Welcome to the Gurteen Knowledge Log. In this blog I blog 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 learning. Like the rest of my site - it an eclectic mix.
Announcing a Virtual Knowledge Cafe on Social Artistry - Comments
Michele Martin and Brent MacKinnon are organizing a 9-week Knowledge Cafe that they plan to run online, starting February 20, 2012.
It's open to anyone who's interested in learning with them about the skills and talents of social artists and who want to explore how social artistry might fit into their professional practice.
I am delighted to learn that they will be adapting my Gurteen Knowledge Cafe model and Bo Gyllenpalm,s Virtual Knowledge Cafe as a learning framework. If you do nothing else take a look at Bo,s Virtual Knowledge Cafe concept. It's a very powerful adaptation of the Cafe model to an online environment.
If the term social artistry is new to you then here is a simple definition but click through to Micheles blog post to understand the term better. Its one of those concepts that's hard to pin down and define in one or two sentences.
Social artistry is about creating space for change and transformation, which is what learning is really all about. How do we create the space for people to be together, to learn from their experiences and connections and to move them to make a difference in their part of the world? How do we help people grow into their possibilities?
The role of Creative Commons Licences in a KM environment - Comments
Paul Corney sent me this email recently:
Dear All,
In a couple of week's time I am going to be in Sudan at a KM event for Africa and one of the discussions is going to focus on the role of Creative Commons Licences in a KM environment.
In the development arena some organisations publish under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licences and I was wondering how successful the use of these licences are in other industries in fostering collaboration.
I considered whether to post this on various km lists but thought some people might not want to respond in public so could I therefore ask you to respond to a few simple questions (I will not attribute your response unless you ask me to):
Have you published works under a creative commons licence and if so which one?
What was the work about and why did you publish via a creative commons licence?
Can you give a personal example that illustrates the benefit from publishing in this way?
Thank you for taking the trouble to look at this.
And finally every best wish for a healthy, peaceful and prosperous 2012.
I have been publishing almost all of my work under a creative commons license for five years or more.
For example. here is the slide that I have at end the end of all of my presentations.
This license says you are free:
to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
to make derivative works
to make commercial use of the work
Also:
Attribution: you must give the original author credit.
Share Alike: If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a licence identical to this one.
I do this for several reasons:
I am building on the shoulders of others, I have no legitimate claim over most of my material
If they really want to, people are going to take and use my material whatever I say (and am I really going to take them to court over it!)
My business strategy is to give most of my written material away as marketing material and to charge for me in person
I want to encourage people to take my material and remix it and attribute me where appropriate
But more than anything I do it to encourage others to do the same and to share freely.
Do I have a personal example of the benefit of using the licence? No nothing specific, other than people do take my material, reuse it and remix it and thus help spread some of the messages I am keen to spread.
best wishes David
You will find more thoughts on this subject in an article of mine: Raising all the ships on the sea where I talk about the tangible and intangible "commons".
Imagine my delight when I learnt that the ING Business School in the Netherlands had adapted my Knowledge Cafe process and were using it as part of their Challenging Minds programme.
I immediately contacted Mireille Jansma and Jurgen Egges to congratulate them on their work and the article.
This instigated a conversation with Mireille where I discovered that she had learnt about my Knowledge Cafe over four years ago through my website and then experienced one that I ran at an ECKM conference in Barcelona in 2007.
In fact, I recall sitting outside the conference in the courtyard having a long conversation with her.
Mireille and Jurgen have adapted the Cafe format and are using it in two ways.
The first way is described in the Forbes article that I summarise here:
They gather articles and reports about relevant trends in management, banking, and finance
They then broadcast "Research Alerts"
When an Alert deserves serious attention, they host a Knowledge Café
The KCafes are targeted at specific groups or open to anyone
Sometimes the KCafe is triggered by a video
They follow through with online discussion groups
These types of initiatives focus on topics that are highly relevant and in-the-moment for managers and workers, and where the sharing of ideas and exchange of opinions lead to creativity and innovation.
Is the Traditional Corporate University Dead?
They are also using the Knowledge Cafes in a second way as part of their Challenging Minds programme as described in the document below. Unfortunately they did not win the EFMD award but its an innovative approach to teaching nevertheless.
It shares a lot in common with Flip Teaching that I blogged about recently.
Connect, Connect, Connect
Creating a New Approach to Leverage Social, Collaborative, and Emergent Organizational Learning
Application for the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Excellence in Practice Award 2011
Executive Summary
This case study describes an ongoing partnership between ING Business School (IBS) recently renamed the ING Bank Academy and CoachingOurselves (CO) that began in January 2010.
It focuses not on a single learning intervention but rather on the evolution of a continually and broadly expanding application of CO learning philosophies and materials to a wide range of IBS development programs that serve all of ING's leaders, managers, and employees.
CoachingOurselves provides a library of topics intended for 6 to 8 managers to read and discuss in group sessions.
IBS partnered with CO initially to use a few topics, but the success of CO as a tool that fosters social, collaborative, and emergent learning that leads to meaningful improvements in management performance and engagement, along with its low-cost, modular topics, and immediate relevance, has led IBS to broadly incorporate CO into many of its learning initiatives.
Video: Interview with Mireille Jansma and Jurgen Egges of the ING Business Academy in Amsterdam
This is a short video interview with Mireille Jansma and Jurgen Egges of the ING Business Academy in Amsterdam in November 2011 where David Gurteen asks them how they learnt about his Knowledge Cafe concept and how it has played a role in their "Challenging Minds" programme.
Media Information:
Video: Interview with David Gurteen at the ING Business Academy
This is a short video interview with David Gurteen by Mireille Jansma of the ING Business Academy in Amsterdam in November 2011 where she asks him what he thinks of their "Challenging Minds" programme having just experienced one of the sessions
Is Knowledge Management Losing Sight of the Bigger Picture? - Comments
In this recent article by Waltraut Ritter she says:
Knowledge management practices are often narrowly focusing on internal operations
and not addressing larger questions about the nature and sustainability of the
knowledge driving the organization. There seems to be a separation of KM from the
overall business strategy, a general neglect of addressing the larger questions about an
organization's knowledge and how such knowledge may create societal value beyond a
company's financial gains.
How can we, as knowledge management professionals, engage in a deeper conversation
and exchange about value creation through knowledge, allow more critical questions
about existing practices which only touch the surface of real knowledge challenges, in
organizations and society?
To my mind, Waltraut is spot on here. This is what KM should be about.
And of course, its one of the aims of my Knowledge Cafes "to engage in that deeper conversation".
Henley KM Forum Conference and Positive Deviance - Comments
Those of you in the UK may be interested in attending the Annual Henley KM Forum Conference on
Wednesday 29 February and Thursday 1 March 2012 at the Henley Business School in Henley on Thames. There is a great line up of speakers, including Hubert Saint-Onge, Chris Collison, David Griffiths, Victor Newman, Elizabeth Lank and Nick Milton.
I have attended this conference almost every year for the last 12 years and I highly recommend it.
The Henley KM Forum brings together business practitioners, industry thought-leaders, experts and academics to help organisations tackle the challenges presented by the knowledge economy.
It's this rich blend of people and the interactive, engaging style of their events that I enjoy.
I love to spark conversations and at the conference dinner, I will be speaking for 10 minutes before we eat on one of my favourite topics Positive Deviance
Positive Deviance is an approach to
behavioural and social change based
on the observation that in every
community there are individuals or
groups of people (so called Positive
Deviants) whose behaviours and
strategies enable them to find better
solutions to problems than their
peers even though they have access
to the same resources and face similar
challenges. In this talk, David will take
a look at some of the principals that
underlie Positive Deviance and what
he thinks KM practitioners and leaders
can learn from the approach
I will then ask everyone to spend a little time during conversation over their meal to discuss my talk. We will then spend 20 mins or so at the end of the evening sharing our thoughts with each other.
Visionary knowledge management: Trends and Strategies - Comments
It's not very often I get called a KM visionary and I am not so sure that I am one but its good to be included in this German article on Visionary Knowledge Management: Trends and Strategies
The authors of this article go to the question of how organizations in 2020 to deal with knowledge. For this they have analyzed in a first step, national and international knowledge management conferences, publications and Internet publications to locate knowledge management visionaries. There are four visionaries are noticed because of your keynotes and their publications on knowledge management trends: David Griffiths, Dave Snowden, David Gurteen and Norbert Gronau. They are presented here together with their theories and visions for dealing with knowledge. At the end of these theories are compared and discussed.
Here are what I consider some of my more interesting Tweets for Dec 2011 - Jan 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.
Virtual Knowledge Cafe on Social Artistry http://bit.ly/wn5acM #KCafe #TheWorldCafe #WorldCafe
You can see the language banners on the tables and the three translation booths overlooking the room.
In November last year, I spent an interesting two days in Turin with the European Training Foundation (ETF).
The ETF is an EU agency that helps transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the EU's external relations policy.
During my time there, I ran two knowledge cafes.
The first was part of a two day workshop for around 90 participants from ETF member countries where they discussed the role of evidence in "governance and effective Vocational Education and Training (VET) policies".
Member countries included Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Kosovo.
So quite an ethnic mix.
This was the more challenging of the two knowledge cafes given the large number of people and the fact that three languages were being spoken: English, French and Russian.
This meant that each table needed to be labelled with the language intended to be spoken at that table and when people changed tables they needed to move to a table where their language was spoken. My introduction to the KCafe and explanation of the process was simultaneously translated into French and Russian.
Then where as normal, I would have brought everyone together in a circle at the end of the KCafe, I simply asked for a few people to share with the rest of the group what they had learnt from their conversations. This was done by handing around a couple of stick mikes. Not the perfect way to run one of my KCafes but a reasonable adaptation in the circumstances.
Several people, found me after the event to say how much they enjoyed the KCafe and I was pleased that two of them told me they were already using the process in their own organisations
I even had a woman from Kazakhstan ask through an interpreter if I had a description of the KCafe process In Russian.
I don't but it has prompted me to think about writing a short document that could be translated into multiple languages to explain the process. I may be asking for help on this at a later date :-)
The conversation menu.
And then on the second day I ran a Knowledge Cafe for a much smaller group (about 20) of KM managers. This was a more regular KCafe.
What was interesting though was the meal the evening before.
Ian Cumming who had attended one of my Knowledge Cafe workshops in London a few weeks before had heard me talk about Theordore Zeldins conversation dinners.
Inspired by this he had created a conversational menu for the evening. Not quite along Theodore's lines but interesting nevertheless. My first reaction was that no one would select a conversation from the menu as the questions were far too work related.
I was proven wrong in part. There were three tables in the dining room, each seating about 6 people. My table was the only one that drew some of our conversation from the menu (and that was not my doing).
What surprised me was how well it worked. Given it was a social evening, we did not stick too closely to the questions and there was a lot of laughter and banter but the conversation was to my mind interesting and valuable nevertheless.
Upcoming Knowledge Events: January 2012 - Comments
This section highlights 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.
Henley KM Forum 12th Annual Conference
29 Feb - 01 Mar 2012, Henley on Thames, United Kingdom
I will be giving a short talk during the dinner at this conference
Changing the world through our children in a generation - Comments
Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson:
"I can."
Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.
I love this woman and what she is doing - watch some of the kids stories - I've got a feeling that if we could tap into the passion of all the world's children we could transform the world in a single generation!
And if you enjoy the videos and wish to learn more take a look at the Design for Change Movement she has created.
