member.
Discussions created before the switch have automatically gone into a members-only, read-only Archive and cannot be seen by anyone who is not a member of the group.
An unfortunate side affect of this is that discussions that were active before the switch, although still readable by members, are now frozen and not clearly visible.
If you wish to continue your open discussions I think you will need to repost them. I am sorry for the inconvenience but this was not clear before the switch. To my mind, LinkedIn have done an extremely poor design job here.
The bottom line though is that we should now have a far more useful place for group discussions that can be shared with the rest of the world.
The other good news is that over the past month, as a result of my mail-shot, the membership of the group has grown by almost 700 people to 1,989 members.
I have made the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn an open group.
The major advantage of this is that discussions are now indexed by search engines and anyone on the web can read the discussions. It is also now possible to Tweet interesting discussions.
To contribute to the group, however, you still need to be a member.
Discussions created before the switch have automatically gone into a members-only, read-only Archive and cannot be seen by anyone who is not a member of the group.
An unfortunate side affect of this is that discussions that were active before the switch, although still readable by members, are now frozen and not clearly visible.
If you wish to continue your open discussions I think you will need to repost them. I am sorry for the inconvenience but this was not clear before the switch. To my mind, LinkedIn have done an extremely poor design job here.
The bottom line though is that we should now have a far more useful place for group discussions that can be shared with the rest of the world.
The other good news is that over the past month, as a result of my mail-shot, the membership of the group has grown by almost 700 people to 1,989 members.
I hope you have better things to do than read my newsletter at this time of year so like past years I have kept it short. But if you would like a bit of fun and explore what the Nativity might have looked it in the modern world of social media then take a look at this short video The Digital Story of the Nativity.
And let me wish you a very happy Christmas and a New Year full of fun and lots of knowledge sharing!
I received an email from a student a month or so back in which she asked for my advise.
She told me that she was working on her KM thesis and thought she was doing well as she had received a merit on her literature review but was devastated when her supervisor told her 6 months later that she was doing worse than other undergraduate researchers as she had a very poor understanding of the main points.
In my reply I suggested that she found a small group of her fellow students whom she could come together with once or twice a week over coffee and have conversations around the work (a mini knowledge cafe) and that she would soon get to see that other people had different points of view - not necessarily right or wrong but different and this would cause her to think more deeply about the topics and reflect on her own perspectives and that this should help lead to a deeper understanding.
She replied very excitedly that she thought it was a brilliant idea and would try it. I have yet to hear back but I hope it works for her.
Funny though, when I think back to my undergraduate days - I never ever had conversations with my fellow students about our work. I recall once a few us thought about getting together to form a study group and my tutor urging me not to waste my time.
Now where did I read something recently that the critical success factor at Harvard was not innate intelligence (you need that to get there) or hard-work but the ability to network and to form study groups and learn informally and socially. I wish I could find the article.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
My son Jonathan bought me Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus for my birthday and I am looking forward to settling down to read it.
Clay Shirky has been talking about the Cognitive Surplus for a couple of years now and I have blogged about it in the past and I had assumed that everyone was aware of the concept but during my recent travels I was surprised how many people had not heard of Clay nor Cognitive Surplus so here's the gist and video talk here.
The central theme of the book Cognitive Surplus is that people are now learning how to more constructively use the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration.
It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States.
My son Jonathan bought me Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus for my birthday and I am looking forward to settling down to read it.
Clay Shirky has been talking about the Cognitive Surplus for a couple of years now and I have blogged about it in the past and I had assumed that everyone was aware of the concept but during my recent travels I was surprised how many people had not heard of Clay nor Cognitive Surplus so here's the gist and video talk here.
The central theme of the book Cognitive Surplus is that people are now learning how to more constructively use the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration.
It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States.
Over the past month, it has grown by over 100 people to 1,308 members. It's a great place to post questions and slowly more discussion and interaction are taking place on the forum.
Over the past month, it has grown by over 100 people to 1,308 members. It's a great place to post questions and slowly more discussion and interaction are taking place on the forum.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
I recently attended ECKM 2010 in Portugal and one of the participants, Kalle Tomingas, an amateur photographer, captured the social side of the conference so well in his photographs.
In an email, later, to Daniela Castrataro I commented:
"Yes I loved Portugal and Kalle's photos really captured the conference. I do like the ECKM conferences as they are so social. I think every conference should have a professional photographer to capture the spirit of the event - and its not that its an expensive thing to do :-)"
To which she replied:
"I think you're right about the photographer but I think that when we start adding the word "professional" to things, we somehow limit them. Talking about a photographer at a conference, he would certainly capture beautiful images and colours, actions, important moments, but the real essence will probably be missed out. If Kalle was called to take pictures at ECKM as The Professional Photographer, he would have seriously focussed on his job and probably missed the interaction and the 'social' of those days, and with that the true spirit of the event.
It's exactly the same difference that we have between conferences and your Knowledge Cafes. Conferences put pressure on people to do their job in a serious, formal and "professional" way. This will never change. I'm not saying that nothing good comes out of conferences, but it's a very slow process and often an empty exercise, which keep the brains stuck on the same ideas and beliefs for too much time. In just one hour of knowledge cafe you can get as much content, interactivity, flexibility, new ideas, opinions..., as you will get in 10 year of ECKM (maybe)!"
Daniela is of course right. I never do like that word "professional" and I am not too sure why I used it. I have written about my dislike for it in the past.
Some how "being professional" seems unnatural and is the antithesis of "being human".
In this one on KM Team Development she makes a point that I make time and time again, where she asks "At all times we must ask ourselves - what is the value that we are contributing to the organization?" Enjoy :-)
In this one on KM Team Development she makes a point that I make time and time again, where she asks "At all times we must ask ourselves - what is the value that we are contributing to the organization?" Enjoy :-)
Introduction to the November 2010 Knowledge Letter - Comments (0)
I am now back home after six weeks on the road (Singapore, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Auckland, Sydney, Singapore and home - phew!).
This is the third year I have made such a journey and I am still amazed that these trips go off without a hitch!
I met a lot of great people - many whom were good friends or I had met on earlier trips and many who introduced me to clients, hosted me for the night, bought me dinner and more. But also a lot of new people who so enthusiastically engaged in my knowledge cafes and workshops. To all of you a BIG thank you.
While travelling I have been making much more use of Foursquare and Facebook Places. And something quite beautiful has dawned on me. If bars, restaurants, coffee houses, hotels and the like wish to be serous players in this game then it is going to be in their interest to provide free wifi :-)
In the words of Euan Semple from a recent blog post "Listening to endless presentations about business and technology as I do it becomes more and more obvious that the opportunity to capitalise on increased connectivity, and the need to reinvent our institutions, are entirely dependent on the quality of our relationships. Shame people are still squeamish about talking about this."
Funny reading this, as only hours earlier in a Knowledge Cafe here in Melbourne, someone reminded me that the most important benefit of conversation was improved relationships. Why is it that some many people see conversation as a waste of time? I will never know.
Increasingly, I think that is there is any hope left for this world the answer lies in conversation.
I am still pondering whether to give up all the other stuff I do and just focus on my Knowledge Cafes and bringing people together to have "interesting conversations" :-)
I gave the keynote speech at the actKM conference in Canberra last week. Its one of my favorite conference and this was the third time I had participated so I felt right at home with a great a bunch of people. The dinner on the first night will long be remembered for the KM fables that we wrote and acted out and the KM song!
In my talk, I took the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the underlying principals that has made Positive Deviance a success and the lessons that KM practitioners can learn from this approach to complex social problems.
I gave the keynote speech at the actKM conference in Canberra last week. Its one of my favorite conference and this was the third time I had participated so I felt right at home with a great a bunch of people. The dinner on the first night will long be remembered for the KM fables that we wrote and acted out and the KM song!
In my talk, I took the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the underlying principals that has made Positive Deviance a success and the lessons that KM practitioners can learn from this approach to complex social problems.
As Cory concludes in his post "If you want to make sure you successfully communicate your message, get your point across or transfer some knowledge then you need to do a lot more than draft a document and upload it."
As someone else once said, databases are where documents go to die!
As Cory concludes in his post "If you want to make sure you successfully communicate your message, get your point across or transfer some knowledge then you need to do a lot more than draft a document and upload it."
As someone else once said, databases are where documents go to die!
Imagine a hotel consisting of three tall 55-storey tower blocks with a ship perched on top. I am serious. Well, something that looks like a ship LOL - an incredible roof top garden called a SkyPark. They have built one in Singapore - the Sands SkyPark.
I don't know how I am going to do it but I want to run a Knowledge Cafe up there :-) Has anyone got any ideas on how to make that happen?
Imagine a hotel consisting of three tall 55-storey tower blocks with a ship perched on top. I am serious. Well, something that looks like a ship LOL - an incredible roof top garden called a SkyPark. They have built one in Singapore - the Sands SkyPark.
I don't know how I am going to do it but I want to run a Knowledge Cafe up there :-) Has anyone got any ideas on how to make that happen?
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Here is an interesting post from Gautam Ghosh entitled Driving Enterprise 2.0 behavior change where he points to an article Not every blog has its day in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article makes the point that "Fostering collaboration in the workplace involves more than just building platforms".
I had to smile as its really about E2.0 folks learning what KM folks have long known.
I learnt this myself with Lotus Notes 1989 - 1999 (in fact it was one of the prime motivators for my moving away from technology and starting to focus more on the people side of things); KM folks then learnt it 1999 -2009 and now the E2.0 folks are learning it.
To my mind, the lesson: "Don't implement a technology tool (impose it on people) and expect them to see the benefits and use it. Work with them to help them solve their problems and introduce them to new tools that you think will help. Let them select the tools that work for them. They need to have ownership."
But it takes time ... 20 years or more and people are still learning :-)
DavidGurteen if you wish to track my personal feed that I use to point to interesting stuff, keep people updated on where I am, what I am doing, thinking etc.
GurteenQuotes if you would like to receive a quotation each day.
GurteenNews if you would like to track new and updated pages on my website.
The last two feeds, Gurteen Quotes and GurteenNews and automated Tweets fed by RSS feeds from my website. Up until recently, these have only been working intermittently but I think I have the problem cracked now by switching from twitterfeed to dlvr.it
I don't know about you but I have always been confused by the different types of Facebook entities: Profiles, Pages and Groups. Here is a brief description of each entity and how I am using them.
A Facebook Profile is meant for individuals. This is what most people use. You can see my profile here:
To build a fan base on Facebook, in addition to a Profile, you can set up a Page. Pages can be for individuals, such as authors or celebrities, or for non-human entities such as products, companies, organizations and campaigns. I have created a Page for the Gurteen Knowledge website though I am not making much use of it at the moment:
A Facebook Group used to be the only place to really build a community on Facebook. However, now Groups look similar to Pages, which look similar to Profiles. Groups on Facebook are where deeper discussions can take place, whereas Pages and Profiles tend to be used for shorter comments.
I have created a Group for the Gurteen Knowledge Community. This has a little activity and I would encourage you to use it more. But the prime on-line location for the community is the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
RT @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
RT @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
RT @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I am about to enter a busy travel period between now and the end of the year, including what is starting to become an annual event: five weeks in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand-Singapore.
I occasionally get called a "KM guru". I appreciate the compliment but I don't like the term and I don't like being labelled a guru.
I usually laugh it off by objecting that I am not a "Kangaroo". Say KM guru fast enough and it sounds like KM guru. LOL.
Given this, I rather liked this blog post by Rick Ladd Dont Call Me a Guru and Peter Drucker's observation that the only reason people called him a guru was that they did not know how to spell the word "charlatan".
Oh and one other pet peeve. If you call yourself an expert then you are most likely not one. To my mind only other people can bestow that honour on you. And even then, like the word guru, I am not so sure I like it. Both words smack of elitism and marketing hype.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
I was talking with my friend David Pottinger the other day over a beer or two.
David has attended a number of my London Knowledge Cafes, including the last one at Arup.
He was particular interested in the conversations that took place before and after at the Arup event and had blogged about them.
As we talked we came to realise that there were up to eight quite distinct phases of the Cafe were different types of conversation took place.
This was something I had not seen before. Here are eight potential conversations:
Conversation with a friend at a pre-Cafe meeting and on way to Cafe on the tube
Conversation during the pre-Cafe networking session
Speed networking conversation at the start of the Cafe
Conversation in small groups as part of the Cafe
Conversation in whole group as part of the Cafe
Conversation during the networking session after the end of Cafe as people are leaving
Conversation at a local pub after the Cafe
Conversation on the tube or train on the way home
Not everyone gets to experience all eight of these conversations but many do. I for one, often meet up with someone before the Cafe and travel with them to the venue. There is conversation down the pub and I frequently travel home to Fleet with David as we live in the same town and of course the conversation continues.
That's a lot of conversations and each one is quite different. David's particular interest was the post-Cafe conversations as he felt this was the most interesting and productive phase. People are at their most relaxed and unfocused and thus the conversations often took an unexpected direction. People were also more likely to be themselves and not act out their job role.
Quite a fascinating insight. Its got both me and David thinking about how the nature of all of these conversations might be improved.
Since then, over 120 people have registered and we are now up to 1,120 members or thereabouts. A few new discussions have started also.
If you are not a member, you can find more information here and register.
Please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
Since then, over 120 people have registered and we are now up to 1,120 members or thereabouts. A few new discussions have started also.
If you are not a member, you can find more information here and register.
Please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Everyone loves Dilbert. Over the years there have been some gems relating to knowledge management, collaboration, knowledge sharing and the like.
So I thought I would start to dig them out and create a collection of Dilbert comic strips on KM that can be viewed through my media player. You may find a lot of other interesting stuff there too. Enjoy!
A 1998 Dilbert Comic Strip taking a poke at Knowledge Management. Unfortunately, that language "We must develop knowledge optimization initiatives to leverage our key leanings" is still only too common in KM circles.
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over Ł100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over Ł100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over Ł100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over Ł100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I am starting to build a new section of my site dedicated to newsletters on KM and related subjects. I only have three or four newsletters at present and have yet to create the section page but here is one of the KM newsletters for you to be going on with.
Its from Nick Milton and Tom Young of Knoco.
Please let me know if you are aware of any other publications.
Nick and Tom have a YouTube channel with over 40 KM videos that you may also find of interest.
I am starting to build a new section of my site dedicated to newsletters on KM and related subjects. I only have three or four newsletters at present and have yet to create the section page but here is one of the KM newsletters for you to be going on with.
Its from Nick Milton and Tom Young of Knoco.
Please let me know if you are aware of any other publications.
Nick and Tom have a YouTube channel with over 40 KM videos that you may also find of interest.
I hoped someone would take the bait and ask what I meant by the question and one or two did.
Personally, I beleive that some conversations are totally pointless but I suspect far less than we think otherwise as Johnnie Moore quipped "if "pointless" why are we having em?"
My response is that we are having them to get to know each other better. Conversations help build and sustain relationships regardless of the value of the content - amongst other things they reveal the other persons values. Conversely they can also destroy relationships - often for the bad but sometimes for the good. There are some people whose values I so dislike that I don't want a relationship with them LOL
To my mind then trivial everyday conversations aren't pointless though like Theodore Zeldin I would love for many of them to be more meaningful.
Euan Semple also chipped in on the tweet to say this
@johnniemoore@DavidGurteen what a crap article! Now that technology is encouraging less face to face interaction," - rubbish!
Now this I would agree with. I think Theodore has got this wrong. "Conversational" technology such as blogs, Twitter, Skype, Facebook etc have connected me with many more people than the past and allowed me to stay in touch with them and keep up with their lives and interests. Thus I want to meet them more and enjoy their company and their conversation face to face and of course the technology allows me to do this too. I see this not only in myself but in my three children (Y-geners). They have phenomenal social lives compared to me when I was their age - where of course a lot of "pointless conversation" goes on LOL
I hoped someone would take the bait and ask what I meant by the question and one or two did.
Personally, I beleive that some conversations are totally pointless but I suspect far less than we think otherwise as Johnnie Moore quipped "if "pointless" why are we having em?"
My response is that we are having them to get to know each other better. Conversations help build and sustain relationships regardless of the value of the content - amongst other things they reveal the other persons values. Conversely they can also destroy relationships - often for the bad but sometimes for the good. There are some people whose values I so dislike that I don't want a relationship with them LOL
To my mind then trivial everyday conversations aren't pointless though like Theodore Zeldin I would love for many of them to be more meaningful.
Euan Semple also chipped in on the tweet to say this
@johnniemoore@DavidGurteen what a crap article! Now that technology is encouraging less face to face interaction," - rubbish!
Now this I would agree with. I think Theodore has got this wrong. "Conversational" technology such as blogs, Twitter, Skype, Facebook etc have connected me with many more people than the past and allowed me to stay in touch with them and keep up with their lives and interests. Thus I want to meet them more and enjoy their company and their conversation face to face and of course the technology allows me to do this too. I see this not only in myself but in my three children (Y-geners). They have phenomenal social lives compared to me when I was their age - where of course a lot of "pointless conversation" goes on LOL
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
I recently read an interesting article on Do your employees think speaking up Is pointless?
I think there are many reasons why people do not speak up and ask questions or make suggestions in meeting. Here are a few:
I might ask a stupid question and make myself look foolish.
I might ask the speaker a stupid question and make him or her look foolish.
Who am I to ask questions?
I have never asked questions in my life. It doesn't even occur to me to ask questions.
I don't feel confident in this group of people.
I am an intensely shy introvert.
I have asked questions in this setting in the past and have been put down by the speaker or others in the room. I am not taking that risk again.
It was a great presentation. I just don't have any questions to ask.
I was so engaged in the presentation that I did not take time to think of questions to ask. And you have given me no time to reflect.
In the past no one else asks questions its not just done.
If you try to force me I will just clam up.
This presentation was totally boring and I am not going to spin it out any longer.
Although they ask for questions - they don't really want any - that's why they leave so little time.
Fear in various forms is one of the strongest reasons but in the article it is stated that futility was 1.8 times more common than fear as a reason for withholding ideas from direct supervisors in a large multinational corporation
I have had several conversations recently with clients who have problems getting people to speak up and contribute in meetings. It is always difficult to advise them without being there to observe and without knowing the history or the culture of the organisation.
Several managers have told me that they do their best to encourage participation; that they ask for questions and even refuse to end a session until say they have had three questions from the group.
But like all targets - this fails - people will ask a few easy, safe questions, to get the hell out of there.
To my mind, the managers are still trying to do things to people i.e. make them ask questions rather then work with them.
This is where I think Knowledge Cafe format type meetings play a part: simply allow people to have informal conversations about things that matter to them - don't try to force them into a rigid workshop format or Q&A sessions. Get them talking together and asking questions of each other in a natural way.
Once you stop talking at them and allow them to engage with a topic, questions, comments and good ideas will naturally follow. You still need to listen, enegage with them and act though else that futility will set in!
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past 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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past 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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past 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. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
In the embedded video Devdutt Pattanaik makes the statement that while the rest of the world believes that "Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he will not be hungry again" in India the belief is "help him discover his own way of catching fish, because then that is his own!"
I so liked this, that I tweeted it and in turn it was automatically posted onto my Facebook wall. I was then delighted when Ana Neves chipped in with this comment "Or introduce him to some fishermen who can fish for him in exchange for something he can do really well :-)"
In the embedded video Devdutt Pattanaik makes the statement that while the rest of the world believes that "Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he will not be hungry again" in India the belief is "help him discover his own way of catching fish, because then that is his own!"
I so liked this, that I tweeted it and in turn it was automatically posted onto my Facebook wall. I was then delighted when Ana Neves chipped in with this comment "Or introduce him to some fishermen who can fish for him in exchange for something he can do really well :-)"
You can see more information here and register, if you are not a member. Please, please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn or not a member, could I encourage you to take a look. Its effectively the professional business equivalent of Facebook and to my mind anyone who is not a member is not taking their career or professional life seriously :-)
Also, please do connect with me, out of the 17,000 members of my community who receive my knowledge letter about only about 2,500 of you are connected to me personally and only about 1,000 are members of the LinkedIn Community group.
You can see more information here and register, if you are not a member. Please, please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn or not a member, could I encourage you to take a look. Its effectively the professional business equivalent of Facebook and to my mind anyone who is not a member is not taking their career or professional life seriously :-)
Also, please do connect with me, out of the 17,000 members of my community who receive my knowledge letter about only about 2,500 of you are connected to me personally and only about 1,000 are members of the LinkedIn Community group.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Please help me expand the readership of my knowledge letter - Comments (0)
I have been writing and publishing this newsletter for ten years and there are now 17,000 or more readers in something like 160 countries - having grown from an initial circulation of about 300 in May 2000
I don't think that's too bad for one man but it's a drop in the ocean compared to the number of people on the web.
I receive frequent votes of thanks and complements and many of you have been readers for several years. Some of you for the full ten years!
And I would love is to significantly expand the readership. So here is the favour I ask.
Please, could you tell people about it. Email them or post an entry on your corporate intranet or whatever but help me push the readership through 20,000 by the end of the year. Point them to here for back copies and to sign-up: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/knowledge-letter
Think of it as your way of saying thank you to me! Its not often I ask for something quote so explicitly. LOL
I get several emails a week asking for help in some form or another. Often its a very specific question that I can answer in a sentence or two. But more often than not - its a broad, generalised, conceptual question that cannot be answered easily and even if it could I suspect it would be of litte value. Here are some examples:
Could you tell me all there is to know about KM?
How do I create a knowledge driven culture in my organisation?
How do I implement KM?
What are the KM issues and the best tools to use in my industry?
Could you give me a few tips and pointers on change management?
How do I roll out communities of practice?
How do I demonstrate the benefits of KM?
How do I measure the ROI of KM?
How do I make everyone in my organization share all their knowledge?
What are the best exit interview techniques?
When I get these type of questions I am concerned. I am concerned that I am talking to someone who has not the slightest clue of what KM is about. Its not the question itself or the knowledge they are seeking but the fact that they think I can effectively answer the question they pose.
Look at the questions above. What is missing? Yes the businesss context! None of them tell me anything about their organization or what they are trying to achieve for the business. And you know what when I ask they rarely can tell me!
We are discovering in this new realm that public exposure is not just a matter of egotism or idle voyeurism. This past year, several friends of mine have blogged their way through their battles with cancer. By taking their ordeal to the valley, they got valuable advice from strangers who posted comments and helped form an online support group — and an archive that could help future patients who happen upon it via cancer-related queries on Google. One of my friends -- writer Jeff Jarvis, now happily in good health -- talks about his experience as a lesson in the virtues of publicness. The Constitution may not contain an explicit reference to the right to privacy, but the notion that privacy is worth cherishing and protecting needs little justification. What Jarvis suggests is that the opposite condition needs its defenders: oversharing, in a strange way, can turn out to be a civic good.
As you know, I am often quoted as an example of a good knowledge sharer. There is not a lot I won't talk about in this newsletter, blog or website but I do tend to keep my intimate personal life to myself - no problem talking about my family etc but would I, could I, say talk about a battle with a serious illness? I am not so sure. But the above gives good reason to be more open and more public in our most intimate thoughts and private lives. Worth reflecting on :-)
We are discovering in this new realm that public exposure is not just a matter of egotism or idle voyeurism. This past year, several friends of mine have blogged their way through their battles with cancer. By taking their ordeal to the valley, they got valuable advice from strangers who posted comments and helped form an online support group — and an archive that could help future patients who happen upon it via cancer-related queries on Google. One of my friends -- writer Jeff Jarvis, now happily in good health -- talks about his experience as a lesson in the virtues of publicness. The Constitution may not contain an explicit reference to the right to privacy, but the notion that privacy is worth cherishing and protecting needs little justification. What Jarvis suggests is that the opposite condition needs its defenders: oversharing, in a strange way, can turn out to be a civic good.
As you know, I am often quoted as an example of a good knowledge sharer. There is not a lot I won't talk about in this newsletter, blog or website but I do tend to keep my intimate personal life to myself - no problem talking about my family etc but would I, could I, say talk about a battle with a serious illness? I am not so sure. But the above gives good reason to be more open and more public in our most intimate thoughts and private lives. Worth reflecting on :-)
The traditional way of thinking in business is that if some change is implemented you need to add measures and rewards/punishments associated with that change. You force people into the change, willingly or not. This can't work with the culture that needs to exist for Enterprise 2.0 to work. This has to be a culture of working together because we want to, particularly when it comes to using the tools. Forcing me to "share knowledge" doesn't even make sense. Neither does "you must ask for help."
I am delighted that Inside Knowledge have taken some of my best Gurteen Perspective articles and re-published them as a special Inside Knowledge supplement in the form of a commemorative compilation of my "10 years in KM".
Better still, as a member of my community, if you would like a hard-copy please e-mail Kate Clifton at [email protected] with 10 Years in KM copy request as the subject line along with your full name and postal address in the email body and they will send you a free copy. Note: if you already subscribe to Inside Knowledge then you will receive this supplement automatically and do not need to request it.
I would like to give a great big thank you to Inside Knowledge and especially to Kate Clifton for all her hard work in putting this together and helping to make "my ten years in KM" something special. Thank you!
I am delighted that Inside Knowledge have taken some of my best Gurteen Perspective articles and re-published them as a special Inside Knowledge supplement in the form of a commemorative compilation of my "10 years in KM".
Better still, as a member of my community, if you would like a hard-copy please e-mail Kate Clifton at [email protected] with 10 Years in KM copy request as the subject line along with your full name and postal address in the email body and they will send you a free copy. Note: if you already subscribe to Inside Knowledge then you will receive this supplement automatically and do not need to request it.
I would like to give a great big thank you to Inside Knowledge and especially to Kate Clifton for all her hard work in putting this together and helping to make "my ten years in KM" something special. Thank you!
At KM UK 2010, I was delighted to receive a "Lifetime achievement award for services to KM" from the Ark Group as part of their inaugural KMUK Awards 2010.
This is what the judges said about me (blush!)
We wanted to recognise David's 10 years of achievement in KM and to celebrate him as a thought leader in collaboration, through techniques such as his knowledge cafe concept. An excellent manager and willing sharer of his own personal knowledge, David has been instrumental in showing KM managers what social media can do for them.
I was in good company with Dave Snowden winning the award for "Best advance of KM as a scientific discipline"; Nick Davies for "Best KM presentation at an Ark conference"; ERM for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a professional services firm"; the Welsh Assembly Government for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a government organisation" and Pfizer for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a corporate enterprise".
Some time back I talked about TED Talks. These talks are still some of the most exciting, provocative presentations on the web and I am surprised by the number of people who have not discovered them yet.
Some time back I talked about TED Talks. These talks are still some of the most exciting, provocative presentations on the web and I am surprised by the number of people who have not discovered them yet.
I tweet most days especially when I am office based. Some tweets are personal comments or reflections but most are pointers to interesting articles, blog posts or videos that I trip over as I read my RSS feeds via Google Reader. Its quite slick. I mostly read my feeds on my iPhone and star the ones that I particularly like which gets synched back to Google Reader in my browser. As I step through the articles later I choose to tweet some of them by using a small Bitly Sidebar Bookmarklet that I have installed on my tool bar. It takes seconds to tweet an article in this way. Often it is just two clicks of the mouse.
One person I seem to be tweeting more and more is Robert Patterson. Almost everyone of his blog posts is a gem - he seems to find the most interesting articles out there on the web and then blogs them with his own insightful comments. What does he blog about? Well its quite diverse but the focus is on what's wrong in the world and needs fixing and that's not in a negative sense but more about here is a problem and here is what we could be doing better to respond to it.
Most of his posts have little to do with KM in a direct sense but all of them deep down are about how we manage and act on our knowledge.
Take a look! If you like the stuff I natter on about, I think you will love Robert's material too.
Here are three recent posts of his to wet your appetite.
In sum, there is no best way to do anything independent of context, so the leader cannot have privileged information. When leaders keep everyone in their place with the illusion of knowability and possession of this privileged knowledge the benefit to them is that we "obey" and leaders feel superior. The cost is that they create lemmings. Their mindlessness promotes our own mindlessness which costs us our well being and health. Net result, the leader, the led, and the company all lose.
This is all about knowledge management! We all need to be more mindful. Take a look at Ellen's two books that I reference above and you will start to see the importance of message!
In sum, there is no best way to do anything independent of context, so the leader cannot have privileged information. When leaders keep everyone in their place with the illusion of knowability and possession of this privileged knowledge the benefit to them is that we "obey" and leaders feel superior. The cost is that they create lemmings. Their mindlessness promotes our own mindlessness which costs us our well being and health. Net result, the leader, the led, and the company all lose.
This is all about knowledge management! We all need to be more mindful. Take a look at Ellen's two books that I reference above and you will start to see the importance of message!
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
How do you prevent people from stealing your ideas? - Comments (0)
I recently received an email from someone who pointed to an article on my website Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture where I said the following:
Some people object to sharing as they feel that others will steal their ideas and reap the rewards rightly theirs. This is a fallacy. Knowledge sharing isn't about blindly sharing everything; giving away your ideas; being politically naive; or being open about absolutely everything. You still need to exercise judgment. If you have a great idea - don't share it with a competitor - external or internal but on the other hand don't try to develop it on your own and don’t sit on it for fear of it being stolen from you. Figure out how you can bring it to fruition by collaborating with other people.
He asked: "Easy said. For years I have had ideas I would like to bring to fruition, but have no idea how to protect myself. Have you any practical solutions to sharing ideas without losing out on the benefits. e.g. I tell you of a good business idea and you do it without me."
And here is an expanded version of my response:
There are no magic bullets, I am sorry to say, but my key piece of advise would be to only share those ideas with people you really trust - that's where the judgement comes in.
Or, depending on the idea, it may be patentable, but most ideas are not patentable and can be taken and applied by other people - in which case don't worry about the idea being taken but make sure you are first to market with the best implementation of the idea. And if the application of your idea is internal to your company - ensure that everyone knows it is yours by publishing it broadly in some way such as on an internal blog.
It also seems to me that ideas are like knowledge. The important thing is not to have an idea but to have the ability to act on it. Without that ability: the knowledge, the skills, the contacts, the political nous, the passion, the energy and much more - the idea is probably worthless to you. In which case give it away!
Finally, Howard Aiken has an interesting perspective :-)
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I am often told that there is shortage of KM jobs or that people do not know where to look to find them. To help with this, for some time I have had a KM Jobs section on my website and you can access this via one of my RSSJob feeds. You might like to subscribe to the Global Jobs feed as this is the most comprehensive.
Alternatively you can subscribe to my Job Alerts Service which sends you an email whenever a new job is posted on my site.
But recently I have added a Twitter Job Feed to my Jobs Section. Quite simply, I have embedded a Twitter Search Widget at the bottom of the page that searches for Tweets that contain the words "knowledge management" and "job". Unfortunately the Twitter search syntax is extremely limiting and despite a lot of experimentation this turns out to be the best search.
But take a look - I think you may be surprised - there are more KM jobs out there than you might think. Also if you see a KM job - Tweet it and add the hashtag #kmjob so that myself and others can pick it up.
I am often told that there is shortage of KM jobs or that people do not know where to look to find them. To help with this, for some time I have had a KM Jobs section on my website and you can access this via one of my RSSJob feeds. You might like to subscribe to the Global Jobs feed as this is the most comprehensive.
Alternatively you can subscribe to my Job Alerts Service which sends you an email whenever a new job is posted on my site.
But recently I have added a Twitter Job Feed to my Jobs Section. Quite simply, I have embedded a Twitter Search Widget at the bottom of the page that searches for Tweets that contain the words "knowledge management" and "job". Unfortunately the Twitter search syntax is extremely limiting and despite a lot of experimentation this turns out to be the best search.
But take a look - I think you may be surprised - there are more KM jobs out there than you might think. Also if you see a KM job - Tweet it and add the hashtag #kmjob so that myself and others can pick it up.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
One of the major objectives of Knowledge management is improved decision making and so anything that helps us think better about a subject to me is KM. Take a look at these ten thinking traps (part 1) and ten thinking traps (part 2) and how to avoid them.
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Conversational lessons from Jakarta - Comments (0)
I was recently in Jakarta to run a 2-day workshop for KM-Plus - Learning Lead. One of the challenges of such workshops is the language barrier. Although everyone can understand English and speak it quite well - it is not their native language and so me talking in English all day is huge a strain on people.
It also makes interactive sessions difficult to run as clearly the conversation with me is not so smooth flowing and it makes sense for me to allow conversation at tables in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). But of course this means that I can't listen in and get a sense of what is being said.
At an earlier event in Jakarta I ran an "Introduction to KM" workshop for a large Indonesian Bank and although going fine the language barrier was clearly an issue. And so my host Alvin Soleh stepped in and we modified the day's format on the fly. I would present for about 20-30 minutes and then Alvin would run an interactive piece in Indonesian.
We carried this format through to my main two day public workshop and it worked well.
During Alvin's sessions I had time to observe and reflect and I came to the decision that I was never going to speak for more than 20 minutes again (well 30 minutes at most) before turning my talk or that part of my talk in to an interactive session of some description.
At the very least and at its simplest I will do what I often do and that is come to the end of my "chalk-and-talk", pose a question relating to my talk and then ask the participants to have a conversation at their tables. Optionally asking each table to report back to the group and for me to take questions.
First I like his suggested skills for managers. Clearly I like his last two items regarding conversation.
Self-reflection
Noticing what is going on
Facilitating free-flowing conversations
Articulating what is emerging in conversations
And his concluding paragraph:
The competencies in competency frameworks do not acknowledge the interdependence of human beings and the importance of context. If you are using competency frameworks, it is likely then that you are using the wrong competencies and you should therefore limit the importance you place on such competency frameworks.
I love my iPhone and would be lost without it but increasingly I feel I have made the wrong long term choice. Apple has done an amazing job and I am sure the iPad also will be a huge success. But I hate the fact that the Apple products are closed and how Apple is using its power to crush Adobes Flash.
I think Jeff Jarvis hits it right on the nail in this recent article iPad danger: app v. web where he says that "The iPad is retrograde" and that "Google is competing with openness, Apple with control". I have no doubt that openness will win in the long run but the Apple products are so good that could be several years away. In the meantime I still might buy an iPad but there will be a big part of me trying to resist.
I love my iPhone and would be lost without it but increasingly I feel I have made the wrong long term choice. Apple has done an amazing job and I am sure the iPad also will be a huge success. But I hate the fact that the Apple products are closed and how Apple is using its power to crush Adobes Flash.
I think Jeff Jarvis hits it right on the nail in this recent article iPad danger: app v. web where he says that "The iPad is retrograde" and that "Google is competing with openness, Apple with control". I have no doubt that openness will win in the long run but the Apple products are so good that could be several years away. In the meantime I still might buy an iPad but there will be a big part of me trying to resist.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
This comment from Steve Jobs (via my friend David Pottinger) in a great article by Stephen Fry on the Launch of the iPad:
"I don't think of my life as a career. I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That's not a career -- it’s a life!" really resonates with me. I like the concept of just "doing stuff" - love that fuzzy word "stuff".
People are always telling me that if I wish to build a business I should do "x, y, z" and I reply "I am not looking to build a business I am looking to do stuff that I enjoy and earn a living in doing it".
To my mind, life is not a career, its not a business, its not a profession - its just about doing fun worthwhile stuff!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Excel makes a poor shared database! - Comments (0)
Fifteen years ago or more when I was developing Lotus Notes applications I was often asked to take an Excel spreadsheet and turn it into a Notes app. A common way of sharing information then was to create an Excel spreadsheet and store it on a shared disk drive where people could access it and update it or to pass it around by email.
Why Excel and not a database? Well Excel was the only tool that everyone had easy access to. Either they did not have access to a database tool because IT would not allow it or they did not have the skills to develop a database application themselves and could not afford to ask IT. But everyone had Excel and everyone knew how to program it - however crudely. Turning a spreadsheet into a Notes app was usually trivial and only took an hour or two but hugely improved the quality and accessibility of the information.
Using a spreadsheet was a very poor fudge back then but today its a crazy solution given all the modern tools we have! But guess what I came across an organisation a week or two back that were sharing information just that way - Excel spreadsheets on a shared drive! I still find it hard to believe.
I recently discovered Cinch and I love it! It's a really easy way to create and share audio, text and photo updates using your phone or computer. Using a simple interface, you can take a photo and annotate it with a short piece of audio. You can then notify people through Facebook, Twitter or CinchCast. Its very simple and very effective and has the potential for being a powerful sharing tool. For example, photos could be taken of artifacts and annotated with a short voice description to form a simple library of sorts. Here are my Cinches so far.
I have run Knowledge Cafes in lots of interesting places but this Kcafe at the Indosat Innovation Week last week in Jakarta was the first time I had held one in a reception area with people walking by :-)
To my mind the failure by business but more so governments to understand the adverse affects of measures, rewards and targets is a colossal Knowledge Management failure. As far as I can tell nearly all the research and evidence shows that rewards and targets do NOT work in complex environments. In fact they have the opposite effect of what is intended! But despite all the evidence to the contrary they continue, out of habit, to put their heads in the sand and do not change.
This post from Ron Donaldson on A blind pursuit of targets points to yet more evidence. I really wish I had collected all the stories of the failure of targets by the Labour government over the last 12 years or so. I think there is enough to write a book! As Ron says "Is anyone in Govt health, education or the environment listening?"
This really is a KM issue. We have the knowledge but we refuse to act on it!
But apart from anything else "we really must stop trying to do things to people and to start to work with them".
I am not so sure I am comfortable with the style of this speaker Dan Brown on the theme An Open Letter to Educators but I have learnt over the years to try to overlook the presentation style and focus on the content. I may not like his style but although Dan is only 20 years old he is already a minor YouTube celebrity with over 100,000 subscribers and 2 million page views to his credit.
Two messages jumped out at me:
"Society no longer cares how many facts we can memorize because in the information age, facts are free."
" Education is about empowering students to change the world for the better."
The first point is clearly a somewhat similar message to my recent post on Father Guido Sarduccis Five Minute University. Interestingly, Dan claims to have recently dropped out of school as his "schooling was interfering with his education". I think he will be one of the first of many!
This is so funny because at its heart it is so true. Universities, schools and other educational establishments in their current form have had their day!
Take look at what Chris Brogan. has to say on Revolutions. My way of looking at this is that you get to achieve major revolutions one day at a time or as Chris puts it one tiny revolution at a time. Its pretty much the way I have worked over the last fifteen years or so. I have had a vision in my mind of what I have wanted to achieve and each day I have tried to take small steps in that direction. No grand plan but learning and adapting as I go. Chris describes the process well.
If someone asked you for a bribe and you offered them a zero denomination note, how do you think they would react? Woild they get angry and demand the full bribe they were asking for or apologise and back down?
I often think that confronting people with the reality of their actions or behaviour in an in indirect, non-threatening way can cause them to reflect and change. Maybe we should experiment more with counter-intuitive ideas like this one. So often our intuition gets things wrong - nothing beats testing ideas - even crazy - ones in practice.
