Contents
1 Introduction to the October 2012 Knowledge Letter
2 Can being connected make us more successful and can social tools help?
3 Dialogue is an opportunity to proceed as climbers do
4 KM World 2012 Session Notes
5 BNM KM Conference Knowledge Cafe Visuals Oct 2012
6 We need to learn to converse more openly if we wish to understand the world better
7 Social Knowledge Management: A conversation with David Gurteen
8 Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: October 2012
9 Upcoming Events: October 2012
10 Upcoming Engagements October 2012
11 Subscribing and Unsubscribing
12 The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction to the October 2012 Knowledge Letter (top | next | prev)
I came across this cartoon posted on Facebook recently. This was the conversation:
- So ... what do you do?
- I'm a cashier.
- Oh I didn't mean what do you do for money?
- ... I mean what do you do for the world?
Credit: A visual image posted on Facebook - source unknown
It's an interesting question to ask yourself. I am not looking to judge. I am not too sure that I do a great deal. But is little or nothing an acceptable answer? And is bringing up a well balanced healthy family a sufficient answer. I don't know but as I say - worth reflecting on.
Can being connected make us more successful and can social tools help? (top | next | prev)
Last week I held an open Knowledge Cafe at Capco in London where the theme/question of the evening was "Can being connected make us more successful and can social tools help?".
It was a good evening and I have posted a few photos on Facebook. Several people told me it was one of the best they had been too for a long time. Now I am not too sure what ingredients go to make an exceptional knowledge cafe but maybe the wine had a lot to do with it
To my mind there is no doubt that being well connected can help contribute to one's professional success. As you will be aware, I am a prolific networker as I have learnt over the years that this is where I not only get my best ideas and insights but also where pretty much all of my work comes from. I connect with people through the web and social media but more importantly at conferences and my open knowledge cafes face to face.
This recent article Never Say No to Networking by Kathryn Minshew sums it all up for me and in particular this passage:
I can't tell you the number of times I've gone to an event and exchanged a few warm sentences with someone I haven't connected with in a while only to hear from them a few days later: "This opportunity to speak / present / fundraise / partner / win an award crossed my desk, and I thought of you." Why did they think of me? Because I'm a good fit for the opportunity, and they saw me yesterday.
What do you think? Can being connected make us more successful and can social tools help? You can join the conversation at my on-line LinkedIn Gurteen Knowledge Cafe Forum.
Dialogue is an opportunity to proceed as climbers do (top | next | prev)
I love Johnnie Moores blog - so many great little posts - so many wonderful insights.
But given my interest in conversation and dialogue I must point you to this recent post Climbing and dialogue. In it he quotes Antonio Dias:
Dialogue is an opportunity to proceed as climbers do. We are tied together and are able to alternately anchor each other as we move into precarious territory. We can rely on each other to warn us of dangers beyond our own views. Within dialogue we can go where it is impossible to go any other way.
Credit: Conclusions by Antonio Dias
In the article Antonio also says
We seek conclusions. We strive for a conclusion. We admire a firm conclusion. Is this helpful?
Credit: Conclusions by Antonio Dias
When I teach my Knowledge Cafe process many people have a problem that there are no traditional hard outcomes. This is what I say about the Knowledge Cafe:
A Knowledge Café is not about group decision making or reaching a consensus or a documented proposal. A Knowledge Café is about individual learning and insights; the surfacing of assumptions, issues, problems, and opportunities; seeing things that have not been seen before or seen only dimly.
Credit: David Gurteen
These are still outcomes - soft ones - not traditional hard ones. But there are few or no conclusions. Not that they are not needed in life at times - just that they are not the purpose of the KCafe.
KM World 2012 Session Notes (top | next | prev)
If like me you did not get to attend KM World 2012 this year then you may find these session notes from Mary Abraham in her Above and Beyond KM blog useful.
Or take a look here, Bill Ives has listed the notes for you.
Thanks Mary, Bill :-)
BNM KM Conference Knowledge Cafe Visuals Oct 2012 (top | next | prev)
A few weeks back at a KM conference run by Bank Negara Malaysia Knowledge Management Centre in Kuala Lumpur, I gave a talk on the Knowledge Cafe and the relationship of conversation to organisational performance.
They had a visual artist at hand to capture the talk that can be seen here as a slide show but maybe the best visual image that captured my talk in a single slide was drawn by Masitah Babjan. Thanks everyone - its great to have the kcafe captured visually.
We need to learn to converse more openly if we wish to understand the world better (top | next | prev)
This post Openness Isn't The End, It's The Beginning from my good friend David Pottinger really excites me.
It is a topic I spend may hours reflecting on.