This is one of the most exciting, moving ideas I have across in a long time.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for November - December 2011.
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.
Introduction to the December 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.
Kiva lets you lend as little as $25 to people without access to traditional banking systems
Its simple:
You join Kiva.
With your credit card you make US$25 loans to people of your choosing.
They pay back the loans with no interest and you get regular updates.
There is 98.93% repayment rate. And over US$263 million has been loaned to date.
When you have been repaid you can loan the money again or withdraw it..
I have made 14 loans since I started in December 2007
and at Christmas I will add a little more money to the pot to enable me to make some more loans.
Its not a lot but every liitle helps and its so easy and effective :-)
If you like the idea, why not make a loan yourself to someone this Christmas.
As usual at Christmas, the knowledge letter is short but I'll be back in full swing in 2012 :-)
Here's wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
I am a big fan of the work and thinking of Dave Snowden and follow his talks and blog posts quite closely.
For a long time he has been making the point that Knowledge Management should be about supporting effective decision making and creating the conditions for innovation but in a recent post that mainly dealt with What is the function of KM?, he added a third point that I have clipped below.
Firstly, to support effective decision making ...
Secondly, we need to create the conditions for innovation ...
Thirdly, knowledge management is all about communication and that doesn't just mean the top down focus that is all too common place, although it does permit it.
Dealing with uncertainty often focuses on things like values and mission statements.
However writing your values down means that you have just lost them.
All you have done is teach people the language of power and it will come back to you in slide presentations and proposals.
The Bible teaches through parables, stories that carry necessary ambiguity and hence adaptability but you can't talk your way out of their message.
This is the key switch from managing rule base cultures, to enabling an ideation culture.
That means understanding the micro-narratives of day to day conversations, sensing the evolutionary potential of the system.
It can also involve the use of metaphor. Like the parables referenced above, metaphors carry with them essential ambiguity and adaptability which paradoxically allows them to me more precise in day to day communication both up and down.
Narrative is a broad field that too many people seek to narrow and its a lot more sophisticated in both theory and practice than many people would have you believe.
Its also about how we use technology to link and connect people in different ways
I don't think Dave means to imply an order in these three points but I would put communication first as connecting people, improved communication and better conversations ultimately leads to effective decision making and innovation.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for October - November 2011.
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.
Towards the end Sal talks about "the notion of an emerging global one world classroom" (watch from 15:47 on). What a concept! Knowledge sharing, learning, peer to peer tutoring, coaching and mentoring on a global scale. Its early days but this has got to play a major role in the future of education.
Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects.
He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.
Plaudern wie im Pub (Like a chat in the pub) - Comments
Amazingly, I have had two articles on my Knowledge Cafe written by German authors and published in German magazines this last month or so.
The first is by Sascha Reimann:
Plaudern wie im Pub (Like a chat in the pub)
Published in Training Aktuell Magazine, October 2011
Training aktuell is a trade magazine focussing on professional training, learning & development, coaching and consulting. For 22 years we have been delivering concise information for training and coaching professionals including useful tools and practical advise for them to use in the classroom as well as in their offices. Here you can find some excerpts: http://bit.ly/peUoAI. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook.
Training aktuell ist eine Zeitschrift speziell für Trainer, Berater und Coachs. Seit 22 Jahren liefert es wichtige Informationen, Arbeitshilfen und praktische Tipps für Weiterbildner -- im Seminar und darüber hinaus. Eine Leseprobe finden Sie hier: http://bit.ly/peUoAI. Sie finden uns unter http://www.trainingaktuell.de, auf Twitter und auf Facebook.
The Project Magazine is the leading German language magazine for project managers.
Das Projekt Magazin ist das führende deutschsprachige Fachmedium für Projektmanager.
"Dead by PowerPoint" -- so lautete das Urteil des britischen Experten für Wissensmanagement, David Gurteen, nach dem Besuch einer typischen, mit Informationen überfrachteten Fachkonferenz. Dennoch zog er einen wesentlichen Gewinn daraus: Wirklich etwas gebracht hatten ihm Gesprä che mit anderen Teilnehmern am Rande der Konferenz, in der Kaffeepause oder abends im Pub. Diese Erkenntnis war Basis des Knowledge Cafes, einer von ihm entwickelten Methode zum Wissensaustausch in der Gruppe. Elisabeth Wagner beschreibt das Vorgehen sowie Anwendungsmö glichkeiten im Projektmanagement.
If you would like a free copy of this second article then please send me a request by email and I will return you a PDF of the article as the publishers will not allow me to publish the article for free on-line.
Gurteen Knowledge Cafe: SMARTlab at the University of East London
Knowledge Cafés as KM Tools. KM India 2010
Gurteen Knowledge Cafe at KMPAP 2006 in Hong Kong
Introduction to the Knowledge Cafe, Greenwich 2006
So often when people start a so called KM initiative they ask the question "How do we do KM?" and "What are the benefits?". To my mind this is the wrong place to start. We should start with the question "What are the business problems we are facing and how can KM help."
This ensures a sharp focus on business outcomes. The benefits? - well they are your desired outcomes. Simple really! Hence "Don't do KM!"
I will be speaking again at KM Middle East 2012 again in Abu Dhabi but this time on "Conversation for Empowerment" and running a half-day seminar on "Conversation: Your most powerful KM Tool". I also hope to run an open Knowledge Cafe in Dubai on the Sunday evening before the conference. I'll post more on these events later.
A few weeks back, I helped someone writing an article on my Knowledge Cafes by answering questions by email.
This was one of the questions:
You say: "The question is only a seed. It's okay to go off topic. "Doesn't that bring the danger of dissipation of the conversation? Or causing problems after the participants have changed the tables?
This was my answer:
The Knowledge Cafe is not about trying to control people and what they say or talk about. Its about treating them as adults.
Conversations go off topic in everyday life - all of the time. That's the intrinsic nature of conversation,
If you try to control conversation - you destroy it.
If the topic is important to the participants and the right one - they will quickly return to it.
It also allows issues to emerge that were not anticipated. This is at the heart of what the Cafe is all about.
You need the freedom to explore stuff.
And you need the freedom for people to relax and tell personal stories and share anecdotes.
Rather then dissipate the conversation - it keeps it natural and enlivens it,
And there is not a problem when people change tables ... the sidetrack either dies or if it is important it is built upon
Podcast: Knowledge Cafes: A conversation with David Gurteen - Comments
Geraldine Clement-Stoneham of SLA Europe did a little audio interview with me the other day.
David Gurteen is a well known figure of the knowledge management world. For several years, he has been touring the world introducing knowledge cafés as a way to re-discover the power of conversation to exchange knowledge.
In this interview, David introduces himself, and how he became involved in knowledge management.
He explains the principles behind knowledge cafés, and how they represent a great KM tool, including in the business environment.
He touches briefly on cultural differences in the way people approach conversation, and invites us to join him to live the experience in one of his workshop, or the many cafés he runs for his community.
Social Media versus Knowledge Management: A false dichotomy - Comments
I have just read an article Social Media versus Knowledge Management on the HBR Blog Network
where the authors Anthony Bradley and MarMcDonald say the following.
Knowledge management is what company management tells me I need to know, based on what they think is important.
Social media is how my peers show me what they think is important, based on their experience and in a way that I can judge for myself.
I rarely post comments against articles but in this case I simply had to reply:
Funny, this is not the KM that I observe.
KM has rarely been "what company management tells me I need to know, based on what they think is important"
and has always been at its best about "how my peers show me what they think is important, based on their experience and in a way that I can judge for myself".
Peer assists, after action reviews, retrospects, open space, knowledge cafes .... the core face to face conversational processes of KM are naturally peer to peer
and people within organisations use social media as KM tools to have electronically mediated conversations, to share and to collaborate!
KM is fundamentally social in its nature.
In the article, there are some excellent points made about the use social media in an organisation but to my mind the comparison with KM is a false dichotomy and pure fiction.
Some other thoughts of mine on KM and social media:
As you might expect it is about Steve Jobs - the man. If you have not read it - take a look - it shows him in a different light to all the other articles.
My next public Knowledge Cafe workshop is in London on 13 December 2011 - Comments
I am running my next public Knowledge Cafe workshop in London on 13 December 2011 at the RSA.
Its about six weeks to go and I already have six people signed-up. So looking good :-)
The day is fundamentally about "How to design and run Knowledge Cafes" and put them to good business purpose but we also take a look at the whole role of conversation in our organizational lives.
After all, conversation is not only a powerful learning technology, it is the best KM tool we have at our disposal.
The sciences of complexity change our perspective and thinking. Perhaps, as a result we should, especially in management, focus more attention on what we are doing than what we should be doing. Following the thinking presented by the most advanced scientific researchers, the important question to answer is not what should happen in the future, but what is happening now?
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.
We really must get away from talking conceptually about the future and "Seize the Day". Seneca and Horace understood this over 2,000 years ago.
The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.
Scale back your long hopes
to a short period. While we
speak, time is envious and
is running away from us.
Seize the day, trusting
little in the future.
What if conference organizers and event professionals flipped the standard lecture presentation? What if the lecture was put online for people to view before the conference? People could then attend the session onsite and participate with the presenter and others in activities that helped them solidify concepts and ideas. They could engage in roundtable discussions with one another on what did and didn't work.
The same model could be used with Webinars. Conference presenters could deliver their foundation content in a Webinar. Attendees could view it at their leisure, apply concepts in real time at work and then bring questions, best practices and concerns to the conference.
This could have great ROI for learning and retention from your conference or event. I think it has great promise.
How would your conference attendees adapt to flipping the conference education lecture presentation on YouTube and the onsite experience being interactive? What other conference processes, models or methods could be flipped today?
The problem I see with it though is that at present people tend not to do pre-conference work. They are either too busy or don't see the value. Maybe a little of both. I wonder if that will change over time.
A while back I wrote a blog post entitled Improving Understanding
in which I told a story where I suggested to a student that she run mini Knowledge Cafes with fellow students to gain a deeper understanding of her studies.
In response, I received an email from Guillaume Boutard, a PhD. student from McGill University in Canada in which he told me about an interesting article in Wired Magazine Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up whose conclusions he pointed out were similar to the ones I was making.
Here are two quotes from the article:
The reason we're so resistant to anomalous information -- the real reason researchers automatically assume that every unexpected result is a stupid mistake -- is rooted in the way the human brain works. Over the past few decades, psychologists have dismantled the myth of objectivity. The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we're empiricists -- our views dictated by nothing but the facts -- we're actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn't that most experiments fail -- it's that most failures are ignored.
While the scientific process is typically seen as a lonely pursuit -- researchers solve problems by themselves -- Dunbar found that most new scientific ideas emerged from lab meetings, those weekly sessions in which people publicly present their data. Interestingly, the most important element of the lab meeting wasn't the presentation -- it was the debate that followed. Dunbar observed that the skeptical (and sometimes heated) questions asked during a group session frequently triggered breakthroughs, as the scientists were forced to reconsider data they'd previously ignored. The new theory was a product of spontaneous conversation, not solitude; a single bracing query was enough to turn scientists into temporary outsiders, able to look anew at their own work.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for September - October 2011.
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.
Now your kid can go to Harvard, MIT and Oxford - The Craigslist moment for most universities http://t.co/8Rw1EMMD Wed Oct 19 12:04:02 +0000 2011
Do we we have a finite “namespace” in our brains, http://t.co/tWkqeExa /no you are getting older Chris @chris_collison Wed Oct 19 11:05:10 +0000 2011
Our love of stories comes with a side-effect: we forsake the facts when they interfere with the plot http://t.co/b7xVKWiC #storytelling Wed Oct 19 08:06:10 +0000 2011
The mess of Knowledge Management groups on LinkedIn - Comments
There is no shortage of Knowledge Management discussion groups on Linkedin.