Its great to see a Linkedin KM discussion group Women in KM set up only for women! And by four of my favorite KM women at that - well done Karen, Nerida, Diana and Jeanne :-)
As they explain in the Group description, they have set it up to see if it would be beneficial for women who are in a field that is often male-dominated. And that it is a chance for women to explore, network, share ideas about KM among other women.
Interestingly, I have noted that online forums are male dominated but I tend to find at conferences, workshops and certainly my knowledge cafes there are more woman - often a 60:40 or even 70:30 ratio of women to men.
You may be familiar with Douglas McGregor's "Theory X and Theory Y". Theory X says that "employees are lazy, inherently dislike work and will avoid it if they can" and thus Theory X managers believe that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. On the other hand Theory Y managers believe that, given the right conditions, most people want to do a good job.
In Theory Y, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. According to Papa, to them work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most organizations.
Given the proper conditions, theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Many people interpret Theory Y as a positive set of beliefs about workers.
A close reading of The Human Side of Enterprise reveals that McGregor simply argues for managers to be open to a more positive view of workers and the possibilities that this creates. He thinks that Theory Y managers are more likely than Theory X managers to develop the climate of trust with employees that is required for human resource development. It's here through human resource development that is a crucial aspect of any organization. This would include managers communicating openly with subordinates, minimizing the difference between superior-subordinate relationships, creating a comfortable environment in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. This climate would include the sharing of decision making so that subordinates have say in decisions that influence them. This theory is a positive view to the employees.
The more I talk to KM managers the more I come to believe that Theory X thinking runs deep in KM even when people strongly deny it. KMers frequently ask me or others in on-line forums - "how to do you motivate or incentivise people?" "how do you make people share their knowledge?" or they are looking for ways to manipulate people into using some KM tool or another. I can often discern in their wording that just beneath the surface they think other people are lazy or stupid. It's Theory X thinking!
To my mind - the problem does not lie with the employees - it lies with the managers and a deeply rooted Theory X mindset!
I am often asked what I think about KM Certification and whether it is of value or not. This is a hotly debated topic and much has been written and discussed on the web and so I have created a page on my website dedicated to the subject of KM certification that I will update from time to time.
My bottom line is this: On KM certification - go for the best course regardless of whether it is certified or not - do you wish to genuinely learn or buy an expensive bit of paper!
I often catch myself using the word "solution" or the verb "to solve". But slowly but surely I am eliminating these measly marketing words from my vocabulary. Let me explain.
We talk all the time about "solving business problems" or of "business solutions" or "KM solutions. Marketers love such phrases. But there are no solutions to complex business problems. There are only partial solutions. And even these may only work for a limited period of time in an ever changing business environment. And there are always unintended side-effects that can often be more detrimental than the original problem.
Thus we can only ever "respond" to problems in a continuous adaptive way. So we really need to stop using the word "solution" as it tends to seduce us into a false sense of security that problems can be solved once and for all.
There are NO "solutions" to complex business issues – only “responses” to them.
I am a keen follow of Chris Brogran - he writes some insightful stuff.
I particularly liked this recent blog-post entitled Pursue the Goal Not the Method as it reminded me of what so many people do wrong with KM. They pursue KM for its own sake and ask questions like "How do you do KM?" Doing KM is not the goal. Responding to business objectives, problems, barriers, opportunities and risks is the goal. KM is just an affective approach.
In other words - merging the two tag lines: "Don't do KM - Pursue the Goal Not the Method"
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
I recently read an interesting article entitled Our Panarchic Future by Thomas Homer-Dixon about the work of the ecologist Buzz Holling. In the article, he concludes:
Holling thinks the world is reaching "a stage of vulnerability that could trigger a rare and major pulse of social transformation." Humankind has experienced only three or four such pulses during its entire evolution, including the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agricultural settlement, the industrial revolution, and the recent global communications revolution.
Today another pulse is about to begin. "The immense destruction that a new pulse signals is both frightening and creative," he writes.
"The only way to approach such a period, in which uncertainty is very large and one cannot predict what the future holds, is not to predict, but to experiment and act inventively and exuberantly via diverse adventures in living."
I agree, in a complex world, it is impossible to predict or to plan the future -- we need to experiment and learn what works and what does not work and continually modify our actions accordingly.
Yes I do it. I started doing it about ten years ago. And yes I too have something to sell at times. Ten years ago almost no one was doing it and I had many a debate with people who thought I was crazy.
Today many more are doing it and as Hugh MacLeod says in his post on Selling by giving in another five years it will probably be considered normal.
I am still surprised how few conference organisers have really caught on to social media and have learnt how to use it effectively. So much can be done with social media to help market an event and make it more participatory and engaging but one of the simplest things is to agree and communicate a conference tag as early as possible.
At KM India recently tweeters had to guess the tag which resulted in two tags being used #KMIndia and #KMSummit which resulted in a lot of confusion.
This great post on Tagging and face-to-face events by John David Smith makes the case for conference tags and gives some solid tips.
Why oh why do we still use podiums at conferences? I was at a conference recently and there was no lapel mike available and no hand mike - just a fixed mike on the podium which meant I had to stand behind the damn thing, not walk around and not move my head too much. How can you relax and interact with your audience tied to the spot like that!
And then in South Africa, at a recent conference - again only a fixed mike on the podium but the podium was a large wooden one, at least four feet high maybe higher. Two of the African women who spoke were not much taller than the podium!
Take a look at the photo - yes there really is a speaker behind that podium! Crazy!
In this year’s letter Bill talk's about the importance of innovation for solving some of the world’s biggest problems and how he and Melinda see innovation as the factor that will make the difference between having a bleak future and a bright one. The letter explains how they decide which ideas to fund and talk about the benefits, time frame, and risks of each one.
If Bill and Melinda only achieve a fraction of their vision they will make a real difference in the world.
Also take a look at Bill's new website Gates Notes if you want to track what he is up to. He has also just started a twitter account and already has over 300,000 followers.
In this year’s letter Bill talk's about the importance of innovation for solving some of the world’s biggest problems and how he and Melinda see innovation as the factor that will make the difference between having a bleak future and a bright one. The letter explains how they decide which ideas to fund and talk about the benefits, time frame, and risks of each one.
If Bill and Melinda only achieve a fraction of their vision they will make a real difference in the world.
Also take a look at Bill's new website Gates Notes if you want to track what he is up to. He has also just started a twitter account and already has over 300,000 followers.
I have long admired Lilia Efimova's work on blogging. If you are interested in what it means to blog within an organisation then I suggest you read this recent article by her on Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas.
Here is a little taster:
Blogging is primarily known as an instrument for personal publishing, reaching a broad and often unknown audience without pushing content on them. While blogging is personal, most of its advantages are the result being part of an ecosystem, where weblogs are connected not only by links, but also by relations between bloggers. Those relations do not appear automatically: it takes time and effort before one can enjoy social effects of blogging. To sustain blogging before those effects appear it is important to find a personally meaningful way to use a weblog.
I have long admired Lilia Efimova's work on blogging. If you are interested in what it means to blog within an organisation then I suggest you read this recent article by her on Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas.
Here is a little taster:
Blogging is primarily known as an instrument for personal publishing, reaching a broad and often unknown audience without pushing content on them. While blogging is personal, most of its advantages are the result being part of an ecosystem, where weblogs are connected not only by links, but also by relations between bloggers. Those relations do not appear automatically: it takes time and effort before one can enjoy social effects of blogging. To sustain blogging before those effects appear it is important to find a personally meaningful way to use a weblog.
I will be visiting Jakarta once again in March where I will be leading a two day KM workshop with KM Plus - Learning Lead on March 10 - 11. This will be the third such workshop over the last few years and I will be sending out more information to those of you in the region in the next week or so.
I have yet to finalise my itinerary, so if you would like to invite me to work with you in any way or if you would like to meet with me informally for coffee, lunch or dinner please get in touch.
Detail of the workshop is as follows:
Topic: KM for Business: Managing Successful KM Projects to Achieve Business Results
Venue: The Boardroom, Four Seasons hotel, Jakarta
Date: March 10 - 11, 2010
Target audience: Directors, Managers, Business Profesional, and KM practitioners.
This workshop is a series of KM-Plus annual International KM events, which was started with Knowledge Cafe (March 2007), Social KM (July 2008), and now KM for Business (March 2010).
I have a huge respect for Alfie Kohn and have been blogging about him since 2002! But I have only just thought to look on YouTube for some video clips of him speaking. Well, I got lucky and found several clips from which I have created a YouTube playlist of clips from some of his talks.
Alfie demonstrates time and time again how our thinking is screwed up when it comes to the education and raising of children. This is bad enough. But the same habits and practices get carried over into the work place. We still try to punish and reward employees to "make them" to do what we want - even when there is no evidence that it works and plenty of research to show that it does not!
Video: Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation
Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think.
I have long been saying that Universities are in for trouble - as why would a student get out of bed early in the morning to attend a boring lecture when he or she could watch one of the world's best professors on the subject deliver the lecture at any time of the day and night that they chose - maybe with a friend or two and a few beers.
So all you KMers who enjoy shooing and editing video - Patrick Lambe of Green Chameleon has announced a Make a Video about KM Competition. Go for it - it should be fun!
If you have not had the chance to participate in one of my Knowledge Cafes and have wondered what they are all about then I will be giving a 1 hour webinar about them for the Ark Group on 9th February at 16:00 GMT where you will have a low cost opportunity to learn a little about them.
Video: David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management
David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management: David Gurteen talks on how incentivizing knowledge management kills intrinsic motivation and negatively affects true value of the practice. This interview was conducted by Alakh Asthana of eClerx Services at KM India 2009 in Chennai.
Media Information:
In this interview at KM India, I was asked for my views on "Incentivizing Knowledge Management". Well I explained the reasons for not doing it but did not suggest an alternative approach which was picked up in one of the comments by "firetangent". Here is my response.
So if traditional incentives can have a negative impact, what's the workaround?
First stop using them; they don't work and do great harm.
The problem with traditional incentives, rewards and talk of motivating people, engaging and empowering them etc. is that this approaches the situation from a mindset of "doing things to people". It says "they are lazy people; we know best and we will find ways of manipulating them to do what we would like them to do".
People see through this; they resist; they become cynical and it actually makes matters worse!
Here is my answer "Stop doing things to people and start to work with them!" Rather than "Hello I am here to help you!" (Oh yea!) Take the attitude "Hello, lets talk and see how we can better work together."
Its that simple!
But there is secondary issue here. Asking "how do we incentivise people" - makes the big assumption that they need to be incentivised. Yes, they may not be doing what you would like them to be doing but how do you know that the reason is lack of motivation. You don't. If there are problems then you will only find them out by sitting down and talking with them!
Interactive 5 day workshop supported by extensive eLearning program.
Workshop Leaders: Barry Hardy, Beat Knechtli, Pavel Kraus, Michael Wyrsch, Stephan Bohr, Douglas Weidner
Topics: KM Practices, Business Case, Strategy, Program Planning, KM
Frameworks, KM and Organisational Culture, Change Management for KM
Programs, Leadership and Competencies for KM, Knowledge Assessment,
Metrics, Enterprise KM, Process-oriented KM, Knowledge Mapping,
Benchmarking, Expertise Location, Search, Personal KM, Web 2.0,
Communities, Collaboration
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
When I was at KM India 2009 in Chenna, Alakh Asthana of eClerx conducted a series of short interviews with me on a number of KM topics. Here is the first in the series on what I had to say about incentivizing KM.
Video: David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management
David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management: David Gurteen talks on how incentivizing knowledge management kills intrinsic motivation and negatively affects true value of the practice. This interview was conducted by Alakh Asthana of eClerx Services at KM India 2009 in Chennai.
We asked CLOs if their organizations encouraged reflection, because we know that if there is no reflection, there is no learning. Less than a third of them said that their organizations encouraged reflection. And that’s just encouraging reflection. You know that in most organizations it isn’t happening at all. That is suicide. If you don’t set aside time for reflection it will always be set aside for today’s immediate task.
To my mind, this is yet another benefit of open conversation and knowledge cafes in that they encourage reflection. If you are not reflecting, you are not learning!
One of my good friends in Singapore is Lt Col Karuna Ramanathan who is Deputy Head of the Center for Leadership Development in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
I met up with him during my recent trip and we had lunch together. I knew he had been doing a lot of work with AARs but did not realise that the SAF had slightly modified the After Action Review (AAR) process.
He spoke about this at KM World and Robert Swanwick blogged about it in an article entitled 2-5-1 Storytelling. Take a look! The key difference is the bit about relationships and the final item "what was the most important takeaway from the event?" I rather like the changes and think I will adopt them myself when ever I facilitate an AAR in the future.
One of my good friends in Singapore is Lt Col Karuna Ramanathan who is Deputy Head of the Center for Leadership Development in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
I met up with him during my recent trip and we had lunch together. I knew he had been doing a lot of work with AARs but did not realise that the SAF had slightly modified the After Action Review (AAR) process.
He spoke about this at KM World and Robert Swanwick blogged about it in an article entitled 2-5-1 Storytelling. Take a look! The key difference is the bit about relationships and the final item "what was the most important takeaway from the event?" I rather like the changes and think I will adopt them myself when ever I facilitate an AAR in the future.
Those of you who know Patrick Lambe of Straits Knowledge may also know his alter ego Dr David Vaine. Dr Vaine gave a short speech at the ACTKM Annual Conference Dinner in October earlier this year where he outlined the key features of Fourth Generation Knowledge Management, and dealt with the difficult question of managing the transition between Generation X and Generation Y in the workplace.
Here are the first three generations of KM according to David Vaine! Enjoy the video!
Ist generation KM pioneered by No Knuckles "making tacit knowledge explicit"
2nd generation characterised by David Green Teen "lets all just chat"
3rd generation characterised by Dennis Snowden "its all about complexity, complexity"
You will find other video talks from David Vaine and more serious ones from Patrick Lambe on Patricks blip.tv channel.
Those of you who know Patrick Lambe of Straits Knowledge may also know his alter ego Dr David Vaine. Dr Vaine gave a short speech at the ACTKM Annual Conference Dinner in October earlier this year where he outlined the key features of Fourth Generation Knowledge Management, and dealt with the difficult question of managing the transition between Generation X and Generation Y in the workplace.
Here are the first three generations of KM according to David Vaine! Enjoy the video!
Ist generation KM pioneered by No Knuckles "making tacit knowledge explicit"
2nd generation characterised by David Green Teen "lets all just chat"
3rd generation characterised by Dennis Snowden "its all about complexity, complexity"
You will find other video talks from David Vaine and more serious ones from Patrick Lambe on Patricks blip.tv channel.
Whenever I run my Knowledge Cafe Masterclasses, a few people always have a serious problem with the fact that when run in its "pure form" there are no tangible outcomes of a Knowledge Cafe.
There are plenty of intangible ones, such as a better understanding of the issue, a better understanding of ones own views, a better understanding of others perspectives, improved relationships and genuine engagement and motivation to pursue the subject but no outcomes in the form of a decision or a consensus or a to-do list.
My belief is that the way we create conversations that overcome the fragmented nature of our communities is what creates an alternative future.
This can be a difficult stance to take for we have a deeply held belief that the way to make a difference in the world is to define problems and needs and then recommend actions to solve those needs.
We are all problem solvers, action oriented and results minded. It is illegal in this culture to leave a meeting without a to-do list.
We want measurable outcomes and we want them now.
What is hard to grasp is that it is this very mindset which prevents anything fundamental from changing.
We cannot problem solve our way into fundamental change, or transformation.
This is not an argument against problem solving; it is an intention to shift the context and language within which problem solving takes place.
Authentic transformation is about a shift in context and a shift in language and conversation. It is about changing our idea of what constitutes action.
Whenever I run my Knowledge Cafe Masterclasses, a few people always have a serious problem with the fact that when run in its "pure form" there are no tangible outcomes of a Knowledge Cafe.
There are plenty of intangible ones, such as a better understanding of the issue, a better understanding of ones own views, a better understanding of others perspectives, improved relationships and genuine engagement and motivation to pursue the subject but no outcomes in the form of a decision or a consensus or a to-do list.
My belief is that the way we create conversations that overcome the fragmented nature of our communities is what creates an alternative future.
This can be a difficult stance to take for we have a deeply held belief that the way to make a difference in the world is to define problems and needs and then recommend actions to solve those needs.
We are all problem solvers, action oriented and results minded. It is illegal in this culture to leave a meeting without a to-do list.
We want measurable outcomes and we want them now.
What is hard to grasp is that it is this very mindset which prevents anything fundamental from changing.
We cannot problem solve our way into fundamental change, or transformation.
This is not an argument against problem solving; it is an intention to shift the context and language within which problem solving takes place.
Authentic transformation is about a shift in context and a shift in language and conversation. It is about changing our idea of what constitutes action.
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
If you have heard Dave Snowden speak you will almost certainly have heard his children's party story. I must have heard it a dozen time or more and it get better with each rendition. Take a look :-)
You will find two more videos on the Cognitive Edge YouTube Channel and I gather from Dave that several more will be posted over the coming months.
So what is identity? What is digital identity and what is identity 2.0?
Until recently I had not given this a lot of thought but than I got talking to Serge Ravet about running a knowledge cafe at the MISC 2010 conference to be held in London in late January and he introduced me to the topic.
After a conference, have you ever left your name tag on by mistake and had complete strangers say hello to you.This happened to Scott Ginsberg some years ago and he decided to keep his name tag on. He has been wearing a name tag now 24 x 7 for over ten years and turned it into his trademark.
I wore a name badge once at a talk by Theodore Zeldin at the Tate Modern in London. It was a public event and I wore the badge so other people who were attending whom I had invited but never met would recognise me. I was the only one there with a badge and was surprised at the number of strangers who said hello and started up conversations with me. So I can emphasise with Luke's experiences.
I love it in hotels, restaurants, conferences etc when people wear name tags so I can address them by name. Its just so much more friendly and makes it easier to strike up a conversation. One criticism I have of many conference organisers is that the persons name is in very small print so you cannot read it, or the badge is covered with marketing logos so the name gets lost or those name tags you hang around your neck that always twist away from you so once again you cannot read the name. The best name tags contain the name only as BIG as possible and with the given name larger and in bold compared wit the family name!!
As I love to network and talk to strange, I like the idea of always wearing a name tag much of the time though I am not so sure about 24 x 7. Do I have the courage? LOL! I am not too sure. Do you?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
Many of you will be familiar with the speed networking sessions I hold at the start of my knowledge cafes and workshops. Its a great way of breaking the ice and getting people talking and engaging with each other.
I often hug people rather than shake hands though usually only when I know them and more often with women than men. The Speed Hugging post by Steve Pavlina has prompted me to hug more. Its not that difficult even with strangers and like Steve suggests if in doubt I ask first.
I also need to achieve some balance and give hugs to more men. LOL
Many of you will be familiar with the speed networking sessions I hold at the start of my knowledge cafes and workshops. Its a great way of breaking the ice and getting people talking and engaging with each other.
I often hug people rather than shake hands though usually only when I know them and more often with women than men. The Speed Hugging post by Steve Pavlina has prompted me to hug more. Its not that difficult even with strangers and like Steve suggests if in doubt I ask first.
I also need to achieve some balance and give hugs to more men. LOL
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
A little while back I blogged about the idea that we would do better not to focus on idealistic solutions but to focus on the small, pragmatic things that we could do on a day-to-day basis to move ourselves forward. I drew on comments by Dave Snowden, Stephen Billing and John Dewey.
Well now Johnnie Moore has blogged along similar lines see Behaviour change revisited. His post reminds me of a quote from Alfie Kohn that I oft use in my talks and workshops "An innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them."
I have just discovered Pecha Kucha - a presentation format in which a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
Looks like the driving force was similar to the one that inspired my Knowledge Cafes - a desire to avoid Death by Powerpoint.
I wonder if I could adapt the idea to create a variation of my Knowledge Cafe? But I cannot believe that they have patented the process!
I have just discovered Pecha Kucha - a presentation format in which a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
Looks like the driving force was similar to the one that inspired my Knowledge Cafes - a desire to avoid Death by Powerpoint.
I wonder if I could adapt the idea to create a variation of my Knowledge Cafe? But I cannot believe that they have patented the process!
The best definition of KM yet and some excellent guiding principals from Dave Snowden in a recent blog post.
The purpose of knowledge management is to provide support for improved decision making and innovation throughout the organization. This is achieved through the effective management of human intuition and experience augmented by the provision of information, processes and technology together with training and mentoring programmes.
Why do I like this? It starts with the purpose; the business outcome that you wish to achieve. And then follows through with the "how". To my mind, all definitions of activity should take this format. So if I ask "What is your KM project about?" The reply should not take the form "We are implementing COPs" but "Our aim is to improve innovation in R&D through the use of COPs". Start with the specific purpose and then the how.That way you don't get to take your mind off what you are really aiming to achieve! Its the "outcome" that is important not the "how". KM is a how not an outcome! That's why I always say "You don't do KM!".
KM should not be about "knowing more" - it should be about "understanding better". Better understanding leads to improved decisions and innovation. How do we understand better; how do we make sense of the world? Through conversation!
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Its not very often I "sound off" but the other day I tweeted a section of an article and tagged it as #RUBBISH and having been gently reprimanded, I agreed, backed off and tagged it #DISAGEE LOL.
To me, this not only seems impossible and a huge waste of time but it will almost certainly be "gamed" by many individuals. Value and respect trust - yes - but that's it.
In response, Johan Lammers expanded on the post in a comment which helped explain a little more but I am still not convinced. I think we need to stop trying to do things to people and work with them :-)
I think most of you are aware of my views on the rewards ... if not see what I have to say here on Measures Targets and Rewards.
And you may also have seen my little blitz on the subject in Twitter ... tagged #NOREWARDS.
I know many of you believe in rewards - from my Twitter Poll - well over half. But watch this TED video from Dan Pink and see if it changes your opinion at all. Even more compelling evidence that traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think!
The iPhone: always on and always on you - part of you - Comments (0)
A few weeks back I brought a new 3GS iPhone. Up until then I had an old Nokia handset. I had been putting off the purchase for a long time. I was happy with my dumb phone and did not see the real need for anything more. I knew at the back of my mind I was wrong but I did not realise how wrong!
Those of you with an iPhone will be chuckling by now as you KNOW just how wrong I was!
The iPhone is NOT a phone - it is a personal information, navigation, communication and connection device. It is THE most powerful Social Tool you can imagine. And like all Social Tools you have no idea what they can really do for you until you start to play with them.
I think what amazes me about the iPhone the most - is its potential. The device I have is impressive but I feel there is huge room for improvement.
Out of the box I get the following and more:
phone/sms
contacts database
still camera
video camera
voice recorder
all my music
most of my photos
a very functional browser
a storage device
And these are just some of the Apps I have downloaded so far (and I have yet to pay for an App):
Skype
Facebook
Twitteriffic and TweetDeck
Yahoo Messenger
Wikipedia
Dopplr
Google Maps
Google Earth
Weather (Guide)
Time Zone Guide
Currency (Convertor)
Several news feeds: Telegraph, Sky News, ITN News, NPR News
But it is the geolocation functions enabled by the iPhone's inbuilt GPS that seem to me to have the most promise:
Know where I am e.g. Google Maps
Let others know where I am e.g. Google Latitude and Plazer
Know where others are - both friends and like-minded people e.g. Brighkite and Whoshere
Know what is around me e.g. Nearest, AroundMe and WCFinder
Get directions to places e.g. TomTom
And then I have been playing with two apps
PicPosterous that allows me to take photos and automatically uploaded them to the web including Flickr, Facebook and Twitter
12cast that allows me to take 12 second video clips and automatically upload them to the web as a sort of micro-video blog - a video version of Twitter
So a whole new world in the making :-)
If you haven't woken up to the iPhone yet - then go out and get one tomorrow! Its only a matter of time before everyone has an iPhone or smart phone equivalent and we are all connected in real-time. The thing about the iPhone is that it is "always on" and "always on you". It becomes "part of you".
I think this technology will completely transform the way we interact with the world. And I can only just begin to imagine the implications of that!
This short video explains joint enquiry as a key way that as a change leader you can engage with your people when trying to generate change in your organisation.
This is a big part of what my Knowledge Cafe's about. It also reminds me so much of Alfie Kohns comment:
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
This is the key ... "We have to stop trying to change people and work with them!".
Side note: I have referred to Steve Billing's work several times over recent months. I have never met him but that is set to change when I have dinner with him during my upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand. I look forward to some great conversation.
This short video explains joint enquiry as a key way that as a change leader you can engage with your people when trying to generate change in your organisation.
This is a big part of what my Knowledge Cafe's about. It also reminds me so much of Alfie Kohns comment:
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
This is the key ... "We have to stop trying to change people and work with them!".
Side note: I have referred to Steve Billing's work several times over recent months. I have never met him but that is set to change when I have dinner with him during my upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand. I look forward to some great conversation.
Theodore Zeldin is most interested in conversations when we "discover what it is like to be somebody else, and what other people feel".
Watch this recent video interview with him where is celebrates his 76th birthday by inviting members of the public to a central London park to talk to strangers - a delight!
It does not matter if no one reads your blog! - Comments (0)
I have long advocated that blogging is a thinking tool and not a publishing tool. And so many non-bloggers have looked at me as if I was crazy. I will say it again the only way you get to REALLY understand social tools is to play with them. Things then emerge that were not apparent by looking at them or reading about them.
If you don't blog and still don't quite get it - take a look at what Seth Godin has to say about blogs for example it does not matter if no one reads your blog! short video clip with Tom Peters. He is SPOT ON!
With the G8 expanded to the G20, the discussion of a new world order is underway. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a "New Bretton Woods" agreement in October 2008. Jean Dermine, INSEAD Professor of Banking and Finance called for a new international financial order. The World Bank has issued its World Knowledge Development Reports. The UN released major reports on Knowledge Societies.
My fear is not that this event will not happen; it WILL. I worry that the visionaries who have pushed the frontiers of financial measurement to include the variables of intangible wealth and intellectual capital may not have a prominent seat at the table.
What can WE do - collectively - to help shape the agenda?
A month or two ago I had a meeting at HMRC - the UK's HM Revenue & Customs. While waiting in the lobby I spied their mission statement and was quite impressed. Rather than say "We collect taxes." LOL It said this:
HMRC Purpose
We make sure that the money is available to fund the UK's public services.
We also help families and individuals with targeted financial support.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Michele Martin builds on a post by Meredith Levinson on a series of six questions to identify change agents and innovators during a job interview and adds four questions of her own.
These are great questions to consider about your working life, regardless of whether you are going to a job interview or not!
What do you do to build, manage and maintain your network?
If I Google you, what will I find?
What do you do to stay focused?
What do you do to stay relevant?
What innovative solutions have you created?
Walk (me) through a time when you administered change.
What important problems or questions do you see facing our industry? Your occupation?
What do you do to expose yourself to new ideas and new thinking on a regular basis?
What big mistake have you made recently and what did you learn from it?
What matters to you? What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning or keeps you awake at night?
Michele Martin builds on a post by Meredith Levinson on a series of six questions to identify change agents and innovators during a job interview and adds four questions of her own.
These are great questions to consider about your working life, regardless of whether you are going to a job interview or not!
What do you do to build, manage and maintain your network?
If I Google you, what will I find?
What do you do to stay focused?
What do you do to stay relevant?
What innovative solutions have you created?
Walk (me) through a time when you administered change.
What important problems or questions do you see facing our industry? Your occupation?
What do you do to expose yourself to new ideas and new thinking on a regular basis?
What big mistake have you made recently and what did you learn from it?
What matters to you? What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning or keeps you awake at night?
I love the bit about being authentic and shaping your brand by sharing little bits of your life one tweet at a time. And using social tools to influence people and tell your story.
Although her advise is primarily aimed at independents and small organizations - I think if you read between the lines and consider yourself or your team as a brand then everyone can learn from what Juliette has to say especially KM practitioners and KM managers.
I love the bit about being authentic and shaping your brand by sharing little bits of your life one tweet at a time. And using social tools to influence people and tell your story.
Although her advise is primarily aimed at independents and small organizations - I think if you read between the lines and consider yourself or your team as a brand then everyone can learn from what Juliette has to say especially KM practitioners and KM managers.
Instead of borrowing a book, you can borrow a person for a 30 minute chat. An east London library has 26 "human books" available. The aim is to confront and breakdown stereotypes. You can "borrow" a Muslim; a police officer; a person suffering mental health issues; a gay guy; or a young person expelled from school.
So the stereotypes might be religious fanatic; corrupt; unstable; promiscuous; rebellious and so on. It's about having frank and rich conversations with people and learning about different cultures or ways of living. It's about the "borrower" offering up what misgivings or fears they might have of a stereotype and the "human book" responding.
Violence, hatred and racial issues often occur when there is misunderstanding, ignorance and cultural insensitivity. Listening to the narrative of another person who is entirely different from you is a powerful experience. The Living Library challenges preconceptions through promoting dialogue.
I think this is a great idea - maybe I should borrow one of these "human books" and use them to seed the conversation for one of my London Knowledge Cafes - what an interesting thought :-)
I mentioned recently that I would be participating in KM Asia in November. The organisers - the Ark Group - have just announced great early bird deal - take a look at the early bird brochure. It expires on the 21st August.
If you don't already know him, I'd like to introduce you to Nick Milton of Knoco by way of a recent blog post of his:
Knowledge Management is not an end in itself. Companies do not exist for the purpose of propagating and advancing knowledge - they exist to sell products and services. But to the extent that competitive advantage relies on informed decision making within the business - knowledge management has a crucial role to play.
This is spot on and to my mind is one of the prime reasons so many KM initiatives and KM teams fail. They are simply not focused on the business.
But take a look at all the other material on Knoco's website (though I do wish Nick would lighten up and smile on his videos) - especially Nicks blog and his short KM videos - he has been very prolific of late and you will find a wealth of good KM material.
Last week Google Wave was open to around 6,000 developers and Google is planning to send out an additional 20,000 invites over the next month. In addition, Google is planning to release Wave to 100,000 users beginning on September 30th. So register your interest.
There is a lot of interest in this product - if you haven't taken a look at it yet - I suggest you do! I am registered to be informed when it is ready and can't wait to get my hands on it :-)
Euan Semple was recently interviewed for GuruOnline.
Its an interesting format, fifteen high quality teeny video clips where Euan is asked questions about social media and working in a wired world. You can skip any of them and play the clips in any order. Its neat! And of course Euan has some great stuff to say about social tools. Well worth a watch.
I love all the little conversations I inadvertently have in Twitter - many of them via Facebook. They engage me and open my eyes to the world and help me realise that not everyone sees things as I do - either because they actually have a very different perspective or because a little bit of information or context is missing. Here is one example.
I recently re-tweeted a quote from Henry David Thoreau "David Gurteen RT @ThoreauPage: I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad."
To which I had a reply in Facebook (my Tweets automatically update my Facebook status) from Stuart Keeble an old friend of mine from my Lotus Development days: "I don't like this - but FB doesn't give me a simple button to press so I have to comment. Where's the challenge to humanity to leave a better legacy to our children?? Or do we suddenly lose interest in green ideals, in a sense of community and appreciation of diversity??!! "
This was my reply: " Stuart, how familiar are you with the works of Thoreau - if you are - read the quote again and think about what he really means and you may see it differently. If you are not familiar with him and you have the inclination, read Walden Pond and I think you will see it in a new light :-) And see http://www.walden.org or http://www.ti.org. Thoreau was THE original environmentalist :-)"
Stuart learnt a little about Thoreau here but more often or not it is the other way around and I get to do the bulk of the learning :-)
I will be attending KM Asia in Singapore this year (24 - 26 November 2009). I will be in good company with
Dave Snowden, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd
Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services, Harvard Business School
John Girard, Associate Professor, Minot State University
I will be busy ... not only delivering a keynote talk but also running a workshop and facilitating a reverse brainstorming cafe. The theme of the reverse brainstorming cafe will be either "How do you utterly, totally destroy openness and transparency within an organization and ensure that people won't collaborate or share their knowledge?"
or "How do you totally decouple KM activities from the real work of the business and ensure that senior managers kill off KM and that others in the organisation despise you?" (Get the idea of the reverse thinking LOL!) I am hoping we will go with the second question as I feel this represents one of the greatest challenges that KM faces today!
I plan to spend a week or more in the region - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner.
I will also be attending KM Singapore in Singapore in August.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
Dave Snowden said something recently that typified my approach to everything that I have done in life over the last 10 years or more.
Knowledge Management should be focused on real, tangible intractable problems not aspirational goals. It should deal pragmatically with the evolutionary possibilities of the present rather then seeking idealistic solutions.
Benner suggests that decreasing your reliance on a preconceived end or means of getting there can offer a new point of departure for new possibilities that were not previously available. To me, this applies as much to individuals in their personal lives as much as it does to people in organisations.
And then yet again I got to build on Snowden's original statement with this quote from John Deway that I found in the comments to the above post.
The ideal of using the present simply to get ready for the future contradicts itself. It omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared for his future. We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. This is the only preparation which in the long run amounts to anything.
I have long heard Dave Snowden at KM conferences and workshops espouse his views on some of the serious mistakes that he feels governments make and I have always agreed. You only have to look at the disastrous consequences that measures have had on the National Health Service in the UK. The government 48-hour target of a few years ago which stated that patients should only have to wait 48 hours for an appointment to see their doctor was a prime example of one that back-fired.
Well Dave has recently starteed to document some of these mistakes. Here are his seven errors of governemnt - each one is explained more fully in his blog post.
You get what you measure, so if you set a target humans will achieve the target at all costs, ignoring context or the unstated goals that the outcome based target was attempting to achieve.
Outcome based measurement can make people far too comfortable. It's all to easy to achieve an explicit target, especially if you can turn off an empathy (or at least suppress it).
A mechanical approach is by its nature dehumanising in its effect on people and inhuman in its impact on society.
You waste an awful amount of resource just managing the measurement system.
We try and solve issues with idealistic fail-safe designs rather than allowing systems to evolve.
Re-organisation is a disease and an excuse. It's the knee jerk reaction to any failure that ends up breaking your jaw with the recoil.
Communication is all up and down the chain, ironically this mediates information to senior decision makers so they are immunised from the real data
they need, and also from the consequences of their actions.
He also makes the point that this all comes back to one fundamental error, namely we are treating all the processes of government as if they were tasks for engineers rather than a complex problem of co-evolution at multiple levels (individuals, the community, the environment etc.).
We are an award-winning graphic and media design agency offering a wide range of expertise and service in the visual communication sector : covering logos; brand identity; adverts; art direction; marketing and POS material; illustration and animation; books and brochures; websites and content management systems.
Our client base is ever-growing and includes both B2B and B2C and by working closely with our media partners; we are able to provide competitive rates in every aspect of the design process.
If you would like an informal chat with regards to a forthcoming project please contact René Morency on +44 20 3355 6891 or email [email protected].
Work on something that matters to you more than money.
Create more value than you capture.
Take the long view.
But to me this is key:
We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
When I was in Singapore last year walking near Clarke Quay - I saw that what I thought at first could only be a UFO. An amazing colourful craft swooping and diving in the night sky. But then I realised there were several of them dancing together.
I have been running the beta version for the last few weeks with no problems at all. What I enjoy about Chrome is its minimal user interface design and the fact that is blindingly fast and has some cool features.
If you have not got around to checking it out yet I suggest you do.
I originally tweeted this post of Stephen Billing's Three reasons not to aim for shared values a little while back. Stephen tells me that it resulted in a large number of people visiting his blog and as you can see from the comments it kicked of an interesting discussion.
Shared values are a complete fallacy and the pursuit of them will not help your organisation one bit.
I have empathy with some of Stephen's points but like several of the comments I feel there is a need for shared values but too often like many mission statements they seem trite and self serving and I am really not too sure they achieve a great deal.
Stephen has blogged on the subject again today More About Why Shared Values are Futile. What are your thoughts? Post your comments on Stephen's blog - not here - and join the conversation :-)
The greatest benefit of conversation is that it produces five categories of responses (answers, meta knowledge, problem reformulation, validation and legitimization), not just the answer. We get so much more from conversation, e.g. an unexpected insight, a sense of affirmation that inspires us to new heights or, equally useful, having to confront a realization that we've been trying to avoid; deepening the relationship with a colleague or the introduction to a collaborator we would never have discovered on our own; and on and on.
I suspect, there are even more then five categories. When you enter into a conversation, you are never sure where it is going to take you. Sometimes, you set out with a goal in mind but end up in a very different place. I always tell people at my Knowledge Cafes that it is OK to go off topic - if that's where the conversation leads you - don't resist it - go there - you never know what you might find. So I would add serendipity to the list of categories. What would you add?
ADVERTISEMENT: Online Master of Science in Knowledge Management program - Comments (0)
Interested in pursuing a formal qualification in Knowledge Management? The MSc in KM offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University may suit you. Entering its 6th year of operation, characteristics of this program are
Balanced coverage of human and IT-oriented approach to managing knowledge at the personal, group and organisational levels
Suitable for knowledge workers in all industries and learnt concepts are widely applicable
True multi-media delivery with games, animation, peer-to-peer interactions supplementing online content and web seminars
To find out more about this program, please register to attend the next online information session:
7pm (GMT +8 hours), 2nd June 2009
I thought you would like to know that I will be chairing the knowledge sharing stream of KC UK 2009 8 - 9 June this year. This is the major UK KM event and the organizers - the Ark Group - have kindly offered all my readers a 25% discount. I attend this conference most years and have chaired it twice in the past. Its a great event and I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Later in the year, I will be speaking and running a workshop at KM Asia 2009 24 - 26 November in Singapore.
And you may wish to check out KM Australia 2009 4 -7 August if you live down-under. This must be the only major KM conference I have yet to participate in but one of the other David's Dave Snowden will be there giving a keynote.
I'd like to give a big thanks to Marja Kingma (@Marjakingma) for introducing me to BookCrossing - a great way of sharing books you no longer need.
I can't remember who but someone also told me about BookMooch. But I think I prefer BookCrossing as it is less effort.
I have not started using BookCrossing yet - but I do have piles of old business magazines. Every time I go out, I take one with me and leave it somewhere such as a train or a cafe! Hopefully it gets read again before being binned and finally recycled!
Jerry Ash has just gone live with his new magazine Smart People. You can view the first issue online or download it as a pdf.
The entire first issue of Smart People magazine is free, and all lead stories in subsequent magazines are unlocked for public access. The remainder is open to subscribers only.
Smart People Magazine turns corporate knowledge management inside out, brings the power of knowledge work to the mainstream and applies it to living, learning, choosing, creating and working. The power has always been there, and the Web has multiplied your knowledge a million times through the search, communication and social network capabilities of the Internet.
