Contents
- Introduction to the November 2015 Knowledge Letter
- Blab Conversations
- The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World
- Wasted Reception Areas
- Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: November 2015
- Upcoming Knowledge Events
- Subscribing and Unsubscribing
- The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction to the November 2015 Knowledge Letter
First, my apologies for an exceptionally short Knowledge Letter this month - what with moving house and a recent trip to Hong Kong for KM Asia (a great conference by the way given its first time in Hong Kong after 14 years in Singapore) I am way behind on everything.
I also had a trip to Cork in Ireland (happened to be there the same day as Tim Cook) to run a special Knowledge Café. Let me explain.
In my experience the Knowledge Cafe works best for between 12 to 24 people though I often run Cafes for 50 people or more but I never feel they work well at that size even though I know the World Cafe community seem to run them quite happily with a hundred or more participants.
So when I was asked to run a Café for Johnson & Johnson Ireland for 100 managers at a networking event in Cork, I was a little unsure of how well it would work.
But in our discussions, what I thought to be a viable design emerged - to run four Cafes concurrently and synchronously in the same room. That's 25 people in each Cafe - an ideal number. Each Cafe was quite separate and each on a different topic under an overarching theme and a different trigger question.
I was just a little nervous having not tried this before but it worked amazingly well. Give me a few weeks and I will have it all written up along with some photos and video to share with you.
And a big thanks to Johnson & Johnson for giving me permission to share the outline of the event and the photos with you.
Blab Conversations
I have been giving a lot of thought on how to run virtual Knowledge Cafés of late and have some thoughts as to how to run them using a series of telephone conference calls but I have also been looking for a a video application similar to Skype group video or Google Hangouts that would allow up to 4 people have a conversation Café style.
Well I may just have found what I am looking for. It's called Blab. It is still in beta but works exceptionally well - the video and sound quality are excellent. It's really designed to allow people to host their own little chat shows and invite in participants but I think it would work well in the context of a Café.
Fine, if the Café is a public one, as at the moment all conversations are broadcast publically (they can also be recorded to be viewed later) but if the Café is private then there is no option to have a private group conversation but I am hoping that might be a future feature. If so, it might prove a near perfect tool for virtual private Knowledge Cafés!
Read more about it on Mashable and here is a recorded Blab on Blab for Learning and Knowledge Management from Bruno Winck. And take a look at Michelle Martins blabs
Oh and it works on your iPhone too!
The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World
If you are interested in how leadership needs to adapt to better cope with our increasingly complex world then this paper from Gervase Bushe and Robert Marshak will be of interest: The Dialogic Mindset: Leading Emergent Change in a Complex World
In it they make seven assumptions about a dialogic mindset for leaders. Something very similar to what I call Conversational Leadership
- Reality and relationships are socially constructed.
- Organizations are social networks of meaning making.
- Transformational leadership shapes how meaning is made and especially the narratives which guide people's experience.
- Organizations are continuously changing, in both intended and unintended ways, with multiple changes occurring at various speeds.
- Groups and organizations are inherently self-organizing, but disruption is required for transformational adaptation and change.
- Adaptive challenges are too complex for anyone to analyze all the variables and know the correct answer in advance, so the answer is to use emergent change processes.
- Leading emergent change requires mobilizing stakeholders to self-initiate action, then monitoring and embedding the most promising initiatives
What people believe to be true, right, and important emerge through socialization and day-today conversations.
Wasted Reception Areas
The larger the organization - the larger and more grander the reception area. Huge impressive, impersonal halls of glass, stainless steel and marble. What a waste of space!
I wish I could recall the name of the law firm I heard about in Germany who transformed their reception area by moving both their library and cafe there. It was not only used to hold internal meetings and meetings with clients but clients were even welcome to come in to have coffee and make use of the library.
Does anyone know whom I'm talking about?
I'd love to see more organizations so this :-)
Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: November 2015
Here are some of my more popular recent tweets. Take a look, if you are not a Tweeter, you will get a good idea of how I use it by browsing the list of micro-posts.
- Is technology killing communities? #kmers #km http://buff.ly/1LdHR5y
- Is Your Company Encouraging Employees to Share What They Know? http://buff.ly/1O723uw #KM
- Michael Soto @misoca asks Does your organization create safe spaces for conversation? http://buff.ly/1O1CyLb
- YouTube: Folk High Schools, Adult Education, and the Philosophy of Nikolaj Grundtvig http://buff.ly/1P0f10f
- Hygge is essentially drama-free togetherness time http://buff.ly/1MkKx2e
- The Science Of When You Need In-Person Communication http://buff.ly/1ikTfWv
- Networks are not Communities - networks connect; communities care Henry Mintzberg @Mintzberg141 http://buff.ly/1Wf7mKj
- Harris survey: 36% of U.S. workers say leaders don't know employees names @LMSolomon http://buff.ly/1M5RsRG
- Evidence Based Policy & causation v correlation - It is never that simple https://t.co/7KKUsmmJls via @snowded
- The communication issues that prevent effective leadership http://buff.ly/1M5RsRG
- The Strategic Importance of Conversations http://buff.ly/1JpATyt
If you like the Tweets then subscribe to my Tweet stream.
Upcoming Knowledge Events
Here are some of the major KM events taking place around the world in the coming months and ones in which I am actively involved. You will find a full list on my website where you can also subscribe to both regional e-mail alerts and RSS feeds which will keep you informed of new and upcoming events.
What can we do to increase the passion, learning and interaction in Communities of Practice?
Wed 25 Nov 2015, Farnborough, United Kingdom
OEB 2015 (ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN)
02 - 04 Dec 2015, Berlin, Germany
KM Legal Europe 2016
20 - 21 Jan 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands
KM Iran 2016
23 - 24 Feb 2016, Tehran, Iran
Henley Forum 16th Annual Conference
24 - 25 Feb 2016, Henley on Thames RG9 3AU, United Kingdom
3rd European Conference on Social Media ECSM 2016
12 - 13 Jul 2016, Caen, France
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 Henley Forum of the Henley Business School, Oxfordshire, England.
You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