I posted a list of 35 of them back in February 2009 when that was all I could find.
But in reading this post by Ian Wooler it looks like the number has grown dramatically. Here's Ian's summary:
I am not so sure though that it could be any different unless some form of centralised control of the discussions was implemented which is not what the web is about.
I also don't think that it would be a good thing.
Discusssion is naturally fragmented and messy.
Exerting control over it, even if possible, would diminish creativity, freedom of expression and diversity.
Maybe we need a better balance between mess and order? But if so, who would define and agree it and how would it be achieved?
I've known about a new way of teaching for some time now.
It's called "flip teaching", "reverse teaching" or "reverse instruction."
The idea is simple:
Kids watch lectures and videos at home.
Class is for hands-on work and face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers.
Although this style of teaching does not seem to be without its problems, I love the idea.
This is just what I and others have been saying about conferences and seminars.
But why did I not make the connection before today? Conferences are just a hang over from school days. Sit the students in nice neat rows in a classroom and talk at them!
Speech is a bad medium for communicating information - so watch lectures and videos at home.
Speech is a good medium for dialogue - so do hands-on work and face-to-face interaction with teacher/peers at school and speaker/peers at a conference.
Its such a simple but powerful way of working. Don't just flip teaching, flip conferences as well.
I will leave you with favourite quotation of mine.
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
The problems with conferences come down to three things:
Speech is a bad medium for communicating information.
Speech is a good medium for dialog.
Get smart people and encourage them to talk.
He also makes the point that conferences get things backwards.
"They use valuable face-to-face time for worthless presentations by people who are not particularly entertaining and even if they were are saying things you already know,
and then try and stifle discussion (one question per person, sir!) and shunt it off towards lunch or something (we don’t have time for questions now).
Hello? What did all these people come out here for? I can watch infomercials at home just fine, thanks."
Exactly!
Many conferences are becoming more conversational in their format.
But what is the percentage that are still dreary death-by-powerpoint talks?
I have no idea but putting a finger in the air, I would say about 95%, maybe higher.
Introduction to the October 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
Every so often, I come across a story that I feel compelled to share.
Almost 300 Indian girls known officially as "Unwanted" have traded their birth names for a fresh start in life. Given names like "Nakusa" or "Nakushi" - or "unwanted" in Hindi - they grew up understanding they were a burden in families that preferred boys in Maharashtra state.
What an amazing story. What wonderful girls. I think we are going to see more and more stories like this. People taking charge of their lives. There is a lot wrong with this world but more and more people are working to make it better.
A big thanks to Nerida Hart for posting this story on her Facebook wall via a post on the Facebook Girl Effect page. I have written about the Girl Effect in the past. Here is a snippet of what they have to say "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." Take a look.
I have run dozens of these workshops around the world these last few years, most recently in Edinburgh and Copenhagen and always have tremendous feedback.
This one was no exception and it was made special in that my eldest daughter Lauren came along ... so now when people ask her what her Dad does ... she can do a little better then say "he travels the world having conversations with people" :-)
I had 21 people in total, most of them had paid the full price but I had given a few discounts and one or two freebies to people who were keen to take part but could not afford the full price.
I have posted an album of photos from the day on Facebook if you are interested. As you can see ... lots of great conversation taking place.
And my daughter Lauren shot a few short video clips where she asked people what they were taking away from the day.
The very first short clip with Megan Morys is a rather special one for me.
In my workshops, I have long suggested that many meetings would be better broken into two meetings separated by at least a week.
The first meeting would take the form of a knowledge cafe where the sole purpose was to explore and better understand the issue at hand.
It should not be about making a decision or coming to consensus.
And it should be about dialogue and not debate.
The second meeting would then focus on making the decision.
This can and would be more adversarial and more debate-like format with often the manager who has convened the meeting making the final decision.
This to my mind, overcomes the complications faced when you try to do both in the same meeting.
The people who wish to explore the issue get shouted down and the people who want to make a quick decision and often have already made up their minds tend to win the day.
Often a bad decision is made and the people put down come away feeling not listened to and demoralised.
Personally, I have always respected that a decision has to be made and that I may not like it. What I have always hated is not to have had my say.
Megan is the fist person to have told me that as a manager this is just what she does. Listen to what she has to say :-)
Video Playlist: Gurteen Knowledge Cafe Workshop Interviews
This is a series of short interviews shot at various Gurteen Knowledge Cafes or Knowledge Cafe workshops where participants share something that they are taking away from the day.
I am often asked to give a talk to an organisation and where I have the freedom to, I do my best to transform it into a conversational format.
A few days ago I discovered that Google Video had lost a video of one such talk that I gave at the National Library in Singapore in 2007 and so I uploaded it again to YouTube
and in watching it, I realised it was an excellent example of how I like do things.
The traditional way goes something like this:
Give the talk with loads of Powerpoint slides and don't allow any questions during your talk as it can upset your rehearsed speech and someone may ask you a difficult question.
Take questions at the end but don't leave too much time as again you may be asked a difficult one or no one has any questions for you as you put them all to sleep and they are dying to get back to the office.
Leave quickly.
The way I prefer, goes more like this:
Give the talk (some Powerpoint slides are OK) and take questions as you want the session to be engaging and interactive.
At the end of your talk, ask the participants to have a conversation about the topic of the talk or ask them a specific question. This can either be a short conversation at their tables or a more fully Cafe like session where they change tables in order to have a broader conversation with more people.
Ask them to form a circle with their chairs.
Continue the conversation as a whole group and take more questions.
Hang around over coffee and engage in more conversation.
Just browse my talk (unless you are interested in it of course) and you will get the idea of how it all hangs together. Note: the small group conversation starts at about 44:00 and the whole group conversation in a circle starts at about 59:00.
Video: Knowledge Sharing Talk at NLB, Singapore
Knowledge Sharing Talk and mini-knowledge cafe at NLB, Singapore, August 2007
Media Information:
Try this for yourself. You don't have to be a professional speaker. The format is simple. It is easy to do. You do need a little bit of confidence to try it but people really enjoy conversation and they will love you for it. You can't go too far wrong.
I am coaching someone at the moment who is a newly appointed head of a University department and they have been experimenting with the format. Not only are they enjoying introducing more conversation into their meetings but their members of staff are too.
A conversation doesn't just shuffle the deck of cards -- it creates new ones - Comments
One of my recent newcomers to my London Knowledge Cafes is Andrew Armour.
Andrew is one of those people who immediately "got" what the Cafes are all about and has delighted me in blogging about them and expressing elements of them in ways that I have never been able to articulate.
A Knowledge Cafe tries to eliminate the traditional point scoring, that is such a feature of our everyday conversations.
It is a notion that is neatly expressed by the brilliant Theodore Zeldin and his famous quote; "A conversation doesn't just shuffle the deck of cards -- it creates new ones".
The 'Cafe' format has been smartly honed by Gurteen as a way to encourage the making of those new cards by stimulating dialogue rather than monologue.
In addressing the above questions, the various groups shifted the conversation from how you define good and bad outcomes, to discussing (in a sign of the times) -- how you engage in a conversation with looters.
The idea was to explore and share knowledge.
I ended the evening with as many new puzzling questions as answers -- and as many new insights.
But isn’t that the point of a good conversation?
It leads you to a different view, adds insight and helps you play with 'a new card' rather than flip over that same one again and again and again.
And if you are trying to innovate, to explore, to create something fresh -- isn’t that where your next conversation should start?
Like Andrew, I love Theodore's card metaphor. And just in case you missed it - listen to Theodore's recent interview on New Conversation on the BBC's Radio 4.
Five quotations that represent my values - Comments
I love quotations.
I tend to remember them and they help me focus on what is important to me and inspire and motivate me.
Some people try to identify their core values. I try to identify the quotations that most represent who I am or wish to be.
Here are probably my top five. They change slightly every time I draw up the list :-)
We must become the change we want to see in the world.
To be a catalyst is the ambition most appropriate for those who see the world as being in constant change, and who, without thinking that they can control it, wish to influence its direction.
I have to tell it again and again: I have no doctrine. I only point out something. I point out reality, I point out something in reality which has not or too little been seen. I take him who listens to me at his hand and lead him to the window. I push open the window and point outside. I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue.
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.
Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture.
You will find over 900 quotations on my website. I have selected them carefully over the last 20 years or so and each means something to me. I hope you enjoy them too.
What quotations best represent who you are or what you would like to be?
In my knowledge cafes and workshops, a frequent question asked is "what is a conversation".
Surprisingly, people cannot agree.
Many think an exchange of emails, even SMS messages can be classed as conversations.
I disagree.
Browsing the dictionary definitions on the web, conversation clearly involves talking. It is an oral, spoken activity, not a written one
Here is a definition from the Merrian-Webster dictionary:
"an oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas"
And another from the Macmillan dictionary:
"an informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy"
The key words here are oral, exchange and informal.
So you can have a conversation, face to face, on the phone or via a video link.
Anything else such as email, a written letter, or an exchange of IM or SMS messages are not conversations.
I would also add that conversation is highly interactive and takes place in real time - so an exchange of voice messages is also not a conversation.
To my mind, the best conversations are face to face, you need to be able to sense other people in their totality; their dress, their body language, their habits, their perfume or cologne; you need to be able to reach out and touch them even.
This you cannot do over the phone or even a video link.
If you want a real human experience it must be literally face to face; body to body.
That's the way conversation evolved, long before writing technology, its what us human beings are good at
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for August - September 2011.
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.
A clear introduction to the concept of 'Ba' http://t.co/4oWs1shN #KM 2011-09-24 12:04:02 UTC
BBC R4 interview with Theodore Zeldin on changing the way people talk to each other http://t.co/bzdNFsHP #conversation #TheWorldCafe 2011-09-16 10:57:06 UTC
Introduction to the September 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
I would estimate that over 90% of all my professional news comes to me via RSS feeds that I subscribe to and read via Google Reader, primarily on my iPhone. Its how I keep in touch with a rapidly changing world.
I could not imagine being without this source of information and it still surprises me how many people I speak to who do not understand RSS and how valuable it could be to them.
RSS is simple. See this RSS page on my website that describes it in simple terms and includes two short animations "RSS in Plain English" and "Google Reader in Plain English".
Then see my RSS Feeds page for a list of all the RSS feeds that I generate and include website updates, jobs, events, photos, videos and more.
Introduction to the August 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
The big news this month is of course the resignation of Steve Jobs.
I am a PC boy though I do love my iPhone and am increasingly tempted to convert and buy a MacBook Air.
I am not too sure that what I have read about Steve Jobs that I would have liked to work for him.
But I hugely admire what he has achieved and I think there is so much we can all learn from him.
You may recall I blogged his hugely inspiring Stanford Commencement Speech a while back.
We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.
When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
Just take a look at the back of any PC laptop and compare it with a Mac laptop. I have never been able to figure out whey other manufacturers have not followed suit. My daughter has a Mac laptop and I often just pick it up to admire it and to feel it. Its a delight just to hold it in my hands.
If only all businesses took design so seriously. I am sure extra investment would pay off handsomely.
We need to think about saving ourselves - Comments
I would like to introduce you to two bloggers whom you may find interesting to follow.