Its a great new magazine and I'd like to congratulate Jerry and his team on all their hard work. I am also pleased to say I am on the editorial board representing KM.
TEDx is a program that enables schools, businesses, libraries or just groups of friends to enjoy a TED-like experience through events they themselves organize, design and host. We're supporting approved organizers by offering a free toolset that includes detailed advice, the right to use recorded TEDTalks, promotion on our site, connection to other organizers, and a little piece of our brand in the form of the TEDx label.
Maybe not too surprisingly, I am still hugely enjoying my daughter Lauren's blog - The Curious Cat (Welcome to The Curious Cat, a blog about being curious, about all the little things in life that bring me pleasure and happiness: cooking, art, literature, friends and family, cats...).
I recently discovered TweetBrain - a complementary tool to Twitter. It allows you to post a question and receive answers from fellow tweeters. Others can vote on the answers given and finally you can choose what you consider to be the best answer.
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
In April 2005, BLU, the UK's Business Link University, which no longer exists, hired Fifty Lessons to produce a series of video stories for them and I was invited to contribute. They shot six short videos that you can view here on my website - little stories of mine relevant to KM.
I had loaded them to Google Video but Google is putting little effort into Google Video since they acquired YouTube - so much so they have actually lost many of my videos and I am having to upload them again to YouTube.
ADVERTISEMENT: Online Master of Science in Knowledge Management program - Comments (0)
Interested in pursuing a formal qualification in Knowledge Management? The MSc in KM offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University may suit you. Entering its 5th year of operation, characteristics of this program are
Balanced coverage of human and IT-oriented approach to managing knowledge at the personal, group and organisational levels
Suitable for knowledge workers in all industries and learnt concepts are widely applicable
True multi-media delivery with games, animation, peer-to-peer interactions supplementing online content and web seminars
To find out more about this program, please register to attend the next online information session:
7pm (GMT +8 hours), 5th May 2009
Well, it seems there is some doubt about its future and a survey is being carried out.
The reason for the survey is to gather people's views on the site, the resources, its relevance to their work and also how they would like to see the site developed.
The future of the library is uncertain. It has already been made a static site and there is a real possibility that it will be closed. On the other hand if there is sufficient support it may be provided with a proper budget. So in addition to the above the survey is being carried out to:
Gather evidence on the value of the site, including case studies of how the library has impacted on people's work
Identify people that it would be helpful to include in the lessons learned review
Identify people that it would be useful to involve if the library needs to look for a new home
Gather information that would be helpful to pitch the library to a new host or funder
Generally stir up support for the library
If you have used this specialist KM library and found it useful could you please help out by completing the survey. It is short and simple and should not take long to complete.
Well, it seems there is some doubt about its future and a survey is being carried out.
The reason for the survey is to gather people's views on the site, the resources, its relevance to their work and also how they would like to see the site developed.
The future of the library is uncertain. It has already been made a static site and there is a real possibility that it will be closed. On the other hand if there is sufficient support it may be provided with a proper budget. So in addition to the above the survey is being carried out to:
Gather evidence on the value of the site, including case studies of how the library has impacted on people's work
Identify people that it would be helpful to include in the lessons learned review
Identify people that it would be useful to involve if the library needs to look for a new home
Gather information that would be helpful to pitch the library to a new host or funder
Generally stir up support for the library
If you have used this specialist KM library and found it useful could you please help out by completing the survey. It is short and simple and should not take long to complete.
I thought I'd share ten of my recent tweets for those of you who might have missed them. And for those of you not using Twitter - it gives you some idea of the richness of the tweets.
By the way, RT means re-tweet - a bit like forwarding an e-mail i.e. they are not my original tweets but those of others.
You can see a summary of these articles on my website with links through to the actual articles on the InsideKnowledge Magazine website. Or you may prefer to view them in full color on Scibd where they are also downloadable and embeddable.
You might like to note that all these articles including a short booklet that contains many of them is available freely for re-use.
A recent article is one of my favorites Raising all the ships on the sea where I look at the concepts of the commons; the tragedy of the commons and the more recent concept of the cornucopia of the commons where use of a common resource leads to abundance rather then depletion!
Take a look and see what you think of this three-and-a-half minute rant about leveling the preacher-and-congregation model of learning from Jay Cross. I of course love it as you will recognize that is what my knowledge cafes are about. You can hear the story here of how I started the knowledge cafes in response to death-by-powerpoint presentations.
But also read the comments on Jays post. Some people do not agree with him. But note Jay is not saying that we need to get totally away from the teacher-student model of learning more that we need to shift the balance. Jay himself is in preach mode in delivering the rant and I am sure he was well aware of it. My Knowledge cafes also have a chalk-and-talk component.
And the comments about the road sign metaphor - its not that we need no road signs or no rules of the road but we need more balance. People need guidance at times but by and large we are quite capable of think for ourselves. Once again it is about balance.
What horrifies me is the "sit-and-git" style of teaching taken to extremes. Like the young Chinese woman in Norway who explained to me that when she was a little girl in China, she and the rest of her class were made to sit in nice neat rows and to actually sit on their hands to discourage them from fidgeting; heads up, chests out, facing the front of the class and be talked at! It seems they were not even allowed to ask questions!
To participate in KMWorld 2009 as a possible speaker or workshop leader, or suggest a speaker, please post your submission no later than April 15, 2009 at http://www.kmworld.com/kmw09/SpeakerSubmissions.htm
The event will be held 17 - 19 November 2009 in San Jose, California. I attended in 2007 and I am hoping I maye get to do so this year as well as it is one of the largest and most exciting KM Conference and Exhibition going.
The theme this year: "Resetting the Enterprise: Focusing on People, Talent & Knowledge".
I never encouraged my daughter to Lauren to blog even though I knew she loved writing and was a good writer. So I was delighted when she started last year. As a dad, I have loved her posts, as in each one I have learnt things about her that I have never learnt in conversation. That's part of the power of blogging! And then recently, I was delighted to read of my influence on her.
Some people know from the age of five or younger that when they grown up they want to be singers or doctors or accountants etc. I wasn't quite so lucky. My career aspirations changed every couple of years. I found lots of things interesting and could never fully commit myself to one passion. I just followed the advice my father gave me: "Do what you enjoy most" and with the back-up justification to all my interests that: "variety is the spice of life".
The excerpt is from a post is titled A life of domesticity: a worthy ambition? and in it she talks about her struggle to find a definitive career path. Later in the post she says:
So, I argue that my desire for domesticity can be classed as an ambition, and it can still be feminist because it is not about women conforming to rules laid down to them by their male partners, but about the freedom they have to be able to choose and the support and means they have nowadays to achieve it. With all this talk in the media of "Broken Britain", I think it is a rather worthy ambition and may I even go as far to say that it speaks volumes about the women who choose to pursue such a life. The slight question of taboo almost creates a feeling that I am embarking on a road less travelled! (Which I certainly like the idea of!)
I wonder what she will do with her life? I am pleased, that unlike earlier generations, she has the choice and as a dad I enjoy observing and supporting her. Follow your passion Lauren!
And if you read her post about the Lovely Sunday Roast - it was a great Sunday lunch despite the chilly gravy LOL.
One of the challenges for those of us who believe that we are at the beginning of a very significant period of change in how we see ourselves, our societies and our businesses is how to imagine what the future will be like. Having grand schemes and megalomaniac designs seems out of place with something that is in essence personal and intimate.
Part of me believes that we will get somewhere worthwhile if each of us takes the small steps that seem to make sense to us and that in aggregate these small steps will achieve something significant. The other part of me believes that this will confine us to thinking small and achieving less than we could and that without some inspiring, grander and more comprehensive vision we won't make much difference at all.
This ties in with concerns I have about making things happen in a world where making things happen is associated with old values and ways of thinking. How do you bring about significant change using conversations, influence and sticky ideas rather than command and control and grand plans?
In response, I shared with Euan one of my favorite quotes:
Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them.
Like Euan, I have been wrestling with these very thoughts for some years and clearly Dina has too. Coincidentally, Euan and I met up in London last week and briefly discussed the issue and we agreed to take a long walk along the river Thames in a week or two to discuss the topic. I am looking forward to it.
One of the challenges for those of us who believe that we are at the beginning of a very significant period of change in how we see ourselves, our societies and our businesses is how to imagine what the future will be like. Having grand schemes and megalomaniac designs seems out of place with something that is in essence personal and intimate.
Part of me believes that we will get somewhere worthwhile if each of us takes the small steps that seem to make sense to us and that in aggregate these small steps will achieve something significant. The other part of me believes that this will confine us to thinking small and achieving less than we could and that without some inspiring, grander and more comprehensive vision we won't make much difference at all.
This ties in with concerns I have about making things happen in a world where making things happen is associated with old values and ways of thinking. How do you bring about significant change using conversations, influence and sticky ideas rather than command and control and grand plans?
In response, I shared with Euan one of my favorite quotes:
Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them.
Like Euan, I have been wrestling with these very thoughts for some years and clearly Dina has too. Coincidentally, Euan and I met up in London last week and briefly discussed the issue and we agreed to take a long walk along the river Thames in a week or two to discuss the topic. I am looking forward to it.
But I am disappointed to find so few KM people Tweeting. Twitter is one of the most powerful knowledge sharing and relationship building tools on the web.
I know I keep banging the Twitter drum but do go take a look and check out my list of KM tweeters! And follow me. I usually tweet several times a day on something of interest :-)
If you change your behavior, you change your mind. This is an idea I have believed in for some years and have tried to practice it, so its great to see Michele Martin blog about this having been inspired by A.J. Jacobs. This is the essence:
If you change your behavior, you change your mind. This is one of those deceptively simple, profoundly important realizations. It's the "fake it till you make it" school of thought that says if you want to become something different, you have to start by behaving differently.
We tend to think the opposite, that our beliefs must change first and then our behavior will come along later.
Much of professional development is about trying to change people's attitudes by "training" them that they should think differently. This is often unsuccessful because in many cases, we need to first change our behavior before we can change our beliefs.
I'm not going to truly believe in the power of exercise until I actually begin doing it. I have to start with acting differently and it's the process of engaging in new behaviors that helps me start to develop new attitudes.
But, interestingly, Michele goes on to talk about trust - a question that is often asked by KMers "How do we build a culture of trust in our organization?". My answer has always been just start engaging with people and trusting them. Michele says pretty much the same: Act trusting and trustworthy and trust in yourself and others will follow.
Dave Snowden also has some interesting thoughts on trust
(see his posting on Confusing symptoms with cause)
where he sees it as an emergent property of people working together and not something you can create as such or tell people to do.
These two views may seem opposed but I am not so sure that they are. Yes, trust is an emergent property of people working together but then so is distrust. Entering into a working relationship where by default you trust people (even if you are not too sure of them) is much more likely to lead to a truly trusting relationship than entering in to it with an attitude of lets wait and see.
Knowledge can only be volunteered, it cannot be conscripted.
We only know what we know when we need to know it.
In the context of real need few people will withhold their knowledge.
Everything is fragmented.
Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.
The way we know things is not the way we report we know things.
We always know more than we can say, and we always say more than we can write down.
He has explained each one of them in more detail in his original posting on rendering knowledge.
Great stuff! But the key one for me is:
Everything is fragmented. We evolved to handle unstructured fragmented fine granularity information objects, not highly structured documents. People will spend hours on the internet, or in casual conversation without any incentive or pressure. However creating and using structured documents requires considerably more effort and time. Our brains evolved to handle fragmented patterns not information.
The real world is complex, fragmented and inherently messy and that is not necessarily a bad thing! As Dave says, we have evolved to handle that. Documents? A document is where knowledge goes to die. I think Bill French said this originally in the form email is where knowledge goes to die.
Knowledge can only be volunteered, it cannot be conscripted.
We only know what we know when we need to know it.
In the context of real need few people will withhold their knowledge.
Everything is fragmented.
Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.
The way we know things is not the way we report we know things.
We always know more than we can say, and we always say more than we can write down.
He has explained each one of them in more detail in his original posting on rendering knowledge.
Great stuff! But the key one for me is:
Everything is fragmented. We evolved to handle unstructured fragmented fine granularity information objects, not highly structured documents. People will spend hours on the internet, or in casual conversation without any incentive or pressure. However creating and using structured documents requires considerably more effort and time. Our brains evolved to handle fragmented patterns not information.
The real world is complex, fragmented and inherently messy and that is not necessarily a bad thing! As Dave says, we have evolved to handle that. Documents? A document is where knowledge goes to die. I think Bill French said this originally in the form email is where knowledge goes to die.
One of the reasons I love Twitter is that I trip across little gems like this one on poetry tweeted by Mary Abraham.
I have little artistic or literary inclination and my knowledge of poetry is limited though there are still one or two poems that I was forced to learn at school that I can still recite almost word for word such as: The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna by Charles Wolf and Adlestrop by Edward Thomas.
The joys of a Grammar School education! My old boys Grammar School in Worcester has recently merged with the Alice Ottley, a private girls school, to create the RGS Worcester & The Alice Ottley School Family. And to think in my day they did everything possible to keep us away from the girls but on the other hand my first serious girlfriend at 17 was from the Alice Ottley. LOL.
But I thought I'd share with a poem that has been my favorite for over 40 years.
With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
with the morning sun?
Not that I did compare,
But I do compare
Now that she's gone.
You are probably aware of my love of conversation and my belief in its importance in our lives. So you will understand why I find this blog Conversation Kindling by Jim Ericson so amazing. Here is what is says about it.
The purpose of this blog is to share stories, metaphors, quotes, songs, humor, etc. in hopes they'll be used to spark authentic and rewarding conversations about working and living fruitfully. There are at least three things you can gain by getting involved in these conversations.
First, you'll discover new and important things about yourself through the process of thinking out loud.
Second, you'll deepen your relationships with others who participate by swapping thoughts, feelings, and stories with them.
Finally, you'll learn that robust dialogue centered on stories and experiences is the best way to build new knowledge and generate innovative answers to the questions that both life and work ask.
At the end of most of the postings are some beautiful afterwords (quotes that relate to the post) and questions for conversation. And don't miss the post on Schindlers List.
What is the one idea at work which is more powerful than any other? - Comments (0)
One of the things I love about my website is that it as much for me as for anyone else. For example, I have over 750 quotations on my site that I have collected over the last 20 years. Not any old quotes, but ones that personally move and inspire me and I wish to share with others.
I also post a quote of the day on most pages of my website and this is the one I noticed for today:
In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.
And it set me to thinking. What is that one idea at work today that is more powerful than any other? And wouldn't that make a great topic for a Knowledge Cafe. I must do it!
But this is the joy for me. Francis Bacon has provoked me to think about this but he has been dead almost 400 years! Another man that hugely inspires me is Henry David Thoreau but that's another story.
There are a growing number of LinkedIn Groups many of them dedicated to KM. There is no KM directory but here are most of the Groups (in no particular order) that I have found:
This might just be of interest to some of you - especially the photographers amongst you. Quite simply, for last few years I have been photo-blogging my life on Flickr. Mainly my business life but their is personal stuff too though much of it is restricted to friends and family.
Even I am quite amazed at the places I have been and the things I have done. It is so easy to forget. I wonder what I will make of this collection in ten years time!
You might want to think about doing it yourself - its so easy to do with a digital camera.
I am experimenting with a new Google application called Google Friend Connect - a tool that website owners can use to give their site a more social feel.
Take a look, you will find two widgets on most pages of my website including my home page. The first is a members widget that allows you to join my site, sign in and out, see other members, and use other social features and the second is a wall widget that allows you to post comments, or links to videos on my site.
Its a little like MyBlogLog which I also use on my site but Friend Connect has no where near the same functionality but then it is early days.
I am experimenting with a new Google application called Google Friend Connect - a tool that website owners can use to give their site a more social feel.
Take a look, you will find two widgets on most pages of my website including my home page. The first is a members widget that allows you to join my site, sign in and out, see other members, and use other social features and the second is a wall widget that allows you to post comments, or links to videos on my site.
Its a little like MyBlogLog which I also use on my site but Friend Connect has no where near the same functionality but then it is early days.
If you have not realized it already, LinkedIn has well and truly established itself as the de facto standard social networking platform for your professional life. LinkedIn is for professional connections. FaceBook is more for personal connections but for many people like myself professional ones as well.
Slowly, I am connecting with all my professional contacts via LinkedIn and have over 1,000 established connections. Why? It's the one place I can guarantee finding an up to date profile of the people I know and a means of contacting them.
Fort those of you who have connected with me - Welcome. Its great to see that many of you have only recently joined and I am your first connection.
If you have had an invite from me - please accept it. LinkedIn limits the number of invites I can send to about 2,000 and with 15,000 members of this community that restricts me a little!
If you haven't joined, you should. And please, if I have not invited you yet, invite me to connect with you.
You might also like to join the Gurteen Community group on LinkedIn but although it has several hundred members I am not making full use of it as yet.
Knowledge managers are always asking how they can obtain support for a KM project by demonstrating the ROI especially as the measuring the ROI of a KM initiative is so difficult.
This article by Susan Cramm on the Harvard Business Publishing website is about IT projects but I think is even more applicable to KM projects. This is what she says:
In most cases, the benefits outlined in business (proposals) are a work of creative fiction, and, once the initiative is approved, they are filed and forgotten.
Smart leaders don't waste their time with this. They play the game, but they know how to make the game worth playing. They understand that only 30% of IT-enabled business initiatives deliver as expected and that the other 70% are plagued with unclear business objectives, missing-in-action executive support and inadequate user involvement.
It's a ritual that needs to played! Susan then offers some very sound advise in my opinion. The words below, especially the ones I have highlighted in bold are KEY. In short, business life is political :-)
To build support, it's important to align the initiative to the overall strategic business objectives and to align the initiative to serve the selfish interests of the individuals who will be impacted most.
Knowledge managers are always asking how they can obtain support for a KM project by demonstrating the ROI especially as the measuring the ROI of a KM initiative is so difficult.
This article by Susan Cramm on the Harvard Business Publishing website is about IT projects but I think is even more applicable to KM projects. This is what she says:
In most cases, the benefits outlined in business (proposals) are a work of creative fiction, and, once the initiative is approved, they are filed and forgotten.
Smart leaders don't waste their time with this. They play the game, but they know how to make the game worth playing. They understand that only 30% of IT-enabled business initiatives deliver as expected and that the other 70% are plagued with unclear business objectives, missing-in-action executive support and inadequate user involvement.
It's a ritual that needs to played! Susan then offers some very sound advise in my opinion. The words below, especially the ones I have highlighted in bold are KEY. In short, business life is political :-)
To build support, it's important to align the initiative to the overall strategic business objectives and to align the initiative to serve the selfish interests of the individuals who will be impacted most.
Recent research shows that our behaviors and habits are more strongly influenced by friends and relatives than we might imagine. Furthermore, it seems that behaviors, ill-health and even moods pass through friendship networks across several degrees of separation, and we are almost bound to "catch" them.
The research applies to our face to face social networks but what intrigues me is the unanswered question: What about our on-line social networks, mediated through FaceBook, discussion forums and the like? What influence do these networks have on our behaviors? I suspect they too have an influence albeit to a lesser degree.
In the article, they offer five tips for a healthier social network:
Choose your friends carefully.
Choose which of your existing friends you spend the most time with. For example, hang out with people who are upbeat, or avoid couch potatoes.
Join a club whose members you would like to emulate (running, healthy cooking), and socialise with them.
If you are with people whose emotional state or behaviours you could do without, try to avoid the natural inclination to mimic their facial expressions and postures.
Be aware at all times of your susceptibility to social influence - and remember that being a social animal is mostly a good thing.
So what to do? Well first I have merged; removed duplicates and sorted Patrick's lists and turned them into links to the individual's tweet page. This allows me and others to quickly click through to their page and check them out. See the list at the bottom of this page.
In clicking through on these folk - many are clearly not focused on KM - a place to browse, a place to start but not a top 80 by any means. And this is a general problem, as many KMers like myself and Nimmy tweet on a wide range of topics but only some on KM. So I am trying to remember to tag my KM tweets with a #KM tag to make them easy to find.
The criteria for my list? That's difficult, but mainly people whom I know and respect; who I follow myself and who frequently post good, relevant KM tweets even if they would not label themselves a KM person as such.
If you consider yourself a "KM tweeter" and are not on any of these lists or you know of others who should be here then please let me know.
So a first crack at my list. But note I will be updating it. (last update: rev 5: 31 March 2009)
David Gurteen's top ten KM tweeters (in no particular order)
In a recent conversation with Dominic Kelleher in Brussels we discovered a joint appreciation of the poems and songs of Leonard Cohen and Dominic told me of one of his favorite songs and a quote from it that I too particularly liked. This was the quote.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
But then in googling the song and the quote I found this fragment from an interview with Leonard Cohen that brought the words even more to live for me.
In another song you also say "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". It is not a very happy thought to believe that something will always have to break, to open a crack, in order to the light gets in...
It is a happy thought if we enjoy the truth. There is always something that will have to break. Usually it is our personal pride.
A Buddhist thinker said that disappointment is a great way to illumination. Other masters said: "from the broken debris of my heart I will erect an altar to the Lord".
The idea that there is a staircase of gold and marble, which leads to knowledge is seductive, but seems to me that the idea of something needing to get broken before we can learn anything is a more true idea. It is my experience, maybe you can escape it, but I doubt it. Unless the heart breaks, we will never know anything about love. As long as our objective universe doesn't collapse, we'll never know anything about the world.
We think that we know the mechanism, but only when it fails we understand how intricate and mysterious is the operation. So, it is true, "there's a crack in everything", all human activity is imperfect and unfinished. Only that way we can have the notion that there's something inside us that can only be located through disillusion, bad luck and defeat. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.
I hate the bags usually given out at conferences. Most of the time I don't need them. I empty the contents into my own bag and hand the conference bag back. What I dislike is all the advertising over the bag that pretty much ensures you would never want to use it again and certainly not give it to say to a child or friend who might otherwise appreciate it.
But when I arrived exceptionally early at an event (Tsiba Appreciation Breakfast) in Langa on the outskirts of Cape Town a few weeks back I was asked if I minded to help pack the delegate bags which of course I was only too happy to do especially as the bags were something special. They were designed and made locally and were simple and colorful - unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the supplier. Here is a photo of a small selection of some I helped pack!
Some interesting thoughts via Harold Jarche on the changes we might see in the next 20 years.
In just twenty years, between 2000 and 2020, some 75% of our lives will change dramatically. We know this because it happened once before. Between 1900 and 1920, life changed.
Nine Shift explores the uncanny parallels between today and 100 years ago, examining the changes between the two transition periods and the forces that restructure society in the new economic era.
Some interesting thoughts via Harold Jarche on the changes we might see in the next 20 years.
In just twenty years, between 2000 and 2020, some 75% of our lives will change dramatically. We know this because it happened once before. Between 1900 and 1920, life changed.
Nine Shift explores the uncanny parallels between today and 100 years ago, examining the changes between the two transition periods and the forces that restructure society in the new economic era.
But did I, when I was twenty-something? To a large degree yes. I was by and large quite conventional and a little afraid "to ask" but I wanted all the other things - especially the freedom "to do what I loved". I guess that's why, today, I am working for myself!
As Gen Y enters the professional world, we bring a whole new set of rules. We’re often criticized for our restless job-jumping or our sense of entitlement. The truth is, we might play the game differently, but that doesn’t mean we’re not every bit as bright, innovative, and hardworking. Here’s why.
I find myself using Twitter more and more these days since on Dave Snowden's advise I installed TweetDeck as my primary user interface.
TweetDeck just runs in background and every so often I pop it up so see what my friends are up to. It also allows me to follow a large number of people and not be overwhelmed. I have two groups: my core network of about a dozen people and then several hundred others.
So if you like to tweet - take a look. And if you are not doing so already follow me on Twitter.
If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid?
So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.
I think over the coming years we are going to see more and more social businesses as capitalism evolves and they will go a long way towards alleviating many of the sustainability issues we face in the world!
For most of us, business means one type of organization--the for-profit company that is the backbone of the free enterprise system. Ranging in size from a one-person corner store to a giant corporation like Wal-Mart, such companies recognize one fundamental purpose: to maximize profits. To be sure, they create other benefits along the way: they employ workers, provide useful goods, and pay taxes. But the bottom line is, precisely, the bottom line--the profits generated for owners and shareholders.
But we all know this is an incomplete pictue of human nature. People are driven by the profit motive, of couse. But they are driven by many other forces as well. Among these are the desire to do good for others, to help the needy, to make the world a better place--in fact, to solve all the unsolved problems that challenge humanity around the world. Yet today's capitalism is powerless to act on these motives, because it makes no place for them.
Unlike an NGO or a charity, a social business produces goods and services, sells them for a fair price, competes in the market for customers, and strives to cover its costs through revenues generated. But unlike a traditional profit-maximizing business, it exists to serve a social goal: to feed the hungry, house the homeless, provide health care for the sick, or clean the environment. What's more, it does not generate profits. Instead, any surplus generated goes right back into the business, enabling it to serve more customers and expand the benefits it provides. Hence this simple definition of a social business: a non-loss, non-dividend business with a social objective.
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of The Grameen Bank, explains his "social business" model, a plan for addressing social issues through entrepreneurship.
Dave Snowden has worked hard to try to establish a high quality KM article in Wikipedia but it still needs a great deal of work to bring it up to an acceptable standard.
I have agreed with Dave that I will get involved and help achieve this but we could do with few more collaborators to help ensure a balanced view point.
Take a look at the article and if you would like to play your part introduce yourself at the bottom of the discussion page.
Have you discovered Common Craft yet? I am surprised just how many people are unaware of them! Their videos are short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand.
There are a range of videos but many of them focus on explaining Social Tools in simple entertaining ways. Take a look, its a great resource. You will find them in my media player.
Online 2008 and London Knowledge Cafe - Comments (0)
If you are attending Online Information 2008 in London in November then although I will not be at the event this year I will be holding a Knowledge Cafe in central London on Wednesday 3rd December that coincides with Online.
The Kafe is hosted by Deloitte and starts at 18:00 for 18:30 and goes through to about 20:30 with drinks in a local pub afterwards for diehards :-)
Do register and come along if you can make it. I can assure you a great evening with plenty of intellectual stimulation with a great bunch of people. And hey even if you are not attending Online - you are still invited!
I will be staying in London the week 1-5 December. If you would like to meet with me - please get in touch.
He makes some good points but I just don't agree that this is a generation war. I have run scores of knowledge cafes and knowledge sharing workshops around the planet these last few years and although I have met people of all ages: Boomers; Gen-Xers and Millennials - I have not seen attitudes and behaviors differentiated by chronological age.
As Mark Gould commented in his blog post Oh good grief… "Date of birth does not determine a generation. Where you fit in the generations will depend on a range of personal factors — personal responsibilities (are you a carer or a parent, or are you fancy-free), political focus (do you tend to respect authority, or do you seek your own gurus), and age (not when you were born, but how old are you)."
Personally, I think the post is nicely argued but it is a crude stereotype and is wrong but take a read and decide for yourself from your own experience.
I love this concept of "service learning". Why can't most learning be like this. It seems to me that teaching in its quest to be objective is too academic; too theoretical and simply not grounded in the real world and this strips it of its context and relevance and to put it bluntly makes it dull and boring. Service-learning not only brings learning back to life but achieves worthy social goals at the same time and we have those in abundance that need addressing.
Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.
For example, if school students collect trash out of an urban streambed, they are providing a service to the community as volunteers; a service that is highly valued and important. When school students collect trash from an urban streambed, then analyze what they found and possible sources so they can share the results with residents of the neighborhood along with suggestions for reducing pollution, they are engaging in service-learning. In the service-learning example, the students are providing an important service to the community AND, at the same time, learning about water quality and laboratory analysis, developing an understanding of pollution issues, learning to interpret science issues to the public, and practicing communications skills by speaking to residents. They may also reflect on their personal and career interests in science, the environment, public policy or other related areas. Thus, we see that service-learning combines SERVICE with LEARNING in intentional ways.
Benjamin Zander was the closing keynote at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. In this short inspirational talk, amongst other things, he explains how he gives all his students an "A" grade at the start of each year and how it transforms his relationship with them! Take the time to watch the clip, I think you will love it.
Benjamin Zander was the closing keynote at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. In this short inspirational talk, amongst other things, he explains how he gives all his students an "A" grade at the start of each year and how it transforms his relationship with them! Take the time to watch the clip, I think you will love it.
Having watched the video Money as Debt, I now realize that if we are to create a sustainable world we have to fix the money system first! I had often wondered how money was created and why it was never taught in schools - now to my horror I understand!
Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created.
Google have launched a new service called Google SMS Channels. It is only available in India.
With it, you can create SMS groups to communicate with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Google SMS Channels are free both for content publishers as well as mobile phone users who subscribe to text updates via SMS.
It seems they have only released it in India because Indian Telcos have made SMS free.
This seems like an interesting development. It raises two questions in my mind. What does it mean for services like Twitter and how long will it be before other Telcos make SMS a free service.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be the most powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities, countries, and even the planet.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be the most powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities, countries, and even the planet.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be the most powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities, countries, and even the planet.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be the most powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities, countries, and even the planet.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
When I run my knowledge sharing workshops - one of the sessions is about networking and more often than not the question of ethics is raised. Some people falsely see networking as unethical as they seem to think that networking is about making friends with other people for personal gain - they don't quite understand that although its possible to behave like that - genuine networkers approach networking with a mindset of "mutual advantage" - they as much want to help the other person as they wish for help from them.
The question of ethics also gets raised in other KM settings. Storytelling is one of them. Is it ethical to use storytelling to say sell an idea to another person? Another might be is it OK to reward people with tangible rewards such as money or intangible rewards such as praise to get them to do what you want.
It seems to me that we all have agendas; we all have the need, for good or for bad, to influence people; to get their buy-in on an idea or to obtain budget or resource from them. If we wish to get things done in life then we need to be good at gaining the support we need.
But is persuasion or influence, inherently manipulative and unethical? Well of course not; so much depends on the intent. `But what is the yardstick? How do you question yourself to determine if you are being unethical or not?
The test in this blog post seems a good stating point: “Would it lose its power if people knew exactly what you were doing and why?”
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I am not all that hot at predictions but the one thing to me that does seem obvious is that as more and more devices such as laptops, digital cameras and of course mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone have GPS and Wi-Fi built in, we are going to see some interesting applications.
I am looking forward to the day when most people have GPS enabled devices.Unlike some, I would like others to know where I am in real time and have the ability to connect with me though I also like the idea of being in control and having the ability to "hide" at times.
Someone told me recently of a person they had met who had given them his business card and suggested that she called him to talk further but had also given her a password. He explained, that when she phoned, her call would be answered by his secretary and unless she quoted the password, his secretary would not put the call through to him!
I guess one good way to prevent "sales calls" but I am not so sure i like it!
Note-Taking: A Fundamental Skill of the Independent Learner via Stephen Downes.
Some time back I wrote about the importance of note taking - Simplest KM Tool - in a Gurteen Perspective article for Inside Knowledge magazine. So I am delighted to see that others recognize the importance also.
I find it odd that so few people take notes. At an academic KM conference recently, I looked around the room of maybe 120 people during the opening key note talk - I noticed only one lap top open and just a hand full of people taking notes - most just sat and listened and the audience was mainly students and academics. I was also the only one taking photos and video. It was the same throughout the conference.
I don't care how you take notes. Use the computer, like I did today. Use paper and ink, like I did at the collaboration workshop last week. Take photographs, as I do when I travel. The main thing is, if you want to learn, take notes. Learning is not a passive act; it is an act of engagement, where you involve yourself physically and mentally, where you struggle to understand and integrate the material. Note-taking is your contribution to what is a two-way communication with the source of the learning. Maybe you'll review them again, maybe not. Keep your notes in good order, just in case. But the main this is, that you take them.
Note-Taking: A Fundamental Skill of the Independent Learner via Stephen Downes.
Some time back I wrote about the importance of note taking - Simplest KM Tool - in a Gurteen Perspective article for Inside Knowledge magazine. So I am delighted to see that others recognize the importance also.
I find it odd that so few people take notes. At an academic KM conference recently, I looked around the room of maybe 120 people during the opening key note talk - I noticed only one lap top open and just a hand full of people taking notes - most just sat and listened and the audience was mainly students and academics. I was also the only one taking photos and video. It was the same throughout the conference.
I don't care how you take notes. Use the computer, like I did today. Use paper and ink, like I did at the collaboration workshop last week. Take photographs, as I do when I travel. The main thing is, if you want to learn, take notes. Learning is not a passive act; it is an act of engagement, where you involve yourself physically and mentally, where you struggle to understand and integrate the material. Note-taking is your contribution to what is a two-way communication with the source of the learning. Maybe you'll review them again, maybe not. Keep your notes in good order, just in case. But the main this is, that you take them.
Like Patrick Lambe, I loved this story of telling stories to hear stories. Only wish I had thought of it when my children were younger. It's a great technique - well actually its not a technique at all - that would soon be seen through and is manipulative. What it is really about, is treating the person you are talking to with as an equal; not talking down to them or patronizing them. When you do that then you can have a conversation of equals.
When I see my teenage daughter after school I would often ask how her day went, whether anything interesting happened at school, and the standard response is often monosyllabic: yep, nup. In fact the more questions I’d ask the shorter the answers. So I changed tack and rather than ask questions I simply recounted something that happened in my day. I would launch into something like, “I met a bearded lady today. This morning I drove down to Fitzroy to run an anecdote circle for …” and immediately my daughter would respond with an encounter from her day. A conversation starts and it’s delightful.
Its also what I try to do in my knowledge cafes - ensure that everyone is an equal - there are no table leaders; no people nominated to report back. Everyone has an equal voice and this helps free up the conversational flow.
I recently tweeted this talk of J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivering her Commencement Address, The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Its a great address and I had several people who commented how much they enjoyed it. It was brought to my attention by Heather Davis - thank you Heather. Here is a quote from the transcript that Heather sent me:
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is
inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless
you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in
which case, you fail by default.
I recently gave a keynote talk at KM Brasil titled "People 2.0: Working in a 2.0 World". I only got to take a few photos but you will find them here though many more here.
Here is a description of the talk and the slides. If you have seen my KM 2.0: KM goes social presentation then you will recognize the early slides but fast forward and you will find the new stuff.
People 2.0: Working in a 2.0 World
David Gurteen, Gurteen Knowledge
KM and the world of work is on the brink of a profound transformation.
Driven by new technology, increasingly, we are no longer consumers: of goods, services or education - we are prosumers - we can now both produce and consume. We have the potential to be participants in everything and not the “victims”. The emerging 2.0 work place will reflect this and be a fundamentally participatory world.
We are moving from an organizational world where we were told to do things; where things were structured and planned for us to a world where managers and staff work more closely together to decide what to do and how to do it.
This has deep implications for KM and already we see a move towards Social KM or KM 2.0 where new social tools such as blogs and wikis put the power and responsibility for knowledge sharing in the hands of the individual.
But the real challenge is in people's mindsets - both managers and individuals. Managers need to stop trying to manipulate people and doing things to them and to take a more participatory approach. On the other hand, individuals need to open up and grasp the potential that the new tools and mindset offers them - to be more proactive; to take responsibility for their work; to innovative and to work in new ways. It’s about a change of mindset, attitudes and behaviors.
If the central question asked by managers in the KM 1.0 world was “How do we make people share?” the question of the KM 2.0 era is “How do we get things done by better sharing, learning and working together?” And is asked by everyone!
In this talk, David will explore what it means to live and work in a 2.0 business world; to be a 2.0 worker and indeed a 2.0 manager. And what we need to do to make it a reality.
I gave a talk, well in fact two talks, back to back, to about 150 librarians at the IFLA conference (IFLA: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) in Quebec City in early August. My first talk was KM2.0 KM goes Social and the second was a rerun of a talk I gave at actKM Conference in Canberra last year where I look at how I use social tools. You can find the slides in SlideShare.
My talks were the lead in to three shorter talks from Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services (KLS), Harvard Business School; Moira Fraser, Parliamentary Librarian & Group Manager, Information & Knowledge, New Zealand Parliament and Patrick Danowski, Project Manager, Statsbibliotek su Berlin. All ably chaired by Jane Dysart.
We then broke out into a panel Q&A and discussion. There was a huge amount of interest in KM and social tools from the librarians in the room. I think everyone was pretty much trying to figure out how they could apply social tools in their own organizations. And of course the perennial question came up : "how do you measure the benefits of social tools?"
There were some answers from the panel but my answer was that there are basically two approaches: 1. Was the traditional - figure out your business outcomes and measure against those and 2. if you don't understand social tools and what they can do for you then there is no way you can measure the benefits. So experiment and pilot first. (There is a short article or blog posty brewing in my head on this!)
In his travels he looks at the views of many different people and so if you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the state of thinking on KM 2.0 then this series of posts is well worth the read.
Lucas McDonnell has some interesting comments on what I have to say on KM 2.0 and "2.0" in general.
I understand his concerns. I too was hesitant, at first, to apply the "2.0" moniker more widely to KM and other areas. But I have come to believe that although it all started with Web 2.0 and the new participatory technology and tools that it is not just about the technology and that we are moving to a "2.0 world" - a more participatory one.
I feel that far from devaluing the "2.0" concept - it expands it and makes it more powerful.
And of course I agree, 2.0 is not the answer to everything and brings as many new problems as it answers old ones. That's the nature of things!
I always love to learn new things and often its the little things that excite me the most. When I am in Thailand I love the way people greet you by placing their hands together and giving a little bow and I started doing it myself although I did not fully appreciate the meaning or the tradition.
And then recently some one signed off their e-mail with the greeting: "Namaste". I was intrigued and went straight to Wikipedia to discern its meaning and was delighted with my find. Take a look at the 7 global meanings. Which one works best for you? For me its :
"All that is best and highest in me greets/salutes all that is best and highest in you." or maybe "The Divinity within me perceives and adores the Divinity within you."
The precise meaning does not matter and I like it that the word can mean slightly different things to different people. Its the intent behind it that I so love.
I had a conversation recently when I was in Indonesia - I don't recall whom it was with but the subject turned to motivation and the person I was talking to started to talk about the need for rewards and charismatic leaders and the like but I did not agree and when I got back to my hotel room - I listed some of the things that I think motivate people - they certainly motivate me!
listen to them
show them respect
help them find their voice
have conversations with them
show genuine interest
give them help and support
engage with them
trust them
give them responsibility
give them recognition
give them opportunities for self fulfilment and personal development
don't try to tell them what to do
Now the crunch: you don't deliberately do these things to motivate people - that's not motivation - that's manipulation. You do them because you genuinely care in their development. Its more akin to the love you might show for a son or daughter than anything else.
