Contents
- Introduction to the October 2020 Knowledge Letter
- Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World
- Filter bubbles, epistemic bubbles and echo chambers
- Please help support my work
- Corporate Storytelling -The Essential Guide
- Street Epistemology
- War on Sensemaking V
- Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: October 2020
- Upcoming Knowledge Events
- Unsubscribe
- The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Introduction to the October 2020 Knowledge Letter
I am taking part in the KM World Knowledge Café: Mentoring Mixer this year along with many other well-known KMers including Nancy Dixon, Stan Garfield, Kim Glover, Mary Abraham, Scott Leeb, Jim Lee, Holly Baxter, Katrina Pugh, Frank Cervone, Art Murray, Gloria Burke, and Gordon Vala-Webb
But a note of warning, these sessions are not Knowledge Cafés, they are a form of what I would call a peer assist or speed consulting though being highly conversational they do conform to some of the Knowledge Café principles.
KM World is going virtual this year - so where ever you are in the world - there is no excuse not to be there!
Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World
I received an email from Cognitive Edge a day or two ago to announce a new book: "Cynefin – Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World" and I have clipped this description from the email:
This weekend, we unveiled the first Cynefin book formally published by Cognitive Edge. It is a beautiful publication that chronicles the origin story and historical evolution of the framework, personal vignettes where network members share how it has impacted their lives, and reflections by practitioners on how they have applied it across many diverse contexts. More than anything though, it is a testament to the passion and goodwill that exists in the global Cynefin network.
The journey started in June 2020 when we realised that Cynefin would be coming of age in October. Sonja Blignaut came up with this hare-brained scheme, and pinged Zhen Goh on a Zoom call. Let's crowdsource a book as a surprise for Dave. Over the next four months, we were humbled by the generosity of the people in our network. With one or two exceptions, all the people we invited to be part of this adventure agreed. Marion Kiely for the co-ordination with 46 authors, Boudewijn Bertch and Riva Greenberg for the editing, and Sue Borchardt for the illustrations. All of them volunteered their time, as did every author.
This book is a labour of love. The story of the book, where a global village of complexity practitioners came together to pull off a seemingly impossible task, each contributing diverse but coherent perspectives, is also such a poetic parallel to the way Cynefin grew up. Of course, we could not have a book on Cynefin without including Dave, and in the end he worked with us to produce a wonderful narrative retelling of the origin story of Cynefin without fully knowing what he was ultimately contributing to.
If you are interested, you can download an excerpt from the book here.
I have just ordered the book myself from Amazon Cynefin – Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World and I'm hugely looking forward to reading it.
If you are not familiar with the Cynefin Framework, you will find an introduction in my blook on Conversational Leadership. It is an immensly powerful tool to help you make better decisions by understanding the situation/context you are in and using an appropriate decision-making method.
Filter bubbles, epistemic bubbles and echo chambers
You have probably heard of filter bubbles and echo chambers and thought they were the same. You are less likely to have heard of epistemic bubbles.
In this new post in my blook, I take a look at them - they are three different though closely related phenomena.
It is imperative that we understand these processes and how they distort reality if we are to make good sense of the world and in turn wise decisions.
Please help support my work
I have been writing and publishing this Knowledge Letter every month for over 20 years and most of you have been receiving it for 5 years or more. My Knowledge Café also had its 18th birthday last September.
If you enjoy my work and find it valuable, please consider giving me a little support by donating $1 (or more) a month to Become a Patron or making small one off contribution.
I am not going to get rich on this but it will help cover some of my website hosting expenses.
I have over 50 patrons so far. A big thanks to you all.
Corporate Storytelling -The Essential Guide
Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk, Mike Adams and Paul Ichilcik of Anecdote have just published their definitive guide to Corporate Storytelling - The Essential Guide.
What is corporate storytelling?
Corporate storytelling, also called business storytelling, is the purposeful and systematic application of story techniques in an organisation to deliver business outcomes.