I started following their blog posts some years ago when they were more focused on KM. Today, many of their posts are seemingly of a different nature.
I'll warn you now, you may not agree with what they have to say, they may even anger you.
But they have some interesting perspectives on the state of the world and our future.
Rob, has got me thinking about food and diet and the effect on our health of the huge quantities of processed foods that we now eat and that we may be being advised wrongly.
He has influenced me to try the Paleo Diet.
I have lost 15 lbs (7kgs) in about 2 months (another 15 lbs to go) and I feel much better for it.
Dave, on the other hand, has prompted me to start to think more deeply about the sustainability of our way of life and the global economy. In the UK for example, we are possibly only Nine Meals from Anarchy.
Some people see Dave's posts as being negative and defeatist as he believes that we cannot avoid the collapse of our global civilisation during this century and that we need to prepare and adapt for it.
No one is good at predicting the future, Dave may be right, he may be wrong. You don't have to like or agree with what Dave is saying but you should read his posts (they are long) and think about it for yourself.
The one thing is certain. We cannot go on as we are much longer. Even if things don't totally collapse, we are entering a period of great turmoil and change.
We all need to start to think about it and plan for it as best we can.
I started off by saying both these gentleman started out blogging about KM. To my mind, they still are.
We have so much information and knowledge about what is going on our world but the challenge is to make sense of it all and to make better decisions. This is the essence of KM. So Rob's and Dave's blog posts are not too surprising.
The best prediction for children's choice of behaviour is the actions of other children around them - Comments
I recently stumbled on this snippet on Peer Influence from John Tropea.
1928 Study by Hugh Hartshorne and Mark May
Experimental situation in which 10-13 year old had the choice to yield to the possibility of cheating and stealing, or to be honest and considerate of their peers. The study showed that children were not consistently honest or dishonest (the idea that honesty would be a fixed trait of character by this age). The best prediction for the children's choice of behaviour was the actions of the other children around them.
This resonated with me as one thing that is high on my list of "lessons learnt in life" is never, ever, ever, assume things about anything or anyone.
Its all too easy to jump to conclusions as to why someone has said something or done something. Most of the time we are wrong. Very wrong.
To me this is where conversation or dialogue plays its part in understanding issues and people.
Rather than say - "that was a stupid move" or "that was a stupid thing to say".
Its far more creative and revealing to say "that's interesting, so why did you do that?" or "that's interesting, why did you say that?" It also potentially saves a relationship.
But you need to do it out of genuine curiosity not as some cheap conversational technique.
Conversation down the pub with Theodore Zeldin - Comments
I am great fan of Theodore Zeldin as many of you will know but there is precious little video of him
and his website The Oxford Muse has been broken for some time or at best a bit of a mess which is a huge shame.
Video: Theodore Zeldin discusses the results of the Courage Beer Conversations Survey.
Philosopher and historian Theodore Zeldin discusses the results of the Courage Beer Conversations Survey.
Media Information:
It resonates well with my thinking about my Knowledge Cafes where one of the key principles is to come as close to a pub conversation as possible (though of course without the beer).
In his seven point list, the first two points are as follows:
There is no such thing as a social media strategy.
There are only business strategies that understand networks.
This jumped out at me, as it is the same the advice I give about KM. I wrote the following a little while back:
There are NO KM initiatives. There is no such thing as a KM project. You don't do KM. There is no such thing as a KM strategy. There are only business problems, challenges and opportunities; business strategies and business projects.
The problem with KM initiatives and strategies is that they conceptualize the problem and make it far too easy to take your eye off the business. It is, to my mind, one of the key reasons why so many KM projects fail.
It is rare that a project is purely a KM one. You usually need more than just KM tools and techniques to fully address a business problem or opportunity.
You use KM tools and methodologies to respond to business problems.
If you must have a KM strategy it should be in response to a clear business objective and tie in to the top level business objectives of the organization or organizational unit. The business purpose and outcomes should come first!
There is no absolute security or privacy on the web as whole, not just social media. Anything you really don't want people to know about then don't put it on the web.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for July - August 2011.
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.
Book: Knowledge Management (01 Aug 2011) by Kevin C Desouza, Scott Paquette http://t.co/NddtKA2 2011-08-23 10:36:21 UTC
The need for rational, reasonable drug laws has never been more pressing. http://t.co/uFfz07U #SocialGood 2011-08-23 07:26:28 UTC
Book Review of Kate Pugh’s Sharing Hidden Know-How from @billives http://t.co/MPT6Uda #KM 2011-08-22 11:34:33 UTC
A nice overview of my recent London Knowledge Cafe at PwC from @NicolaFranklin http://t.co/cwN4xiw #KCAFE #KM 2011-08-22 09:51:50 UTC
Best prediction for children’s choice of behaviour was the actions of the other children around them http://t.co/6ZY4oy5 2011-08-21 08:08:10 UTC
“Reclaim Blogging”: Why I’m giving up Twitter and Facebook. | @gapingvoid http://t.co/UtsOkm3 2011-08-19 19:39:38 UTC
12 Incredible Internet Activists Changing the World Through Social Media http://t.co/KZNGulb #SocialGood 2011-08-19 19:30:13 UTC
Listening to some one’s story is a way of empowering them http://t.co/SyIUQOo #GoodToTalk 2011-08-19 19:18:41 UTC
It's rare to find a consistently creative or insightful person who is also an angry person. http://t.co/LLzIWDU 2011-08-19 10:32:38 UTC
The time to push hard is when you’re hurting like crazy and you want to give up http://t.co/0gOLw7n 2011-08-19 10:30:10 UTC
Books create semblance of knowledge but true knowledge can only be created through active discourse + dialogue.http://t.co/AcVECyE #KM 2011-08-19 07:11:45 UTC
Ideas just aren’t what they used to be. http://t.co/9uzeXua #KM /interesting 2011-08-17 09:04:53 UTC
RT @Yunus_Centre: #Socialbusiness is missing link between businessworld + fight against #poverty + social problems http://j.mp/bjewbJ 2011-08-10 10:21:23 UTC
KM. When will we admit that we’re getting it wrong? http://linkd.in/o3Jt6q #KM 2011-08-10 08:30:40 UTC
Responding to the apparent collapse of an old world under its own weight. http://bit.ly/nICl1D /by @euan 2011-08-10 08:10:07 UTC
RT @RobinGood: Social Content Curation – A Shift from the Traditional | @scoopit http://bit.ly/nc3qnS #curation 2011-08-08 07:20:57 UTC
RT @KMskunkworks: The problem with 'certified' KM training http://wp.me/pUfyy-6x #KCube #KMObservatory 2011-08-07 12:29:36 UTC
Content Curation Is Listening and Engaging http://bit.ly/ocG6Xb #curation 2011-08-04 16:26:16 UTC
Creating participatory conferences - challenging the assumptions http://bit.ly/pTR4um 2011-08-04 09:56:51 UTC
Introduction to the July 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
The major news of the month has been the beta release of Google+.
I managed to get an early invite and have been playing with it for some time now.
I won't attempt to explain it or review it ... a thousand others have done a much better job than I could ever do.
Here is what Techcrunch has to say and here is a guide from Mashup.
I like Google+ a great deal, even though I still don't think I have quite my mind wrapped around how circles work. Its certainly a more complex but more powerful model than Twitter or Facebook.
Unlike Wave or Buzz, I think Google+ will be a big success.
It does not replace Facebook or Twitter or blogs or discussion groups though its functionality overlaps with them all.
I will still be using all these social tools.
My main challenge will be figuring out which tool to use for what.
I tweet a lot and have things configured such that my manual tweets and automated tweets from my website (via RSS feeds) get pushed through to LinkedIn and Facebook.
So how does Google+ fit into all of this? Does it make sense to feed my tweets into Google+ as well? Or should I feed my Google+ posts into Twitter? Or neither?
There are a number of emergent tools to do this type of thing but I have yet to get my head around them and figure out which works best for me.
One thing I do like though is the ability to create an RSS feed for my Google+ public posts.
I will let you know how I get on and I am sure I will meet many of you in Google+. Here is my Google+ profile page.
I gather that Google+ will go fully live at end of July but if you would like an invite drop me an email and I will invite you.
Why, when politicians say something that really makes no sense, do people automatically think they are stupid?
Politicians rarely say what they believe or know to be true.
They say what needs to be said to win favour with the public; to keep rival politicians off their back and to stay in office.
By the same logic, don't judge their intelligence or true beliefs by what they do! Though it is a better measure.
That's the nature of politics.
But don't take this argument too far ... some really are stupid :-)
This though, is a more general problem, we rarely stop to look behind the words that other people utter. We don't look for the underlying meaning. We take their words at face value. Now who is being stupid? :-)
Implementing Knowledge Cafes for business purpose - Comments
Over the last few years I have run a large number of Knowledge Cafe workshops all over the world but always in partnership with another organisation
but on September 13 at the RSA in central London, I will be running one entirely organised by myself.
Its a good six weeks away and I already have six people signed up, so things are looking good.
If you have experienced one of my Cafes and would like to learn how to run them yourself or you are curious how then can be put to good business purpose then take a look here where you can learn more an register for the event.
I chaired KM Australia last week though on reflection, I don't like that old fashioned word "chaired". Lets say I facilitated it.
I did not sit on stage.
I briefly introduced the speakers. I did not read out their full bios.
I kept them to time as best I could.
I did not give lengthy summaries after their talks - that time was better given over to conversation.
And I encouraged, supported and facilitated conversation and Q&A around their talks.
I really enjoyed the conference and felt the conversational format worked well and from the feedback I have seen so far the conference participants (note I try not to use the word audience) did too.
Some great tweeting went on and even some Google Plussing.
A few little things stood out for me.
First, Peter Williams, CEO, of Deloitte Digital, during his talk said this about innovation : "Innovation is not about defining it, it's about doing it."
This resonated strongly with my own view on KM. "KM is not about defining it or arguing whether it is dead or alive, its about doing it."
Second, what was interesting, in the conversations, someone made the point that we really needed to agree a common definition on KM if it was to have any future.
Now, if you have been around KM as long as I have, you will know that agreeing a common definition is as far away as ever and may never be achieved.
So I asked the conference participants what they thought. Overwhelmingly they thought it was not an issue.
Thank God that I am not the only one who does not think this is a problem!
Thirdly, another conversation that stood out for me was one around the skills that we felt were needed today as knowledge workers. I noted down the items suggested.
And then did a very rough and ready poll on the top three. This was the result:
leadership
influence
flexibility/adaptability
The ability to lead and the ability to influence. Interesting. Well worth reflecting on.
Finally, given all the challenges that Knowledge Management faces, I concluded the conference with my favourite quote from Ghandi.
I enjoyed the conference so much, I must try to talk the Ark Group into inviting me again next year even though it rained almost all day, every day for the week I was in Sydney.
Are conversation, appreciation and understanding innovation? - Comments
In this short video Bill Doty reflects on how the search for "big innovation" might keep us from making small acts each day to change the way we live and work.
Are conversation, appreciation and understanding innovation?
Video of Gurteen Knowledge Cafe at KM Egypt 2010 - Comments
This video was taken at KM Egypt in September 2010 where I was invited to run a Knowledge Cafe.
It is probably one of the best videos that not only describes my Knowledge Cafes but where you also get to see it in action and hear some of the insights from the people taking part. Be warned though it is over 50 minutes in length.
Note: the room and the tables are not the ideal setting for a Knowledge Cafe nor is the reporting back process but often the Cafe needs to be adapted to fit the room and the number of participants.