I recently came across this interview with Peter Taylor, research fellow and leader of the Participation, Power and Social Change Team of the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex). I love his ideas though that is hardly surprising given my own interest in the role of dialogue and participation in the transmission of knowledge. Here are a couple of quotes from the interview.
My reason for wanting to see an integration of citizenship, sustainable development or multiculturalism in the curricula of universities is to enable people to learn in a way that is different from simply being passive recipients of preformed ideas. For me, education is about learning and learning is about change. So where we see the need for social change, for human and social development, which really is rooted in issues of rights, power and voice of people, then I think it is absolutely necessary for higher education to actually build the curricula upon these issues, not just to add them but actually to integrate them and use them as foundations for learning and teaching.
A lot of educative curricula, especially in higher education, are still based on the idea of transmission of knowledge. In fact it is what Paulo Freire called “banking”, and it is still very common that university teachers provide information, that is to say, the idea of transferring knowledge from the expert to the passive recipient. For transformative education to take place there really needs to be a much more experiential form of learning, for people to actually engage in processes of change, to try things out from themselves, to address real world problems, and to realize that not all solutions can be found easily. And it’s when you start to ask the hard questions and grapple with some intractable problems that you begin, perhaps, to open up opportunities to learn in a different way.
Wikileaks - a document-leaking website has some amazing material that many people would rather wasn't shared! This is the power of the web for good or for bad. Its getting very difficult to keep secrets anymore. Take a look - there will be something there for you! I find the military manuals the most fascinating.
So why do I have threeTwitter identities? - Comments (0)
I recently created two Twitter feeds in addition to my regular one and received this email from my friend Lilly Evans.
David,
Just a quick question re Twitter. You have created two other identities. Why? And, have you got any business from being on Twitter? Basically, what is the main benefit for you hanging in there?
Thanks Lilly
This was my reply:
Hi Lily,
Its not so much that I have 3 identities on Twitter more that I have created 3 Twitter feeds in addition to the 20 or so regular RSS Feeds that I support.
1. DavidGurteen is my personal feed that I use to keep people updated with where I am, what I am doing, thinking etc i.e. the traditional use of Twitter.
I embed this "what am I doing..." status on every page of my website so unlike many other twitterers I tend to only twitter once or twice a day and do not use the in-built Twitter messaging feature.
This status is also automatically displayed in FaceBook, Plaxo and other social tools like FriendFeed which is very useful for keeping people updated on what I am about.
2. GurteenQuotes - this starts out as an RSS feed that I generate from my website (where I have over 700 quotations stored) and feed through TwitterFeed to convert it from RSS to Twitter format. People can follow this (subscribe to it in RSS terms) and get a neat little quote from me each day.
A Lotus Notes agent does all the work here - only selecting those quotes in my database that are less than 140 characters and thus fit in the limited space allowed by Twitter.
3. GurteenNews - is similar to GurteenQuotes except that I post newsitems to my site and an agent releases one or two each day to an RSS feed that again gets turned into a Twitter feed via TwitterFeed.
I plan for most of these to be short hot items i.e. "Google releases Knol" along with a direct link to the announcement. When I come across such news items it takes me less than 30 seconds to post to my website and so the overhead is not high. Again a Lotus Notes agent running in the background takes care of all the detailed work.
As for money, I make no direct income from any of this but :
1. the cost and time of doing this is negligible and the feeds provide a valuable service to my community.
2. it helps build my network - people get to know me and visit my website; sign up for my knowledge letter; get to know me even better and this is how I get my work and ultimately my income.
3. also, by following people on Twitter I get to know them better and this helps me develop and build my relationships with them; additionally I get breaking news in near real time and lots of useful little insights to what is going on in the big wide world.
So the bottom line: I find the Twitter ROI high. I couldn't imagine life with out it!
My opinion: I am in the Snowden and Boyd camp. Without any robust process to ensure the accuracy of the articles - the breadth of quality will vary from extremely good to total rubbish or articles published by people in order to promote themselves or their obscure point of view. And whilst, Wikipedia articles are alive - they are always being challenged and updated, Knol articles are pretty much dead once posted.
I understand Knol is different to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia whilst Knol is a library of articles but it still does not make up for the lack of screening or quality control.
Take a look at the articles on KM and draw your own conclusion. And in particular note this article - see the comment from Ron Young at the bottom and the author's reply!
I just came across this article by Tom Davenport referring to an article on the KnowledgeBoard site in which supposedly IBM have stopped using the term Knowledge Management and have started to call to Knowledge Sharing as Knowledge Management implies command an control!
I understand the sentiment but it all seems rather silly to me - especially when KM is far more than just Knowledge Sharing. As I have argued for a long time - KM is not meant to be a descriptive term - its simply a LABEL, a NAME for a diverse collection of practices that seek to 'leverage' knowledge. But the IBM article is well worth a read as to my mind IBM really seem to have understood what KM is all about. See:
IBM now sees organic and unimposed sharing as the biggest agent in the circulation of knowledge. Its stated strategy is to facilitate that sharing, not through any vertically integrated structure but through the empowerment of its many communities and individuals to network as openly and efficiently as possible.
Like Patrick, I believe that KM has not been irredeemably corrupted. To my mind, it is evolving rapidly under the impact of social tools and although it may be implemented differently and at times not even be called KM - it is still fundamentally unchanged as a discipline with similar goals and objectives.
In a conversation held in Kuala Lumpur on July 1st 2008, Larry Prusak, Dave Snowden and Patrick Lambe discuss the topic of whether KM is dead or dying, and what lies in store for it.
I am sure that many of you know Victor Newman and will be delighted to hear that he has started a blog. He has put his blogging-toe gingerly in the water with a slightly controversial article: "The Innovator's Got To Do It!". Well worth a read, especially if he can keep it up as I hugely respect Victor's insights and his wit.
There is also, online, a video of him explaining 4 Faces of a CEO to an audience of Chairmen of CEO mentoring groups from the ACE (Academy for Chief Executives) franchise. It lasts under 20 minutes, and he claims only to have made two mistakes!
Over the past two years, I have written about 20 Gurteen Perspective articles for Inside Knowledge magazine and it seemed somewhat a waste to not do more with them and so I have merged them together with the profile that was written about me recently into a little twenty page saddle stitched A5 booklet.
I have had a batch of these printed off in color and plan to give them away to people at workshops and conferences. They really look quite stunning and I am delighted with them!
To top this, you may recall I recently mentioned the Scribd iPaper utility that allows you to publish PDF files on-line. This is a great little service and I have loaded all my PDF files up to the site including all my past Inside Knowledge Perspectives where they can be viewed individually; downloaded and even embedded in other sites or weblogs.
But since then I have come across yet another great site called Calaméo. It turns PDFs and indeed other files into on-line interactive web publications such as magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures and more.
The Knowledge Management Specialist will be responsible for the strategic development and implementation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) Knowledge Management and Intellectual Property Strategies and Policies both within the NDA and its wider estate. In addition they will lead the creation of a sustainable learning and knowledge culture.
To join us, you should be educated to degree level in a Science, Engineering or Business related discipline and have substantial practical experience working as a professional Knowledge Manager. In addition to this, you’ll have experience acting as an agent of change within a large organisation and have a thorough understanding of financial, contractual and commercial issues.
RioTinto Community of Practice success story - Comments (0)
Mark Bennett of Rio Tinto in Perth, Australia has told me about a brief (5 minute) video which describes a Community of Practice success story.
I think that everyone who has embarked on a CoP Programme has struggled with communicating what success looks like, and so when we (Rio Tinto) came across a great example of how our Maintenance CoP fixed a vexing problem by quickly transferring knowledge across the world between people who didn't know each other, we decided to make a video to communicate what happened by telling the story using a video medium.
Credit: Mark Bennett, Rio Tinto, Principal Adviser - Communities of Practice
Ron Young of Knowledge Management Online has created a Global Community of KM Practitioners where he invites KM practitioners, consultants, students and interested parties, to join, create and upload their own web page about themselves, their KM interests, and their KM needs, problems, issues and challenges to his website.
ebic 2008 is the key networking event for people working in the Knowledge and Information arena. Berlin is the venue for the 17th ebic conference.
Between 1-3 October 2008, outstanding speakers and facilitators will work with Knowledge and Information management (KIM) leaders and influencers to explore the trends and drivers that are determining the future of our organisations, market places and societies.
They will 'imagine' how the KIM community can play a significant and positive role in this future.
The theme of the conference is 'Connecting with the future' and the underlying focus is innovation. For programme information or to register please visit www.tfpl.com/ebic
I had a great time at the SLA coneference in Seattle last week. Started out on the Saturday with a boat trip on the Seattle waterways thanks to Paulette deGard and her family. It was a beautiful evening as you can see in the photos.
Dave Snowden gave a keynote talk on the Monday morning that was well received and that he has podcasted. However, many times I see Dave and hear the children's party story I always come away feeling motivated and energized.
I had been a little nervous about my talk and knowledge cafe as it was to be held in a room with lecture style seating for up to 200 people. In the end I need not have worried as we the only had 100 or so people and as everyone told me - librarians love to talk. So just getting people to turn to each and talk where they sat and to move between groups worked just fine.
The only real down side was that we could not have a whole group conversation and people had to report back via the fixed microphones. But the event pretty much proved what I have often said that a knowledge cafe cannot go far wrong as long as you have a good facilitator, a bunch of people and an interesting theme. Nothing else matters!
We have a tendency to want to find "incentives" that will encourage people to learn and engage in new workplace behaviors, but these incentives are often external, such as prizes, financial incentives, good performance reviews, etc. Kohn's research indicates, though, that linking learning to external rewards actually has impacts that are the opposite of what we are generally trying to achieve. Instead, we need to appeal to intrinsic motivators, such as people's desire to help others, getting enjoyment out of the task, feeling like they belong to a cohesive group and feeling like they're contributing to something meaningful.
Michele is talking about the negative impact of external rewards on social media participation; I talk about it more in the context of KM while Alfie tends to focus on education but Alfie's views apply right across the board. Let me conclude with one of my favorite quotes from him (the bolding is mine):
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
Now here is simple yet powerful sharing concept - a website Glassdoor.com that allows you to share your salary details with others! Here is how they describe themselves:
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers -- all for free.
What sets us apart is that all our information comes from the people who know these companies best -- employees.
I have always admired the one or two organizations that I have read about who have been prepared to be open about their salaries but this is another way of getting close to achieving the same end.
It reminds me that some years ago I came into the office early and on going to the print room found the whole of the organization's salary details sitting in the print hopper. Of course I rescued them and delivered them safely to the MD who had printed them out late the night before and then forgotten about them. Of course, not before I had thoroughly digested them and realized the downright lies that were being told by senior managers about how salaries were managed but of course I couldn't act upon it.
Alexander Kjerulf, in this article has some interesting thoughts on the subject and on openness in general:
I believe on a very fundamental level that openness is better than secrecy, in life and in business. I’m not naďve enough to share all information all the time, but my chosen approach is “Let’s make everything open by default and only make those things secret that absolutely need to be”. Would I share my list of prospective clients with my competitors? Nah. Would I share it inside the company? Heck, yeah!
You may recall that I ran several knowledge cafe workshops for StatoilHydro a month or so back. These were so successful that I have agreed to run a public workshop for the Arkgroup on September 10th 2008 in London. I am really quite excited about this. Take a look at the brochure.
In his early twenties, my grandfather was fighting in the trenches in the so called Great War; my father was a prisoner of war in Germany having fought and been captured in the desert of North Africa and I, having graduated, was in my first job.
Where is my son, Jonathan, at 22? Having graduated, he is back packing around SE Asia and I am following him almost day by day, tracking his photos on Facebook and his whereabouts on Google Maps. I even talk to him on Skype. What I find amusing is that he tries to tell me where Hanoi is, thinking that I don't know, when at his age the Vietnam war was in full swing and then he tells me he has passed through a sleepy little border town called Dien Bien Phu and is even more surprised that I knew where he had been although I was only 6 years old when the French garrison there was overrun.
Oh how the world has changed but the wars still go on; though I haven't had to fight in one and hopefully neither will my son.
Sometimes you go through life with a little blind spot. I have, for as long as I can remember, never been sure whether to put am or pm after 12:00 noon or 12:00 midnight if I am not using the 24 clock which of course I normally do to avoid any confusion.
It never occurred to me that appending am or pm to midday or midnight made no sense whatsoever. Am I the only one?
It took a Google Search and this Greenwich Meantime site for the penny to drop.
A.M. and P.M. start immediately after Midnight and Noon (Midday) respectively.
This means that 00:00 A.M. or 00:00 P.M. (or 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M.) have no meaning.
Its interesting to think that maybe we have developed our cognitive abilities through learning to consciously teach our children and of course each other. Dare I even say "share our knowledge"!
It is one of the hottest questions of our time: how did our cognitive abilities explode, leaving other animals for dust intellectually?
Now a new explanation is emerging. Controversially, it challenges the idea that biology alone is what drove the evolution of intellectual skills. What if we acquired abilities such as the capacity to invent, converse or work in unison as a result of a continual process of cultural cross-fertilisation with the world we inhabit, and through the way we interact with other people and material things?
Not only does this idea help explain how our species blossomed intellectually in the first place but it implies that our brains are continually changing whenever we meet new cultural concepts, objects and technologies, whether they are cellphones or new religions.
Yet perhaps the biggest opportunity opened up by a theory of mind and an expanded working memory was the ability to learn, and to systematically educate other people. Animals learn by random observations of what other animals do. It is very seldom that they recognise the value of an innovation by their peers and then copy it themselves, such as shaking a tree to make fruit fall.
But thanks to theory of mind and the ability to divine the intentions of others, humans were able to train their offspring. During the process of teaching, both pupils and teachers are well aware of what's happening and know they must pay special attention beyond random observation. What's more, as working memory expanded, learning would have become more efficient.
At a social tools conference a few months ago, someone asked a question of the speaker. He said that he would love to blog but did not have the time. "How can I find the time?". Someone in the room piped up and said he should "Stop doing other things!" The questioner wasn't amused and thought it a flippant answer.
But to my mind, the answer was spot on! In today's hyper-busy world we all have far more that we would like to do than we have the time. The issue is not a question of insufficient time but priority. Things low down our priority list don't get done. But we don't say "Oh that's not a priority for me" we simply answer - "I don't have enough time".
Our priorities, typically, reflect the value we see in doing something. If we don't perceive the value in blogging as greater than other things then we won't do it. Its the same with knowledge sharing. Saying "I don't have enough time to share." really means "I don't believe it is of sufficient value to me to stop doing other things". And its why I try to help people to see the value for themselves!
But as I write this, at the back of my mind, there is a little voice saying, David, its not just about the business value - we tend to do the things that we enjoy doing regardless of the business value!
The value of knowledge sharing, indeed many things, is in the enjoyment for many of us.
Oh this is a delight to see a major conference with an Unconference portion. This is how they describe it:
Enterprise2Open is the "unconference" portion of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and is open to anyone who would like to attend. This open event blends some pre-scheduled content with an open grid where the attendees fill in the sessions they either want to discuss or present themselves. It is the perfect space to provide the community at large with a place to connect with other attendees and share your knowledge and experiences.
Credit: Enterprise 2.0 Conference June 9-12 2008, Boston.
Why oh why, won't more conference organisers bite the bullet?
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To my mind, this is more than a switch from the passive watching of TV. Millions of baby-boomers like myself are coming up for retirement. I am often asked when I am going to retire. I am NOT. In the past you retired when you were physically no longer fit for work and died soon after. Today at 60 or 65 you may still have twenty years of active life left in you.
Why would I want to cultivate my garden; knock a little ball round a field; walk the dog; play bingo or watch TV when I can still contribute to the world; enjoy doing that and leave a little bit of a legacy. Sure its not for everyone; some people want to retire in the old-fashioned way. I and I hope millions like me will no longer do that! And the web ensures that we have a choice.
A lot of Kafe fun in Amsterdam and Norway - Comments (0)
Well a lot of Kafe fun. First, a Kafe on a canal boat in Amsterdam on 30 April 2008, for a group of delegates representing Dubai Holding and related organizations. The event was organized by Sheffield Hallam University, Centre for Integral Excellence.
Carol Webb shot some video and I took some photos. If you are interested in applications for the Knowledge Cafe then watch the three minute introduction video as this explains the purpose of this particular Cafe and is a good example.
Second, my first cafe in a crane (albeit a pretend one) in Bergen. This was part of my tour of Norway with StatoilHydro: four knowledge cafe workshops and four open knowledge cafes in 4 days in Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo. See photos.
During the Cafe Workshops, I taught about 50 people from StatoilHydro how to run and facilitate Gurteen Knowledge Cafes. If you are interested in my running such a workshop for you - you will find more information here including the slide set I used.
I love feedback. And I adored this short email from Betsy Nein as it enunciates the very reason I carefully select and post quotations on my website and distribute them via email and RSS feed as the Gurteen Knowledge Quote of the day. Sign up, if you too are inspired by them like Betsy.
Hello. You don't know me and I really don't know who sends these to me but I recall asking for them to be sent. I'm so glad I did. I open them every time and save them also. They are either inspiring or funny or tender or meaningful, etc.
I've always been a "short story" kind of person. Don't tell me too much, don't say too much. I usually get the point with as few words as possible. So these fit perfect in my brain. Also in my heart and soul.
I'm a vocalist here in The Villages, Fla and sing twice a week at a small cafe. On many occasion I'll quote the sayings to my audiences. It makes a hit with them every time. Just writing today to say thanks.
Betsy Nein
Though not everyone likes them:
I hate quotes. I really do. I wish every one would stop reading quotes and spend more time thinking about the issues at hand; the ones that really matter in their life. Instead, they wallow away looking for that brilliant person who fit an entire life's story in one beautiful grammatical sentence. I would just like to ask the world to stop dwelling on quotes about how one should live his/her life, and spend more time trying to activily enjoy his/her own life.
When are we going to start working with people rather than trying to do things to them?
Measures, targets, rewards, incentives - even education and training are all a waste of time if the people being 'targeted' don't see the point or have not been involved in the decision making.
Thanks to Nerida Hart for pointing to me to this awesome web site on Famous Trials. As a child I learnt the song John Browns body lies a-mouldering in the grave but never knew who he was. And as a Brit, why should I ever have learnt the song - I don't recall!
So in a few minutes of browsing this site, not only did I discover the details of his trial and death but also Thoreaus moving plea for his life to be spared.
Those of you who know me, will know that Henry David Thoreau is one of my heroes and mentors. Yes I know he is long dead but he can still be a mentor to me! And making connections like this is just pure joy!
If you hate "death by PowerPoint" as much as I do then you will adore this short video but watch it through to the end - it gets even better during the Q&A! Absolutely brilliant!
Amazingly Twitter brought us one extra participant Colleen Carmean who blogged a little on the Cafe; said some nice things about me (blush) and had some interesting comments about the format that I had not quite seen before given my closeness. Here are two quotes from her:
David uses a specific, distributed, what I would call "emergence" format where 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts' for encouraging knowledge transfer amongst participants. No leaders, no report outs, no death by PowerPoint. Everyone matters, every voice counts.
The closing moments of a Knowledge Cafe reminded me of a Quaker meeting. You don't speak unless you're compelled to share an important thought, realization, or theme that emerged from your multiple small group discussions. Some participants violate the framework and just need to be heard, but like the Quakers, everyone listens respectfully and reflects on the thought without the need for comment or debate.
When I read this, a light bulb flashed. When working at home, I am a documentary junkie - the UK History Channel and other documentary and news channels are pretty much all I watch. But time and time again I get a angry when I see the program makers turn the problems facing the world into entertainment. Their objective is not even to educate but to entertain. Often I switch off and throw the remote at a distant chair (a soft one I might add as I never get that angry)!
What I have long wanted more media companies to do - is to start taking the problems seriously and move from saying "here are the problems - isn't it tragic; isn't it crazy" to "here are the problems and here is what you can do to help solve them. And this is what we are setting up to help support you".
But the participatory web is moving us in this direction. In 50 years time I think we will look back at old news clips and documentaries of today in a similar way we look back at the propaganda newsreels of the Second World War and wonder why so many people at the time did not see things for what they were.
Whenever I meet new people with whom I would like to work I often say lets find a small project on which we can work together so we can build mutual trust. The process is simple.
We work on something small and build trust.
Having built trust we work together more and the trust grows.
Its an iterative process: work together; build trust; work together build trust ... but this is key - it always starts by working together.
If at any time either of us lets the other down badly or abuses the relationship then the trust is pretty much destroyed and its unlikely that we will ever work together again.
The trust question is a classic confusion of symptoms with cause, just as creativity is a symptom of innovation not its cause, so trust is the symptom of interaction over time. If that interaction is not testing, then the trust is fragile. If the trust is simply the result of few contextual exercises (throwing yourself backwards off a brick wall is the classic) then it is temporary. Focus on the process, rather than trying to preset emergent outcomes and you get a more sustainable solution.
Would you like to know almost everything I or friend has been up to of late then take a look at FriendFeed.
FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends.
Sign up for FriendFeed, invite some friends, and get a customized feed made up of the content that your friends shared - from news articles to family photos to interesting links and videos.
FriendFeed automatically imports shared stuff from sites across the web, so if your friend favorites a video on YouTube, you get a link and a thumbnail of the video in your feed.
And if your friend likes a news story on Digg, you get a link in your feed. FriendFeed makes all the sites you already use a little more social.
I have been using it for a month or so now but I'm not yet convinced of its use as it gives me TOO much information. But the good thing about social tools - what does not work for me might work for you and vice-versa.
I recently wrote about Kiva - an amazing microfinace website and then on the human touch - the importance of face to face communication in my Knowledge Cafes and so I was delighted to receive this email from Larry Gardiner that I have included in full:
First an update on your item about Kiva. We asked our family and friends to send Kiva Gift Certificates instead of cards and presents at Christmas after reading about Kiva.org in your newsletter. 15 Kiva certificates have now been redeemed and we receive regular bulletins on our portfolio of micro-finance investments from Cambodia, Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Nigeria and Kenya. Each of our investments is thriving and the most rewarding part of watching their progress is the sense of solidarity which I think is also a feature of the human touch you were talking about.
We have started convening Parent Cafe's too. The purpose here is to facilitate knowledge sharing around the development of parent and peer advocacy for families with disabled children (http://www.parentadvocatestogether.org.uk). We also have used the time-discipline you talked about so that each person has the same amount of air-time.
We have not intentionally set out to create a therapeutic knowledge cafe, or I suppose what would be a support group session, but to simply borrow from a framework of ideas (which we do use to promote emotional support and 'discharge' in other parent support groups convened for that specific purpose). I suppose that when everyone knows that they will get their own space, their own air time and their own opportunity to think and listen out loud, it makes it easier for us to relax and to listen and to process on what what each speaker is saying.
While we didn't deliberately set out to do this awarely; solidarity and mutual self-help and assistance are what we seem to be eliciting in each of our own knowledge cafe ventures. It is very satisfying and rather beautiful both to see and to experience. It is rather that the experience of using co-counselling tools in that setting that has enabled us to cross-pollinate some of the ideas. We have noticed that they have been useful in promoting an emotional safety allowing people to enjoy and even to revel in the human touch you talked about.
You are absolutely right to claim that it is this human touch which is the key distinguishing feature of the knowledge cafe phenomenon. Essentially, we now set out purposefully to cultivate, nurture and promote every opportunity for creating that human touch you have described in every knowledge cafe where we participate. From experience we can state that 'the human touch is also the magic touch!' As far as culture change is concerned; this is simply a smarter way to work.
Much of Dubai has this Disney feel to it at times but Luke is blogging his stay in Dubai and his blog is a great way to get to see a lot more of Dubai and the region that is far from Disney-like!
The idea of thoughts making love - what a lovely metaphor!! Two thoughts coming together, intermingling their DNA to create new baby thoughts with a unique life of their own. I am getting carried away now!
I recently spent the whole of January in SE Asia; giving talks and running knowledge cafes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. As always I learnt as much as a I taught at these events.
Most of us understand what Web 2.0 is all about as we move from a read-only web to a read-write or participatory web.
And we are starting to come to grips with so called Enterprise 2.0 where the concept and technologies and social tools of Web 2.0 are moving from the open web into organizations.
It is still early days and there are many issues to be grappled with as we try to balance the structure and stability of the old world with the more fluid and complex nature of the new.
But the "2.0 meme" is starting to affect everything. In a talk in Kuala Lumpur I was asked how you implement Enterprise 2.0 and I was talking about some of the barriers when someone spoke up and said "We will never have Enterprise 2.0 until we have Managers 2.0!” In other words it was managers and their out-dated mind sets that was a major barrier to change,
And a few days later while giving another talk at the National Library in Singapore I found us talking about Libraries 2.0 and Learning 2.0. It then hit me that “2.0” thinking was permeating everything. People were also taking about Business 2.0 and Education 2.0.
So what does this mean in its broadest sense? Well, we are no longer consumers: of goods, services or education - we are all prosumers - we all have the opportunity to create and consume. For the first time we are participants in everything and not the “victims”. Fundamentally it is about "freedom".
We are moving from a world where we were told to do things and where things were structured or planned for us to one where we get to decide what works best for us. We are moving from a mono-culture to a highly diverse ecology.
We are moving from a simple world to a rich, complex, diverse one. One where power is less centralized and more distributed. We are moving from a command and control world to a world where people can do as they please within the boundaries of responsibility.
Another talk I gave in SE Asia was to SAFTI (the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) and there I realized that the 2.0 concept could be applied to the military too. In the past warfare was a relatively simple affair; there were rules of engagement and things such as the Geneva convention. It was a male dominated world but now with terrorism, men, women and children are actively involved in the fighting - there are few rules of engagement. Its complex – everyone participates.
The SAFTI talk was the last of 20 talks and Knowledge Cafes over a period of a month and they helped crystallize my thinking. It’s not just about Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 - about tools and technology. Its far more than that. It’s about World 2.0. The “2.0 meme” touches everything.
More than anything we need "Mindset 2.0" or "Thinking 2.0" - new ways of looking at and thinking about the world and seeing the opportunities to work in new innovative ways that these new technologies allow.
Here is a brief comparison of the two worlds. This thinking can be applied in business, in education and learning, to adults and to children and to government and to society. Its not just about technology!
World 1.0
World 2.0
Knowledge sharing and learning is imposed additional work
Knowledge sharing and social learning is a welcome natural part of people's everyday work
Work takes places behind closed doors
Work takes place transparently where everyone can see it
IT Tools are imposed on people
People select the tools that work best for them
People are controlled out of fear they will do wrong
People are given freedom in return for accepting responsibility
Information is centralized, protected and controlled
Information is distributed freely and uncontrolled
Publishing is centrally controlled
Anyone can publish what they want
Context is stripped from information
Context is retained in the form of stories
People think quietly alone
People think out loud together
People tend to write in the third person, in a professional voice
People write in the first person in their own voice
People especially those in authority are closed to new ideas and new ways of working
Everyone is open to new ideas
Information is pushed to people whether they have asked for it or not
People decide the information they need and subscribe to it
The world is seen through a Newtonian cause and effect model
The world is recognized to be complex and that different approaches are needed
“The real paradigm shift in Web 2.0, I believe, is the blurring the line between publication and collaboration. In the old days, people collaborated in private. They talked to their friends and colleagues, wrote letters. Later they sent emails. All the real thinking happened in those private conversations. Eventually, once the key insights had been extracted, refined, and clarified, they published: books, articles, speeches, blast memos, etc.”
“…the really exciting thing that’s happening in Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is that more and more of those private “pre-publication” interactions are happening in public (or at least semi-public). I think of this as the dawn of the “Work in Progress” culture. We no longer think that something has to be finished before we let strangers into the conversation.”
And then Gerry McKiernan in this post on Science 2.0.
A small but growing number of researchers--and not just the younger ones--have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wikis and social networks of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement--yet--their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based "Science 2.0" is not only more collegial than the traditional variety, but considerably more productive.
Take a look. How might you work more transparently?
One man who has hugely influenced me is Henry David Thoreau. I love his work and the lasting influence he had on the world. A friend reminded me of him while browsing in a London bookshop and I bought her his book Walden and then later googled for him on YouTube and found this video.
And here one of my favorite quotes On grading the whole surface of the planet that's a little too long to embed here. Its more relevent today after over 100 years than it has ever been - today we really are in danger of grading the whole planet!
Have you discovered SlideShare yet? I post all my public powerpoint presentations to it and there is even a Knowledge Management group on the site with 130 slideshows.
This video Shift Happens Narrated will scare you or to inspire you or maybe a little of both depending on your attitude to life. And oh yes your reaction might also be a function of where you live in the world as it is written for an American audience! Also see this original unnarrated version.
I recently received a request from Xiuli Zhuang at the School of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University in China to translate my article KM 2.0: KM goes social into Chinese. And of course I agreed.
Well here is the Chinese translation. I hope the Chinese language readers amongst you enjoy it!
But it's not that cultural change needs to precede Enterprise or KM 2.0. They are intertwined. As early adopters start to use social tools and adopt "2.0" thinking they will slowly influence the culture of their organizations and as they do more people will see the benefits and become involved and in turn exert a stronger influence on the culture. And through this iterative process things will change.
The pace will quicken if some proactive initiatives are undertaken - especially to create Managers 2.0 but slowly but surely I believe the culture will change hand in hand with the evolution and adoption of the tools.
Many of you will know of Lawrence Lessig - a professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder and CEO of the Creative Commons and like me will be an admirer of his work.
What you may not know though is he recently announced that he will stop focusing his attention on copyright and related matters, and will instead work on corruption in the political system. He explains why in this video interview.
Listen to the interview - this is a fundamental KM issue - we have the knowledge - we understand the problems but we don't take action or we take the wrong action because the system is corrupt. Lessig thinks the solution lies in Commons-based peer production.
This is a man to watch carefully and to support. I am intrigued as to where this heading. As Lessig says in the interview if we are going to solve problems like global warming then we need to fix the "corruption" first.
Every so often I come across a simple tip that someone has shared on the web that is so useful I am compelled to share it in turn. And one person I have learnt so much from and who has connected me with so many of the best social media tools at an early stage in their evolution is Robin Good. Robin is colorful character and the work he does is fantastic.
So take a look at this little video of him explaining how you can edit a Skype message after you have sent it. And then browse his site a little - for some more fascinating material!
I have been talking recently about KM going social and the concept of KM2.0. Well its not only KM that Web 2.0 tools and technologies are impacting - its learning too. This is really not too surprising as "learning" is one of the main objectives and outcomes of "knowledge sharing" and at times the two concepts are synonymous.
Ray Sims recently blogged on this and quoted from a paper by Mohamed Amine Chatti, Matthias Jarke, and Dirk Frosch-Wilke.
To have a chance of success, LM and KM approaches need to recognize the social aspect of learning and knowledge and as a consequence place a strong emphasis on knowledge networking and community building to leverage, create, sustain and share knowledge in a collaborative way, through participation, dialogue, discussion, observation and imitation.
I have recently updated the Learning category page on my website to include a tentative definition of Learning 2.0 adapted from a blog post by Denise Withers.
Learning 2.0 is an emerging approach to learning that turns away from teaching as something that is “done to learners” - and instead, embraces methods in which learning becomes “an on-going and participatory process of transforming information and experience into knowledge".
Another guy you might like to check who has a lot to say about this is Stephen Downes. And take a look at this blog post from Dina Mehta on Social Learning.
One of the things I love about a conversational cafe is that it is a very flexible format and can be adapted to different purposes. I recently discovered Science Cafes and Cafe Scientifique via an article in Wired Magazine.
Science cafés involve a lively conversation with a scientist about current science topics. They are open to everyone, and take place in casual settings like pubs and coffeehouses.
At a café you can…
learn about the latest issues in science
chat with a scientist in plain language
meet new friends
speak your mind
talk with your mouth full
Cafe Scientifique is a place where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a
glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science
and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context.
Still, that E2.0 is the new KM didn’t hit me for a while. But when Andy said the ultimate value of E2.0 initiatives consists of greater responsiveness, better “knowledge capture and sharing,” and more effective “collective intelligence,” there wasn’t much doubt. When he talked about the need for a willingness to share and a helpful attitude, I remembered all the times over the past 15 years I’d heard that about KM.
and later
I admit to a mild hostility to the hype around Enterprise 2.0 in the past. I have reacted in a curmudgeonly fashion to what smelled like old wine in new bottles. But I realized after hearing Andy talk that he was an ally, not a competitor. If E2.0 can give KM a mid-life kicker, so much the better. If a new set of technologies can bring about a knowledge-sharing culture, more power to them. Knowledge management was getting a little tired anyway.
This echos my own thoughts on KM2.0. The concept of KM 2.0 may just be starting to roll.
Keeping speakers to time at conferences - Comments (0)
I was at a conference recently where I heard that a speaker in one of the streams had so over run their allocated time that a subsequent speaker whose time had been eaten in to protested by refusing to give his talk. Now although I felt this churlish I had a lot of sympathy with him.
At the same conference in a 3 speaker stream in which I was the first speaker, the second speaker although scheduled to speak for only 20 minutes ran to 40 minutes. This not only reduced the time that the third speaker had available to talk but ensured that there was no time for discussion or questions.
It easy to blame the speakers for overrunning their time but many speakers do not have a lot of experience of talking on stage and are nervous and simply lose all track of time. I have seen even experienced speakers do this.
To my mind, the responsibility for keeping the speakers on time rests firmly with the chairperson. As a chairperson myself I have a simple method: I give the speaker time warnings; maybe a card; maybe just a verbal reminder (my preference) but when they come to the end of their allocated time I simply stand up and if need be walk over and stand close to them. If they still don't get the message and stop of their own volition - I intervene to stop them.
It may seem a little harsh and controlling and may annoy the speaker but the alternative is far worse.
Here is the email template I use to brief speakers.
Hello Everyone,
May I introduce myself - my name is David Gurteen and I am chairing the upcoming XXXX conference
I would like to explain the format of the event as it is a little different from other conferences. You each have 40 minutes in total; 25 minutes for your actual talk and then a FULL 15 minutes allocated to discussion and to Q&A.
A few things for you to note:
Please keep strictly to your 25 minutes. This is really important. It is totally unfair on the audience and the speakers that follow you if you take your full 40 mins or more and leave no time for discussion and questions. I emphasize this as at every conference I chair as there are at least two or three people who over run - how ever much they agree not to!!
I will give you a warning as your end time approaches but after 25 mins I will stand up. This will be my signal to you to STOP.
Twenty-five minutes is not long - if you can manage it without Powerpoint slides (or keep to just a handful) and make your talk more informal and 'entertaining' that would be great!!!
Don't worry about whether there will be enough questions to fill the time or not - that is my problem :-) I will facilitate the discussion.
At the end of each session I will ask the participants to turn to each other at their tables and discuss the talk for 5 mins before opening things up to questions to you and a wider conversation within the room.
I do not plan to read out your FULL bio as many chairmen do. My intro will be brief and I am much more likely to ask you a question or two i.e. to make the introduction conversational. So be prepared!
My aim is to make the 2 days as informal, interactive, engaging and as conversational as possible. Anything that you can do to help me facilitate this would be welcome.
Please drop me a line or give me a call if you have any thoughts or comments.
I look forward to meeting you and helping to make it a great conference!!
Oh well done Patrick. I do love this post on the importance of touch in KM. I always hate it when I hear people say things like "you need to be more professional" - especially when what they are really saying is that your need to be more distant, more abstract or not involve your emotions. We don't need to be more professional - we need to be more human!
Many people do not understand my Knowledge Cafes and I am so often asked why I don't run them on-line. Answer - they would not be Knowledge Cafes on-line - they would be something different. Knowledge Cafes are about face to face human contact - they are about touch.
And people don't understand why I run so many Cafes for free. Its my way of meeting people and building relationships. In business terms it is about marketing not through brochures or ads or other traditional methods but simply getting to know people face to face and allowing them to get to know me - even touch me!
A little taste from Patrick's blog:
We are, for example, much more comfortable thinking and talking about touching things (to control them), than we are about touching people. Touch screens, touch pads, excite our enthusiasm. Talking about touching our colleagues is deemed improper, inappropriate even.
But we touch each other all the time, within the boundaries of our cultural, religious and instinctive rituals and rules around touch. There’s the playful tap when scolding someone half-seriously. The hand on the shoulder when sharing something, or on the arm to get someone’s attention in a crowd, or to convey assurance. The comforting hug when something terrible happens. The awkward embraces at farewells. The ritual handshakes at introductions and to signify agreement.
Patrick is right we should pay far more attention to touch!
I was delighted to see this recent post of Dave Snowden's where in his usual colorful well he attacks satisfaction surveys and explains his thinking.
I have always had a dislike of satisfaction surveys and have loved it over the years at conferences hearing Dave let rip into them. In fact when people ask me about Dave's work with narrative I often use his alternative narrative based approach to surveys as an example.
Most surveys I see fall into the same traps that Dave describes - especially all the KM surveys I am asked to fill in by students. To my mind they are an utter waste of time in that they are meaningless or worse that they produce misleading results. By and large I always decline. Like Dave I so much want to answer so many of the questions with the phrase "well it all depends".
In one of my recent IBM KM Blueprint Workshops I was talking about KM 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and the need for Management 2.0, when one of the participants chirped in that these ideas were all well and good but would never take root as long as we still had "Managers 1.0" which of course brought a chuckle of approval from everyone in the room.
And then this afternoon, I started to read Gary Hamels new book - The Future of Management. In it, in the chapter on "Forging Management 2.0" he says this.
Why exactly, is the Internet so adaptable, innovative and engaging? Because ...
Everyone has a voice.
The tools of creativity are widely distributed.
Its easy and cheap to experiment.
Capability counts for more than credentials and titles.
Commitment is voluntary.
Power is granted from below.
Authority is fluid and contingent on value-added.
The only hierarchies are "natural" hierarchies.
Communities are self-defining. Individuals are richly empowered with information.
Just about everything is decentralized.
Ideas compete on an equal footing.
It's easy for buyers and sellers to find each other.
Resources are free to follow opportunities.
Decisions are peer-based.
This may not be a detailed design spec for a 21st-century management system, but I doubt it's far off. Argue with me if you like, but I'm willing to bet that Management 2.0 is going to look a lot like Web 2.0
But what will "Managers 2.0 look like I wonder? And how might we update the 1.0 versions - if at all? In a Knowledge Cafe I ran in Croatia a few years ago the participants all agreed that the biggest barrier to knowledge sharing in their organizations was the outdated mindset of their senior managers and when asked how they might change that - they thought the only way was to "Wait for them to retire or die!" as these managers had grown up in the Communist era and they thought were incapable of change!
Steve Pavlina is spot on here when he talks about working for free! Its a philosophy that as a one man independent consultant I have adopted from the outset. You simply start by doing work for free. Forget developing glossy brochures or fancy traditional marketing. Doing stuff for free and giving stuff away for free is marketing and the best form of it. You are providing value - you are demonstrating what you can do in an authentic way.