Here is one short clip from the guide that resonated with me:
Most business presentations are dry and boring, and as a result totally forgettable. The mistaken assumption is that clear points organised in a rational way and spoken out loud or placed into a fancy PowerPoint template can pass as an effective business presentation. Left-brain efficiency may rule the way we operate in business processes, but it shouldn't rule the way we communicate.You can read the guide online or download it as a PDF.
Street Epistemology
Given my interest in how we form and how we might change our beliefs through conversation I have been excited to discover the work of Anthony Magnabosco and Street Epistemology.
Street Epistemology is a conversational tool that helps people reflect on the quality of their reasons and the reliability of their methods used to derive their confidence level in their deeply-held beliefs.Watch the videos here (especially the tutorial) to see how Anthony gently, thoughtfully and respectfully questions people about their beliefs with a view not to changing them but to help reflect on the evidence that underpins them.
Credit: Street Epistemology
He has drawn his method from the work of Peter Boghossian. You will find more information about the techniques he uses in Peter's book on Impossible Conversations.
War on Sensemaking V
Daniel Schmachtenbergers War on Sensemaking videos contain some of the most exciting insights and ideas I have come across in a while.
Daniel's central interest is civilization design: developing new capacities for sense-making and choice-making, individually and collectively, to support conscious, sustainable evolution.
The fifth video in the series was recently released and like the first in the series it is quite a blockbuster. I cannot recommend these talks more highly. Do take the time do watch them, if only a little, I don't think you will be disappointed. I have indexed the first, second and fifth in the series to make it easier for you to dip in at various points depending on your interests.
Gurteen Knowledge Tweets: October 2020
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.
- Facing each other, looking into the eyes, confiding—all those behaviors reflect and build trust. “There is no substitute for face-to-face interaction to build up this trust.” https://buff.ly/35gMKjX #ConversationalLeadership #trust
- Don't Assume; Empathize First https://buff.ly/3dJ1nP8 /Misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions are behind most conflicts - great advice here when engaging in difficult conversations #ConversationalLeadership
- A baker's dozen of knowledgeable KM practitioners at this year's KM World Knowledge Café: Mentoring Mixer. The event is virtual so you can join from anywhere in the world. https://lnkd.in/ddA2ipN #KMWorld #KM #KMers #KnowledgeCafé #ConversationalLeadership
- A shocking observation: As individuals, we do not know enough to justify almost anything we believe. -- Philip Fernbach Watch Philip's TEDx talk here: https://conversational-leadership.net/video/why-do-we-believe-things-that-arent-true/
#ConversationalLeadership #beliefs #KnowledgeIllusion
- “Critical thinking begins with the assumption that our beliefs could be in error, and if they are, that we will revise them accordingly. This is what it means to be humble.” @peterboghossian https://buff.ly/2MligjF
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.
I'm not so sure if some of these events will still take place and several may go online but I have listed them anyway.
19th European Conference on e-Learning
29 - 30 Oct 2020, Berlin, Germany
21st European Conference on Knowledge Management
02 - 04 Dec 2020, Coventry, United Kingdom
The 10th International Conference on Innovation and Knowledge Management in Asia Pacific
03 - 04 Dec 2020, Sydney, Australia
Twenty-first International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations
15 - 16 Jan 2021, Auckland, New Zealand
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The Gurteen Knowledge Letter
The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter is a free monthly e-mail based KM newsletter for knowledge workers. Its purpose is to help you better manage your knowledge and to stimulate thought and interest in such subjects as Knowledge Management, Learning, Creativity and the effective use of Internet technology. Archive copies are held on-line where you can register to receive the newsletter.
It is sponsored by the Henley Forum of the Henley Business School, Oxfordshire, England.
You may copy, reprint or forward all or part of this newsletter to friends, colleagues or customers, so long as any use is not for resale or profit and I am attributed. And if you have any queries please contact me.
David GURTEEN
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