Video: Knowledge Cafe at KM Egypt 2010
This video was taken at KM Egypt in September 2010 where I was invited to run a Knowledge Cafe.
It is probably one of the best videos that not only describes my Knowledge Cafes but where you also get to see it in action and hear some of the insights from the people taking part.
Note: the room and the tables are not the ideal setting for a Knowledge Cafe nor is the reporting back process but often the Cafe needs to be adapted to fit the room and the number of participants.
When you think you control something, you're wrong. - Comments
I like this post by Leo Babauta on the illusion of control.
It recognises that in a complex world we cannot predict cause and effect. If something happens the same way twice its by chance not because of some underlying "cause and effect" logic.
It also ties in with my mantra of stop doing things to people.
And it ties in with Snowden's views on not focusing on outcomes but on impact.
Here are a few things that Leo suggests for a completely different way of living:
We stop setting goals, and instead do what excites us.
We stop planning, and just do.
We stop looking at the future, and live in the moment.
We stop trying to control others, and focus instead on being kind to them.
We learn that trusting our values is more important to taking action than desiring and striving for certain outcomes.
We take each step lightly, with balance, in the moment, guided by those values and what we're passionate about ... rather than trying to plan the next 1,000 steps and where we'll end up.
We learn to accept the world as it is, rather than being annoyed with it, stressed by it, mad at it, despaired by it, or trying to change it into what we want it to be.
We are never disappointed with how things turn out, because we never expected anything -- we just accept what comes.
I am drawn to this way of thinking but I struggle with it.
I need to have some goals and to do some planning but not to be overly tied to those goals and my plans; to not be too hung up on the how, where or when.
Dave Snowden sums it up nicely for me when he says this (my slight modifications):
Knowledge ManagementWe should be focused on real, tangible intractable problems not aspirational goals. ItWe should deal pragmatically with the evolutionary possibilities of the present rather then seeking idealistic solutions.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for May - July 2011.
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 don't think of work as work and play as play . It's all living. Richard Branson http://bit.ly/2MucTo 2011-07-22 12:43:05 UTC
RT @TheE20Trap: Yammer or SharePoint? The Deloitte Experience #KMAUS http://trap.it/cALrRg #e20 #socbiz 2011-07-21 14:50:58 UTC
If You Want to Kill Innovation, Reward It! Alfie Kohn http://bit.ly/1f2aZr 2011-07-20 20:26:02 UTC
Is our civilization is in its final century, and is there is nothing we can do to prevent its collapse? http://bit.ly/rdWwT5 2011-07-20 13:06:50 UTC
The ubiquitous piece of software can leave one feeling grumpy and passive and in no frame of mind for proper work http://on.ft.com/nxxKbb 2011-07-18 12:50:46 UTC
RT @RobinGood: A must-watch presentation: Ten Technology Trends That Will Change the World http://slidesha.re/oslyNr 2011-07-17 12:27:17 UTC
RT @johnniemoore: @DavidGurteen thanks for excellent link on Wired/Khan Academy. I blogged a few thoughts here http://bit.ly/oh4tPO 2011-07-17 11:08:55 UTC
Weeding out students who look great on paper but haven't developed people or communications skills http://bit.ly/rsvdsu /via @andrewarmour 2011-07-13 09:53:42 UTC
RT @Yunus_Centre: Yunus: social business will impact the world http://bit.ly/r3M4w2 #Social Good 2011-07-13 07:31:41 UTC
What the catalysts are for “good” conversations http://bit.ly/nviRxq #GoodToTalk 2011-07-12 07:24:07 UTC
You can experience emotional states without knowing why, even if you believe you can pinpoint the source. http://bit.ly/mYd0YA 2011-07-12 07:14:32 UTC
Why 'Social Business'? http://bit.ly/rmfPRh /in the Yunus sense of SB #SocialGood 2011-07-11 16:23:33 UTC
Using Social Tools to Open Up Conversations within the Enterprise http://bit.ly/pz2Cpr #GoodTotalk 2011-07-11 07:38:19 UTC
The transformative power of conversation http://bit.ly/nUAw5Z from @kdelarue #GoodToTalk 2011-07-10 10:07:47 UTC
Brainstorming - it is possible to have lots of ideas and for everyone of them to be fatuous http://bit.ly/nteUrG from @andrewarmour 2011-07-10 09:27:08 UTC
RT @1cheerfulman: @DavidGurteen Our family has been looking after a child in Kenya; anyone can sign up here http://bit.ly/nRmXzn 2011-07-10 09:08:53 UTC
Knowledge Cafes are about "letting people think out aloud and be who they are in a safe setting" http://linkd.in/roVuxR #KM #KCafe 2011-07-10 09:04:43 UTC
In Uganda, American Becomes Foster Mom To 13 Girls http://n.pr/jU91Uv /another @maggiedoyne - we need more :-) #SocialGood 2011-07-10 08:36:36 UTC
What does it mean that the sea is dying? That it is being killed, by us. http://bit.ly/o2tzfB 2011-07-09 09:29:15 UTC
What would worldwide Balkanization and tribalization mean for globalization? from @davepollard http://bit.ly/onx8zx #EndOfEmpire 2011-07-09 08:41:12 UTC
The Ideas sausage machine, or the ideas conversation? http://bit.ly/p6bYuS #KM #GoodTotalk 2011-07-08 06:54:35 UTC
On Cafe Conversations, Connections & Collaboration by @AndrewArmour http://bit.ly/rrZqJx #KM #KCafe 2011-07-07 10:19:34 UTC
A Thousand Days to Reinvent Capitalism? http://bit.ly/ojh110 #ReinventCapitalism 2011-07-06 20:34:17 UTC
A Liquid Café is a hybrid of World Café and Open Space http://bit.ly/j1HVKP #KCafe 2011-07-05 12:25:20 UTC
Forrester's Five Stages of Social Media Maturity http://bit.ly/kzqUqL 2011-07-05 09:10:46 UTC
The session was captured on a flip cam without the use of a roving mic, so the sound is not clear and has had some extensive editing to fit into a short learning piece, but it gives a good idea of what the Cafe is all about.
Video: Gurteen Knowledge Cafe, NAB, Melbourne, October 2010
This is a short video of a Gurteen Knowledge Cafe that I facilitated for Peter Houlihan at the National Australia Bank in Melbourne in October 2010.
The session was captured on a flip cam without the use of a roving mic, so the sound is not clear and has had some extensive editing to fit into a short learning piece, but it gives a good idea of what the Cafe is all about.
The question posed to the group as the "conversational seed" was "What if true leadership involves embracing complexity by widening the circle of involvement rather than restricting it?
On the other hand, many companies do take their social responsibility seriously, so maybe I should not be too sceptical.
What prompted me to comment on CSR? Well this guide on the subject How to profit using corporate social responsibility from Jim Craig - an old friend and colleague from my Lotus Development days. Request your free copy if you wish to learn more.
On Cafe Conversations; Connections and Collaboration - Comments
Earlier this month I ran one of my London Knowledge Cafes that was mainly aimed at people who had not experienced one before. EC Harris were the host and 40 people participated. I have posted the photos to Facebook
The Cafes always go well, people love free flowing conversation but occasionally one or two people in the group really do not "get it" -- they want the session to be more controlled with agendas and summarisation and outcomes. But this is just what the Cafe is not about!
On the other hand, every so often one person really "gets it" and sees through the simplicity of the process and recognises its power.
In this Cafe, Andrew Armour was one of those people, this is an excerpt of a blog post he wrote after the event.
Fortunately, the session lacked squeaky marker pens and there were thankfully no mind maps, lumps of blu-tak and the divvying up of tasks.
Gurteen's Knowledge Cafe concept is a smarter, quicker and potentially far more productive way to encourage creative discussion.
Like other good things, from espresso to the first Porsche -- its success is based on functional simplicity and speed.
Take a question, divide into groups, discuss the question, then move into a new group and keep the conversation going -- sharing and discussing as you go.
Unlike the traditionally tortured brainstorming (notoriously ineffective, see my blog post on this) -- and the dreaded 'group planning away day' workshops -- the aim of the Cafe is not to appoint group leaders, debate and create instant solutions.
But rather to promote a conversation, explore the ideas and share the knowledge. It's not a pitch, debate, negotiation or a challenge.
Neither a platform, seminar or lecture from senior management. Nor a soap box or stage for show offs.
After 60 minutes of speedy, varied conversation across groups and tables everyone stands in a circle to quickly share the new insights and thoughts they've gained.
With business life often dominated by jargon, complexity and often jumbled communication the direct and focused approach of the Cafe is a refreshing change.
It's a short, sharp Arabica compared to a tepid mug of Nescafe. It blends the human art of conversation with the science of business thinking.
And it works. How so?
Firstly, it's very hard for one person to dominate because the group composition continually changes. The lack of agenda and pressure to develop a unified solution prevents closed thinking.
And as a bonus, it raises a few laughs as well -- which cannot be a bad thing. The cafe technique highlighted to me the importance of a collaborative dialogue in partnership development and marketing innovation.
We know that connections and relationships are at the heart of creative thinking and commercial innovation (see my previous blogs discussing Matt Ridley and Stephen Johnson etc.)
But a smart business connection will not evolve into a true collaboration without a conversation and dialogue.
Unfortunately, many brands and organisations are often dominated by strong individuals driven by their own agendas, an over confidence and need to shine and win in the spotlight.
The "not invented here" thinking is symptomatic of this -- its more monologue, than dialogue. A conversational approach is different.
I have long taken photos at almost all my Knowledge Cafes and Masterclasses and posted them to Flickr but I am now increasingly posting them to Facebook also as here people can tag themselves and each other making the whole event far more social.
I also love it as I get to remember people's names and faces.
I have also run two Knowledge Cafes, the first for Cabinet Office and Number 10 Downing Street staff as part of their "Better Cabinet Office Week" and the second at KM UK 2011.
Slowly but surely, interest is growing in the vital role of conversation in business.
For some time now Ditte has been running a form of After Action Review in Oracle that she calls Proactive Reviews.
Its a similar process to AARs but with a few key improvements that make it a very powerful business tool.
Oracle, for example, runs a high-level Proactive Review after every merger and are one of the few organisations I know of that have taken AARs seriously and are applying them in a systematic way in the business.
Also take a look at Ditte's website (this is in English). The book is currently only available in Danish but an English version will be published in September this year.
I'll be talking more about the process then as I think this is one of the more exciting things to happen in KM for a while.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for May - June 2011.
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.
