Contents
- Introduction to the April 2013 Knowledge Letter
- "Lectorial" rooms: shifting the emphasis to active student-centred learning
- Free Access to Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) until May 10th
- Interactive Dialogue or Serial Monologue: The Influence of Group Size on conversation
- Do not pursue life sitting upon another man's shoulders
- 2013 Top 100 Twitter Influencers in Knowledge Management
- Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: April 2013
- Upcoming Events
- Subscribing and Unsubscribing
- The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction to the April 2013 Knowledge Letter
If you want ACTION, don't write.
Go and tell the guy what you want.
Some sound advise here from David Ogilivy. We send an email when we would do better to walk around to the person we wish to engage and have a conversation with them or failing that pick up the phone.
In reading this, I made a connection with a statement by Peter Block that struck me when I read it at the time.
Connection -- We must establish a personal connection with each other.
Connection before content. Without relatedness, no work can occur.
It's basically the same idea, we need to engage people and build a relationship with them before we get down to the nitty-gritty. The best way to do this is face to face.
"Lectorial" rooms: shifting the emphasis to active student-centred learning
Stuart French emailed me a while back to tell me that they had held their last KMLF meeting in Melbourne at the new RMIT Swanston Academic building and that he thought you might like to know about the custom designed “Lectorial” rooms that have been especially designed for the teach-discuss-share model to encourage the students to participate in a collaborative and constructivist style of learning.
To quote the paper: Final report for the Lectorial Project: Trialling the use of Lectorials to enhance learning and teaching in large classes.
"Literature indicates that shifting the emphasis to active student-centred learning has significant outcomes in terms of increasing student engagement, problem solving ability and positive learning outcomes."
This is what the new spaces look like.
As Stuart points out "This is so close to your knowledge café format and I am excited that you beat the curve by ten years or so. Well done."
Wow! I am excited too .... so good to see at least one educational institution making the change :-)
But an observation, to my mind, the tables are too large for good interaction they should be smaller and only seat 4-5 people.
Free Access to Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) until May 10th
Knowledge Management Research & Practice has been included in Palgrave Macmillan's ACCESS ALL AREAS campaign throughout this April - enabling free online access to Palgrave's complete portfolio of journals spanning Business, the Humanities and the Social Sciences.
Palgrave have kindly extended free access to KMRP for an extra few days to the Gurteen Knowledge Community - so if you haven't had time to browse the journal so far, then you have a little more time to do so!
Don't know where to start? Try 10 articles from 10 years: celebrating KMRP's first decade of publication
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/kmrp_collections_10from10.html
Or with context becoming a key part of future KM research, maybe try a selection of wide-ranging case studies which reflect both innovative approaches to knowledge management and its diverse reach.
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/collections/teaching_cases.html
Or maybe just pick an issue from the archive and dive in!
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/archive/index.html
Interactive Dialogue or Serial Monologue: The Influence of Group Size on conversation
Over the years, in running my Knowledge Cafes, I have discovered through trial and error and careful observation that the ideal size of a group for interactive conversation is four people. If not four, then five is OK but three is better.
Anything more than five and the conversation does not work so well: one or two people tend to dominate; the conversation breaks into two, even three; frequently one person is totally cut out of the interaction and there is little energy in the group.
This research paper (via Keith de la Rue) confirms my observations.
Current communication models draw a broad distinction between communication as dialogue and communication as monologue. The two kinds of models have different implications for who influences whom in a group discussion.
The experiments reported in this paper show that in small, 5-person groups, the communication is like dialogue and members are influenced most by those with whom they interact in the discussion.
However, in large, 10-person groups, the communication is like monologue and members are influenced most by the dominant speaker.
The difference in mode of communication is explained in terms of how speakers in the two sizes of groups design their utterances for different audiences.
Do not pursue life sitting upon another man's shoulders
Quotations are extremely effective at capturing and concisely communicating thoughts and ideas. They can be inspirational but more importantly quotations can help us reveal and assess the assumptions, values and beliefs that underlie the ways in which we perceive the world.