You are working for free when you blog or create a newsletter or a resource website as I do or you can speak at conferences for free and even for organizations for free. This way you get to build relationships and you get to build trust and get to establish a reputation. Now slowly you can start to charge - as Steve explains - as the work load increases - you can start to raise your fee and to throttle back the demand to what you can deliver.
I see so many people start out as independents who do not understand this and quickly end up returning to corporate life. I have one friend however, who started off by working as an executive coach for free - it was the only way to establish himself and he now earns an annual six figure sum from that part of his work alone. As Steve says:
One of the best ways to show people the value of your work is to share it with them for free. This minimizes other people’s risk and makes it easier for them to receive your value. In this manner you can start sharing your value immediately.
Thinking about it - I have done it for years. In my very first job in my early twenties - I was a CAD engineer/programmer in the Space Division of British Aerospace. My boss always had more requests for new projects than he could handle. I used to make sure I got to know what those projects were. The ones that interested and excited me I offered to work on in my own time!! I got to do the stuff I loved and many of those projects developed into funded projects. It also helped establish my reputation for doing leading edge work.
Would you like to have only one username and password to access all your websites? - Comments (1)
I keep a Notes database that holds the usernames and passwords for over 100 websites that I have subscribed to. Its painful!
But a new web service has been under development for some time now called OpenID and I have been sitting patiently waiting for it to mature. Well that moment I think is here as on January 30th Yahoo will support OpenID which means that if you already have a Yahoo ID and password you can use it to logon to any OpenID enabled website. This is what Yahoo says:
Once you enable your Yahoo! account for OpenID access, you can simply tell any OpenID enabled web site that you are a Yahoo! user. You will be sent to Yahoo! to verify your Yahoo! ID and password and then signed in to the web site. Its that easy!
And its not only Yahoo that supports OpenID. Other service providers also provide support such as Technorati and AOL.
Delicious is a Social Bookmarking tool and has got to be one of the simplest, most powerful of all the Social Tools. It allows you to store, share and discover web bookmarks but I am amazed just how few people have heard of it - never mind use it. It is no more difficult to use than your regular browser favorite or bookmark feature but so much more powerful. Just to be a be able to access your bookmarks from any PC is one of its most basic benefits but good enough reason to use it.
IBM Knowledge Management 2.0 Blue Print Workshops - Comments (0)
As I explained last month, the reason for my trip to SE Asia was a series of workshops for IBM in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok: to help IBM's customers better understand Social Tools and their impact on traditional KM and the enterprise and thus the issues of implementing IBM's new integrated social software product Lotus Connections.
Well that's all over now, the last workshop was here in Bangkok on Friday (from where I am writing this newsletter in a Starbucks!). Its been a fun couple of weeks and I have loved working with the people at IBM - it felt like being back at Lotus in the 80s - a lot of energy and a lot of fun.
And although I have been doing most of the talking when meeting IBM's clients, I have learnt a great deal. The bottom line is that there is a huge interest and enthusiasm for Social Tools in Asia but very much in the context of KM and "creating a knowledge sharing culture". The questions I was asked time and time again by senior managers was "How do you create a Knowledge Sharing Culture?"; "How do you get started?" and "How do you motivate people to open up, collaborate and share?"
I had much to say on this challenge; shared my thoughts with them freely and found myself frquently referencing the work of Bob Buckman. Expect me to talk more about this in the coming months as their questions and enthusiasm has helped reinforce my view that the combination of 'hard' social tools such as blogs and wikis and 'soft' social tools such as knowledge cafes and after action reviews are a powerful combination.
There really are no IT projects, only business projects with more or less IT involved.
And then re-read it but as you do replace the word IT with KM. It still makes sense - in fact very good sense.
Oscar concludes by saying that
Enterprise 2.0 is about making IT an inherent part of all business.
Expanding this a little I would say:
Enterprise 2.0 is about making IT and KM an inherent part of all business.
This actually makes more sense than I first thought as for many organizations KM and IT are almost indistinguishable.
I think we could include HR in this argument too! Enterprise 2.0 will challenge the power of KM, IT and HR departments - not to mention many traditional command and control managers. Some will embrace it but I fear most will resist. This is really not the right metaphor but it causes me to chuckle. In the words of the Borg:
"Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated!"
But seriously, Enterprise 2.0 and KM 2.0 will change the power structure of organizations for ever! It will take a little time but this is going to happen, so best embrace it early then fight it.
Dave Pollard and I have never been far apart on our views on KM. In my recent talk at Online Information I talked about KM 2.0 or Social KM. Dave prefers to call it KM 0.0 for good reason!
What some have called KM 2.0, I prefer to call KM 0.0, because it's getting back to the roots of why and how people share what they know. It could also be called PKM -- Personal Knowledge Management -- because it's about self-managed content and peer-to-peer connectivity.
At Online Information 2007 in London on 4th December, I gave a keynote talk entitled "KM2.0: KM goes Social" where I take a brief look at the history of KM and where it might be heading given the impact of Social Tools. Other people you might wish to read on this subject are Dave Snowden and Dave Pollard but also see Delicious and Technorati.
I am not overly keen on the KM2.0 label (Dave Pollard actually dubs it KM0.0 ) or the term Social KM but it does not matter what we call it too much right now - the fact is that Social Computing will have a huge impact on the way we practice KM and its future evolution.
Here are the slides; an audio interview with Dick Kaser of Information Today and the paper that went with my talk.
When people tell that they are returning to college to earn a further qualification, I am always pleased for them but at the same time shudder a little inside as I could never ever do it myself and the whole idea fills me with foreboding. When I study a subject I want to be free for the learning to take me where it leads me - to follow an emerging path to make new connections and actually create new knowledge. I would hate to be restrained by a syllabus.
And so, although horrified at the extent to which some educational establishments take the syllabus, I was rather pleased to come across this article on the subject as it means some educationalists are well aware of the problem and are working to change things.
The implicit message of the modern course syllabus is that the student will not do anything unless bribed by grades or forced by threats.
Whether you want to change the political or economic system, save the whales, stop global warming, reform education, spark innovation or anything else, the answer is in how meaning, and understanding of what needs to be done, emerges from conversation in community with people you love, people who care.
And I totally agree. Its one of the driving motivations behind all the effort I put into my Knowledge Cafes and working to introduce more conversation into our working and personal lives!
And this is what Dave says about KM
KM is simply the art of enabling trusted, context-rich conversations among the appropriate members of communities about things these communities are passionate about.
Yet another definition of KM! But one I like - remember one of the opening remarks from the Cluetrain Manifesto
A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter -- and getting smarter faster than most companies.
Ten years ago or more when I was working as a Lotus Notes consultant and developer, I saw IT departments effectively emaciate Lotus Notes by insisting that Notes applications be developed by a centralized team and driven by a rigorous functional specification. This was not the way to develop Notes applications - it curtailed its widespread use and ensured the development of unusable applications. I wrote about an alternative to this back in 1998!
Its still my belief that it was the IT departments that effectively stifled Lotus Notes. IT would bar users with technical skills from developing their own applications though they did not prevent them from developing Excel spreadsheet applications that would have been better implemented as a simple database or a Notes application. I can recall several occasions where I turned a complex, bug ridden Excel spreadsheet that had taken weeks of development into a simple robust Notes application in a couple of hours. And then everyone with appropriate access rights could effectively share the application on a central server rather than share it in turn on a shared file drive or by passing the Excel file around by email!
So this blog post by Lee Bryant although not focused on IT development as such caused me not only to smile but to remind me that given their way most IT departments will try to kill social computing in the same way they did for Notes. Here is the passage of Lee's that got me chuckling:
The same IT folks who rail about the "risks" of sharing and online social networking are also responsible for creating systems so unusable and inflexible that they lead users to dump entire databases onto CD and lose them. I think it is fair to argue that IT systems that do no understand people are a bigger risk than human-scale web computing that treats people as adults.
It reminds me also that the main feature of a Wiki is that documents can be edited online by multiple people. This causes some people a lot of heartache as no one person is "in control". And causes IT departments more heartache than most. Lotus Notes first shipped in 1989, almost 20 years ago and one of its major features was the ability to edit shared documents. The "problem" is not new! In fact its not a problem at all - its the major benefit!
It reminds me that today you should think twice before dismissing a seemingly crazy idea. A couple of years ago I would have thought Wikipedia a stupid idea and only an hour ago I would have argued that no one in their right mind - not even a Japanese teenage girl - would ever choose to wrote a book on a mobile phone - never mind it going on to be a best seller!
If you think that Facebook does not have a place in business then read this story that has been blogged by Bill Ives about how Serena Software is using Facebook as a front end to its intranet and think again.
Well Kiva is getting a lot of attention. Guy Kawasaki has just blogged about the Lessons of Kiva having read an article in Stanford Magazine - Small Change - Big Payoff.
The founders of Kiva, Matt and Jessica Flannery, like Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank got a lot of advise that their microfinance idea would not work but they pushed ahead anyway despite all the hurdles. This is an inspirational story of how two young people are making a difference in the world.
See here for much more about his work and a slew of links from Dina Mehta. (1hr 7mins)
David Gurteen's comments: One of the things that I love about Dr Yunus' talk is his concept of the "social business" - a business not with the objective of making a profit but one of doing "social good" but "not for loss".
To my mind one of the best summaries of Dave's thinking round - though I should warn you its not that short - especially if you follow the links and listen to the mp3 audio files but it is all in one place!
I have enjoyed Gary's thinking on the future of management and organizations and in particular the increasing power and influence of the individual ever since I read his book Leading the Revolution in 2000.
There are some clear implications for KM if Gary has got these predictions right as I feel he has. The most obvious two are:
"Restricted, controlled flow of information shall be the most antiquated feature."
"The need for large, expensive & highly trained information technology departments will have disappeared because reliable, robust & highly configurable solutions will be available via the Internet."
The control and flow of information and knowledge will be set free from the tyranny of IT, IS, corporate librarians and management who wish to censor and control it and put it in neat little boxes! Its slowly happening and its mainly social tools such as Wikis and Weblogs that will make this a reality.
But take a look at the comments on Gary's posting. Event if you don't agree with them all - they are rich food for thought - most of them inspiring but some of them scary!
This article from the BBC warns young people about posting too much confidential information on social websites such as Facebook.
In reading it, I realized I had my birth date published on Facebook and on reflection decided to remove it. I am very open. I love to be open and am open about everything I feel I can be but I realized that at least one financial institution uses my birth date as a default security check. So placing my birth date effectively in the public domain is probably not the best of ideas. It wasn't that it hadn't occurred to me as I actually have a fictitious birthday that I use for sites I do not trust that demand a birth date!
Which is interesting, Facebook demands a birth date but allows you to not display it on your profile. Guess which I have given them - the real or the fictitious one!
I have just discovered that Eric Mack blogged a little on my Knowledge Cafe at KM World. There are a couple of nice photos including one of the "knowledge circle" at the end of the k-cafe. As Eric notes, I took some video of the circle which I really must process and post on-line. The circle is a lovely way to hold the whole group conversation phase of a knowledge cafe.
Knowledge Cafes in Trinidad and Tobago - Comments (0)
When I was in San Jose at KM World I met Valarie Walters of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. She had arranged to meet me to tell me about how my Knowledge Cafes had inspired her to run Knowledge Cafes within her organization.
Video: Gurteen Mini-interview with Valarie Walters
Gurteen Mini-interview with Valarie Walters of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago on how they run the Knowledge Cafe. Shot at KM World & Intranets, San Jose, November 2007.
Given the increasing interest in Knowledge Cafes I am planning to set up a Knowledge Cafe Facilitators' Forum for Cafe facilitators to share their knowledge and experience. If you are interested you will find more information here and can register interest.
Naguib Chowdhury posting in the actKM discussion forum recently asked if anyone could suggest any KM games to help raise awareness of aspects of KM and knowledge sharing and Madelyn Blair replied with a 'game' in response.
I particularly like her exercise as it is very 'knowledge cafe' in its approach. I plan to use it myself - maybe as part of a future cafe or workshop. I hope you like it too and make good use of it.
I ask the participants to think of a time when someone shared important knowledge with them that allowed them to do their jobs better. If they can't think of someone who shared with them, ask them to think of a time when they shared knowledge with someone to help the other person. Give them some examples -- like their favorite uncle who taught them how to ride a bike, like a project manager who gave them the reasons for a decision to the point that they understood why it had been taken, like the time they taught their child how to fry a sunny side up egg.
I have found that when people get in touch with their own experiences of knowledge sharing, they begin to see the qualities that are needed to make KM happen. And if they say they are not storytellers, ask them to pretend they are 5 years old. They would all say they can tell a story at that age. Now if the group is large, or even if it is over 6, put them in small groups of 4 or 5 to tell their stories. Then ask the small groups to each talk about what they learned about sharing knowledge through the stories they just heard. Put time limits on the stories (2-3 minutes max) and have them process this for about 10 minutes after the stories are told.
To make it easier on everyone, set some ground rules. (1) When someone is telling their story, everyone else listens until they are done; (2) assign a time keeper in each group who will signal when the teller has 30 seconds remaining; and (3) for those who can't think of a story, they will listen carefully to the stories told and allow their minds to remind them of their own story to tell. As facilitator or instructor, it is helpful to give time alerts at the approximate middle of the exercise and then at 1 minute remaining.
Be prepared to tell your own story at the beginning to help them see how much can be said in 2-3 minutes. Be sure that you practice your story ahead of time so that it fits the objective and the time limit.
I think you will be amazed at how much the group will understand about KS by the end of the exercise.
On 25th October I ran a Knowledge Cafe in Sydney. It was hosted by Annalie Killian of AMP on the 25th Floor of their building overlooking Sydney Harbour - by far the best venue for one of my Knowledge Cafe's yet!
It could have been very special indeed as when I arrived and looked out over the stunning view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House I noticed a score of photographers on a nearby roof top with cameras with telephoto lens on tripods and I was told that in 15 minutes time the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 on its maiden commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney was to fly low over the harbour.
I was so excited this was just too good to be true as I had already seen the A380 on the tarmac at Singapore's Changi airport on my flight down to Sydney. But unfortunately I had brought the English weather with me - the cloud base was low and it was drizzling. Either the flight over the harbour was canned or we just did not get to see it because of the cloud. I even heard that the return flight to Singapore was delayed an hour or so the next day because of bad weather!
But apart from that disappointment it was a great Cafe on the theme "What will be the impact of Social Tools within Organizations?" which I co-facilitated with Helen Paige who is regional director of the Gurteen Knowledge Community in Adelaide. About 70 people attended - one of my largest yet and you can get an idea of the energy of the Cafe in this video I took.
Video: Sydney Harbour Knowledge Cafe
On 25th October 2007 I ran a Knowledge Cafe in Sydney. It was hosted by Annalie Killian of AMP on the 25th Floor of their building overlooking Sydney Harbour.
The Cafe was on the theme "What will be the impact of Social Tools within Organizations?" which I co-facilitated with Helen Paige who is regional director of the Gurteen Knowledge Community in Adelaide. About 70 people attended. It was a grat evening.
Media Information:
And what a great view! Annalie thank you so much for hosting this. And a big thanks for everyone who turned out and made it such a fun evening.
Some time ago I blogged about a website called Kiva. Kiva is a microfinance organization that lets you connect with and loan money to a small businesses in the developing world. Throughout the course of the loan, you receive email updates from the business you've sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.
On the website there are photos of the borrowers and details of their lives and what they plan to do with the money. I had kept meaning to dip my toe in the water and make a loan but never quite got around to it but today I did. I decided I would make a loan to a woman in Africa with children as that seemed the most effective use of my money but somehow none of the borrowers profiles clicked with me so I browsed some more until I found Elitza Naidenova who lives in Bulgaria. Here is her profile:
Elitza Naidenova lives in the village of Medkovetz. She works in a dairy farm in the village, but she wants to buy a cow for herself so that she can start a cow breeding business. She is not married and she lives with her parents. She is requesting $750.
In her photo she is standing next to a cow, presumably on the farm where she works, and she has a great big smile on her face. She only needed $25 more to complete her loan for the cow. I just could not resist - I wanted to be the one to ensure she got her cow. The thought of Elitza buying her own cow; finding a bull to service it and then waiting patiently for the first calf to be born and the start of her new business was just too compelling.
Now through the site I get to track her repayments and also the growth of her new business!
What I love about Kiva is that it is a great example of social networking technology being used for social good. And oh by the way the default rate on the loans to date is the staggeringly tiny sum of 0.2%.
If you are waiting for Dave Snowden's book you may have to wait a little longer. He told the audience at KM World not to email him over the Christmas period as he planned to complete it then but its been in the making a long time and so I wouldn't hold your breath.
But in the meantime maybe you would like the next best thing - the November 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) carries an article by Dave and his co-author Mary Boone titled A Leaders Framework for Decision Making.
The article is about the Cynefin Framework and you will find a review has been written by John Caddel. Jay Cross has also posted a blog entry which includes a rather serious looking Dave with pint in hand at the recent blogger beer bash at KM World in San Jose.
A little while back I blogged on podcasting conference events. Well now Stuart Henshall has produced a rather long but interesting blog post asking "Are presenters failing the social media test?".
I would add its not just the presenters that are failing to capitalize on the social media opportunities but more so the conference organizers. They have the opportunity to invite bloggers - to give them a free place in return for blogging. I was doing this over four years ago at some of the conferences that I then organized - see this wonderful blog from Mat Mower on a keynote talk by Dave Snowden.
There are huge opportunities for conference organizers, presenters and participants a like to capitalize on social tools and transform the way that conferences are run and marketed and to turn them into true learning and knowledge sharing events but progress is exceedingly slow I am afraid.
Thanks to Stuart Henshall I have just discovered Flock. Flock is a "social browser", due to its ability to interact with social networking sites such as Flickr, Delicious, FaceBook and other services.
It is based on Firefox code and so if you are already using Firefox its an easy move to make. I have been running it in preference to Firefox for the last few days. Its seems fast and stable and easy to use and though I have yet to figure out all the social features - they are AMAZING and I am increasingly loving using it. Looks likely that I will stick with it an ditch Firefox! I feel this could be the way that web browsers will evolve.
If you are into social networking and use all the common services and products such as Flickr, Delicious andFaceBook then go take a look at Flock - I think you will love it.
At KM World I took part in the "Interactive Thought-Leader KM Discussions". I was in good company with Dave Snowden, Verna Allee, Hubert Saint-Onge, Dave Pollard and Richard McDermott. Given the stream was an interactive discussion, Jane Dysart, the conference producer, asked me to speak for only ten minutes and then to start a conversation with the participants.
I took my 45 minutes and broke it into three parts. First, I spoke, with a few slides for 15 minutes to my theme "How Do We Make People Do Things?". As people were sitting at round tables in small groups I then asked them to have a conversation at their tables around the topic and finally I opened things up for questions but walked into the room amongst the participants to more informally engage with them. Clearly, I was trying to bring as much as I could of my Knowledge Cafe process to the discussion.
Its worth seeing all of the above three blogs as each blogger blogged many of the sessions - not only mine.
What I still don't understand though, given the instructions Jane gave me and presumably the other speakers, why most of them spoke for a full 30 minutes or more and then simply took questions - hardly an interactive discussion.
I can now simply keep all the feeds I read updated in Google Reader. Tag them and then create a blogroll for each tag as I see fit and embed that blogroll on my Weblog. So I have two tags/blogrolls : "KM Blogroll" and ""Other Blogroll" - take a look at the right hand column of my weblog and you will see the two blogrolls.
The beauty of it all - its kept updated by Google in real-time. I now need to do nothing and the blogrolls reflect all the sites that I am reading.
Thanks to this article in Wired Magazine, I discovered the Eye-Fi Card - a seemingly standard SD memory card but with WiFi built in that automatically uploads pictures from your digital camera to your PC and to your favorite photo sharing, printing, blogging or social networking site.
I have been fantasizing about being able to do this for a long time but expected the functionality to be built into the camera but building it into the memory card itself is just too beautiful for words. Having just bought a new camera all I need is one of these cards and its price is about $100 for 2GB - easily affordable.
No problem to upload photos from the card to your PC or the web but not to download photos from your PC to the card so I could update my digital photo frame. Also does not support video - would be cool to upload short video clips to YouTube for example.
I really want one but for some reason that I cannot fathom the website says that it will not work outside the USA.
At KM World I met many people face to face whom I have been cyber friends with for many years. Two of these people were Stuart Henshall and Jon Husband. Where I ever I went I kept bumping into these two guys and great conversations ensued.
Back in 1983 I was the software development manager responsible for localizing Lotus Symphony into French, German and Italian. It was the beginning of a ten year career at Lotus that took me for 3 years to the then HQ in Cambridge Mass. as International Czar and changed my life for ever!
So imagine my delight when IBM recently re-released Symphony. Well not quite - they re-used the name - a first I think for a software product. The original Symphony was an integrated software application for DOS and the new Lotus Symphony is a free desktop productivity suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. So you can see the similarity.
It supports the OpenDocument format (ODF), as well as Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite formats, but not Microsoft's Office Open XML format, which is used by Microsoft Office 2007. It can also export PDF files. If you are looking for a free alternative to Microsoft office that supports open standards it could be worth a look.
"Will Facebook displace LinkedIn as "the social network for business?"
If you have not looked at FaceBook yet - I suggest you do - even just to see what all the fuss is about! You will find my profile here and also a group for the Gurteen Knowledge Community. It has grown to 156 members but I am still not sure what to do with it. But take a look and join - if nothing else right now you
can get to learn more about felllow members.
I ran the last poll for a little longer than most (almost 10 months!)
"What primarily drives your engagement at work?"
you can find the the results here. Not too surprising that that "Self-actualization & personal development" came out top!
Ed Mitchell has informed me of a new book from the KnowledgeBoard community. Here is what Sami the book’s editor has to say about it:
This book presents thirty different hands-on methods and techniques for knowledge co-creation and sharing within collaborative settings. It showcases a wide range of moderation, facilitation, collaboration, and interaction mechanisms through the use of different face to face and online methods and techniques.
Each presented method/technique is augmented with real-life cases on its use; provides directions on what needs to be done before, during, and after the use of each method/technique to achieve tangible and measurable results; provides a set of tips and tricks on the use and adaptation of the method/technique for different contexts and settings; and provides a
list of potholes to avoid when using the method/technique.
The big bit of news since last month is the Knowledge Cafe in Sydney. Annalie Killian of AMP offered me a great venue overlooking the waterfront that I just could not refuse and we now have over 100 people signed up and unfortunately have had to close registration!
I am spending a little extra time in all these places and if you would like to meet-up just drop me a line.
sharing the real expertise of senior staff before they retire?
developing young professionals who move rapidly between organizational units?
managing handovers when overlap between staff is not possible?
creating a culture that integrates learning into everyday work?
integrating the expertise of seasoned practitioners with talent development programs?
Would you like to “compare notes” with other organizations that have cutting edge approaches to these issues?
I am conducting a study in conjunction with Henley Management College’s KM Forum on how to deepen and develop real expertise. The sponsors are quite sophisticated about KM, so we are looking beyond the traditional KM tools to examples of effective and/or innovative approaches specifically geared to deepening expertise.
Participating organizations will receive a copy of our report and will be able to participate in a set of virtual discussion sessions with other innovators to compare ideas and approaches.
So if you are good at this or you know an organization, profession or discipline that is, please write. Thanks!
This industrial film made around 1960 clearly demonstrates that knowledge management was being touted as a management philosophy a whole generation before Karl Wiigs work.
Take a look - its about 6 minutes long and I think you may enjoy it but not for the reason you may be expecting! Patrick Lambe brought it to my attention which may give you a clue!
In the article, the author quotes from H. L. Mencken, who wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that
"... the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The aim is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.
That is its aim in the United States and that is its aim everywhere else"
Whether this is the intent or not I often feel it is the result of education world-wide!
Google has launched Presently, a presentation product that competes with Microsoft PowerPoint. It looks pretty good but what I would really like is the means to embed a presentation in a webpage similar to SlideShare which does not seem to be there yet.
You will find it at Google Docs. Try it out - its easy and neat.
And while on the subject of presentations take a look at SlideShare's SlideCasts that allow you to add an audio stream to your slide presentation.
Researching Virtual Action Learning - a request for help - Comments (0)
A request for help from Mollie Dickenson:
I'm researching virtual action learning - action learning in virtual environments whether by email, audio, video or on-line - and would like to hear from anyone who has experience of this - i.e running action learning sets as a learning process, virtually rather than face to face.
This research is part of an MPhil supervised by Mike Pedler and John Burgoyne, both experts in the field of action learning.
We would be delighted to hear from anyone who has tried out action learning virtually, whether as a programme developer or a participant. We shall be happy to share our findings in due course.
Many thanks
Mollie Dickenson
Research Project Manager
School of Management Knowledge and Learning
Henley Management College
If you attended my Knowledge Cafe at KMAP 2006 in Hong Kong last year that I ran with Raksha Sukhia then you can see an excellent video of the event here.
In this talk, he made the point that we use metaphors to make sense of the world and the terms "knowledge management" and "intellectual capital" were such metaphors. When we speak of "knowledge management" we use a "resource" metaphor to help describe knowledge and when we use the term "intellectual "capital" we use a "capital" metaphor.
Daan explained that metaphors are indispensable for conceptualization and understanding. However, we need to be aware that metaphors highlight certain things and conceal others. For example, the "knowledge as a resource" metaphor ignores the fact that knowledge is subjective and difficult to elicit.
I found this concept fascinating and decided to conduct a few of my video mini-interviews with some of the conference participants including Daan and asked them "What is your favorite knowledge metaphor". I also ran a Knowledge Cafe on the theme. I think you might will the material including photos and videos that you will find on my website.
If you are a Wikipedia fanatic or critic then this article on the Wikipedia Scanner is a must read.
Wikipedia Scanner was created by Cal Tech graduate student Virgil Griffith. It allows you to discover the organizations that have apparently edited the seemingly anonymous Wikipedia entries by cross-referencing the edits with the internet IP addresses of the editors and the IP address owners.
The bottom line is that you can now get an idea how Wikipedia is being 'gamed' and this is forcing the Wikipedia Foundation to review
how articles are edited as this New Scientist article explains.
YouTube video of some amazing image resizing/editing technology - Comments (0)
Wow! This you have got to see. I look forward to the day when this sort of technology is built into Flickr
The demonstration is of a image resizing/carving method described in the paper by Dr. Ariel Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan, which resizes images by cutting out or inserting horiztonal or vertical seams.
They'd like to find out a little about how different organisations "invest" in the competencies of their KM staff, so Patrick Lambe has drawn up a short survey. It should take less than 10 minutes to answer.
It is open until October 7th and I will make the results available to the Gurteen Knowledge Community after 1st November
Please do take a moment to respond and pass on to anyone you think might be interested. The survey is at http://tinyurl.com/ytl44j
Cognitive Edge has reworked their website - it looks better and is much easier to navigate. Key features include:
The SenseMaker website has been split out from the main Cognitive Edge one and been given a different style.
Dave Snowden's blog is joined by a second from their CEO Steve Bealing, and a guest blog. They have a mixture of practitioners, academics and others lined up for the best part of six months for a week or two weeks at a time. And some great entries have been posted already.
The open source methods are now in a Wiki (access and editing rights to accredited practitioners), and also have a published form.
Dave Snowden recently mentioned in one of his blog postings that he has a google alert set to search on his name so he gets to know when anyone talks about or links to him on the web. This seems to me something that most people should do.
If you are not familiar with Google Alerts - they are emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results search terms you have pre-configured.
I have had several Google alerts configured for the last few years to monitor a number of phrases that are of interest to me such as my name, "knowledge cafe", "knowledge management conference" and also often use them to be kept up-to-date on specific events such as KM Asia.
It really is an essential tool for keeping up to date on web activity. Check it out!
You might like to check out Patti Anklams new book Net Work. The publishers have sent me a copy but I have not had the chance to read it yet but it looks like a pretty comprehensive guide to creating and sustaining networks.
Would you like to understand a little more about Second Life but do not have the time in your first life to sign up and explore this exciting virtual world then why not watch the movie and more. . A big thanks to Luc Glasbeek for pointing me to this resource.
You might be interested in two new sections in my website - the first is dedicated to KM tools and the second to the tools that I use to maintain this site; support my community and make my everyday knowledge sharing and communication possible.
At the moment many of the entries are only basic and link to other more comprehensive resources on the web so they are still useful. Over time I will adding to them and expanding them to include notes on how I use the tools;. tips etc. Enjoy!
Remember my thoughts on Stammtisch last month. Intrigued? Well it has generated a fair amount of comment and other interesting ideas around the subject. I think what is most interesting though is that KMers in Germany had already adapted the concept to the Knowledge world.
Knowledge Work and Knowledge Workers - Comments (0)
I recently recieved this request from Victoria Ward who I am sure many of you know.
Dear fellow Gurteen Knowledge Community members,
I've a request to make of you. I've taken on an assignment to
write a 7,000 word paper for an MBA for the College of Estate Management on
knowledge work and knowledge workers. It seems sensible not to plough a lonely
furrow here but to reach out and find out what others know, what methods they
are using, where they are looking for inspiration, the experiences they have
or have witnessed on this subject, the questions they are asking themselves.
So that’s what I'm doing. By way of a quid pro quo, as they say in the Shield,
I’ll be letting David have a copy of the final work to distribute to anyone
who expresses an interest. And who knows, maybe we can start something, play
with a wiki, or whatever.
Here are the subheadings under which the College have asked me
to write:
What is your experience of the increasing awareness of the
rise of the knowledge worker?
What are definitions and characteristics of knowledge workers
and knowledge intensive firms?
How are knowledge and knowledge processes applied in
knowledge intensive firms (including new generation collaborative
software)?
What ways are there to knowledge workers to participate in
knowledge processes, including new forms of motivation theory and
practice?
What retention strategies can be used successfully with
knowledge workers?
How can knowledge management assist with
improved project delivery, including Post Project Evaluation, and
continuous improvement
How can knowledge management facilitate the sharing of
knowledge across a variety for project interfaces, (e.g. stakeholders,
participants, disciplines, organizations, project stages)?
With many thanks, and a certain fascination to see what will
come of it all.
This looks an exciting and worthwhile little project and I will be helping Victoria myself. If you would like to help also - please contact her directly.
I have recently received an e-mail from Nerida Hart, Deputy Convenor of actKM to tell me that it is that time of year again, when actKM calls for nominations for their Annual actKM Knowledge Management Awards.
Nominations should address the criteria set out on the actKM web site and are due to be submitted by September 21st 2007 to [email protected].
Earlier in the year I was working in the library of the RSA in London and fell into conversation with two people at the same table.
We had to whisper, as after all this was a library, but we got to talking about the fact that although many people used the RSA library and bar and other facilities there was no easy way to meet people and strike up a conversation if you were there on your own.
I talked about some of my conference ideas such as wearing a badge that said "talk to me" or even creating special tables where people could sit with the expectation of talking to strangers. And we discussed what a great idea it would be if the RSA had something like this.
It was then that one of my new acquaintances told me about the German concept of Stammtisch!
I had never heard about it before but when he explained the concept I immediately fell in love with the idea. A Stammtisch is a table in a pub or restaurant reserved for regular customers or alternatively outside of Germany a table reserved for people who would like to meet to practice their German.
But I like the idea of bending the concept a little further and creating tables in bars, cafes and large conferences etc where people can sit if they wish to have conversations with strangers. Many people just need a little bit of an excuse to start up a conversation and this would provide it but maybe it needs a new label - a "knowledge table" or "conversation table" maybe .
At the Unicom Social Tools conference last week my old Lotus colleague Adrian Moss audio recorded most of the speakers and created a page to hold the material.
Take a look - you can play the talks online or download them all as a podcast. Its a great way of capturing an event though I think the podcast is of most value to people who attended the conference and wish to more closely listen again to a specific speaker.
For example, I recently recorded a talk of Dave Snowden's on my iPod and played it back on the train on the way home. The great thing about it was that when ever he said anything thought provoking or controversial I could pause the playback and think long and hard about the point he was making. I don't think I ever did get to the end of the playback!
My son Jonathan has just completed his degree course in Interactive Media Production at Bournemouth University and he and a friend are looking for work. This is what they say about themselves:
Resolve media are two media design graduates from Bournemouth University. After 3 years of hard work and studying we are looking to branch out into the industry and start selling our work. We specialize in web design though we also offer services surrounding animation, graphics and print.
They have also created a website Resolve Media where you will find examples of their work.
The response to the call for papers for the European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM 2007) this year has been very good. As a result the Programme Committee are in need of a few additional reviewers to assist in the double-blind review process.
If you are interested in the subject and would be prepared to review a paper or two please fill out the form on their site and your details will be provided to the committee.
Thanks to Euan Semple for this fascinating article on how a Google search works. The user experience is simple enough - what goes on under the hoods though is downright amazing.
Bob Buckman contacted me by e-mail to express his experience at Buckman Labs.
David, I was struck by James Robertson's position that 'Knowledge Sharing' should not be discussed beyond the KM team. This is completely contrary to our experience at Buckman. Where we got into trouble was using the term 'Knowledge Management' to describe what we wanted to do. Immediately, everyone thought we were out to manage what was in their heads. 'Mind Control' was one term used.
After a few weeks of trying to get past that initial interpretation, we gave us and never used the term 'Knowledge Management' in the company again to describe what we wanted to do. Instead, we substituted the term 'Knowledge Sharing' and the rest is history as they say.
Frankly, in my opinion, if you cannot get an organization to share knowledge across time and space, then the opportunity for any significant value added for the organization goes out the window.
As a result of that experience, I have always felt that the term 'Knowledge Management' was the wrong term to describe what we were about. But, as you know, I have not had much luck in getting others over to that position.
I am a little split on this. If implementing KM as a strategic knowledge sharing initiative driven from the top of the company then I would totally agree with Bob. If the initiative is however being implemented in more of an operational sense at a lower level in the organization with very specific business objectives then I am more inclined to agree with James!
I have always taken it for granted that people know how to send e-mail to a long list of people but not expose the e-mail addresses of people who may wish to keep their addresses private. Well It dawned on me recently that this was not common knowledge when a colleague asked me how to do it.
As ever, rather than write the instructions myself, although they are simple enough, I Googled the problem and came up with a page that describes "how" in far better detail than I could have managed.
I recently chaired Ark Group's KC UK Conference in London for the second year. I wanted to make it as interactive and engaging as possible and so I experimented with a new format.
Each speaker had 40 minutes to present. I e-mailed them all before the event to tell them that I wanted them to only speak for 20 minutes. That I would then give the audience 5 minutes to discuss their talk amongst themselves and then a full 15 minutes for Q&A. Most of the speakers kept close to time though one went to the full 40 minutes!
Quite simply, after each talk, I asked the audience to just turn to each other in twos or threes in their seats and have a conversation about the talk.
You can see the results in this little video clip I shot. Quite amazing, it worked every time and I had some good feedback - people enjoyed it.
I have used the technique at another conference since and it is going to become a standard part of my repertoire.
When I attended KMAP 2006 last year in Hong Kong,
Karl-Erik Sveiby was one of the key note speakers.
In his keynote he talked about the frustration, anger and despondency that many knowledge workers felt not being able to work effectively in their organizations.
I was moved by his talk and conducted one of my mini-video interviews with him on the subject.
Here are the top ten barriers that he gleaned from his questionnaire.
It is recommended that 'knowledge sharing' not be discussed beyond the confines of the KM team. Instead, KM initiatives should take the following approach:
identify key business needs or issues
determine appropriate KM initiatives
communicate these initiatives in business language that matches the problem being solved and the staff being targeted
I am not too sure I agree with his idea that 'knowledge sharing' should not be discussed beyond the KM team though I empathize with his rationale but I am totally behind his approach to KM!
I originally joined Facebook a month or so ago when someone thought they had found me there but could not understand why I looked so young. Well it was another David Gurteen - only two of us as far as I know - me and my nephew.
So I joined and the first friends I added were of course my nephew and then my children though in their early twenties they are hardly kids anymore.
I am not so sure though that my son liked the idea when he posted on my "Facebook wall" - "lol. i never thought i'd be networking on facebook with my dad. welcome to facebook"
But since then I have found a load of other people on Facebook. It really does seem to be a hit. If you wish to see my profile - even add me as a friend then here I am.
But watch this video of a presentation by a rather nervous Mark Zuckerberg. Mark is the founder and CEO of Facebook - age 23. Facebook's growth figures are amazing. It has 24 million active members and 100,000 people are signing up each day.
Last month in my newsletter I talked about my cultural experiences of running a Knowledge Cafe in Jakarta and mentioned that I had written about it more fully for InsideKnowledge Magazine.
The article has now been published on-line if you are interested in reading it.
Little things sometimes irk me. I was reading a back copy of the RSA Journal last night and in one of the articles a statement by the author had been separated out as a quote:
"Cloning is certainly unnatural. But so is virtually every human activity."
This makes no sense - it sees human beings as being separate from nature. Which we are clearly not. We are part of nature and in that sense cloning or anything else we do for that matter is perfectly natural. It might be detrimental to the world - it might not - but its as natural as bees pollinating flowers.
I was interviewed a few weeks back by Rob Lewis of HR Zone who was writing an article on why HR are not that involved with KM. Overall its not a bad little article though some of my words are not quite what I said. Interestingly he did not ask me to review the article before it was published though to be fair he was in a hurry.
One key point he missed was that although I said I thought HR might be a logical place to drive KM within an organization, I also feared it would be the kiss of death for KM, as In my experience I never felt that HR were really interested in people or in the business - well at least not in the KM sense and this might just explain their lack of involvement!
But one piece of advise in the article (not mine I might add) that I did totally disagree with was this:
Write your own Yellow Pages -- One of the simplest ways of sharing knowledge is to let your organization know where they can find it. Writing a corporate directory of employee expertise may be a pain, but it'll be a lot easier than trying to get them to enter it into a database on their own.
It might be easier but it will be for ever out of date and little used. No one wants to undertaken this chore. The only way a Yellow Pages system will work is where people see the value and keep their profiles updated themselves. I think Corporate Yellow Pages also need to learn a lesson or two from MySpace, FaceBook and other Social Networking platforms where people are given a wide array of tools to personalize their home page and to link with other people and activities.
In other words, help people see the value, make it easy, make it social and make it fun and people will update their own entries.
I recently discovered that Patrick Lambe had created a podcast for all his videos on KM. Now this is something I have been wanting to do for my videos for some time but it seemed like a lot of work to program this for myself. So I thought I would explore and see if there was an alternative and indeed there was. This little page told me all I needed to know.