Dilbert: It is better to be useless than indispensable! http://bit.ly/mgcUp2 #KM 2011-06-18 09:45:30 UTC
What business problems does knowledge management solve? http://bit.ly/iqCDKE #KM 2011-06-18 09:38:38 UTC
RT @C4LPT: More about how to join the Social Learning Community here http://c4lpt.co.uk/community.html #elnil 2011-06-17 09:29:46 UTC
Hashtags are no longer bound to Twitter they are now embedded in the fabric of our digital lifestyle. http://bit.ly/jE5LNw #hashtageconomy 2011-06-16 14:16:04 UTC
Google Launches Tool for Online Reputation Management http://on.mash.to/ke8D7P 2011-06-16 13:46:26 UTC
Taking Control of Our Knowledge Consumption and Our Social Presence http://bit.ly/iVqSOR #KM 2011-06-16 08:06:19 UTC
Digital Distractions Are Expanding at the Workplace http://bit.ly/k5vbVD 2011-06-16 07:52:25 UTC
RT @dextermixwith: You change your system by doing work on it, learning, and feeding back into the next phase of doing http://bit.ly/jnT2Ap 2011-06-16 07:33:48 UTC
@euan wants real conversations, with real people, in real businesses, who are doing stuff that makes his life better. http://bit.ly/iDPcAi 2011-06-15 19:02:28 UTC
Digital advances are making workers more productive + creating new jobs in every area except education http://bit.ly/k31TVw 2011-06-02 20:32:01 UTC
Conversations Build Markets and Capability http://slidesha.re/kCHNeQ #GoodToTalk 2011-06-02 10:46:33 UTC
Why companies tend to be bad at sharing knowledge http://bit.ly/kK46BQ #KM 2011-06-02 09:16:46 UTC
How do we stop people from associating KM only with content repositories http://bit.ly/kQmbC9 #KM 2011-06-02 07:03:04 UTC
RT @JANTrust: #Afghanistan: #Kandahar girls risk everything for #education - http://ow.ly/1thkze 2011-05-28 20:22:18 UTC
When you free your employees to act like people then the caring can't help but happen. http://bit.ly/mnolxb 2011-05-27 10:15:51 UTC
RT @euan: I am not always as big a fan of Seth Godin as others but he is spot on with this post about Caring http://j.mp/keA5u4 2011-05-27 09:21:25 UTC
"In this black-and-white interview, filmmaker Nic Askew interviews Julio Olalla.
It is not an interview to sell anything or pitch anything.
Its just Julio being Julio. He candidly speaks about an encounter with his father that changed his life, and what he learned:
"Gratitude in so many ways is so dramatically missing in the world today. Without gratitude nothing is enough. It's the kind of short movie where you want to turn off the lights, and just soak in the spirit of an everyday hero.""
When Alan first pointed me to the video, I tweeted it and in turn Luis Suarez liked it and blogged about it, summing it up far better than I ever could.
It’s one of those video clips that will surely get you to shed a tear or two of pure joy filled with humanity, of what it is being a human being and behaving like one. Julio gets to talk about gratitudeand why we need to get it back into our day lives by sharing one of those moving stories that will make you think for a long while. He gets to talk as well about wisdom and how much different it is from knowledge itself, about the lost art of conversation, about what real friendships are all about.
His sense of touching & embracing life is remarkably inspirational and one that permeates wisdom throughout, as well as being far too difficult to describe it in a single sentence or two over here without having my fingers tremble at that failed attempt. I know for certain I wouldn’t do any justice to it, so I better leave it down to you folks to go and listen to it further with just one thought: "Amo La Vida".
My website automatically posted the following quotation on LinkedIn via Twitter recently
"David Gurteen There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. Michel de Montaigne http://bit.ly/ctwrQf via Twitter"
To which Stephen Goodwin commented:
"Not so sure about that ... conversations that constantly air disagreement may be worse."
And I replied:
"They may not be effective, even destructive but never boring LOL.
I think much depends on the style of conversation. Intellectual debate and dialogue are effective. Argument, when it gets emotional and personal is not."
I think some issues do need constant airing through both dialogue and debate. KM is one of them!
Its also why KM is never boring - there is still so little agreement after so long. To me that is not a bad thing.
Although all the claptrap about KM being dead I do find a little tedious.
Would you like 2GB of storage for free on the Cloud? - Comments
Have you discovered Dropbox yet?
Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to your computers, phones, and the Dropbox website.
2GB of Dropbox for free, with subscriptions up to 100GB available.
Your files are always available from the secure Dropbox website.
Dropbox works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
Works even when offline. You always have your files, whether or not you have a connection.
Dropbox transfers just the parts of a file that change (not the whole thing).
Manually set bandwidth limits -- Dropbox won't hog your connection.
You don't need the threat of a speeding ticket to make you slow down - Comments
This is an excellent article on Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops.
In it the author explains the success of getting motorists to slow down in school zones by the use of "dynamic speed displays" that simply show a driver his or her speed on a large display by the side of the road.
What I find interesting is that everyone seems to be surprised that this works. Why would drivers slow down without any threat of a speeding ticket or other form of punishment?
I don't know about you, but I don't find this surprising at all.
When driving, like many people, I do speed at times, mainly when the road is dry and clear and more often on motorways.
In built up areas and near schools however, I try to keep to the speed limit but at times my speed creeps up and I don't notice even though I have a speedometer.
I don't need to be fined or punished for this. If I am reminded by a radar controlled sign that am speeding I inevitably slow down.
It comes back to my recent post on Stop doing things to people. We need to start to work from the assumption that people are responsible but that they are also fallible human beings that we need to work with and not against.
Its very simple really. I am not at all surprised by the figures on reduction in speed.
We create machines in our own image and they, in turn, recreate us in theirs - Comments
This is one great little blog post Experts and Wikipedia from my good friend Nimmy (we have never met but we have known each other so long through the web that I consider her a very good friend).
In her post, she makes a good point about sharing - that there are some things that we feel almost compelled to share. Things that are:
Inspiring
Thought-provoking
Humorous
Positive/optimistic/hopeful
Paradoxical
This certainly matches the things that I like to share :-)
McLuhan's chief insights centered around the idea that technology strongly affects not only the content of culture, but the mind that creates and consumes that culture. He maintained that technology alters cognition itself, all the way down to its deepest, most elemental processes.
As Nimmy points out, if McLuhan is right, then "technology is not just an enabler" which we are so often prone to trot out.
We shape our tools and in turn they shape us! Or in the words of the article "We create machines in our own image and they, in turn, recreate us in theirs."
This idea is worth dwelling on. Its profound. Thanks Nimmy.
It surprises me that so many KM projects are undertaken by people with no training or education in KM and little or no project management/change management experience.
If you plan to undertake a KM project then it makes sense to understand KM thoroughly, especially as most KM projects fail!
One of the reasons many KM projects fail is that we are dealing with complex human systems. In addition to understanding KM, you need to understand organizational complexity. For example, you should study the work of Dave Snowden and his Cynefin Framework.
You should also ensure that you understand the new emerging "Social KM" based on social tools and take the time to understand Intellectual Capital and other related disciplines.
Some key points to keep in mind:
KM projects are tough: the toughest projects to undertake in any organization! If you are not a seasoned project manager with a fair degree of experience in change management then you are likely to fail!
KM means different things to different people and industries. HR, IT, Librarians etc all see KM through a different lens. What does it mean for your organization?
KM is about surfacing unknown problems - not just about responding to known ones or supporting business objectives.
Some things to be cautious of:
Beware of prescriptions: KM is context dependent and there is no substitute to thinking things through in your context.
Beware of KM certification: There is nothing wrong in receiving certificates for attending a course or for being certified or accredited to practice specific KM techniques. (Cognitive Edge, for example, accredits practitioners who have attended their workshops.) What you do need to avoid is the nonsensical practice of certifying KM and awarding pretentious titles to participants such as "Certified Knowledge Manager." The field of KM is too broad, too deep and too rich for this to have any meaning whatsoever. It’s a cheap marketing technique.
Beware of case studies: People often ask me for case studies but I studiously avoid giving them as too often they paint a rosy picture and distort the truth. More often than not they are thinly disguised marketing material for a vendor or their so called “KM System”. They are also dangerous in that people tend to treat them as “prescriptions”. If it worked there it will work here. They inadvertently help avoid the need for thinking in context.
Beware of academics and of theory: There is nothing inherently wrong with academics and theory such as two by two matrices and conceptualization but it can cause you to take your eye of the ball. Focus on specifics and real world practical examples. And beware of prescriptive approaches and so called "best practices". Get real!
Beware of charlatans: There are far too many people teaching KM who have no idea what they are talking about or promoting old failed methods. There is also a lot of poor material on the web. Be cautious.
The bottom line?
There is no substitute for thinking for yourself in your specific context!
When considering knowledge sharing or creating a more collaborative culture, we often talk about the need for people to be open and for more transparency. These two concepts are usually used interchangeably and often without too much thought as to what they really mean.
For a long time, in my mind, I have made a clear distinction between the two. Recently though, I was interviewed about knowledge sharing and the interviewer asked me what the difference was, as she thought they meant the same thing. I gave her what I felt was a simple answer at the time, but thought I'd try to articulate a more detailed view of the differences, as I see them, here.
To my mind, to be effective as a knowledge worker you need to network – to share more; to work more collaboratively; and, to work in a way that facilitates continuous informal learning. Two of the major complementary behaviors that underpin this are the need to be 'open' and 'transparent'.
Openness
If you are open-minded, not closed, you are open to new ideas, to new thoughts, to new people and to new ways of working. When you come across new things you are curious and eager to explore them. You are non-judgmental and you look to engage other people in conversation – not so much in debate, but more in dialogue.
You deliberately go out of your way to discover new things. You are an explorer!
You ask for criticism from people -- not praise. You are not afraid when people challenge your ideas -- in fact you welcome it. This is how you learn. You are willing to 'let things in'. People can 'come in'. Hence the word: 'open'.
Transparency
If you are transparent, you work in a way which naturally enables people to see what you are doing. You publish your activity and your 'work in progress' as a by-product of the way that you work. You deliberately go out of your way to try to be honest and open about who you are. There is no façade, no pretence – with you, people get what they see.
You speak in your own voice. You are authentic. Others can see clearly who you are, what you are doing and why you are doing it.
You do not try to hide things out of fear of being seen to make a mistake. You actually want your mistakes to be seen. And you want others to point them out to you – that way you get to learn and to get even better at what you do. You make it easy for people to find you and to connect with you. You 'let things out'. People can 'see in'. Hence the word: 'transparent'.
Behaviors
Being open and transparent is a state of mind and more about general behavior than the use of any specific tools. But if you are open, and transparent the more likely you are to blog; to 'Twitter'; use wikis and other social-networking tools; give talks; publish papers, articles or newsletters; keep your calendar on-line; have an on-line presence indicator; and, write regular status reports on your activity and much more besides.
Being open and transparent are not the only traits of an effective knowledge worker, but I do believe they are two of the core behaviors. So do you think openness and transparency are important? If so, just how open and transparent are you and what might you do to improve?
And of you are interested in conversational tools such as Knowledge Cafes, AARs, peer-assists and the like then take a look at my recently created Gurteen Knowledge Cafe Forum.
This is a LinkedIn subgroup of the main Gurteen Knowledge Community on LinkedIn.
Many of you will be familiar with my Knowledge Cafe and maybe also with the World Cafe.
Until now, I have not really involved myself with the World Cafe as although it is a similar process to my Knowledge Cafe process there are some subtle but significant differences.
But now, as I start to put more of my focus into my Knowledge Cafes and other face-to-face conversational tools, it makes sense for me to get involved with the World Cafe in various ways.
A start to this has been to make contact with Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, the founders of the World Cafe and also to join the World Cafe Online community and their World Cafe LinkedIn Group.
As most people, in the World Cafe community are not familiar with me or my work, I recently posted this introduction to myself on the World Cafe Online Community website.
I thought I would share a key element of this with you ... the section that briefly describes the difference between the World Cafe and my Knowledge Cafe. I will be writing more on this over time.
I would like to tell you more about my Knowledge Cafes. I call them Gurteen Knowledge Cafes mainly to distinguish my process from other forms of Knowledge Cafe and the World Cafe but also partly to brand them.
The roots of my Cafe are different to those of the World Cafe.
I started to run my Cafes in London, in September 2002 in response to my frustration with death-by-powerpoint KM talks.