Why, when an individual or maybe a small scattered group of people see the error of our ways - is it so hard to get others to see it too?
To me, this is a big part of what Knowledge Management should be about but sadly it is too often about a technology system such as SharePoint. Dave Snowden sumed this up very well recently with this witty quote:
SharePoint is to Knowledge Management, what Sick Stigma is to Innovation
Credit: Dave Snowden
David Pottinger in his post highlights this quote from the The Journal of Radiological Protection about Alice Stewart.
Had she been able to discuss her ideas more openly, accepting the criticism that is an inevitable part of the scientific life, she might have changed thinking in key areas - especially the risk of obstetric irradiation and the ante-natal origin of childhood tumours - more effectively and sooner than she did.
It reminds me of a conversation I had recently with someone who told me that whenever he hears someone say something that he thinks is wrong - he just has to "put them right" even if it means an end to the relationship.
To his mind attempting to putting things right is more important than the relationship. But if you forfeit the relationship you lose the opportunity to continue the conversation and get your point across or possibly see that you are the one who is in fact wrong or that the answer is context dependent or that there is an alternative view on which you can both agree.
We need to stop debating and arguing with each other and learn to converse more openly if we wish to understand the world better.
Social Knowledge Management: A conversation with David Gurteen (top | next | prev)
Earlier this year I announced that I was the editor of a new book Leading Issues in Social Knowledge Management published by Academic Publishing International (ACI).
The book is a collection of ten academic papers that I carefully selected to create the volume.
To follow up and compliment the book, ACI have now published a DVD of me talking about Social KM with Dr. Dan Remenyi: Social Knowledge Management: A conversation with David Gurteen. Take a look.
Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: October 2012 (top | next | prev)
Here are what I consider some of my more interesting Tweets for September 2012 - October 2012. 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.
- How to Respond to Negativity http://bit.ly/PAHIPv
- What is Personal Knowledge Management? http://bit.ly/PAIA6D #km
- Dilbert: there is only one way to gain experience http://bit.ly/PP2jiW
- Can you manage knowledge if it is not captured? Sure you can - you manage it through conversation. http://bit.ly/Plff4o #km #kcafe
- Do you really want to break down the silos? http://bit.ly/Pva4ir#KM
- Do you work in an organization that is slow to adapt? The revolution starts within http://bit.ly/Qgrx8T #KM
- How TED Culture Destroyed the World, Literally http://bit.ly/R7kVLZ
- Dubai Workshop: Implementing Knowledge Cafes in your Businesshttp://bit.ly/Px4b4g #dubai #km #gurteenkcafe #theworldcafe
- Taking Charge of your own Development http://bit.ly/RinTNA
- Don't worry, nobody can steal your knowledge http://bit.ly/T7u3oL#KM
If you like the Tweets then subscribe to my Tweet stream.
Upcoming Events: October 2012 (top | next | prev)
Here are some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.
KM Asia 2012
06 - 08 Nov 2012, Singapore City, Singapore
I will be chairing KM Asia this year with Karuna Ramanathan. I will also be giving a keynote talk and running a Knowledge Cafe workshop.
Dubai Workshop: Implementing Knowledge Cafes in your Business
19 Nov 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
My next Knowledge Cafe workshop to be held in Dubai in November 2012
Online Information Conference
20 - 21 Nov 2012, London, United Kingdom
KM Legal Europe 2013
23 - 24 Jan 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Upcoming Engagements October 2012 (top | next | prev)
Here are my main engagements over the next six months or so. Its prime purpose is to allow you to know where I will be so you can attend my public events if you wish or to meet or hire me.
You can see a list of my immediate activities below or you can find a full list here.
Running an open Knowledge Cafe at Harwell Oxford
24 Oct 2012, Oxford, United Kingdom
Co-chairing KM Asia 2012 and facilitating a knowledge cafe workshop
06 - 08 Nov 2012, Singapore City, Singapore
Running a public Knowledge Cafe workshop
19 Nov 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Facilitating two private Knowledge Cafes for DEWA in Dubai
21 Nov 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Facilitating a private Knowledge Cafe for DEWA in Dubai
22 Nov 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Opening keynote address KM Legal Europe: Positive deviance – or how you might already have the answers!
23 - 24 Jan 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Subscribing and Unsubscribing (top | next | prev)
You may subscribe to this newsletter on my website. Or if you no longer wish to receive this newsletter or if you wish to modify your e-mail address or make other changes to your membership profile then please go to this page on my website.
The Gurteen Knowledge Letter (top | next | prev)
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for knowledge workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.
It is sponsored by the Knowledge Management Forum of the Henley Business School, Oxfordshire, England.
You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