It turned out to be so easy because all my videos had already been uploaded to Google Video and I was already using FeedBurner. Once I had read the instructions - it took me less than five minutes to create the podcast feed; to subscribe to my own feed via iTunes and to start to download them to my laptop and hence my iPod in mp4 format.
I have downloaded all my videos plus Patrick's to my iPod now! Amazingly simple! I am over the moon!
If you have iTunes installed on your PC you may subscibe to the Podcast by clicking here
The Gurteen Perspective: Get FoundIt seems to me that one of the key attributes of a successful knowledge worker is the ability to easily connect with people. People whom you can learn from, share knowledge with, collaborate with and get things done together.
The Gurteen Perspective: KM Mission
I was recently asked to comment on a vision statement that an organisation was proposing for a knowledge management (KM) initiative. This brought my thoughts – and apprehensions – about vision and mission statements flooding back. And so I thought I’d try to capture the essence of my thoughts about them here.
I have modified my website to include a neat little gizmo from Twitter.. Take a look at almost any page on my website and you will find a panel at the top right-hand side of the screen that includes a photo of me, a link to my contact details, my Skype status and a short message about what I am doing.
That short message is provided by a service called Twitter. What is cool about this is that I can not only update the message online via Twitter from any PC but I can also update the status from my mobile phone. I have just been tracking Euan Semple for example from Cairo to a bus from NYC to Washington as his plane had been cancelled due to snow!
Your friends can not only track you online but can also opt to receive your messages via their mobile phones too.
Not for everyone of course but a great way of connecting.Its also kind of a mini-blog of your day to day activities.
My iPod as a personal learning tool - Comments (0)
I've talked before about how much I love my video iPod - not for the music but for the video podcasts! Take a look at TEDTalks. These video talks are BRILLIANT - I just LOVE them.
Every time I sync my iPod I get a few more downloaded - I don't even think about it and then on train or plane I discover them and watch them. So easy and these talks in particular are SO inspiring. Its a great way to learn.
But I have discovered another use. When in Hong Kong recently I bought a little stereo mike TuneTalk that plugs into the base of my iPod.
As I give lots of talks, if I am giving a new one - once I have thought it through in my head, I sit down and record it - no notes or written draft - straight to my iPod. I can then listen to it when and where I want and maybe rerecord it. But then the evening before the talk I play it through and then record it one last time - no notes no prompts - I just do it. If I am happy and I can then turn up and give the talk with confidence. I am also confident I have the timing right!
But here is the crunch - if 6 months latter I come to give the same talk again - guess what - all I need to do is play that final recording! Its on my iPod - its on my laptop. Within minutes I have reloaded the talk from archive into my short term memory.
Never ever thought I'd be doing this with it.
One thing I have yet to do though but is easy. Is to record the actually live talk to play back later. I could also publish them on my website. By the way one minute of recording equates to 1mB storage - so that's 20mB for a 20 minute talk.
So I am using my iPod more as a learning tool then an entertainment device though at times I still like to relax and enjoy my music.
I have not laughed so much for a long time. What ever you think of President Bush - this talk took some guts - I always love it when people can rise above things and poke fun at themselves!
And I have just discovered this talk from Stephen Colbert at the same dinner. Again hilariously funny and not at all complimentary to the Bush administration!
In March 2006 I visited Moscow for the first time to run a knowledge cafe at an Intranet Conference. It was quite an amazing experience and although I made a lot of notes in my notebook while there I have never found the time to write them up. But I recently discovered that Paul Corney who spoke at the conference had written a very detailed account of our stay. You can see his rather amusing and a little tongue-in-cheek report here.
I'll be visiting again for a KM Conference in April but will know what to expect this time.
He says some nice things about me and comments on my lack of blogging over the last year and chides me a little for the recent comment in my monthly knowledge lettter that I am going to try to blog more frequently - at least once a week ...
Admitting he's been lax with his own blog and trying to offer one entry a week. One? One? One? Really? Well, it's better than one a month, I suppose, but hardly demonstrating the raw influence he has in certain intelligence and collaboration markets.
The good news is that I have got off to a good start in the New Year and managed to post 10 entries in January - hardly earth shattering but then double my goal!
Part of the answer is that my weblog is just one small part of my website which in some way is a blog in its own right. The pages on my site are categorized by their content such as Knowledge Management or Social Tools but also by their page type such as Event, Job, Quotation, Category, Link, Book, Person Profile, Media File, Poll, Place and of course Blog Entry. It is an incredibly rich site and I know nothing like it in the KM field.
So in January, I posted 87 entries to my website of which only 10 were blog postings. And over the last year, I posted 679 entries to my site in total. So its not that I am idle - its just that if you only look at my weblog you wont see as much activity as if you look at my website in its totality.
Then of course there is my monthly knowledge-letter that is e-mailed to the 14,000 members of my community each month and read by I don't know how many more on my site or via an RSS feed. This knowledge-letter is also a sort of blog with 10 to 12 items each month.
And there is also my monthly Gurteen Perspective article in InsideKnowledge magazine. So its not as If I am not writing. The effort that goes into my website, weblog, knowledge-letter is huge and is all for free and then in there somewhere I also need to earn a living :-)
There are almost 5,000 pages on my website in total that I actively maintain. Purging old ones and updating out of date ones on a regular basis to keep the content as fresh as is possible given my limited resources. And then of course there is all the multimedia content I have been adding - best expressed in my media-player.
So blogged up? Well I guess yes - but certainly not MIA LOL! And thanks Christian I will try to blog a little more!
If you are a regular visitor to my website then you will know that on my home page I have a central panel that lists new pages and page updates within the last month.
Well you might be pleased to know that I have modified this and it is now categorized by date - in reverse chronological order of course rather then page type. This makes it more blog-like and much easier to spot the latest posts to my site.
Of course another way is to subscribe to the RSS feed to my site that also lists the updates.
Back in June 2006, I wrote a thought leader for InsideKnowledge Magazine published by the Ark Group and consequently they asked me to write a regular monthly article for them. We dubbed this the "Gurteen Perspective" and they publish these each month online and you can read them even if you do not subscribe to the magazine.
I have listed links to the back issues below. Enjoy!
The Gurteen Perspective: Avoiding jargon
Jargon is one of the major barriers to the adoption of KM – it is a sure fire way of antagonising both senior management and the people in the organisation who you wish to buy-in to KM. It’s okay to use the jargon among ourselves, but when talking to others who know little about KM we should do our best to avoid it. We should explain concepts in simple language and always provide an example that ties the concept in to a real business problem or challenge within the organisation. January 2007
The Gurteen perspective: David - Get a Life!
I discovered weblogs back in 2002 when a colleague suggested I take a look at them. At first I stumbled across the mass of personal weblogs that held little interest for me but then I found a single weblog that changed my life. November/December 2006
The Gurteen perspective: Personally Speaking
A while back, a friend told me that she had forwarded my monthly knowledge letter to a number of colleagues and that several had commented that it was strange that I used the word ‘I’ a lot. October 2006
The Gurteen perspective: Taking Responsibility
What is a Knowledge Worker? “Knowledge workers are those people who have taken responsibility for their work lives. They continually strive to understand the world about them and modify their work practices and behaviours to better meet their personal and organisational objectives. No one tells them what to do. They do not take ‘no’ for an answer. They are self motivated.” August/September 2006
The Gurteen perspective: On perspective
We all see things in different ways. This is determined by our culture, education, life experiences and much more. No one sees the world through the same lens. And no one sees the world through the same lens day to day. Depending on the context we see things differently. We see the world relative to whom we are and where we stand. July 2006
Thought Leader: Stop apologising for knowledge management!
KM is not going away. Indeed, it is becoming more important than ever. The term is an established one. Books, courses, conferences, workshops and university modules and degrees abound on the subject. So can I suggest we use the name with pride? June 2006
Knowledge Cafe photo in the Hong Kong Ming Pao newspaper - Comments (0)
Thanks to Tracy Chow at the PolyU in Hong Kong for sending me this rather nice photo in the Hong Kong Ming Pao newspaper, taken at my recent Knowledge Cafe at KMAP 2006.
That's clearly me in the foreground rattling on about some aspect of the Knowledge Cafe and Raksha Sukhia who helped me facilitate the cafe is just behind me. I do hope it says something nice in the text!
It was a fun evening and reminds me that a lot of the session was filmed and I need to follow up and see what ever happened to it!
I met Stowe Boyd at a Unicom Social Tools conference I chaired last year. I was impressed with what he had to say about social tools. I felt that unlike many other people he really understood what they were and what they were about. So I did one of my mini-interviews with him and asked him "what are social tools?" to which he gave a great little reply.
But he has just written a great blog post entitled Enough Already: Getting Social Media All Wrong in which he 'has a go' at some of the corporate marketing types who 'still have not got it' and are trying to use social media to their old corrupt ends.
In a nutshell Stowe says:
Drop the old speak: no more "audience", no more third-party writing, no more "wink, wink" complicity in totally false quotes and knowingly working with clients on spin instead of open dialogue.
I have been saying some of this for an age - for example my article on Personally Speaking recently in InsideKnowledge Magazine and as for words like delegates, consumers, audience etc - they are words of the past. At conferences, for example, I use the word participants or simply people. If I catch anyone using the old words - I know they have not 'really got it'!
Looking back I discovered this for myself some 6 years or so ago when I first started my website and knowledge letter and realized that I did not have to write like the large corporates to establish my credentials - all I needed was to be was myself and to talk in my own voice.
Stowe elaborates on his comments - enjoy: (my bolding by the way!)
Please, please, please don't talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media. As Jay Rosen has suggested, we are the people formerly known as the audience. Blogging is not just another channel for corporate marketing types to push their messages to markets, eyeballs, or audiences. Social media is based on the dynamic of a many-to-many dialogue between people. Yes, people: that's the word that should have been used. Not audience. If you'd like to make a distinction between a company and those outside the company, just remember: they are not an audience for your messages, any more than you are an audience for theirs. The whole point is that the people formerly known at the audience -- the edglings, as I call us -- are participating in the blogosphere, and if individuals within companies want to, they can participate: as individuals. Companies don't blog, or converse: people do.
The "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" complicity of leading PR bloggers around serious flaws in the conventional notions of PR is lamentable. For example, seeing the bloggers acknowledge on one hand that CEOs don't actually provide those quotes that are stuck into press releases while on the other hand promoting transparency and openness in corporate communications was more than painful. We should simply state, unequivocally, that such things are not social media: they are old style, push marketing crap. They are exactly the things that lead us to question the motives, influence, and truthfulness of stupid, old line companies who just don't get it.
I could similarly howl about the disembodied third-person voice of press releases, which also does not translate into social media. Everything is written by someone, or a specific group of people, but press releases read like the stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai: written by the omniscient hand of God. Likewise the excessive hyperbole and surfeit of superlatives of press releases is distasteful at the least, and demeaning at the most.
It seems an age ago now - but in February 2006 we filmed some of the sessions at a Bob Buckman masterclass held at the University of Greenwich in London.
We never did do anything with them as in general the quality of the audio was not good but rather than waste the material I have just loaded two clips up to Google Video - no editing - just topped and tailed them but they look pretty good:
A month or so ago in November, I spent three days at KM Asia and then my last day at KM Singapore. As is usual at such events - the value was not in the talks at the events, how ever interesting they were, but in the networking - meeting and having conversations with people.
And then on the Thursday afternoon I ran a half-day version of my Effective Knowledge Worker workshop. Or at least I ran about thirty minutes of it! I had 14 people who had chosen to come to the workshop and pretty much all of them were Knowledge Managers from a range of organizations. In my usual conversational style I let them ask lots of questions; took my time to answer them and to connect them with each other in the room and as we did we slowly moved off topic.
But the engagement and the energy of the conversation was magic - I did not want to kill the conversation to get back to my workshop. So I agreed with them that I should stop and we carried on with our conversation! (They were also eager to talk after 2 days of wall to wall presentations - 9:00am to 8:00pm in the evening - the longest conference days I have ever encountered.)
The topics that were engaging us were "How do we sell KM to senior management?"; "How do we demonstrate the ROI to senior management?" and "How do we get the people in the organization enthused and passionate as we were about KM?". Yes that's right - hardly new questions but ones that almost everyone in the room were grappling with.
The afternoon came to an end and no one seemed to want to leave and we called in one of the Ark Group administrators to take photos of the group with our respective cameras but then someone asked them to take a video. I think you can see the energy of the group in the photos and the video. We had great fun and swapped email address - even gave ourselves a name the "Dare to Share" group after a slide I had just happened to have left running while we spoke.
But a couple of things went through my mind:
Would the organizers have allowed me to run a workshop where all I would have proposed was a conversation around 2 or 3 questions that the group got to determine on the day!. I strongly suspect not.
This conversational format worked so well however, I plan to propose it at future conferences where I am asked to run a workshop. I just need to figure out how to sell the idea to the organizers!
It wasn't only the KM Stone that I discovered in Budapest. Thanks to Roy Williams I also discovered the Central Cafe and had a coffee there as you can see. This is what they say about the cafe on its website:
The Central Café opened its doors in 1887. The café had a central location, in the vicinity of cultural institutions, editorial offices, printing offices but it also had a central location in the heart of the people coming by. It was predestined to become the centre of intellectual life in Budapest.
One of the most important traditions of the old Central Café, apart from the widely celebrated hospitality, was the intellectual character of the café, the bustling, intellectual coffee-house life, since it used to be open and visited 24 hours a day by painters, architects, sculptors, journalists, theatre people, photographers, musicians, art historians, doctors and university teachers, because this was their second home, their regular haunt. To use a present-day expression, we could say the Central was the knowledge and information centre of its time.
I also gather from Roy that at one time they supplied you with paper and pencils; there were copious books and magazines and for the price of a coffee you could stay there all day.
Does anyone know of any cafes like this today? I would love to find one in London and such a cafe would be a great place for convening one of my own knowledge cafes!
Back in late summer I attended the ECKM 2006 conference in Budapest and had some time to go sightseeing around the city. If you have not been to Budapest - it is a beautiful city and well worth a visit.
Imagine my delight when I found a monument dedicated to KM. Now there can't be too many such sculptures in the world can there? Well probably none - it took a look up in Wikipedia to discover that the KM does not stand for Knowledge Management.
So go on guess - what does the KM stand for and does the sculpture have a purpose? Click the photo to reveal the answer
Gautam Ghosh in his blog recently gave Six Tips for Networking in 2007. My favorite was "Let yourself be found". Its the easiest thing anyone can do and has the most leverage. Can I suggest you Google yourself and see just how easy it is to find and make contact with yourself. If its difficult or impossible then take steps to rectify the situation such as creating a public profile on LinkedIn.
I thought I'd post six tips of my own to complement Gautam's.:
Never waste a lunch. Always eat with someone. Never eat alone. Phone a friend or colleague - maybe one you have not seen for a while and arrange lunch.
Never waste a trip. If you travel on business either abroad or maybe just to a local large city - let people know you will be there and invite them to meet you. Don't waste an evening in your hotel room working or watching television when you could be out having a drink or dinner with someone. If you can get to meet new people so much the better. If you are a woman take a look at the Global Dinner Network.
Connect people to people. Remember networking is not just about you connecting to other people, its also about you connecting other people with each other. So next time you arrange a meeting with a friend invite along another friend and connect the two of them.
Deliberately target people. There is nothing wrong with targeting people whom you wish to connect with. I was fascinated at a conference recently by a woman who had just started out as an independent consultant. She pretty much cornered every major speaker or person of interest at the event to introduce herself; have a conversation and connect with them. But remember - networking is nor just about connecting - its about making something of those connections.
Don't be afraid to ask for something. A lot of networkers, I must admit myself included, are a little reluctant to ask a new contact for something. If you can see a way in which that person can help you - then go ahead and ask - you have little to lose. But of course if you can make the proposal a win-win or offer some thing in return then so much the better.
Offer help without expectation of return. If I am networking and I see an opportunity to help the other person - maybe something that I can do for little effort but has a large impact for them then I offer to do it with no expectation of anything in return. Sure I hope they might reciprocate in some way and yes I am looking to establish a relationship but I don't expect or ask for anything in return unless of course I can see a nice win-win
It seems to my that personal networking or knowledge networking as I call it is the most underrated set of behaviors that any knowledge worker can master. I have a whole section on this website dedicated to it where you will find a whole load of different resources on the topic.
I recently spent an hour or so with several senior managers of a large organization in Dubai talking about their new KM initiative. After the session I emailed the knowledge manager some advise. Its quite generic but sums up my thoughts on why so many KM initiatives fail and so I thought I'd share them with you here.
I really enjoyed meeting you the other day and wish we had had more time to discuss your KM initiative. In my experience eight out ten initiatives are killed off by their senior management sponsor after a year or so when they fail to deliver on their expectations.
I think however there are a few fundamentals that you need to get right to ensure that your KM is initiative is not only sustained but has a marked impact on organizational performance.
Here are my thoughts:
Focus on business outcomes
The biggest piece of advise I give all organizations embarking on KM is to focus on the specific business outcomes they wish to see from KM. These outcomes should be the ones set by the senior management sponsor of the initiative. If the sponsor has not been sufficiently specific then you need to look at the business strategy of the organization; the goals and aspirations; the challenges and the pressing problems and propose and agree with your sponsor what the those outcomes should be. Your sponsor must see short term tangible business results else your KM initiative will not be sustained.
Get specific
Asking questions like "How do we get people to share?" "How do we change people's mindsets?" "How do we capture people's knowledge?" "How do we get people to store their documents in the document management system?" or "How do we get people to use the intranet?" are good questions but they are a bit like asking "How do we improve the world?" or "How do we create better people?" - the questions are too abstract - too conceptual and are not sufficiently focused or specific enough and are thus impossible to answer.
For each of the questions above, you need to ask "WHY do we want to do this - what is the specific business outcome we are looking to achieve?" The solution will be different for every organization or department or project team for how you apply KM tools is extremely contextually sensitive. What will work in R&D will not work in Sales. What will work in an Engineering company will not work in a Media company. What will work in London will not work in Dubai. And what will work for John Smith will not work for Mahmoud Moradi. And what worked last year, won't work today!
Good questions would be something like: "How do we ensure that the major mistake made on project X is not repeated on project Y? or "How do we ensure that our induction process gets people more rapidly up to speed?"
But get as specific as you can and think hard about the business outcomes. Even this second question above is far too vague. Ask "Why do you wish to get people up to speed more quickly? Which people? And what specific skills do they need that they are missing today? Just what is the real problem you are trying to solve? And is the effort you plan to invest worth the outcome?
Use business language
Don't use KM language or theory when talking to staff or senor management - there is no surer way of turning them off or worse still getting into a philosophical debate on "what is knowledge". Don't talk in conceptual terms or in terms of say "KM frameworks". Again focus and talk in terms of real business problems and illustrate everything with real specific business examples. Make it relevant to the business.
Engage staff
You get senior management buy-in by focusing on business outcomes but for staff you need to focus on "what is in it for them". People are not going to use an intranet or deposit documents in a document t management system unless first of all they see to some degree the business benefit but more importantly how its going to make their jobs easier or make them more effective in their work.
Again there is no single answer. You have to look at who you wish, for example, to use the document management system and what will motivate them to use it.
But often at this stage it is too late. You need to involve and engage people before the document management system is ever conceived never mind deployed. You need to have involved the staff in what ever business problem the document management system was selected to solve and they need to be part of the decision process that says "a document management system is the appropriate solution to this problem". Imposing " KM stuff" on people and then trying to motivate them to use it - rarely works and tends to breed resistance, anger and resentment.
OK - just a few thoughts :-) I hope you find them useful and all the best with your KM endeavors.
One of my predictions for 2007 is that RSS will firmly establish itself as a mainstream application. It is only a matter of time before anyone who has an email client will also have an RSS news reader. The fact that RSS support is fully integrated into Windows Vista will give it a huge fillip.
RSS Feeds are now provided by most websites and weblogs but the main barrier to user take up of RSS is that most descriptions are written for techies and are jargon ridden. RSS itself is also not particularly easy to use - copying and pasting URLs into applications is not very user friendly and the RSS Feed pages themselves look like gobbledegook to non-techies. So the average user is scared off before they even get started.
For a long time I have looked for a simple user introduction to RSS but could only find techy articles for RSS publishers and coders. Over Christmas I got so annoyed about this that I wrote my own. So if you want to know more about RSS see my RSS category page. Its far from perfect but if you simply want to understand what RSS is all about and subscribe to RSS Feeds - hopefully you will find it of help.
One of the sure fire predictions for 2007 is that Internet Video is going to get HOT! So over Christmas I was poking around to discover what was new and was delighted to discover the Google AJAX Search API and the Google Video Bar. Quite simply this code allows anyone with a website or weblog to easily build Google search engine functionality and in particular video search functionality into their site. It took me just a couple of hours.
Take a look at the source code (in Firefox right click the page and select View Page Source) and you will see just how simple the code is!
But then take a look and see how I have incorporated the code into my site.
First, I have added a Google Video Search button to my Media Player. Now not only can you play videos and multi media files that I have embedded in my site but you can also search for and play Google Videos directly in my player. What's even better is that I have included a small number of standard searches to get you going. Take a look at the TEDTalk videos - they are outstanding!
And then finally I have started to include the video search functionality into many of my pages. Take a look for example at the profile page for Tom Peters where you will see the embedded video search bring up and display Tom Peters videos.
All in all - very cool indeed. But in my opinion we ain't seen nothing yet. There are so many stunning developments going on in this area - for example take a look at Robin Good's Video Education: Free Online Learning Resources Mini-Guide.
If you want to embed media files such as photos, video, audio or Powerpoint sideshows in your website or weblog then there are now several great tools that allow you to do so with ease. I am using all of them in my media player.
Earlier in the year I made my first trip to Moscow and those of you who have heard my stories know it was an 'interesting' experience. The trip wasn't quite a KM one as I ran a Knowledge Cafe at an Intranet conference but it was a challenge to run a kcafe where the conversation at the tables was in Russian and the large group conversation had to be turned into a report back session and the feedback translated for me . None the less it was a success and only reinforced my view that if you have a good topic and an engaged bunch of people you cannot go too far wrong!
Some interesting comments that the organizers had not really grasped what KM was all about and I suspect many of the participants too. Also Gary's comment about 'ordering' people to share brought a chuckle from me! Well worth a read for the insights.
So I took a look. Its an AWESOME product and I have just spent the best part of a Saturday morning integrating it into my website - a bit of tidying up to do but it is as good as done .
What's so great about it? Well, it allows anyone with a weblog or a personal website like mine to build a proper community around the site - you could say a bit like MySpace for bloggers!
If you look on one of my web pages you will find a new panel at the top left hand column of the page that shows a list of people plus their photos who have recently visited my site - they of course need to be members of MyBlogLog.
If you click through on a photo you get to see their profile and a whole load more.
I have been wanting to build a feature like this into my site for the last 5 years or more but did not have the time nor could I afford to purchase some software that I could integrate into my site. MyBlogLog has provided me a solution for free and for a few hours of my time - the actual coding literally took a few minutes.
I am still exploring the system and have been intrigued to notice that over a few hours I keep seeing minor cosmetic improvements creeping in - which is amazing. But now that Yahoo have acquired them I expect this service to go from strength to strength. I have yet to have my first member sign up and I can't find any of my KM blogger colleagues using it yet. But I think that's just a matter of time!
I think this has the potential to set blogging alight!
What makes an effective knowledge worker? - Comments (1)
At the Osney Media European Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Forum last week In London we broke into several "discussion pods" to discuss topics of interest. Earlier, I had proposed a theme of "What are the habits of effective knowledge workers?" and was pleased that this was one of the topics selected.
There were about five of us at our table and we started by getting into a discussion about what were we talking about: habits; skills; attitudes; behaviors; values; mindsets or what? We decided quite quickly that we would run out of time if we focused on these differences and decided just to brainstorm everything without attempting to categorize them. This is the list we came up with. As the others carried on a conversation - I just scribbled down the key attributes - here they are - pretty much in the order they arose and unedited.
connect people with people
connect people with ideas
are good networkers
do not follow the rules
have strong communication skills
like people
feel good about themselves
motivate others
are catalysts
ask for help
demonstrate integrity
are self reliant
open to share
are not afraid
are goal oriented
are able to identify critical knowledge
add value to the organization
have strong subject expertise in a specific area
network for results
trustworthy - can be trusted and trusts others
make decisions
are not insular
do not conform
push the boundaries
assume authority - ask for forgiveness, not permission
strong belief in the value of knowledge sharing
are informal active leaders
take a holistic view
are catalysts, facilitators and triggers
good listeners - they listen first
do not need praise
see the wider picture
work well with others
do not have a 'knowledge is power' attitude
walk the talk
prepared to experiment with technology
playful
take calculated risks
An interesting set of attributes but by no means exhaustive. Will be interesting now to analyze them and pull them into some sort of structure and order. Seems to me though that many of these attributes are 'soft' in nature and difficult to teach or learn. How does someone learn 'not to need praise' for example and just how important an attribute is it?
Over recent months I have spent a lot of time developing the media player that I have embedded in my website. Its kind of a strange beast as although it looks like a single media player - it is in fact a hodgepodge of a number of media players brought in a single seamless environment.
It supports a large range of media formats including YouTube, Google Video, Windows Media Files etc but I have just been trying to add support of MP3, podcasting and FLV and SWF formats. This has taken a lot of research but here is where I am at.
I have found a great embeddable mp3 player from Google. This is so clean and so Google Video like that I don't think I can do better. I am playing with an MP3 podcast file that you can listen to here.
And finally I found Odeo - the mp3/podcast equivalent to Google Video - so now I can not only embed an MP3 player but also a podcast player!!! Amazing :-)
I am almost at the stage where my player will cope with most of the standard formats available which is very satisfying. Its looking a very rich indeed. There is still however a shortage of good KM material.
I have always liked the metaphor that we all view the world through different lenses and believe that to be reality and that if only we could remove or change our lenses we would see things very differently and our behaviour would change accordingly. I was first introduced to this idea by Stephen R. Covey in his The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People some years ago.
So I was amused by this little e-mail from a good friend and enthusiastic knowledge cafe goer Ray Shaw. Thanks Ray for letting me share this.
It was a sunny day. I had only just returned from holiday and walking the dog. Evening drew near. The kitchen seemed a bit dark so I put on the lights. Many of them in fact for we have an array of down-lighters. They all seemed very dim, no more than almost candle power in the ceiling above. I don’t remember them being like this. I wondered if for some reason the electricity suppliers had reduced the power output, or was it simply the contrast with the brightness outside, or was there something wrong with our lighting system? At worse it was something else to get fixed, I thought.
And then it struck me. My own realization of stupidity: I still had my sunglasses on! I removed them and the room brightened up!
Nought, then, to do with the lights, the power supply, or anything to do with the world out-there. Everything to do with the lens through which I perceived the world. Change the lens and, in a moment, the world brightened up!
See how I said that? In such a misleading way? For the world did not change at all. The change was within me. Would that we could so easily change our lens more frequently, and so see the world differently.
We can. And, in so doing, grant ourselves a different power in the world, a power to be different in the world around us and thereby co-create a different order of result and experience in the world.
For all you Dave Snowden fans out there you will be pleased to know that he is now regularly blogging. I'm not too sure how he finds the time as he is supposed to be taking a 3 months sabatical in Singapore to complete his long awaited book. But now I learn from his blog that he is off to Toronto to run a workshop. I wonder if we will ever see that book.
But the blog makes good reading. Excellent piece on the consequences of measurement. At one time I started collecting 'mesurement stories' and how measurement distorts what is being measured. It can be expressed very simply What you measure - you distort.
I will be chairing a Social Networking track at this years Online Information Conference in London. I was asked by the organizers some time back to suggest a speaker from North America and did not hesitate in suggesting Dave Pollard. First, I love his weblog and know that he has a lot of great stuff to say about Social Tools but I had another reason - quite simply I wanted to meet him. Well I have just learnt he will be coming and as you can see from his mindmap and some rather extensive notes he is already thinking about his talk!
Bonnie Cheuk who I also kno well and has just started a new job as Head of Knowledge and Information at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is another a speaker.and also Isabella Peters from Germany whom I don't know. But should be a good track - I am looking forward to it.
Last night I spent an hour or so adding a few more RSS feeds to my website. I have a Lotus Notes agent that is scheduled to run each night and does the work. It is driven by a Notes configuration document for each feed.and a loy of shared code and so it maybe takes me 15 minutes to create a new feed. The agent also updates other syndicated content such as a quote of the day javacript feed.
I am really quite pleased with the feeds now. I have six regional feeds that provide information on new jobs and a similar set of feeds for events such as conferences. I also have a feed for my weblog and a feed that covers all the new and updated pages on my site. And then there is a quote of the day feed and knowledge seeds feed. That makes it sixteen feeds in all.
I also took the opportunity to update the feed icon
I have been wanting to prevent web crawlers that collect email addresses for spam lists from collecting addresses from my site for a long time but never really liked the idea of directly encoding the email address such as tom.jones[AT]jones.com because I felt too many website visitors would not figure out what was going on and know to edit the [AT] to a @ .
So I decided to do what I should have done a few years back - do a search to see what alternatives there might be. Well I found a brilliant one AddressMunger.Com. Absolutely brilliant! Stops the crawlers and is totally transparent to the user. If you have a blog or a website - you will LOVE this :-)
And of course Wikipedia has something to say on Address munging in general.
Knowledge Cafe at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. - Comments (0)
Well here I am in Zurich. Tomorrow Friday (30th June 2006) I will be running a workshop on "Effective Knowledge Working" for the International Relations and Security Network. But having planned to arrive this afternoon I had decided to run a Knowledge Cafe for my members in Switzerland. Chis Pallaris of the ISN agreed to supply a room and refreshments at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Twenty people turned up which more than pleased me and we have just had a really great evening. I started by explaining the history of my knowledge cafes and community and then moved on to run a cafe on the perennial subject of "What are the barriers to knowledge sharing and how do we overcome them.
This is such a great theme for a cafe and never fails to engage people so I am pretty sure everyone had a great evening. One new feature that I have added to my cafes of late is to get everyone to form their chairs in a circle at the end. Surprising how quickly people can do this - took less than a minute and the disruption is well worth it as wjhen people sit face to face as equals it hugely enhances the quality and longevity of the conversation. This ending may well become the norm in my knowledge cafes from now on.
Chris then took me for a short walk around Zurich and we rounded off the evening with a beer; a good meal and of course some further great conversation.
About 6 months ago I bought a manbag. On and off over the years I had thought about it but never quite had the courage to purchase one. But then one day about 6 months ago while shopping, I thought of buying one and maybe because the older I get the less I care about what people think of me as long as I am being true to myself - I just went into a store and bought one. Nothing too outrageous - small - about the size of a hardback book - and in black nylon with some red flashing - and several pockets.
And I love it! Its ideal when ever I go out and don't need to carry my laptop or anything bulkier. It can take my wallet; my mobile phone;my keys; my glasses case; a book; a note book; a selection of pens and of course my video iPod. And also if need be - my camera. Great for a trip to my local Starbucks for a coffee. I have a book to read and note book to make notes - what more could a knowledge worker require!
And then in the paper this morning I read about an American tennis player Andy Roddick attacking Britain's so-called love affair with the manbag. Seems I am not the only one to realize their virtues and overcome years of conditioning that a real man does not carry a bag let alone a purse!
Not so sure about the term 'manbag' though - it might just be open to misinterpretation LOL!
Euan Semple talks to Nicole Simon about his work at the BBC and the grass root approach of turning them towards 'modern technology', what he today is passionate about, the human desire to "connect" and the change in the way we see ourselves, the dead hand of control of global IT.
This is a great little interview with Euan Semple. Well worth the 25 minutes. I know Euan from his weblog The Obvious? and have met him several times but listening to this audio interview really brings the man to life - his thoughts; his ideals and his hopes for the future!
I have been spending quite a bit of time lately browsing the Google Video Store searching for interesting videos that relate to my the interests of my community to add to my website's Video Library but it is early days and there is still little good content on-line.
But today I found a gem - Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of Creative Commons giving a lecture on Network Neutrality, Free Culture, Google Print, Orphaned Works at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Not often I will spend over an hour watching a video lecture on the web but what Prof. Lessig has to say is not only extremely interesting and entertaining but critically important to the future openness of the web and to innovation. Well worth the time!
I have just discovered Google Trends. Google Trends analyzes a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms you enter relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. It then shows you a graph with the results. It does not show you any absolute figures - just the trend. It also shows you the countries and cities from which the searches originate.
So I thought I'd try this on knowledge management. It is interesting to see that the trend is actually downwards but maybe more interesting to see the geographic origin of the searches: not Europe or the US but Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Singapore - the emerging economies - not the developed ones.
This mirrors to some degree the people who sign up as members of my community. I have a page of knowledge cities that shows the cities around the globe where I have the most members. Not too surprising to find London, Sydney and New York top - Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore and New Delhi are high on the list too!
I am hesitant to read too much into this but at a surface level it would indicate that there is more interest in leveraging knowledge in the developing world than the developed!
As for the downward trend, I suspect this has more to do with the evolution of KM rather than any lack of interest in the subject. I rarely search for the term 'knowledge management' these days - as I get such a broad range of results. I am much more likely to search for a specific KM topic of interest. This might also explain the search results from the developing countries where knowledge management is less well developed and hence newcomers are starting out with a broad search on the topic.
Wikipedia and rewards for knowledge sharing - Comments (0)
At a recent Knowledge Cafe in London, on the table I was at, we got to discuss why people shared their knowledge in organizations and what the role of recognition and rewards were.
Someone made the point - it may have been me - that people are happy to contribute to Wikipedia when there are no rewards whatsoever - not even any recognition! They do it for the love of doing it - contributing to a mission - to a worthy cause. They see the value in it.
And then it hit me - I had often wondered why Wikipedia did not recognize the contributors to an entry in some way such as providing a meta data page that listed all the contributors by order of contribution. I now had the answer - if they did - people would contribute to Wikipedia for the wrong reasons - for the "reward" of "recognition" and they would "game" the system for that reward. By providing no recognition and no rewards - only the people who were passionate enough about the topic in hand take the time to contribute.
For a long time - I have been against rewards for knowledge sharing but have reluctantly agreed that recognition was a good thing. I am now less and less sure. Recognition is just another form of reward that can be gamed. The only recognition that true knowledge workers need is the self-recognition that they are doing a good job and working on soemthing they believe in!
For the last few years I have been running knowledge cafes and conferences that were inspired by my frustration with traditional conference and speaking formats. Too often traditional conferences are "chalk and talk" and "death by powerpoint" and I wanted to get away from this format and create meetings that were a lot more interactive, participative, and conversational - where the participants (note I have never called them delegates) got to engage with the subject matter.
At the same time it was good to notice that other people were adopting this format too and that many more conferences and seminars were becoming 'participative events'. Well once this new form of 'conference' is given a label then maybe its time has really come and so I was delighted to just read this posting of David Gammels on Unconferences.
This is how an "unconference" compares with a traditional "conference". I love it
I have just been doing some searching using the Technorati search engine. I started off with "Gurteen" as given my name is rather unusual it normally makes a unique key to search on - but not this time - seems Marilyn Manson got wed at Gurteen Castle in Ireland and the whole world seems to have blogged about it - rather swamping me out :-)
So I tried knowledge cafe and came up with some interesting hits including one from Christian Long. Here is how Christian concludes his posting.
Imagine if the 'school' of today became the 'knowledge cafe' or 'knowledge community' of tomorrow?
I have often thought this. I'd love to see the knowledge cafe concept more widely applied - especially in schools. Anyone like to talk to me about it?
The interesting point that Glenn makes is that the web is ten years old or so and ten years ago we could never have predicted what we see today nor indeed control it. The web has 'emerged' from "lots of smart people, loosely coordinating their actions with each other". Quite a phenomena!
This is how Glenn concludes the article:
As the world grows more interconnected, more and more people have access to knowledge and coordination. Yet we continue to underestimate the revolutionary potential of this simple fact. Heck, we underestimate the revolutionary reality of it, in the form of things we already take for granted, like Wi-Fi and Google.
But I'm not a wild-eyed visionary. As a result, I'm going to make a very conservative prediction: that the next ten years will see revolutions that make Wi-Fi and Google look tame, and that in short order we'll take those for granted, too. It's a safe bet.
I am sure he is right - its a safe bet. But what are we going to see over the next ten years now that we have a few clues - is it any the more predictable?
There is a quiet revolution going on. If you thought Wikipedia was awesome then take a look at Wikibooks - open-source digital textbooks on any topic, in any language, available to anyone, anywhere, for free!
In the longer term, along with open access journals, this is really going to shake up the academic publishing world. Read the article to start to understand the true impact of this idea.
And take a look at the Wikiversity Project - read the vision statement - the potential is enormous.
Wow this is what technology is for! Take a look at the photos. One very lucky young girl. In any other pool without the computer system she would have surely died.
Thanks to Bill Ives, I just took my 'nerd exam' and came out as a mid-level nerd with a score of 71! I really didn't think I'd score quite so high - but then a degree in Physics and an IT background helped enormously.
This article - essentially on the debate about ID (Intelligent Design) makes very interesting reading - especially the 200 or so comments - giving a diverse range of perspectives. I am firmly in the scientific camp and totally concur with the conclusion of Sam Harris's article:
The only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us. Nothing guarantees that reasonable people will agree about everything, of course, but the unreasonable are certain to be divided by their dogmas. It is time we recognized that this spirit of mutual inquiry, which is the foundation of all real science, is the very antithesis of religious faith.
Regardless of the arguments of the two camps, I am surprised how few people understand the concept of scientific theory. To quote Stephen Hawking
Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory."
And thanks to Euan Semple's weblog for pointing me to this.
This idea is brilliant! Here is the notion according to Kathy Sierra.
The notion is this: stick people in a house for 48 hours, with a goal to have something created at the end. Depending on the nature of the goal, participants may be collaborating (like building a game together) or working alone (musicians composing, writers writing, etc.). The key is the process--a process that forces you to suppress the "inner judges" that stifle creativity, and gives you not just permission but an order to create as much as possible, as fast as possible... even if what you end up with is 97% crap.
But never mind game builders or musicians (though its perfect for them) - what about using the technique in an organizational context- organizations could use this too and I am not just thinking of programmers - what could accounts or customer support do?
And I wonder if I could use it in a knowledge cafe setting - that is I have 30 people for 2 hrs in a room together one evening - what could we attempt to create together in that time. mmmm could it be done? This is worth thinking on. If anyone has any ideas or experience of doing something similar in a k-cafe or organizational setting I'd be interested to know. Just post back a comment so everyone can see it.
I knew Barry Briggs when I worked at Lotus Development in Cambridge back in the early 90s. I also knew his wife to be Julie Kim who also worked at Lotus at that time. I have not met or talked with Barry in over 10 years but keep silently in touch with him by reading his weblog.