Although I was aware of the World Cafe at the time (Juanita and David gave birth to the World Cafes way back in 1995), because of the language that was used to describe it, I did not see it as a business tool and did not take too much notice of it.
I developed the Gurteen Knowledge Cafe from my own experiences and a desire for an alternative to traditional presentations.
In recent years, I have run my Knowledge Cafes and my Knowledge Cafe masterclasses, where I teach people how to design and run Knowledge Cafes, all over the world.
To give you an idea, I have run them in cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong, Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Seattle, Phoenix, Quebec City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Oslo, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Brussels, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
What is interesting, now that I have taken the time to look closer at the World Cafe, is that the two processes are very similar.
There are differences though that although small on the surface, I think are significant e.g. no table hosts.
But the major difference is that my Cafes are business focused where the World Cafe is community focused.
I use business language rather than community language and although there is a core process, I teach people how they can adapt the Cafe to different business ends.
Don't misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with the World Cafe and I love the work that the World Cafe Community is doing around the world to address social issues and build community.
This is an area I am increasingly interested in. If you follow me on Twitter (@DavidGurteen) you will see many of my tweets tagged #SocialGood.
But it is hard enough selling the Knowledge Cafe concept into business organisations when the outcomes are so intangible, never mind using the language of the World Cafe which turns most business managers off.
I don't agree with it but that's the reality
I see a number of KM face-to-face knowledge sharing processes as having a great deal in common with each other e.g. peer assists, after-action reviews, post-project reviews, knowledge cafes and knowledge jams. If we add to these the World Cafe, Open Space Technology and Appreciative Inquiry then we have a category of face-to-face conversational based tools that I call "Conversation Cafes". I am also a keen advocate of Unconference and Barcamps.
This is increasingly my area of focus.
Over the coming 12 months, I plan to run many more of my open Knowledge Cafes (these are free events) and Knowledge Cafe masterclasses in London and around Europe but also as I have always done, around the world as I travel.
Managers really have to start treating people like volunteers and not conscripts.
Or as I so often put it "We must stop doing things to people and start to work together."
Its a principal I apply in my Knowledge Cafes.
People are not forced to come and then I quite deliberately do not force people to join in or try to manipulate them or the conversation in any way. (And yes I am aware it is impossible to entirely do that :-) )
I tell them that if they just wish to just listen that is perfectly OK.
And the final part of my Cafe, where I go around the circle and ask people to share one actionable insight with the group, I also give people the change to opt-out by saying "pass".
Is it a home no, an office no or a mobile no? There is often no way of telling. This is important to know when calling out of hours or when I know the person is travelling. Also knowing if its a mobile number or not allows me to text them rather than to call.
Does the number include the international country code and are there any leading digits I need to add or drop when making an international call? I can waste a lot of time figuring this out.
Is the phone an iPhone or more generally what sort of smart phone is it? This is becoming more and more important as being an iPhone user myself, if the person I am calling is an iPhone, Android or Blackberry user then I can use apps like WhatsApp, Tango or Viber not only to make a free call but to send text or voice messages, video clips and photos. (These sort of apps are the future of the mobile phone by the way.)
So please, when you put your phone number on your email footer, your website or blog make it clear e.g. iPhone: +44 7774 178 650 and include the spaces to make the number easy to transcribe.
I try to put my phone number everywhere. I want people to contact me. Many people keep their phone number very private as they tell me they do not want nuisance calls. Funny, in 15 years or more of making my number freely available, I can only recall one such call.
One of my frequent messages is that we need to stop "doing things to people and start to work together". Let me explain.
People often ask me "How do we make people share?" or "How so we make people adopt social tools?" or, more generally, "How do we make people more engaged?".
That little word "make" comes up time and again. It's really obvious when it does and I wince every time I hear it.
Yet even when I point it out and people apologise and say "Oh I didn't mean that; it was just a turn of phrase", I am still not convinced. Deep down we all feel the need to "make people be different". Oh, wouldn't it be so good if everyone was just like me?
Recently I have started to realise that there is a more subtle approach. The other things I often get asked are "How do we incentivise people?" or "How do we motivate them?".
Think about it. Once again, we are trying to do things to people – incentivise or motivate them; however we look at it, we are trying to change them!
And then, I will hear people say (or catch myself saying) "How do we help people to see things differently?" or "How do we support them in this change?".
But notice, in all these statements, the assumption is that we know best -- that we have the right answers and others do not, and that we need to intervene and correct them. Even if we do wrap it all up in cotton-wool and say "help" rather than "make".
The really deep issue is that we are thinking about the world as "us and them", when we need to be thinking in terms of "we".
Rather than "I am here to help you", which implies you are in need of help and I am your saviour, we need to approach people with "How can we work better together?". And we need to mean that. It is not some ploy to enact our predetermined agenda.
It's about approaching them without an agenda other than to genuinely work with them better.
I have also noticed another strange phenomena: people will often tell me that the biggest excuse that their staff use for not changing, doing things differently or sharing their knowledge is that they have no time. But then the conversation moves on and when sometime later, I ask them whether they blog, tweet, write articles or give presentations (in other words, do they walk the talk?) guess what they say?
"Oh no, David. If only I had the time!". They are using exactly the same excuse.
Each year in its December issue, Time magazine announces its person of the year. In the December 2006 issue, in reaction to Web 2.0, it announced that person as "you" and added "Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world."
Personally, if I had been the editor, I would have phrased it somewhat differently:"We, yes, we. We control the information age. Welcome to our world".
So, some thoughts for this new world:
Stop doing things to people;
Become the change we wish to see; and
Start to work together.
We are moving to a participatory "WE" world. So whenever you initiate anything ask yourself the question: "Am I trying to do things to people or am I approaching them with a genuine view to work together better?".
And of you are interested in conversational tools such as Knowledge Cafes, AARs, peer-assists and the like then take a look at my recently created Gurteen Knowledge Cafe Forum.
This is a LinkedIn subgroup of the main Gurteen Knowledge Community on LinkedIn.
Funny, how you find one thing when you are looking for something totally different.
I was looking for toilet -paper - yes toilet paper.
I could never find a toilet paper I liked until I recently bought a pack of "One supersofty quilted toilet tissue" from my local supermarket and loved it.
Anyway, I was complementing myself on the find when I thought I had better go check the pack for the name of the brand so I could buy some more.
And this is what it said on the pack.
"100% of our profit helps to fund sanitation and hygiene projects in Africa".
Wow! What a brilliant idea I thought ... so I ran downstairs to check out their website.
They have a whole range of products based on a really simple idea.
They create quality products, and every time you buy one, they donate 100% of the profit to projects in developing countries.
As they say on their site: " So it's really easy to understand where your money goes. And it's really easy to make a difference. You don't even need to change your habits, just the products in your shopping basket."
What a great Social Business. Toms Shoes is another great example.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for April - May 2011.
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.
The Cats Explore http://bit.ly/j4Wevu /my daughter's blog, pure nostalgia of her childhood, yes that's me in the last photo :-) 2011-05-20 17:05:51 UTC
Book: Knowledge Works (15 Jun 2011) by Christine Van Winkelen, Jane McKenzie http://bit.ly/jIJioO #KM 2011-05-20 16:36:25 UTC
Sharing Information Corrupts Wisdom of Crowds http://bit.ly/lpkMx4 #KM 2011-05-20 08:08:12 UTC
A large part of the benefit of conferences is that they are an opportunity for networking and side conversations. http://bit.ly/mRLlxu 2011-05-12 07:01:02 UTC
There are no successful social media implementations inside firewalls http://bit.ly/k0thD9 #SocialBusiness 2011-05-06 06:37:10 UTC
It is a mistake to write down your values, as the act of codification results in their loss. From @snowded http://bit.ly/jkvKbS 2011-05-06 06:33:00 UTC
Report outs should be abolished. The value of a small group discussion is in the discussion. http://bit.ly/lJTrTd #GoodToTalk 2011-05-05 20:16:49 UTC
Guidelines for Leveraging Collective Knowledge and Insight by Nancy Dixon http://bit.ly/kvwm7z #KM #GoodToTalk 2011-05-05 20:11:49 UTC
RT @elsua: Goodness! Everyone who uses the Web on a regular basis should watch this awesome TED Talk! HT @rhappe http://bit.ly/krrYrh 2011-05-04 20:24:42 UTC
Lessig: Just how badly have we messed up the architecture of access to scientific knowledge? http://bit.ly/lLycbx #KM 2011-05-04 20:02:13 UTC
'Activity Streams' Will Be the Glue of Your Online Life http://bit.ly/ldfN4b 2011-05-04 19:55:14 UTC
Why Activity Streams Will Save You From Information Overload by @elsua http://bit.ly/kfQBn7 #KM 2011-05-04 19:41:46 UTC
How to connect people in large group settings http://bit.ly/iLEGfd #facilitation 2011-05-04 19:37:15 UTC
Social tools require people to observe the world, make sense of it, and convey that sense to others by @euan http://bit.ly/l1bWk8 2011-05-04 19:35:53 UTC
Retweet of Michael Sampson (collabguy)
Encourage the Quieter People to Speak: Do or Don't? #collaboration #facilitation @davidgurteen http://bit.ly/jfTEnX 2011-04-29 14:28:28 UTC
Solve these whispering problems before they become bellowing ones! - Comments
When she first came to MIT, Khalea Robinson was set to become a builder of bridges and skyscrapers. "Their visibility and permanence appealed to me."
But a talk she attended on some of the world's pressing problems shook her commitment to this path. Access to clean water, and other issues, should surely count more than her own private engineering goals, she imagined.
But after taking introductory courses in environmental and civil engineering, she realized that she "couldn't simply fall in line wherever there was a call, because there are so many calls, all of them worthy."
Robinson felt that she should instead look for a field that would "bring forth my initiative, passion, drive, insight and courage," while also promoting justice and fairness. In a world "full of complex problems that need to be solved by many people," Robinson believes each of us "has a distinct voice that can and must be raised."
If you thought that Enterprise 2.0 or Social Business do not have much to do with traditional Knowledge Management, after going through David's excellent presentation, I guess we will have to think about it once again, because, in my opinion, it surely has. In fact, if folks have stated how Enterprise 2.0 is the father of Social Business I would venture to say that KM is the father and grandfather of E2.0 and Social Business, respectively.
KM Australia - Asia Pacific Congress 2011 - Comments
I am delighted that I will be chairing KM Australia - Asia Pacific Congress 2011 later this year (18 - 21 July in Sydney).
And there is one very good reason - Ark Group Australia have agreed with me to make it a "conversational event".
This is what they say on their website:
"The conversational format of this event is intended to create an informal, relaxed atmosphere in which you, the conference participants, can get to know each other, learn from each other and build relationships. Each speaker will conclude their presentation with a question and a short time will be given over to conversation where you can discuss the speakers talk and the question at your tables before going into a traditional Q&A. "
My first reaction was one of horror. But when I read the actual paper An Interactive Table for Supporting Participation Balance
in Face-to-Face Collaboration, I calmed down a little.
The researchers seem to know what they are doing and recognise the limitations and pitfalls of this sort of technology.
Though I'd still rather that people better understood their own conversational styles and were more aware during their conversations so that this type of technology was never needed.
On thing, I think never works, whether its a facilitator or technology, is trying to explicitly draw the quieter people into the conversation. In my experience if they feel they are being coaxed, encouraged or otherwise manipulated, they withdraw even more.