I have compiled nearly 1,000 quotations and short excerpts on my website. It is an eclectic mix but most of them are inspirational or insightful in nature and relate to knowledge, learning or personal development in some form.
If you love quotations then you may like to subscribe to receive a quote once a week or more frequently by e-mail.
You can also subscribe to an RSS feed Gurteen Daily Knowledge Quotes that will deliver a quote to your newsreader each day. Or you can follow GurteenQuotes on Twitter and receive a quote there each day.
Here is one that popped up in my in-box the other day from one of my favourite human beings of all times - Henry David Thoreau.
It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.
If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders.
Playlist: Henry David Thoreau
Life in the Woods. Henry David Thoreau
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2013 Top 100 Twitter Influencers in Knowledge Management
MindTouch has recently analysed Knowledge Management influencers and produced a top 100 list.
They add the caveat that they know there are several profoundly influential people not represented on the list and that it should be clear that the list constitutes a core group of influencers in the KM space on Twitter.
I am honoured to be number two on the list but take it with "a big pinch of salt" - ignore the order and it's not too difficult to spot anomalies but if you are looking for KM people to follow its a good resource.
Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: April 2013
Here are what I consider some of my more interesting Tweets for March to April 2013. 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.
- Why We Work: A Look at What Motivates in the Knowledge Economy http://bit.ly/11nesBh #KM
- The Knowledge Management Association announces the launch of the KMA web site http://linkd.in/11g84dw #kma #km
- Dilbert on Small Group work http://bit.ly/15fimSb /love it!
- Why your 8-year-old should be coding HT @eskokilpi http://bit.ly/11fuHRS
- The single biggest failure of leadership is to treat adaptive challenges like technical problems http://bit.ly/16NctcW #KM
- Complex systems are hard to understand. Social systems consisting of people, are even harder to understand @EskoKilpihttp://bit.ly/YfMzNA
- We need to stop focusing on job creation & figure out better systems of wealth redistribution for a networked society http://bit.ly/16z41ha
- Do You Have a Mistake Diary? http://bit.ly/16frhib #KM
- Want to Transform 'Tough' Urban Schools? Swap Security Guards For Art Teachers http://bit.ly/16eigpC /interesting
- If you hate death by PowerPoint presentations - you will love this video "Chicken chicken chicken" http://bit.ly/15TGdCm #KnowledgeCafe
- Knowledge work is not performed by independent individuals but by interdependent people in interaction http://bit.ly/11uNl7P
- Escaping the Pull of Groupthink in Decision Making http://bit.ly/YmyUm2
If you like the Tweets then subscribe to my Tweet stream.
Upcoming Events
Here are some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.
KM Europe 2013
24 - 25 Apr 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands
I will be speaking at KM Europe.
2013 Knowledge Management Conference
29 Apr - 03 May 2013, Houston, United States
Collective Intelligence: Scotland's Future
14 May 2013, Dundee, United Kingdom
I am giving a keynote at this conference. I'm in good company with Dave Snowden, Euan Semple.
KM Legal 2013
15 - 16 May 2013, London, United Kingdom
eLearning Africa 2013
29 - 31 May 2013, Windhoek, Namibia
Knowledge Café: Facilitér effektiv videndeling i din organisation
04 Jun 2013, Copenhagen, Danmark
KM UK 2013
26 - 27 Jun 2013, London, United Kingdom
I will be speaking at KM UK again this year.
KM Australia Congress 2013
23 - 25 Jul 2013, Sydney, Australia
This will be a conversational event once again this year.
14th European Conference on Knowledge Management
05 - 06 Sep 2013, Kaunas, Lithuania
International Conference on Knowledge Economy icke2013
28 - 30 Oct 2013, Cape Town, South Africa
The 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management (ICKM 2013)
01 - 02 Nov 2013, Montréal, Canada
KMWorld 2013
06 - 08 Nov 2013, Washington DC, United States
Subscribing and Unsubscribing
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
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