So given my own deep interest in the history of humanity and the fact that the parents to be of a very important woman in my life fled mainland China for Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek's defeated forces in 1949 and later they and their daughters moved to America and England - I was touched to read this story of his and Julie's background. In Barry's words:
It is remarkable, isn't it, how we all unknowingly float in the wavelets of history?
Thanks to Tom Peters for pointing me to this speech of Steve Jobs. Every young person starting out in life should read this! Here is just a taste:
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
Now I start to get the idea of how Wikipedia works to ensure the neutrality of its articles. In the words of John Udel:
Wikipedia's greatest innovation is arguably the framework it provides to mediate the social construction of knowledge, advocate for neutrality, accommodate dispute, and offer a path to its negotiated resolution.
Powerpoint presentations can be pretty dreary at the best of times and these days I do my best to avoid them altogether. But sometimes they are appropriate. But slide after slide of bullet points? I must admit if I look at most of my old presentations - that's what they are - lists of things - hey it makes easy for me to remember what to say and the order to say it in! But it doesn't do it for the audience!
So I might just buy this book that Matt Mower has just purchased - "Beyond Bullet Points" by Cliff Atkinson.
I love the work of Dave Pollard. And never understand how he finds the time to write so prolifically. I particularly like his recent post on the need for entrepreneurial skills and the following comment:
It's at once a radical and a pragmatic approach, one that mimics as much as possible the learning that entrepreneurs get on the job. While the professors I have spoken to love it, the university executives higher up shudder at the thought of a curriculum with no classroom, no instructor and no lecturing. They find the concept threatening, and say it would be impossible to 'sell' to curriculum committees, which are, they confess, in the business of filling seats in their expensive real estate and defending the process of tenured experts lecturing as somehow a better way of imparting knowledge than letting students find things out for themselves. Rather than trying to change their minds, I have concluded that, since they have nothing to offer those who need entrepreneurial skills other than the 'brand' of the university, we're better off finding a way to provide entrepreneurial education without them.
I agree with Dave, they will never change, there are better ways! I beleieve that the education system or should I call it the training system is in for a bumpy ride over the next decade.
This is just fantastic! Click the link to see a map of New York
and then click the Satellite link in the top right had corner of the screen. And the zoom-in and pan around by dragging. Awesome!
Following on from my blog from yesterday on empowering children, I came across this news story about how children were being equipped with notebook computers from a foundation run by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and his wife Elaine.
The mission: to make laptops as ubiquitous as cell phones in technology-deprived regions. Negroponte's pitch: The cost of a laptop comes in far lower than a child's textbook expenses for the computer's lifespan.
"It's a way of having the children be the agents of change," Negroponte told The Associated Press. "They bring the device home, and then the parents look over their shoulder." He thinks it's extremely important that individual children own laptops; it will ensure they'll be well-maintained.
I love children and anything we can do to help them make their way in the world - especially the developing world - the better.
So much good stuff in this report from Lee Bryant on the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship. But one passage in particular excited me:
How do we get empowered adults if we treat young people as powerless subjects? We need a civil rights movement for children. Young people want to be effective in society, and they can be the most powerful force for implementing change if we let them get involved and help solve their own problems. This can also have spin off benefits in education and performance.
I have just discovered Google Maps and the system and the quality of the graphics is awesome! I have yet to really understand the technology but apart from being a great mapping tool it also seems to be a development platform. People like John Udel and others are doing some incredible things like combining Google Maps with a GPS system, still photos, digital movies and a sound track to create a Walking Tour of Keene.
I think the application of this technology is going to be huge and as John says we are going to use it to "Annotate the planet".
I sometimes I trip over things on the web, often quotes, that take my breath away. It just happened again with this quote from Henry David Thoreau from his book Walden.
Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay.
This posting is worth reading in full and reflecting on!
Take two iconic states: Texas and Massachusetts. In some ways they were the two states competing in the last election. One is the home of Harvard, gay marriage, high taxes and social permissiveness.
The other is Bush country, solidly Republican, traditional and gun-toting. Massachusetts voted for John Kerry over George W Bush 62% to 37%; Texas voted for Bush over Kerry 61% to 38%.
Ask yourself a simple question: which state has the highest divorce rate? Marriage was a key issue in the last election, with Massachusetts’ gay marriages becoming a symbol of alleged blue state decadence and moral decay. But in fact Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country at 2.4 divorces per 1,000 inhabitants. Texas, which until recently made private gay sex a crime, has a divorce rate of 4.1.
A fluke? Not at all. The states with the highest divorce rates are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The states with the lowest divorce rates are: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Every one of the high divorce rate states went for Bush. Every one of the low divorce rate states went for Kerry. The Bible Belt divorce rate is roughly 50% higher than the national average.
In the KM world, we talk a lot about networking and communities of practice and the like.
What I like about this article by Theodore Zeldin is that Theodore is an historian, I suspect he knows very little about KM, and so he sees networking from a totally different perspective.
Ever heard a KMer say anything like this:
"I see networking as part of the process by which we try to rearrange our lives so as to become the sort of human being we would like to be."
You will just love the conference bike - play the movie on the home page! Thanks to Lloyd Davis for pointing this out to me and suggesting a 'bike cafe' but at 9500 euros - its a tad expensive
I love this weblog of Hugh Macleod's! Its amusing and provocative. I think this concept
of "your job is about firing off as many synapses in your client’s brain as possible" is 'beautiful' and has wider application!
And this even better: "THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN IS INFINITE".
I have just discovered Meetups! They seem a little bit too structured for my liking (for example running on the same day everywhere) but what a great idea!
I am still trying to figure out jow I could use some of the concepts to improve my knowledge-cafes and even make them global. Maybe a kcafe could be a meetup?
What is a Meetup?
It's a local gathering of a group of people brought together by a common interest. Real world, face-to-face, maybe over coffee or a beer.
Where are Meetups?
Meetups happen in hundreds of cities around the world. At local cafés, bars, bowling alleys, donut shops, dog-friendly spots, videogame displays, and lots of other places. People vote on where their local Meetup will take place.
When are Meetups?
Most Meetups are weekday evenings or Saturdays. Meetups are on the same day everywhere. Most topics have a Meetup Day every month.
Is this free?
Yes, Meetup is a free service.
Who leads the Meetup?
Nobody. Meetups are informal; it's peers talking to peers. Most Meetups do have volunteer hosts that help make things go smoothly, but think of it as a casual get-together, not an official meeting.
A week or so ago John Maloney e-mailed me a weblog entry of Bill Ives on the book The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff and James Maxmin. I loved the opening premise:
"The Support Economy starts with a compelling premise: People have changed more than the corporations upon which their well-being depends. In the chasm that now separates the new individuals from the old organizations is the opportunity to forge a capitalism suited to our times and so unleash a vast new potential for wealth creation."
And then at the week-end, although the book was published in 2002, it was the fist book I come across in my local bookshop. So of course I just had to buy it. Its not light reading and I have only got through the first 30 pages or so but the concepts are awesome. Here is another quote:
"The last fifty years have seen the rise of a new society of individuals, but corporations continue to operate according to the logic of managerial capitalism, invented a century ago for different people, different markets, and different needs. Today's individuals seek psychological self-determination. They are the origins of their own meanings, not a passive mass audience."
I like that phrase "psychological self-determination". To me its another way of saying that people are becoming more responsible for their own lives and learning to be themselves.
Unlocking Human Potential Through Social Networking - Comments (0)
I was just looking to learn a little more on Social Networking for my upcoming Exploiting Social Networking in Organizations conference in September and stumbled across a post by Robin Good on his weblog where he raves about a paper from Lee Bryant on the topic. Now it just so happens I have seen Lee speak, the last time at the Social Tools Symposium conference in London last week and was so impressed with his deep understanding of the subject and the people issues that I 'signed him up' to speak at my conference.
I love Larry Prusak ever since In saw him speak at a KM conference a few years back. He tears into our conventional and stupid ways of thinking about things and the crazy things we do in our business life. Take a look at this article on Time and Space.
I am a huge fan of John Holt and you will find much about him on this website and in my knowledge-letters so I was delighted to find this nice little summary of some of John Holt's ideas on education and schooling in Robert Patersons weblog.
Just a taste:
I think children learn better when they learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it, and how they want to learn it, learning for their own curiosity and not at somebody else’s order.
Reading this, got me to thinking and searching the web some more on the subject of schooling and making the link between three people whose ideas and writings I greatly admire. John Holt of course but also Ivan Illich and Alfie Kohn.
Ivan Illich also has some interesting things to say on schooling. This is how chapter 1 of his book
Deschooling Society starts:
Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavor are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.
And to complete the trio Alfie Kohn who also has a great deal to say about schooling, teaching methods and the negative role of rewards and punishment.
I've just sat here in my living room enjoying a small number of sound clips of an interview with David Weinberger on various aspects of blogging. Now moving on to an interview with Dave Winer. I wonder how long it will be before I stop watching TV altogether.
I want to cry! I want to shout! I want to scream! But I quietly smile to myself and shake my head. I have just been watching a Sunday morning programmme on BBC TV - Heaven & Earth where they were reporting on a scheme in Manchester England in which schoolchildren could win a prize just for attending lessons, as part of a plan to tackle truancy.
As part of a 10 week pilot scheme, each week a computer will select random names of six pupils from six different schools across the city. They will each win vouchers of Ł100, and Ł15 for each of their classroom peers, if they have been in classes at particular times the previous week. If they haven't attended, no one wins and the money is rolled over. Mick Waters, Manchester City Council's chief education officer said: "This is about dangling a carrot in front of all students for a trial period to see if we can get some of our non attenders back in their classrooms and back in the habit of regular attendance."
I hope like me other people feel this a very misguided idea to say the least. Judging by the Vote on the Heaven and earth website 95% of people do but I have no idea how accurate a poll that is.
In this book, Alfie Kohn shows that while manipulating people with incentives seems to work in the short run, it is a strategy that ultimately fails and even does lasting harm. Our workplaces and classrooms will continue to decline, he argues, until we begin to question our reliance on a theory of motivation derived from laboratory animals.
Same reasons why I am against rewards and other bribes for knowledge sharing
Theodore Zeldin has just updated his website Oxford Muse. Apart from being a stunning site with some amazing thoughts and ideas - what I love are the muse self-portraits. Take a look at this one for example by Alan Human - not quite what you would expect from a "down and out".
The self-portraits remind me of the material found on some of the better weblogs - they provide a deep insight into the person writing the blog or the self-portrait and at the same time a clearer insight into humanity. I think it would be interesting if every blogger wrote a Theodore Zeldin style self-portrait that was posted prominently on their weblog as a way to introduce themselves.
I have just been browsing the web trying to catch up on the work of Theodore Zeldin as I admire his work tremendously and feel his work with 'conversation' is central to what KM is all about.
I have also recently been starting to put together a series of KM educational modules that are going to form the basis of a series of workshops that I have in mind. One of the early modules that I have been working on focuses on the need for people to be internally motivated to make the most of their knowledge and to become 'knowledge networkers' as it is through other people that they not only learn but gain the inspiration to be innovative and do new things. So I was fascinated to come across this piece from Theodore ... that I had missed before when reading about The Oxford Muse.
"So what I'm starting is a new kind of - I don't want to call it an institution, because institutions always end up as bureaucracies.
I wanted to invent something different, and I called it the Muse, the Oxford Muse, because I live in Oxford.
The Muses traditionally were females of legendary ancestry who inspired people.
They did not teach, they did not require to be worshipped, but they were a source of inspiration which enabled people to do something above the ordinary.
They taught you how to cultivate your emotions through the different arts in order to reach a higher plane.
What is lacking now, I believe, is something which we cannot find anywhere, somewhere where you can reach, and get that stimulation - not information, but stimulation - where you can meet just that person, or find just that situation, which will give you the idea of invention, of carrying out some project which interests you, and show how it can become a project which is of interest to other people. "
I hate the non-permeance of the web - I only found this page yesterday but already it is no longer indexed by Google and I guess not available
The idea that we need other people to get stimulation not just information I believe is key to being an effective knowledge worker and I am beginning to see more and more where Theodore's work overlaps with my own.
Theodore interestingly goes on in the article to talk about the need for individuals to create detailed biographies of themselves so that other people can understand them and thus open up the possibility for such conversations.
I know Theodore is doing a lot of work in this area but he does not make it publically available so I am not too sure of the form of his biographies but what does strike me is that "weblogs" are a form of biography ... if I really want to get to know a person well then their weblog is a very accurate reflection of them and one of the best ways in which to find like-minds.
Lots of food for thought here ... and ideas to muse on :-)
Must start blogging again but just been too busy doing so many other things. Guess I will just start again by blogging some very simple stuff - so my contribution for today :-) - this thought provoking article on leadership by Margaret J. Wheatley. The article reminds me that we are all leaders in one way or another and that each of us has the ability to make a difference and that we need to help and support each others development.
Occurs to me that what I consider to be a true knowledge worker is also a leader.
Its a fascinating paper and in it is an excerpt entitled "Why Innovation is Place Based" from another paper called Innovative Regions: The Importance of Place and Networks in the Innovative Economy. So today I have been investigating further. And have come with some fascinating resources that I am recording here for further study.
Here is a little taster from Innovative Regions :
Networks: In the traditional economy, ideas were held tightly within institutions; in the new economy, ideas flow more freely within networks. The unit of innovation has become the network, not simply the firm. To stay abreast of change and speed the commercialization process, the walls that once separated public and private institutions, education and business, and large and small firms must come down. Separation and hierarchy do not work when speed is of the essence. Increasingly, the process of innovation is not conducted simply within an individual company, but through knowledge-creating networks of individuals with ideas in companies, universities and other institutions. The key is the sharing of tacit knowledge through interactive processes based on trust, willingness to share and mutually beneficial exchange over time.
Knowledge Cafe at KM Conference, Oriel College Oxford - Comments (0)
Looks more like I am conducting an orchestra than a knowledge café - there are in fact a lot more people in the room out of shot of the camera ... and it proved to be good little event ... several people telling me how much they enjoyed it and that they had never been involved in such an event before which I found surprising.
More recently, I have been looking to identify the major "knowledge cities" of the world. And as Steve Searle in New Zealand pointed out a starting point is to identify which cities have a University and an International Airport.
But then I though why not search for the term Knowledge City and see if the term is in use.
As she valued my website and newsletter - she brought me several 'knowledge gifts' in return as a 'thank you'. This is just what I love about Knowledge Sharing - you get back as mcuh as you give - if not more
Amongst these gifts was a beautiful little story about the importance of acknowledging the sources of your ideas - regardless of whether they are in 'print' or not.
I received an early lesson about acknowledging others from my mentor George Spindler. The Spindlers were houseguests visiting me after I took a full-time academic appointment upon completion of doctoral studies. I eagerly shared an early draft of a chapter I had been invited to write, tentatively entitled "Concomitant Learning".
Spindler was up early the next morning, but to my disappointment I found him looking through materials he had written (my library contained many of them) rather than reading my new draft. He had already read and enjoyed my article, he explained, but he expressed disappointment at my failure to credit him as a source of inspiration for the concept that provided my title and rationale. He had been searching for the citation I should have made. "But you've never written about it ," I explained, reaffirming what I already knew and he was beginning to suspect. "I got the idea from you, but you only suggested it in
a seminar. There was no publication to cite."
Technically (and luckily ) I was correct, as his search revealed. That wasn't the entire lesson however. "No matter where or how you encounter them," he counseled, "always give credit for the sources of your ideas. It's so easy to do so : so appropriate to good scholarship ... and so appreciated."
Never again have I limited my acknowledgements only to people whose ideas are in print. And I, too, have "so appreciated" that courtesy when extended to me!
I've just been browsing Ryze - a personal networking site. You can sign up for basic membership for free. Now what is truly fantastic about this site - is this. You create your own profile which includes a photo - most people include their photos. You may then specify who your friends are - they too need to be Ryze members. So far so good.
Now you start to browse around looking at the profiles of other members. If you stumble across a member who you do not know but is a "friend of a friend" or a "friend of a friend of a friend" then the system displays a little network diagram that shows the linkages between you and that member - complete with little thumb-nail photos of all the people in the network.
Its packed full of other useful ways of connecting you to other interesting people but this little tool just stands out.
It is so so cool! Also take a look at www.ecademy.com - another interesting networking site.
I don't know how I stumbled across this site - but it is a 'personal storytelling' site. No nothing to do with KM - just people telling short interesting personal stories. And each one uniquely and quite beautifully produced.
Here are their story-telling rules
Make it personal. (Use the word "I" or don't write at all.)
Be honest. (Only true stories will be accepted.)
Keep it under 1000 words. (Please!)
The best submissions balance two goals: personal storytelling and emotional reflection. Don't just tell us a story, tell us why it's important and how it affected you. Remember that your story will end with a question for others to answer, so make sure you answer it, too. Sometimes it helps to think of the question in advance and treat your story as an especially well-prepared answer.
Finally, remember that {fray} is about personal storytelling. That means you should take us back to a moment that mattered to you and tell us all about it, from beginning to end, as if we were going through it ourselves. Your job is to make a stranger feel what you felt.
I love it! But it gets better. In ending each story with a question - you get to answer that question. So having read the story - you can read a whole set of personal answers to the question by other readers. Many of the stories/questions/answers are very moving. I'm sitiing her with tears in my eyes!
I have always loved folk music for as long as I can remember. I also love history, especially the history of humanity, Thinking about it, its not too surprising the two are intimately connected.
I mainly work from home these days and when my concentration needs are not too great, the TV is on the background, usually the History Programme. Just caught the end of a programme on the American War of Independence - poor old Cornwallis being defeated at Yorktown!
But as the titles on the programme rolled there was a folk group (who are they??) playing "Johnny's Gone For a Soldier ":
Quick search on Google and I have the lyrics and a rendering of it ...
Here I sit on Buttermilk Hill
Who can blame me, cryin' my fill
And ev'ry tear would turn a mill,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
Me, oh my, I loved him so,
Broke my heart to see him go,
And only time will heal my woe,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
I'll sell my rod, I'll sell my reel,
Likewise I'll sell my spinning wheel,
And buy my love a sword of steel,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
I'll dye my dress, I'll dye it red,
And through the streets I'll beg for bread,
For the lad that I love from me has fled,
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
Such a poignant song.
December 2007 Update: Found a YouTube recording by James Taylor:
I am just putting my presentation together for my conference next week and one of the key points I wish to make is the fact that those who believe in KM are not very good at communicating what KM is about.
Often when I have an insight, I attempt to search out other like-minded people with similar views by turning to Google to see what they have to say on the issue. This time I had success - an article by Jerry Ash on the need for knowledge managers to be effective communicators.
Its a great article and has reinforced my views on the role of communication in KM. We need to stop moaning about the fact that so many people "do not get KM" and start having conversations with them and communicating with them what it is really about!
This morning I received a management development guide through my door. I flicked through it and came to rest at the "Human Resources" section. And I shivered. No nothing unusual. In fact more of the same! What made me shiver was the language used to describe people.
There were four training courses and I wanted to rename each of them - to change the language that was used in talking about people.
"Managing human resources" to "Managing people" or even to "Working with people".
"Attracting, retaining and developing talent: a strategy for increasing human capital" to "Attracting, retaining and developing people: a strategy for helping people to develop themselves"
"Return on investment on human capital" to "Helping people to be their best."
The idea is simple:
Lets STOP thinking of people as resource, or talent or capital but quite simply as people!
And lets stop talking about manipulating people but about working effectively with each other and helping and supporting each other.
And of course lets not just change the language lets change our behaviours too!
But try as I might I cannot think of a better name for the most hated term of all "Human Resources"! Any suggestions?
Or maybe a paradigm shift is in order? Lets transform the concept of "HR" and then we would not need a new name!
Caught this guy - Dr Patrick Dixon - a futurist - on TV this morning talking about SARS. His SARS page contains a incredible wealth of detail on the disease and is worth a read alone. But the rest of the site looks fascinating too.
I have just been reading the book Extraordinary Minds by Howard Gardner. Its a fascinating book in which he presents four types of extraordinary minds that he calls Master, Maker, Introspector, and Influencer. He then provides an example for each Mozart, Freud, Woolf, and Gandhi respectively.
The chapter on Gandhi I found of most interest. In particular Gandhi's use of Storytelling to bring about peaceful change in India.
He classifies Gandhi as an "Influencer and here is a little of what he has to say:
"In contrast, the Influencer -- the architect of the leading story -- must ever be in contact with human beings, trying out the story, making adjustment, monitoring their reactions, and repeating the cycle indefinitely. The story must be sufficiently novel to generate interest, yet not so original as to defy credibility. And if they want the story to have lasting impact, Influencers must create or take over an organization that will help the new story remain alive in the psyches of their followers."
But he also says a lot more about Gandhi and storytelling ... a powerful example of storytelling at work and its ability to bring about change.
Wow! Another great web experience! I've just discovered Virginia Satir. I was browsing my website and found a quotation I had posted of hers. I rather liked it so I clicked on her name to do a Google search on her to learn more. And there she was - a photo of an old lady shortly before her death in 1988.
She was a social worker and a founder of family therapy and although I have only read a little about her work so far - I am impressed. So much humanity! I've already captured several quotations of hers and I'm sure I will add many more as I start to learn more about her and her work.
I've just discovered a great website developed by the World Bank called YourNet. Its far from perfect but it is a great example of what can be done with an 'intranet' site. It reminds me a little bit of my own site but then that is clearly as it is a Lotus Domino based site and that brings to it a certain design attitude that encourages structure and cross-linking. Just look at how the site is described below. Love it!
YourNet was invented for Human Resources in the World Bank Group to help foster communication between business units, encourage community involvement, and share knowledge between HR professionals and their clients. There's no other product like it anywhere. And it came from HR.
YourNet is about KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT. It's about tapping into the wealth of learning and experiences inherent in every organization. KM means recognizing that every person in an organization contributes to the wealth of its knowledge; that every person is enhanced when that knowledge is shared.
I love their mission statement too: "Our Dream is a World Free of Poverty".
Now this looks like absolutely essential reading. Now I remember why I love weblogs so much. I just took a moment in my busy day to click a random link in my blogroll and I am so well rewarded. Thanks Rebecca!
Over the past 15 months, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), in close collaboration with US Government specialists and a wide range of experts outside the government, has worked to identify major drivers and trends that will shape the world of 2015.
Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture - Comments (1)
Some time ago, I wrote an e-mail to a Knowledge Manager in a large organization giving him some advise on how I thought he could help create a 'knowledge sharing culture' in his organization. I thought I'd share it.
I believe for KM to be successful that everyone must understand and buy-in to KM concepts and drive KM initiatives. If the CEO and senior management do this then to some degree it will be successful BUT EVERYONE in an organization is responsible for KM (some parallels here with Quality) and everyone in an organization needs to drive KM.
If senior management drive KM without support from the people then it will most likely die out - you cannot mandate that people share their knowledge or are more creative. And if it is solely driven from the bottom it may also fade out as people will feel they do not have the support they need. To my mind, KM should be driven from the bottom with strong support and encouragement from senior management.
You seem to already have senior management support, in the fact, that your unit has been set up. But if you limit yourself to drive a small number of initiatives, how ever successful, then I think KM is in danger of fizzling out.
I'd like to suggest that you galvanize the whole of the organization behind you and support people in potentially hundreds of small initiatives. In other words create a "grassroots KM movement".
By and large people are motivated to do well, to learn, to collaborate with each other and to get things done. Far too often, they opt out. They only "do their jobs". "It is not their problem." This mindset becomes so pervasive that they do not even realize they are doing it. If asked they will insist "they are doing a good job"; they are "doing what is asked of them".
I suggest you do not focus on just KM how ever you define it. Make the remit broad: the sharing and application of knowledge, learning, creativity, innovation and personal development and possibly more. I think people can understand these terms better and find them more motivating.
So the concept is simple, create a global KM community of people who instinctively "get" what KM is about. Educate them in KM, encourage and support them and turn them loose. Many KM initiatives can be implemented for little or no money - all that is needed is people's time and enthusiasm to do a good job or to do something creative. To me, KM, is more a mindset or an attitude to work then anything else.
Initially do not worry trying to convert people who "just don't get it" - many will eventually "get it" when they see the success of others and more will start to understand KM in time but many will never "get it" at all.
So the outline of my idea is this.
Create a community. People have to apply to join. Absolutely anyone can join. No one is turned away.
Publish a monthly electronic newsletter to support them. Let people write for it. Publish ideas, new initiatives and success stories. Publish internal and external events. Publish short book reviews, inspirational quotations etc.
Encourage people to take initiatives. Encourage them to talk - to give presentations at lunch time or early evenings if they cannot get time during the day.
Set up a support desk to help people. Nothing elaborate - a phone no. or e-mail address will do.
Run internal talks/seminars/conferences on KM to educate people about KM. Make these events highly interactive.
Give lunch time and early evening talks.
Run knowledge-cafés
Set up a community website to support them.
You may have noticed a parallel here. I am doing exactly the above with my website, newsletter and the talks I give at conferences etc. What I am suggesting is that you take these concepts and adapt and apply them internally.
KM is not an end in itself. It is a set of disciplines and tools to help us meet our business objectives.
What is the point of doing KM if it does not help us meet our business objectives? KM can only be measured by its ability to help us meet our business objectives.
KM needs to address the quality of our decision-making.
What is the point of KM if we still make lousy decisions - if we do the wrong thing - even exceptionally well? We would do better to do the right thing badly and not bother with KM at all!
KM needs to address the issue of our motivation and our ability to make use of the knowledge we have.
We can be given all the perfect information and knowledge that we need to do our jobs but if we fail to use it then what is the point?
KM should help us to improve our awareness and understanding.
KM should not be just about helping us to know more. It is through increased awareness and understanding that we start to see our organizational world in new ways and identify new business opportunities.
KM is about helping us to identify new opportunities and leveraging them.
Measuring the results of KM is important but we should not forget that KM is also about identifying new opportunities. We can measure cost/profit etc but we cannot measure 'missed opportunities" by their very nature we do not see missed opportunities until it is too late.
The interest in "Conversation Cafés" seems to be growing. I recently stumbled on yet another site. This is how the home page starts:
Why Conversation Cafés? Because when you put strangers, caffeine and ideas in the same room, brilliant things can happen. For that very reason, the British Parliament banned coffeehouses in the 1700s as hotbeds of sedition. Might we brew up a similar social liveliness now? With democracy, critical thinking and "the ties that bind" all under siege, this may be the most radical cup of coffee you ever drink.
Conversation Cafés are about having interesting conversations on almost anything that matters. Knowledge Cafés such as the Gurteen Knowledge Café are about having interesting conversations on our organizational and business lives.
I just received an e-mail from a reader of my newsletter who wanted to know if I knew of any good questionnaires for helping to conduct knowledge audits. I did a quick Google search which did not turn up any questionnaires but it did find this interesting note by Denham Grey which recommends against them. This is how it starts:
Would recommend against going the questionnaire route for knowledge audits. Experience suggests the real value of an knolwedge audit comes from surfacing "what people know, but don't know they know". Questionnaires are not an effective route to this rich source of uncovered knowledge. What you need is evangelism, training and support to help staff reflect and uncover the best opportunities. Start 'conversations', tell stories, give examples and lead by example ....
I just stumbled across this article by David Weinberger from 1998 on "The Death of Documents and the End of Doneness". This is how the article ends:
The cards are stacked against documents. We are seeing a massive cultural shift away from the concept of done-ness. The Web allows for constant process and enables open-ended groups of people to be invited into the process. Things on the Web are never done, and the damn "under construction" sign is implicit at every site. Why should anything be declared "done" when that means taking responsibility and arbitrarily picking a place to freeze a process in a context that is always always always changing?
Documents are things that are done. That is why the Web will kill them.
Its a great article and a penetrating insight into how the web is changing and will continue to change business life!
I have just been reading about "Open Space Technology" and came across the "Law of Two Feet" which I instantly took to.
We are all often in meetings or discussion groups where one member tries to dominate the discussion and effectively wrecks any possibility of an open conversation or the full participation by all the members of the group. Typically, some members sit in silence waiting for the session to end while others get into a heated argument with the protagonist. But there is a third way. Here is the law:
Sometimes it happens that overly zealous participants feel that their ideas are so important or powerful that everybody in a particular group (or even in the whole conference) should pay attention and listen. This one has to be nipped in the bud -- carefully. The way out is not to directly challenge the person, but rather to remind the assembled group of the Law of Two Feet. If everybody truly wants to listen, they should do that. But if that is not their desire, they have two feet which they should use. There is no need to argue and shout, just thank the group and leave. Egomaniacs quickly get the picture when everybody leaves.
Now this wont work in every circumstance but it will work in many. If the leader or facilitator makes sure that this law is communicated as 'acceptable practice' at the start of the meeting or discussion then it will work that much better. I like the concept and am looking forward to the opportunity to put it into practice.
Slowly the IT world seems to be waking up to the fact that installing IT systems is as much about people as it is about technology. In this week's UK edition of Computer Weekly two articles make this point.
The first article by John Riley entitled "Cultural barriers hinder sharing of patients files" starts:
The main challenge to achieving the sharing of accurate protected yet accessible patient medical information by 2005 is not technical, but cultural, institutional, managerial and political according to draft recommendations from IT Parliamentary group Eurim.
And the second article from Daniel Thomas entitled "Change management is crucial to CRM success, says Gartner" starts:
Customer relationship management systems will continue to disappoint users during 2003 unless companies address change management issues more closely GartnerG2 warned last week.
Now this is going to give blogging a shot in the arm! I expect to see some interesting developments come of this. Thanks to Andrew Mitchell for pointing me to this.
Yesterday I came across a website that had what I thought was a really fantastic feature and my mind set to work as to how I might implement that feature on my own website.
Immediately I could see little ways of improving on the feature. As I did not have time to start wok on it right then - it went on my to-do list but the idea is so good that it keeps flitting across my mind.
A few minutes ago I was in the bathroom drying after a shower - this is the 'workspace' where I frequently have my most creative thoughts. All I was doing was running the idea through my head for the umpteenth time, imaging how I might implement it., imaging how I would launch it, completely visualizing the final entity when all of a sudden the idea just transformed itself inside my head! It was still the same basic concept but in a flash it metamorphosed into something hugely more powerful.
The question is "What happened?". What caused the flip in my head - to see the idea a little differently and transform it. I don't know.
The funny thing is that a month ago when I did not have a broadband connection and was not permanently connected to the web I would have probably not realized the significance of the feature in the original website and so none of this would have happened.
There is a lot to learn here about the birth of new ideas; their nurturing and evolution. Its triggered some interesting thinking. Maybe I should have another shower
This looks like an interesting page to spend some time over. Mainly about a book by Peter Sheehan on "China's Future in the Knowledge Economy" but includes a number of links to other resources on the subject.
Its interesting to note that according to a BBC article China attracted a record $52.7billlion in foreign direct investment in 2002.
Over nine months ago In March 2002, I added this weblog capability to this Lotus Domino based website and started to blog. At the time I could not find another Domino based blog on the web though I have discovered since then that several did exist at that time. But all that is changing, partly fueled by a free Domino based weblog called FreeDom Blog from Anthony Connell. In his weblog he currently has a Domino Blogroll with about 24 Domino based weblogs including mine of course.
You can download Freedom Blog from his site. Clearly if you wish to blog on the Internet with Freedom Blog then you will need a Lotus Notes client on your PC and Domino ISP to host the application. If you need any help or advice on this then give me a call or drop me an e-mail.
The article takes a brief look at several bloggers and their weblogs that seem to have their fingers on the pulse of technology change. the list includes: Dan Bricklin, John Robb, David Weinberger, Ray Kurzweil, Jeremy Allaire, Ray Ozzie and Bob Frankston. Each one of these weblogs worth adding to your blogroll.
Ian Glendinning in his weblog has recently been reading and reviewing a book by Steven Pinker - The Blank Slate - that explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. One of Ian's comments is as follows:
Pinker refers to the entire left side (?) of the brain as the "baloney generator" designed to produce convincing sounding "arguments" in difficult situations. Humans have an innate comfort with the "rational" and dislike of the "irrational", needing rationale to explain experience. Often the rationale may be a gross simplification, simple near-term logic, basic correlation, even an analogy, with little or no true causal connection with the real situation - almost certainly also a mechanism for recording, recalling and reconstructing knowledge in ways that minimize the mental resources needed to do so (Keep it Simple Stupid).
This view of the left brain struck a chord with me as time and time again I have felt that what we do with a complex situation - especially when it comes to human relationships - is to look for a simple model - "she is doing this because she is angry with me" - "she is doing this because she is scared" or whatever - the list is endless. Do we get it right? - "rarely" - in fact I would say - "never". The motivation behind human behavior - why people do or don't do things is sufficiently complex and hidden that is almost impossible to analyze and if we really do have an onboard "baloney generator" then what chance do we ever stand of understanding the motivations of another person? Maybe we should stop wasting our time trying and accept them as they are!
We also need to think about the effect of this "baloney generator" on our ideas about KM. How much of so called 'explicit knowledge' that we capture and store on paper or in computer databases is nothing more than baloney? And when we have a conversation - how much baloney do we talk?
Also how do we recognize baloney? Here is a simple answer. If we think we understand a complex business issue (one that almost invariably involves people and their behaviors) then it is most likely baloney. Which of course means that this last statement is also almost certainly baloney
If you are familiar with Lotus Notes you will know that it allows categorized views to be displayed in an outline mode and you can expand of collapse the views by so called 'twisties' - little blue triangles you click on and that twist as the category is expanded or collapsed.
This works great in Notes but everyone hates them on the web as when you twist a twisty the page is reloaded from the server ... soooo slow. In fact so slow in general I've avoided using them on this Notes based website.
But ActiveRenderer from Radio Userland (developed mainly for weblogs) has twisties too (black ones in this case) and guess what they use JavaScript and CSS to work in the browser. So instant twistiness! Now twisties are usable on the web! On the other hand - if the fully expanded page is very large - you will have to wait longer for the initial download but often that is a beter trade-off.
See here for how it all works. Click on one of the little black triangles to expand or collapse an item - you will get the idea pretty quickly. The content describes how they all work.
When I can find the time I must build them into the views on this website. What I could do with more time!
I've just discovered the notion of "Japanese Research Lessons" courtesy of
Mark Pratt, Deputy Head Teacher of Rounds Green Primary School, in England
who recently signed up for my knowledge-letter.
Google has found me a whole site on the subject. I've had little time to
read the material yet but it looks quite fascinating.
Pity that most of the site consists of PDF files and I can't find a short
one paragraph overview of what they are all about. I guess I am just going
to have to do a lot of reading! The best definition I have found so far is
about shifting from "teaching as telling" to "teaching for understanding".
Certainly in my school boy days at a traditional English boy's grammar school some 30+ years ago I was taught by 'telling'. Its amazing I ever
learnt or should I say 'understood' anything .
I love the web. I love its ability to allow me to explore; to surprise me; to put me in touch with like-minds and to leverage my intellectual capital in a way that only a few years ago was largely undreamt of. Here is a little personal story.
I received a CD for Xmas - Mark Knopfler's
Sailing to Philadelphia
and was captivated by the track of the same name. First its a great piece of music and second I love music that has an historical story that connects me emotionally with the past - Al Stewart, for example, is my favorite song-writer.
But as I first listened to the track, I realised that as a Brit, although I had heard of the Mason-Dixon line - I had no idea what it was. A Google search and I quickly knew the basic historical facts of the Mason Dixon line.
Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason were commissioned in 1763 by the heirs of William Penn and Lord Baltimore to establish the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Many years later their boundary - the Mason-Dixon Line - became the demarcation between the slave and non-slave states.
But interestingly in my search I found other people who had been inspired like me by the song to conduct similar research. Take a look at this page from Ian Gurney in Finland
This says it all - everything I wanted to know wrapped up in one web page by a Eurpoean who had the same questions in his mind as me. Or read this article by Paul Briand of the Portsmouth Herald where he says:
"What is wonderful in all this is the power of surprise and exploration. I bought a CD on the hope it would contain a song or two of interest. Instead, to my delight, I found a path of information unknown, undiscovered."
So if you are intrigued go take a look and I wonder if Jeremiah Dixon and Charlie Mason when sailing to Philadelpha in 1763 ever realised just how well known they would become.
Its interesting that a lot of people have been blogging for years without ever realizing it. But then the term wasn't invented then! I have kept an electronic personal diary and a database for capturing ideas, and musings for the last 10 years. This is part of what Ton Zijlstra says about his blogging activities in a posting on KnowledgeBoard:
I have been keeping a diary, although not daily, for most of my life, in which I track what keeps me busy, where I work out ideas and lines of thought. Facts and figures seldom come up in it. Also I have been jotting down notes of most of the conversations and meetings I have had on legal pads for some 14 years now. These notes contain references to what was said, what it was about, and ideas that came up as the conversation took place. In one of my bookcases a shelf is used to stack a growing row of legal pads with these notes. When I refer to these notes, I often can recall the conversation in great detail, often even being able to quote verbatim what has been said. The notes jog my memory. Then there's one other habit of mine: jotting down phrases, words and situations that I think of during the day, and that some day might be useful in writing literary prose.
Have I been blogging all these years? What is it that blogging adds to conversations? Extending your social network? An archive? A new meetingplace for existing parts of your network? A place to stay on topic, where conversations can wander? And what might starting a blog do for me, given all the stuff I write down already. Would it be useful to translate it into English and publicize it? I don't know really. I sort of think of my notes as a repository of unpolished thoughts, and mostly not ripe enough to share. Although this posting by the way is in the same style as I would write in my diary. Formulating questions etc.
So my questions to you are: Why do you have a blog? What does it bring you? How do you decide on what to blog and what not?
Ton, yes you have been blogging and have discovered some of its many benefits.
Blogs are unpolished thoughts and not very ripe but that is no reason not to share them. Blogging is like thinking out loud. You give other people the chance to comment and help shape your thoughts and ideas and theirs too in the 'conversational' process.
Primarily for me my blog it is a focusing and thinking tool but all the items you mention are benefits. Different people get different things out of blogs.
Deciding what to blog and what not blog is simple ... if I have the urge to blog it ... even if it is off topic then I blog it ... as even if I cannot explicitly articulate it ... there is a almost certainly a connection with my other thoughts and ideas.
And finally I'd just say that blogging is like a loving sexual relationship - you just do not realize how rich and rewarding it is until you have experienced it . So I'd encourage you to create a weblog and start to find out what it means to you - you are clearly a natural blogger.
At lunch time I participated in a Knowledgeboard online workshop where I was the guest speaker - the topic - "The role of conversation in KM".
I spent the morning printing out some of my presentations and articles so they were at hand in case I needed inspiration. My fear was that I might run out of things to say. I should know better by now
There was no shortage of conversation and the hour passed incredibly quickly. As ever when I speak at any conference I am too close to the subject and interaction to gauge how well it really went or was received but I came away happy. And I hope I did a little to help get people to think more about the role of conversation in our everyday business lives. If you are interested the transcript will be edited and published on the site soon.
What was fun though was that Lilia Efimova blogged the event - not in great detail but she did capture some of the points. Thank you Lilia.
Her summary was cool :
a good conversation = trust + (history: people and topics->) context + open emotions + questions that invite everyone to participate (<- reflection)
Those of you who know me - know how I am always rattling on about the role of conversation in KM. This lunch time I am talking in a Knowledgeboard online workshop about the subject and was doing a little preparation when I came across this article.
Consider, for a moment, that the most widespread and pervasive learning in your organization may not be happening in training rooms, conference rooms, or boardrooms, but in the cafeteria, the hallways, and the cafe across the street.
One little insight/technique from Malcolm Allan from last week's knowledge-cafe. In a conversation when someone says something with which you disagree - to keep the conversation open and creative - reply with the words:
"And my map of the world is a little different - can I share it with you?"
Thanks to Sébastien Paquet's weblog for pointing me to this kick-ass article as he calls it on KM by Professor Tom Wilson of the University of Sheffield. Its conclusion is that KM is a fad:
"The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the 'knowledge management' idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads."
I would agree with Tom Wilson that most of what is called KM today is a re-labelling of other material - principally Information Management by software vendors and management consultancies.
But personally I believe that KM is anything but a fad. It is not going to go away and over time will evolve and mature into a fundamentally new and effective inter-personal discipline. Note: I do not say management discipline .
To me KM is about how we as individuals perceive the world, think and behave! But then if that is the case it needs a new label
Abstract:
Examines critically the origins and basis of 'knowledge management', its components and its development as a field of consultancy practice. Problems in the distinction between 'knowledge' and 'information' are explored, as well as Polanyi's concept of 'tacit knowing'. The concept is examined in the journal literature, the Web sites of consultancy companies, and in the presentation of business schools. The conclusion is reached that 'knowledge management' is an umbrella term for a variety of organizational activities, none of which are concerned with the management of knowledge. Those activities that are not concerned with the management of information are concerned with the management of work practices, in the expectation that changes in such areas as communication practice will enable information sharing.
I keep going back to this article ... there are some fundamental clarifications of what certain aspects of KM are or are not about. I've just been reading the section on tacit knowledge and Tom's distinction between tacit knowledge and implicit knowledge. To my way of thinking what he has to say is spot on!
This important distinction reminds me of something that those of you who know me know that I am always rattling on about - "until we can all agree a definition of knowledge and distinguish it from information then how the hell are we ever going to be able to manage it!
How many times have you heard a speaker at a KM conference start his or her talk with the words "I'm not going to try to define knowledge as I know we would never agree!" My response "Humbug - until we do we don't stand a cat-in-hell's chance of talking any sense!"
One of the best - no - the best article on knowledge-logs by Sébastien Paquet that I have read.
In this document, I analyze an emerging form of knowledge sharing that I call personal knowledge publishing. Personal knowledge publishing has its roots in a practice known as "weblogging" that has been rapidly spreading on the World Wide Web over the last three years. It is a new form of communication that many expect will change the way people work and collaborate, especially in areas where knowledge and innovation play an important role.
If you are a researcher or knowledge worker who is not very familiar with weblogging and personal knowledge publishing, reading this document should help you grasp the significance of this practice and better understand how you might benefit from getting involved in personal knowledge publishing. Although the emphasis is on research work, most of the ideas generalize to other kinds of creative knowledge work where knowledge sharing plays a role.
And while I am at it ... another good link on weblogs and blogging courtesey of Seb ...
This is one of the most powerful descriptions of what knowledge and knowledge management should really be all about that I have ever come across. Notice 'technology' is not mentioned!
Knowledge is embodied in people gathered in communities and networks.
The road to knowledge is via people, conversations, connections and relationships.
Knowledge surfaces through dialog, all knowledge is socially mediated and access to knowledge is by connecting to people that know or know who to contact.
In the knowledge economy, connections and relationships count more than personal knowhow and access to content.
The environment changes so fast, the optimum knowledge strategy is instant access to people & their ideas and continuous awareness & learning in a supportive community.
People and discourse communities provide the 'filter' mechanism for alerting and awareness.
This helps to keep your focus, provides market intelligence and affords a platform for negotiating meaning and value.
Knowledge Management (KM) is a maturing discipline that has entered a new era. Please join me in a brief high-level journey of past, present, and future - explore recent corporate KM experience including some lessons learned, the current state of KM affairs, and finally the future of KM.
I've agreed to review the book We Blog by Paul Bausch, Matthew Haughey and Meg Hourihan for Knowledge Management Magazine (Bizmedia) which is proving quite useful as it forces me to read a book on blogging in far more detail than I might otherwise have done. I've just started to browse through it and came across this little description of weblogs:
Weblogs spread memes like no other medium. More ideas are being pushed around the network of minds connected by blogs than any other set of communications. It is like a petri dish for knowledge.
I love metaphor and the mental image of sprinkling little knowledge seeds on a petri dish and watching them grow is a beautiful one.
Yesterday, I gave a talk entitled Blogging, Klogging and Knowledge Management to the UK Online User Group in London where I explained a little about weblogs, k-logs and their relation to knowledge management. It was well received and I enjoyed the afternoon.
Hopefully we may see a few new bloggers emerge as a result of the talk though as ever when I talk about weblogs - some people get the concept immediately and are enthusiastic while others scratch their heads and 'just do not get it'.
It reminds me so much of the early (and at times continuing) reaction to Lotus Notes. I've thought a lot about it and feel it boils down to the fact that some people say 'great I can use this tool to share my knowledge' while others say 'what's the point in this tool - why would anyone want to share anything?'
Most of the audience were more into LIS (Library and Information Science) than KM - so of course one question that was asked was 'what LIS weblogs are there on the web'. At the time I did not know but the following morning while browsing my referral log I came across a link to my weblog from Dr L. Anne Clyde of The University of Iceland who has a whole page of LIS weblog resources. The world moves in strange ways!
I have always been interested in history. The history of warfare in particular has held a deep fascination for me - especially the First and Second World Wars in which both my grandfathers and my father fought in respectively.
It is not a morbid interest but a recognition of the fact that we can learn so much from the past and so much about the human spirit. War is the most demanding of human endevours. Mistakes made do not mean a loss in business or reduced profits or the laying off of staff - it means that people are maimed and killed. There is no second chance.
If we are to learn from anything then surely it is wars: how to avoid them and if you do have to fight them then how to win them with the minimal loss of life and destruction. But also how to apply the expensive lessons learnt to our everyday personal and business lives.
With this in mind, I was delighted to find this article by Robert Paterson on the The Lessons of Vimy. Take a look and see what can be learnt from a battle fought by the Canadian Army over 80 years ago in the 1914-18 War.
Businesses and other large computer users have been advised to go on an instant messaging diet. For liability reasons, they are being advised to monitor IM traffic just as they do e-mail messages. For security reasons, they are advised to ban it from the workplace altogether.
And as I so often do I backed up to the root URL and found the home page of his site - I've only scratched the service but it is full of ideas that challenge conventional thinking. His website is broken into 3 areas : Teaching, Parenting and Managing. I think I will be linking some more to this guy.
Here is the description of one of his lectures by way of a 'taster' :
QUALITY AS DEMOCRACY:
Toward a Participative Workplace
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
The latter strategy is exemplified by rewards systems, performance appraisal, and competition -- all symptoms of top-down control.
By contrast, as Kohn explains, the logical conclusion of a "working with" approach to management extends beyond teamwork or empowerment: it requires the replacement of hierarchical systems with real participative democracy.
I found this page in the referral list to my site. I didn't know that I could 'mark' my weblog as having an RSS feed in order that crawlers could find and catalogue it. Really easy. All you have to do is add the following code to your weblog page:
Rewarding and recognizing knowledge sharing - Comments (0)
This is an interesting article on Rewards and Recognition in Knowledge Management from the AQPC (unfortunately it is no longer available on their site.) In it the APQC President Carla O’Dell is quoted as saying :
"What has been interesting in the 30 years of research is that as you increase extrinsic motivation, you can drive out intrinsic reward. For example, if you give people $20 every time they come to a community of practice event and then stop giving them that, they are going to be upset. Be cautious about attaching extrinsic rewards to behavior you want to persist over time.”
Speaking personally I am very much against extrinsic motivation to reward or encourage knowledge sharing. Its like saying 'this is not really part of your job' or worse 'this is a distasteful part of your job' and so we are we going to reward you separately to do it.
This is totally the wrong message to be giving and can only undermine knowledge sharing in the long term. Knowledge sharing is a fundamental and integral part of every knowledge workers job - not so different to breathing! Why the hell should you single out the key essence of a knowledge workers job - to mind what they are really getting paid for and reward them separately for it. It is just plain crazy.
Disincentives need to be removed and knowledge sharing needs evangelizing and supporting. Recognition is also important. But to my mind the prime way forward is to encourage people to talk openly with each other and to think about knowledge sharing for themselves. You may also need to facilitate such conversations.
This is in the hope (yes hope - you cannot mandate it) that they will come to understand that knowledge sharing is actually not only in the organizations interest but also their own.
If intelligent people who are intrinsically motivated to do a good job of work cannot see the value of knowledge sharing then maybe there is really no value in it for them or the organization but I very much doubt that!
Later in the day Sunday: I love this article by Alfie Kohn - if you have any lingering doubts about the stupidity of rewarding knowledge sharing then read this article!
UpClose: Dr. Nick Bontis
World class thinker
by Susanne Hasulo
This article is an interesting interview with Dr Nick Bontis - an assistant professor of strategic management at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in in Hamilton, Ontario. He is a leading thinker on Intellectial Capital.
Here is what is says on the role of the CKO :
A CKO's main task is to evangelize the principles of knowledge sharing. There will be a certain point when that message, the technology, the infrastructure, the policies, the procedures, will all be in place. It may take you four, five, six years but at some point they will all be in play, at which point you should remove yourself from that position because all the ideals of KM have now been resonated and percolated throughout the organization. Ultimately, a CKO's job should be to fire himself.
Natural Storytelling - KM klog with a difference - Comments (0)
Welcome to Ron Donaldson as the latest member of my KM klog-community. This klog looks a little different and I'm looking forward to watching it develop.
David
Thanks for the very informative knowledge-letter
Browsing your website has inspired me to go for it and create my own BLOG.
It is rather sparse at the moment but I have lots of material in mind.
It is very much KM based, having been inspired by Dave Snowden to give up an IT career and move into 'story, storytelling and communities' in the area of Nature Conservation.
I have given quite well received presentations (primarily on storytelling) via Marcus Evans, OGC and UNICOM
I would very much like to be added to your community project/ Klog roll.
Lilia Efimova blogs her learnings, insights and experiences at the KM Summer School she is attending in Sophia Antipolis, France. This is blogging at its best! Lots of good little tidbits here. (See entries 2nd to 6th September 2002)
I had a phone chat last week with Jon Surmacz of Darwin Magazine who was writing an article on blogging so it was good to see a few referrals to my site this morning and even better to see when I clicked through that he has quoted me and provided a link to my weblog.
Its an interesting article but there are no great new blogging insights - I will be interested though to see how many people click through to my weblog as this must be some sort of a measure of general interest in blogging/klogging.
Kendall Young asks in a comment:
I would be interested in seeing an actual case study of a large business utilizing a blog or blogs that increased the efficiency of their communication, and how has it compared to e-mail or IM?
I know of a few examples and some are published in klogs but I cannot point to one good solid, well documented case study where they have been used effectively by a large organization though I suspect some of the large global organizations who were early Lotus Notes adopters may have some great case studies of this - though they probably do not recognize it as 'blogging'. My BA story, although not quite blogging is a great example of a large organization using 'blogging-like' technology to capture ideas from its employees and putting them into action.
I've run a similar workshop a number of time is the past with great success but this will be the first in which there will be a new module - that of "Personal Knowledge Publishing" or maybe "Tacit Knowledge Publishing" - in other words knowledge-logs or klogs.
Thank you Matt Mower for the terms. I tend to like the PKP variant as it fits in well with PKM.
I'm greatly looking forward to it and plan to take a few days holiday while I am there. I have been to Singapore just once in the past and love its vibrancy - not to mention Chinese food.
While I am there I also plan to do what I did when I ran a workshop in Australia:Sydney last year and that is to mail everyone who receives my knowledge-letter in Singapore and invite them for a drink one evening to network and discuss KM ... in Sydney we went on to have a meal and it was a great evening.
Yet again I have not been able to resist improving my Lotus Notes based weblog . Run your cursor over the blogroll for the people in my klog community - Hipercortex for example. Up will pop a link title. Currently it reads:
Felipe Fonseca, Brazil (Portuguese), last updated on Saturday 24 August 2002 07:59 GMT
Quite simply each entry in the blogroll is the name of the weblog, the title then includes the name of the blogger, his or her country of residence and if the weblog is not in English - its language. Finally it is followed by the date it was last updated.
A lot of blogrolls do something similar but I quite like the format I have adopted.
Two technical notes:
a) the link pop up title is created by putting a title tag in the link e.g.the HTML code for Felipe's link is:
<a title='Felipe Fonseca, Brazil (Portuguese), last updated on Saturday 24 August 2002 07:59 GMT' href = 'http://www.joelhasso.com.br/hipercortex' target=_blank>Hipercortex</a>
b) I am checking the date/time the weblog was last updated by running a LotusScript agent once an hour that takes a look at the weblog home page for each weblog in the blogroll and notes its size. If the size has changed by more the 100 bytes since the last run then it marks it as updated. Crude and only accurate to the hour but for most cases it works just fine. What I am thinking of doing next is to add a color code icon next to the link to indicate more directly and visually when it was last updated.
Here is a great piece of sharing by Ray Ozzie - a draft of his companies Blogging Policy. I'm sure he will get a great deal of feedback that will influence the final version which in turn he will publish so that any organization looking to put a policy into place will have a great starting point. To me this is what knowledge sharing is all about!
One of the advantages of blogging in a community is that you have like-minded people out there searching the web FOR YOU. I would have found this item sooner or later but thanks to David Gammel - I found it much sooner than I would have! Another great benefit is the willingness to share ideas and early drafts of 'things' such with Ray above.
Some people do not seem to be able to get their heads around the difference between blogs and discussion forums. To my mind, although at a surface level they have some similarities - at a deeper level they are fundamentally different.
There are two dimensions to their differences - the first the psychological dimension and the second the technology dimension. One of the major psychological differences is that you own your weblog - it is YOURS - and it represents a history of YOUR thinking - so you take pride in its ownership - something that does not make a lot of sense in a discussion forum.
On the technology front - Ray Ozzie sums up one of the major differences:
In traditional discussion, topics and their responses are contained and organized within a centralized database. The relationship between topics and responses is generally maintained in a manner specific to the nature of the database - that is, in newsgroups the messages might be related by Message-ID hyperlinks or crudely by title, in Notes they are related by the $REF hyperlink, and so on. Summary-level "views" are generated through database queries. And that has been the general architectural design pattern of public discussions for quite some time.
But blogs accomplish public discussion through a far different architectural design pattern. In the Well's terminology, taken to its extreme, you own your own words. If someone on a blog "posts a topic", others can respond, but generally do so in their own blogs, hyperlinked back to the topic's permalink. This goes on and on, back and forth. In essence, it's the same hyperlinking mechanism as the traditional discussion design pattern, except that the topics and responses are spread out all over the Web. And the reason that it "solves" the signal:noise problem is that nobody bothers to link to the "flamers" or "spammers", and thus they remain out of the loop, or form their own loops away from the mainstream discussion. A pure architectural solution to a nagging social issue that crops up online.
If you would like to learn more about the phenomena of blogging; its complexity; its history and even a little of its future, this is an excellent introduction by Steven Levy of Newsweek.
I like the quote from David Weinberger:
"In the future, everyone will be famous to 15 people on the Web."
Daniel Pádua updated his BlogChalking scheme on 19th August ... I'm not too sure where this is all going but as a blogger its well worth taking a look at and experimenting with ... I need to update my code to the new standard ...
I still cannot figure out why Daypop refuses to crawl my weblog - having submitted it on several occasions over the last 6 months ... mailed them today to see if they have an answer for me and indeed if they answer at all ...
One of the objections I often hear to sharing knowledge is the "fear that someone else will pick up on your ideas and work them out before you do. "
I have always had a problem with this viewpoint because the one thing you can almost guarantee is that someone out there in the world, if not dozens or hundreds of others will have had a similar idea and be working on it.
They may also be brighter than you and more advanced in their thinking than you and have more time to develop the idea. So why not seek them out and collaborate with them!
But like all good ideas - even this one is not unique - I have just discovered Phil Wainewright in his Loosely Coupled weblog advocating exactly the same mindset and putting it far better than I might .
Read the full posting and think about it. We all have ideas that would be better shared than hoarded!
I think this highlights one important aspect of a highly networked world that we are all going to have to get used to. There are very few genuinely original ideas in the world. Someone, somewhere has inevitably already come up with the same idea. By pooling your thoughts with theirs, both of you will likely progress them further than you could have done individually (or maybe someone else watching the exchange will have a new insight that takes the idea further than the pair of you). The more open the network, the more everyone can feed off each other's ideas. The less open it is, the more slowly everyone progresses.
So which is better? I think the answer is that, in an extensive open network, the one thing you can be sure of is that someone else already has the same idea as you. If you deny that fact, you relegate yourself to coming in behind them. If you accept it and embrace the network, you have a chance of participating in their success. (I have a feeling this has been said better by someone at Microsoft, but I can't recall the reference just now. Perhaps someone reading this will be able to refresh my memory).
Side note: I recently developed some RSS code for Lotus Notes and I'm not aware of any similar code available on the web. Now I could try to hold on to it or sell it but its not core to what I'm about and I do not have the time or inclination at present to do anything more with it. So I've made it available on my site for free download.
In the past few months over 50 people from around the world have downloaded it. Most have left their e-mail addresses and most have subscribed to my knowledge-letter. When I come back to further develop the RSS capability on my site - I will have built up a small network of people whom I can contact and share ideas with. Hopefully getting more out of it than I have put in. But I don't really care - if I had not published the code - it would have rotted on my hard-disk - publishing it means that people get to benefit from it and move the technology forward. In the long run everyone benefits.
Well the invite has just gone out to the first meeting of my Knowledge Café.
I have over 30 people on my mailing list who have expressed interest - unfortunately the room I have booked will only seat about 15 but hopefully I will not have to turn anyone away.
The meeting is on Thursday 5th September 6:30pm - 8:00pm at the Strand Palace Hotel in central London.
If you would like more information or would like to attend please contact me.
From Sébastien Paquet and Lilia Efimova ... some interesting insights as to why people blog and why some professions are better represented than others e.g. educators, journalists, software developers, librarians, lawyers and knowledge professionals. As Sébastien says in his original posting on the subject :
I think the commonality has to do with uncovering the implicit.
For me, blog is something for articulating ideas. They get some shape once they get out of my brain, and it becomes easier easy to deal with them. Blog is something for catching those difficult to catch things...
I think they are on to something here - some people because of their mindset "can't help but blog" while others will "never get it" or never find the time or the motivation to do it. And that's not a judgement - it simply reflects the diversity of human nature and that can only be good
Creative conversation in an English country pub ... - Comments (0)
I met this evening with David Pottinger and Mark Andrew of QinetiQ in a local pub - the Crown & Cushion. QinetiQ is based in Farnborough, only a few miles from where I live in Fleet. It is a science and technology organization recently formed from the major part of DERA, the British Government's defense research and development organization.
I had met with David previously a few weeks back and we got on so well that we had decided to meet again and this time he had invited Mark along. Both David and Mark receive my knowledge-letter which is how we made contact. Mark was forwarded it by a colleague when he was working in Australia and in turn he had forward it to David. I just love the way my knowledge-letter works as a networking tool for me.
David and I get on as we are of a similar generation and both have a background in Physics and so we can relate to other on scientific issues - not detailed physics stuff but more the history and philosophy of science and a general scientific world view.
QinetiQ is primarily an R&D organization and are trying to leverage their vast technical expertise in the commercial world. Hence David's and Mark's interest in KM.
Our meetings have not had any specific objectives in mind but were simply to have a conversation around the subject of KM and share thoughts, ideas and insights. This evening we kept coming back to creativity and the fact that so often in our organizational lives we try to control meetings to the extent that they are no longer creative. We talked about the fact that a lot of the real insights and decisions take place at the periphery of meetings - before they start, after they have finished, in the corridors or at the coffee machine.
We also discussed the fact that we had talked so much during the evening but had not captured any of it explicitly ... apart from my taking the odd note in a little red note book I always carry around with me ... how best do you capture the output of a creative conversation without destroying the spontaneity of the conversation itself. This blog is a poor attempt to do that a little later in the evening!
So what else did we talk about ...
Bill Gates and the concept of Bill Capital ... the importance and effective use of key people's time in an organization - especially the creative ones ...
The Mythical Man-Month- the book by Fred Brooks of IBM and some of his insights into Project Management;project management ...
Belbin and team roles and the impact of different personality types on creativity in projects ...
How large successful companies like Digital are no longer around but Mark pointed out that maybe that's a good thing ... companies are born, they grow, they die but their legacy lives on in their people who leave (or are forced to leave) and who move on to bigger things or start new companies of their own ...
Mark talked about an ex Army guy he knew who was great at facilitating unstructured, creative meetings and the concept of rapid prototyping of ideas in meetings ...
David pondered how you stop someone going down a path you do not want them to go in a meeting without creating simmering resentment ...
And I had what I at least thought was the great idea of modifying the traditional PDCA learning cycle of plan-do-check-act to PDBA plan-do-blog-act
Anyway I'm not to sure I have captured anything of real significance here but it should form a few seeds of thought for our next meeting.
As we left the pub, there was a group playing in the Mead Hall alongside - we stopped and stood at the door to listen - they were good - and I realized that I had not seen a live group play for years Seems its a regular Tuesday event - so I plan to return ...
IBM/Lotus have just published a whitepaper (12 August) on the future of Lotus Domino:
This paper articulates IBM's vision for the future of collaboration and the extent to which current Domino applications and developer skills can be reused and leveraged in the next generation of collaborative applications. It explains IBM's plans to continue investment in Lotus Notes and Domino as a complementary and parallel architecture to IBM WebSphere, affirming Lotus' leadership in collaboration at IBM and throughout the industry. IBM has no current plans to merge Lotus Domino with WebSphere or to require WebSphere to run Domino applications in the foreseeable future.
This paper also helps you understand the core strengths and the value of both Lotus Domino and WebSphere. It describes a set of application criteria and gives guidelines for using either Lotus Domino or WebSphere or a combination of both to most successfully meet those criteria. This paper concludes with a call to action to help you prepare for supporting and deploying integrated collaborative solutions in the future.
A quiet week-end socially so I have been playing with my weblog ... I now have three buttons on the top of a blog posting in my Notes database/website.
One says "Ping weblogs.com", another "Ping KMpings" and the third "Ping TrackBack".
Most blog postings are done from Notes rather than the web so this works fine for me. I post an item - replicate up to my site and then click "Ping weblogs.com" and "Ping KMpings" in quick succession to inform them of my new entry.
Then if my blog posting refers to another weblog that supports trackback I click "Ping TrackBack" - this prompts me for the TrackBack URL of the weblog in question that I can copy and paste into the dialogue box. And I'm done!
I've told the world (well a small but significant part of it) that I have blogged!
A few weeks back I also implemented TrackBack on my site - take a look at any page - you can ping a page/weblog entry on my site to create a TrackBack link or you can click a button at the bottom of each page and fill in a TrackBack form if you don't have the tech smarts to ping me - both methods create a TrackBack link.
I received this e-mail in response to my last knowledge-letter and my idea for setting up a regular meeting in London to have "interesting conversations" on KM related topics ... only goes to show that even the simplest of knowledge-sharing systems can work ...
David,
Just a quick note to thank you for this newsletter, and to tell you about another "knowledge café".
I started working for a small consulting company in Portsmouth, NH (U.S.) this April, and when I came on board, I quickly found that there was no electronic means to share any previous knowledge. Everyone kept their final research, proposals, reports, and other important documents on their own laptops. With no good way to reuse that information, we
found that we were reinventing the wheel many times over.
To address the problem, we have recently set up a very basic directory structure on the network to place information, with folders for client info, marketing collateral, research, etc. (yes, I know this sounds SO BASIC, but you have to start somewhere!). And rather than introduce it to the troops as "that directory on the network", which is just one more
thing for them to forget about, we called it the Knowledge Café. We chose this name because we wanted to communicate the concept of knowledge sharing as an inviting, enjoyable, comfortable thing to do. And it has worked. Consultants are finding valuable sources of
information from their colleagues' previous work, sharing more ideas, and becoming more effective.
There is more work and training to be done on our Café, but I thought you might be interested in hearing how a virtual version of same has had happy results. I wish I could attend yours, but it's a bit of a haul to London from here!
A few weeks back I was in a second hand book shop in Godalming and I bought a couple of books - at the counter I was told that having bought two books - I could get one free. I quickly stepped up to the philosophy section and run my fingers over the titles and spotted a thin red book by Bertrand Russell. It was called Let the People Think - knowing of Bertrand Russell but knowing little of his work I thought it was the ideal choice.
As I got back to the car and flicked through it I was delighted - it was a collection of short essays and one caught my eye - it was entitled Useless Knowledge Here is a quote from the essay:
"Curious learning not only makes unpleasant things less pleasant, but also makes pleasant things more pleasant. I have enjoyed peaches and apricots more since I have known that they were first cultivated in China in the early days of the Han dynasty; that Chinese hostages held by the great King Kanisaka introduced them into India, whence they spread to Persia, reaching the Roman Empire in the first century of our era; that the word "apricot" is derived from the same Latin source as the word "precocious" because the apricot ripens early; and that the A as the beginning was added by mistake , owing to a false etymology. All this makes the fruit taste much sweeter."
In knowledge management we often talk about focusing on productive knowledge and that KM should not be an intellectual exercise and to a degree this is right but Bertrand Russell pulled me up - as he says elsewhere in the essay "Perhaps the most important advantage of "useless" knowledge as that it promotes a contemplative habit of mind." Now to me taking time to reflect is at the heart of KM. So paradoxically "useless" knowledge can promote KM. I like it!
And oh yes Apricots have also tasted sweeter to me since!
Bob Buckman interview in the Singapore Business Times - Comments (1)
Bob Buckman is one of the founding father's of the KM movement. I've got to know him a little through his association with the Henley Knowledge Management Forum. Here is what he had to say to me in a recent e-mail on his return from speaking at the KM Asia 2002 conference in Singapore.
"By the way, I am hearing more and more that 'Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing' is starting to replace 'Knowledge Management' as the term to describe what we are doing. This only seems natural to me, but it might be a leap for others."
And this 2276,51302,00.html,interview with him in the Singapore Business Times on It's KS, not KM says a lot more on the subject.
At last a fellow Lotus Notes blogger - Anthony Connell - and I thought I was the only one - has developed a Lotus Notes based weblog that is available as a free download for personal use. I've downloaded it but yet to try it out in earnest but it looks really good.
But key thing - a Notes based weblog - available as a product is a huge boon.
Brilliant ... for some reason I have only just come across the term Extreme Programming (XP) ... a very similar methodology to one that Lotus Notes developers have been applying for the last 10 years or more and that was embodied in Lotus's AVM (Accelerated Value Methodology).
I apply this methodology myself whenever I can and taught AVM for a couple of years and so can highly recommend such methodologies.
An interesting insight though is that it can be applied to any project. Its about building rapid learning into the project - in fact it all about knowledge management.
Extreme Programming (universally referred to as XP) is a methodology of programming which involves short cycle times working closely with the customer. In XP, the development team works in two week cycles, and works on implementing customer stories: stories being small enough pieces of functionality that can be implemented in a short space of time.
The theme underlying XP is "embrace change:" since we know user requirements will change, we make a virtue of it. XP uses the metaphor of driving to illustrate this: you don't drive from Los Angeles to New York by pointing the car in the direction of New York and then closing your eyes for the next 40 hours: you have to make small corrections along the way.
I have more South Koreans subscribing to my knowledge-letter than either France or Germany. This surprised me until I came across this article in the Korea Herald.
Korea is now at the forefront of adopting and embracing knowledge management in a bid to upgrade the country's competitiveness and position itself as an open, efficient business hub in Northeast Asia.
A large part of the magic behind K-Logging is the ability to connect
participants to improve the rate, quantity, and quality of knowledge shared
in an organization or community. Simply publishing a personal K-Log gets
you part of the way there. However, to go to the next level you need to
provide tools and information that help K-Loggers to connect to each other.
How do you connect K-Logs? Through K-Log community software.
Just discovered this posting by John Robb on K-Log community software ... similar concepts to what I am trying to do with the Gurteen Knowledge-Community.
K-logs are as much as anything else are a thinking-tool - by opening up your mind to other people you allow your thoughts to be scrutinized, confirmed and/or questioned by different minds with different perspectives - helping to reveal some of your hidden assumptions - your paradigms.
Take a look at this posting by Terry Frazier on k-logs and his link to a posting by Paul Holbrook. What I like here is the concept of 'thinking in public'.
Marc Pierson mailed me recently ro ask how to subscribe to the RSS feed for my Knowledge-Log and pointed out that we had similar interests. Take a look at his weblog - what he is involved in is exciting - using weblog technology and KM to improve health care!
Also see the WWPP site - World Wide Pursuing Perfection in Health Care.
And yes we do have some common interests - see the bit about David Bohm and
Dialogue. On the WWPP site - this is said about dialogue -
Dialogue itself is simple (if you join a group with some experience), immediately rewarding, and profoundly eye opening. You can read about it and/or just do it.
Love it! If you are not familiar with the concept of Dialogue take a look.
I came across this story as the top linked to story in blogdex and mailed it to my two daughters Lauren (20) and Sally (17) who both have more than capable of doing something like this but still do not know what they really want to do in life. It might give them some ideas and inspiration. As this article says Karin Spitzer's only tool is her laptop and some imagination.
By 2005, 6.9 million people in the UK will be teleworkers - Comments (0)
Spotted in ComputerWeekly
According to analyst IDC, 28.9 million professionals will work outside the office for at least one day a week by 2005. In the UK alone, 6.9 million people will be mobile or teleworkers by 2005.
To my mind this is a stunningly high figure and a strong indicator of just how much the workplace is changing.
This is a great interview with Richard Florida - the H. John Heinz III professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh -
about his recent book "The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life".
I particularly like the explanation of the three T's that drive the growth of 'creative communities' such as those found in San Francisco and Boston. See:
My theory uses the three T's: technology, talent and tolerance. You need to have a strong technology base, such as a research university and investment in technology. That alone is a necessary but not in itself sufficient condition. Second, you need to be a place that attracts and retains talent, that has the lifestyle options, the excitement, the energy, the stimulation, that talented, creative people need. And thirdly, you need to be tolerant of diversity so you can attract all sorts of people -- foreign-born people, immigrants, woman as well as men, gays as well as straights, people who look different and have different appearances.
Also ...
One of the great myths of the new economy was that people were working for money and stock options. In nearly all our interviews and focus groups, people told us they were going to these new-economy companies because of the flexibility, the challenge and the culture they offered. So I think there was this hugely mistaken idea, and I think what happened as a result of the rise and fall of the new economy is that it reset employers' expectations across the board.
I just came across a posting by Jim McGee in McGee's Musings that I found thought provoking. Here is how it starts :
What if knowledge management actually is a technology problem?
Current thinking holds that knowledge management's problems come from too much focus on technology when the key problems are about organizational processes and practices. I've said as much myself on many occasions. But this formulation risks perpetuating the myth that problems are either organizational or technological. We know the real world isn't that simple, of course. We shouldn't contribute to the confusion by oversimplifying our discussion.
Like Jim, I have always thought that KM is about people - "psychology - not technology" but I always love it when so called 'truths' that we hold dear are questioned - including my own. We've only got to look back through history to see the many times when we thought we were right and had all the answers - only to see those views totally overturned a few years later.
So what if KM is really all about technology and not people? I don't think so! Like Jim, I agree the real world is not that simple. We tend to like either-or arguments - right-or-wrong solutions - but reality is not like that - the answer is usually fuzzy and some where in between the extremes. So should KM be more about technology than people? Maybe its just that our current technology is poor or we are not using it appropriately. What role will technology play in the future?
Take a look at what Jim has to say - some interesting thoughts ... What do you think?
I've just pinged KMpings! Cheated a little. I wrote the code to let Lotus Notes piece together the ping URL and then simply copied and pasted it into the browser address bar. But hey it works!
The harder bit is to write some LotusScript to get this to happen automatically or maybe at the click of a button whenever I post an entry to my knowledge-log. But this will do for now ...
Also the protocol is so straightforward - it will not take more than an hour or so - if that - to allow people to ping postings in my weblog; keep track of them and display them. This is fun ...
This page displays the last 200 TrackBack pings sent to the site by weblog authors writing about KM. Anyone with the ability is welcome to send their on-topic pings.
As ever - just not enough time in the day to explore all this stuff - but this is KM and K-Logging - right on my hot button
I need to better understand this TrackBack stuff from Movable Type. At first sight it looks quite confusing but the specification may throw some light on it all. Ah yes it does - here is the intro from the spec. :-
Movable Type's TrackBack system allows peer-to-peer communication and
conversations
between blogs. Imagine that you write about a movie you just saw in an
entry on your Movable Type-powered blog. Another MT blogger reads your
entry, and wants to write an entry referencing your original post. He could
just comment on your blog, but he'd like to keep the post in his own
database and host it on his site.
Using TrackBack, the other blogger can automatically send a ping to your
blog, indicating that he has written an entry referencing your original
post. This accomplishes two things:
On your site, you can automatically list all sites that have referenced a
particular post, allowing visitors to your site to read the response on the
other user's blog.
It provides a firm, explicit link between his entry and yours, as opposed
to an implicit link (like a referrer log) that depends upon outside action
(someone clicking on the link to your entry).
You can use TrackBack for more than just communication on particular entries,
however. You can also associate TrackBack pings URLs with categories in your
blog. Whenever you post an entry to that category, the URLs you have
associated will automatically be notified of your post. This allows remote
sites to keep a repository of references to posts all around the web.
For example, if you run a site about Perl, you might want to provide a
repository of links to Perl articles on other weblogs. Using TrackBack, you
can allow other weblogs to ping a particular category in your own blog,
whenever a new entry is posted that pertains to this category.
These are just examples of TrackBack usage. TrackBack itself is a framework
for peer-to-peer communication between weblogs; it can track cross-weblog
discussions, it can provide remote content repositories, it can emulate
guest authoring, etc. The technical side of TrackBack is very simple: when
you want to notify a remote site of your existence, you send a ping to that
site. The format of these pings (simple HTTP GET requests) is discussed
below. In the Movable Type implementation of
TrackBack, we've added password protection to category pings, IP banning,
automatic RSS output, and email notification of new pings.
In other words: we want TrackBack to benefit, and to be useful to, more than
just Movable Type users. We want to encourage integration of this feature
into other weblog tools; that's why we have documented the ping format below
and have tried to make the basic framework very simple. Feel free to
email us ([email protected]) if you have questions.
This is so cool and only enhances the community building aspect of blogging that I was only just talking about.
Ever since the early days of Lotus Notes - I have loved the ability to file information away under categories - sometimes called themes or topics. Many websites are categorized or themed and it makes more efficient browsing.
Almost every page on this website is categorized in over 80 categories. Most blog software supports categorization too though I have yet to fully apply it to own k-log.
Take a look at liveTopics for some interesting technology.
I think categorized blogs will be pretty much standard soon and fgreatly enhance the blogging experience.
The more I blog - the more I understand their nature as a community building activity. It is not just about writing and publishing - a one way affair. It is about making connections with like-minded people.
I'm learning ...
To my mind - blog postings by and large should relate to other people, other blogs and things going on in the world. The more links (connections) a blog posting has - the better. Every posting should have at least one relevant link.
And when you discover like-minds - other blogs that you love - you should post them to your blogroll - so other people (like you) can find and enjoy them too.
I'm also learning to frequently check the referer links to my k-log to discover other bloggers who are linking to me. These are often like-minds who have great blogs and whom I start to visit time and time again.
I'm logging this mainly so I can come back to browse Alan's website at my leisure - in particular some of the marvellous quotes that he has posted there.
If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the
Knowledge Café
or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on
Conversational Leadership
The Gurteen Knowledge Community is a global learning community
of over 21,000 people in 160 countries across the world.
The community is for people who are committed to making a difference:
people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see
the world differently, think differently and act differently.
Membership of the Gurteen Knowledge Community is free.
/VIEW-IMAGE/$File/view-image.png "Media information"){kind=small}
and 
/STEVE-DENNING/$File/steve-denning.jpg?OpenElement "Stephen Denning")
/0670887366-ASIN/$File/0670887366.jpg?OpenElement "The Support Economy by Shoshana Zuboff, James Maxmin")
/LEE-BRYANT/$File/leephoto.jpg?OpenElement "Lee Bryant")
/SMILE/$File/smiley.gif?OpenElement "Smile!")
/SMILE-EMOTICON/$File/smiley.gif?OpenElement "Smile!")
/THEODORE-ZELDIN/$File/zeldin2.JPG?OpenElement "Theodore Zeldin")
/FROWN/$File/frown.gif?OpenElement)
/OXFORD-KCAFE/$File/oxford-kcafe.jpg?OpenElement "Oxford Knowledge Café")
/PETRI-DISH/$File/petri.jpg?OpenElement)
I've agreed to review the book /VIMY-RIDGE/$File/vimy.jpg?OpenElement)
I have always been interested in history. The history of warfare in particular has held a deep fascination for me - especially the First and Second World Wars in which both my grandfathers and my father fought in respectively. /NICK-BONTIS/$File/nick-bontis2.jpg?OpenElement "Dr. Nick Bontis")
/KIDS-THEN/$File/kids-then.jpg?OpenElement "The kids then ... Lauren, Jonathan and Sally")
/KIDS-NOW/$File/kids-now.jpg?OpenElement "The kids now ... Lauren, Jonathan and Sally")
/K-CAFE/$File/cafe.jpg?OpenElement "The Gurteen Knowledge Café")
Seems its a regular Tuesday event - so I plan to return .../BERTRAND-RUSSELL/$File/russell.jpg?OpenElement "Bertrand Russell")
/BOB-BUCKMAN/$File/bob-buckman2.jpg?OpenElement "Bob Buckman")
/DAVID-BOHM/$File/david-bohm.jpg?OpenElement)
/0465024769-ASIN/$File/0465024769.jpg?OpenElement)