I think the best approach is simply to create an ultra-safe environment, sit back and wait. If they are ever going to, they will emerge in their own time.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for March - April 2011.
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.
Conversational writing kicks formal writing's ass http://bit.ly/7mmK8Q 2011-04-26 09:15:42 UTC
RT @DanielPink: This month's Sunday Telegraph Column: Why you should heed Peters & Collins & create a "to-dont" list. http://t.co/iDYWpbA 2011-04-24 22:10:34 UTC
Wow! I have just discovered "Unpresenting" http://bit.ly/fuccFs #like #KCafe #GoodToTalk 2011-04-23 10:22:43 UTC
RT @stoweboyd: Font Size May Not Aid Learning but Its Style Can - Benedict Carey http://sto.ly/gB0YV8 Deep thought is the best learning tool 2011-04-21 11:42:09 UTC
RT @rossdawson: Serendipity is at the heart of today's emerging society http://bit.ly/eK9pwU 2011-04-21 11:30:17 UTC
RT @euan: business is about doing stuff and social media is talking about the stuff you are doing. Doesn't have to be hard. 2011-04-21 07:01:20 UTC
What people seem to be responsive to is driving toward purpose http://bit.ly/gTWa00 2011-04-18 09:00:33 UTC
All languages traced to African 'mother tongue' http://bit.ly/eO06jh 2011-04-16 11:40:56 UTC
Have you ever thought about how completely irrelevant structured learning is? http://bit.ly/g0Wu5q 2011-04-16 09:35:45 UTC
How do you structure a conversation to lead to powerful, creative + practical conclusions http://bit.ly/gb9Vhh #GoodToTalk 2011-04-15 07:48:00 UTC
The bonus myth: How paying for results can backfire - 06 April 2011 - New Scientist http://bit.ly/iioHBg #NoRewards 2011-04-15 07:24:48 UTC
Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work (respect does) http://bit.ly/hxzoEP #NoRewards 2011-04-14 13:29:57 UTC
Dear Google: You Can’t Threaten People Into Being Social http://bit.ly/guR3QO #NoRewards 2011-04-14 09:40:45 UTC
Forget Motivating Staff With Incentives http://bit.ly/fl5mQJ #NoRewards 2011-04-13 17:46:59 UTC
RT @guijti Shocking statistics on female infanticide in India. http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=5065 2011-04-13 09:23:43 UTC
Short film illustrates power of words to radically change your message + your effect upon the world http://bit.ly/hYPTMT /via @elsua 2011-04-13 07:39:52 UTC
Rewards get gamed - watch this potty training video http://bit.ly/fBykkc #NoRewards 2011-04-11 15:24:03 UTC
Is knowledge management failed or simply a fad? Studies suggest the concept is alive and well. http://bit.ly/gOrs5s #KM 2011-04-10 13:53:44 UTC
Knowledge Management is Older than you Think http://bit.ly/gcMwF2 #KM 2011-04-02 10:58:12 UTC
We need your help...The Knowledge Management Observatory™ Global 2011 Survey http://linkd.in/fzLwLl #KM 2011-03-30 14:42:08 UTC
KM, Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business: One and The Same by @elsua http://bit.ly/fwf6Nz #KM 2011-03-30 13:51:12 UTC
The New Edge in Knowledge by Carla O'Dell http://bit.ly/h2EFLJ Book review by @JackVinson #KM 2011-03-27 15:23:07 UTC
How Barefoot College is empowering women through peer-to-peer learning and technology http://bit.ly/hvTKP3 #SocialGood #GirlEffect 2011-03-26 09:13:30 UTC
RT @maggiedoyne: 3.3 billion girls and women = 3.3 billion ways to change the world. http://bit.ly/fuLSkg @girls20summit #girleffect 2011-03-26 07:13:30 UTC
Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on Linkedin - Comments
The Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn has grown
by over 120 members from 2,289 members last month to 2,417 today
and is amazingly active ... I don't get much time to take part in the discussions myself but there are some great ones taking place.
Here are three interesting ones that you might like to take a look at or join in:
PhotoSync: Syncs my Flickr Photos to Facebook - Comments
I usually take lots of photos at conferences and my knowledge cafes and for some years have been uploading them to Flickr.
Some time ago, I regretted doing that as Facebook is by far the most social place to upload photos.
Not only do more people get to see them on Facebook but the ability to tag the people in the photos is just brilliant.
But what should I do? It would take me an age to upload all my past Flickr photos to Facebook and in any case, Flickr made a much better backup for my photos as it held them at full resolution.
So I continued to upload my photos to Flickr and just a select few to Facebook.
Up until the other day, that is, when I discovered PhotoSync.
This is just an amazing little program. I connect it to my Flickr and Facebook accounts; tell it what sets (folders) of photos I want to sync and then it just goes away and syncs my Flickr photos with Facebook.
Awesome! So if you are following me on Facebook and have seen all the photos pop up ... its all down to PhotoSync.
The app seems a little buggy right now ... I get a number of error messages every time I use it but despite the messages it still seems to work!
I love it! And I have a lot more photos to copy across ... just doing a few folders at a time for now. I also have a whole backlog of photos I have not uploaded. Maybe I have a litle more motivation now.
Introduction to the April 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
You may have noticed that I am starting to put a lot more effort into my Knowledge Cafes.
They started out as a response to what I saw as death-by-power-point presentations.
In the beginning (I ran my first Knowledge Cafe in London in September 2002) I simply wanted to make such presentations more conversational.
But as I have run them and taught people how to run them all over the world I have discovered that they can be adapted to different purposes and are far more powerful than I ever realised ten years ago.
So if you are interested in running Knowledge Cafes then join the group. And if you would like to learn more about the Cafes first hand - come along to one of my events.
No Knowledge Cafes in your neck of the woods! Then invite me to come and run one :-)
All three events have been excellent; they have been well attended (KM Iran had over 900 participants) and the participation has been exceptional. I have also loved the warmth and hospitality of the Arab people.
KM Middle East in Abu Dhabi was the most recent and let me share some of the resources with you
What with everything else going on in the Middle East - its hard not to wonder if there is a connection. If there is one, then to my mind, it has got to be about the intrinsic human thirst for knowledge and for freedom.
Why are so few KM events done over the web? - Comments
A month or so back Matthew Loxton started a discussion on the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on Linkedin by asking the question "Why are so few KM events done over the web"
This generated some fascinating discussion and lots of comments but the post that stood out for me was this reply by John Maloney. John can be a little blunt but that's his style - don't let it get in the way of the message :-)
Hi - As probably the person that has conducted more face-to-face KM events, over the last three decades, than all others combined, arrival at the definitive answer to this question is easy.
The bottom line is impact and outcome.
Same-time, different-place (STDP), different-time, different-place (DTDP) and different-time, same-place (DTSP), aka, Webinars, eLearning, Learning Centers, etc., are excellent for deterministic impact and outcomes. These are activities where the outcome is known. Thinks like certification training, operations, policy diffusion, 'best practices,' etc. These complicated activities are well-served by technology.
Same-time, same-place (STSP) is for non-deterministic impact and outcomes. This is where the outcome is unknown, emergent, complex. These are creative activities like design, relationships, strategy, etc. These complex activities depend on authentic conversation, genuine collaboration, diversity, personal interactions, trust, ongoing relationships, etc.
There are NO exceptions to these rules. Unfortunately, KM people aren't very good at leading these activities. The main and classic problem they have, is, of course, leading-with-technology. Never worked, never will. People matter.
KM is about Creating the Future. Thus, by definition, ALL worthwhile KM activities must be STSP.
To be honest and blunt, it make no difference what you think people enjoy or value. What matters is impact and outcome. No exceptions. People will serve the social networks that best serve their goals and objectives. Guidance and configuration are certainly welcome.
Fortunately, the KM trend line is favoring STSP. Social media, communities, CoPs, etc., are great KM practices in-so-far as they serve STSP KM. That's good news and all KMers should be encouraged!
Again, build and strengthen your STDP, DTSP and DTSP programs and activities for training.
For KM, STSP carries the day. Always has, always will.
This is among the key themes of the Network Singularity ...
I agree with so much of this and the thinking is behind much of the rationale for my Gurteen Knowledge Cafes. To my mind nothing beats face-to-face authentic conversation.
I must admit I love John's bottom line! I liked Al Simard's response also:
I tend to agree with John's view, although I put it a bit differently. In my experience, at the beginning of a group process (even if it is reasonably known), members need to develop a trust in the other participants. Humans have been doing this since we existed as a distinct species. We're hard-wired to do it through face-to face encounters; it is really hard to do electronically. It is also essential to get through what I call the "mating dance" in which everyone puts his wants and grievances on the table. This can either be done at the outset, in a planned way and informative way, or it will happen latter in an unplanned and disruptive way.
But, when a process is unstructured or unknown, I have found that face-to-face dialogues are virtually essential to first wander and then spiral around a subject towards a common understanding. I have found that sitting around a table in a dialogue group is far more effective than doing this electronically.
I have met people at conferences that I've corresponded with electronically for years. Somehow that face-to-face meeting added something intangible yet palpable to our relationship. I'm sure psychologists have a word for it. But, like tacit knowledge, although I can't name it, I have felt it.
My recent keynote talk at KM Middle East was titled Dont do KM. You can find the slides on SlideShare.
This was clearly a provocative, catchy marketing title but I had a very strong message nevertheless!
It was based on a talk I gave at the HK KMS Conference in 2010 which was titled less provocatively "Making KM Projects Work".
Kim Sbarcea blogged about it and her post sums up my views on the matter quite well..
Naguib Chowdhury picked up on my recent presentation in Abu Dhabi and blogged Don’t do KM - then let’s not have a term called- KM!
Naguib, pretty much supports what I have to say but adds at the end of his post:
So, David is right. Let us not do KM as a project itself, it is embedded in the organization already. But then I cannot call David a KMer or we cannot have any conference/forum called KM!
I think this is meant to be toungue-in-cheek, but let me answer it any way. This is a step too far. I am not advocating we get rid of KM or even that we adopt a stealth approach.
So often when people start a so called KM initiative they ask the question "How do we do KM?" and "What are the benefits?". To my mind this is the wrong place to start. We should start with the question "What are the business problems we are facing and how can KM help."
This ensures a sharp focus on business outcomes. The benefits? - well they are your desired outcomes. Simple really! Hence "Don't do KM!"
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for Feb-Mar 2011.
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.
A better way to solve poverty: train women as engineers so they can transform their villages. http://bit.ly/hvTKP3 #SocialGood 2011-03-25 20:20:08 UTC
Free online access to Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) Journal to 8th April - Comments
Many of you will have made the most of the free online access to all the Palgrave Macmillan journals throughout March. If you weren't aware of the offer then you have only a few days left but access to the
Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) Journal has been extended to April 8th. Here are some hot links.
Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on Linkedin - Comments
The Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn has grown by over 100 members from 2,184 members last month to 2,289 today and is still one most active of all the KM LinkedIn groups.
Introduction to the March 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
I have been travelling again, and at the KM Middle East conference in Abu Dhabi, as well as giving the keynote talk, I ran one of my Gurteen Knowledge Cafe workshops.
During the workshop, one of the men, who was probably in his 40s, approached me and told me that he was from Saudi Arabia and that he had found it difficult to speak to the women at the tables.
This had been the first time in his life that he had spoken to a woman other than his mother, his wife, his sister and two nieces.
He had two brothers and had never spoken to their wives.
He went on to say, that in his opinion, Saudi Arabian men and woman did not talk much within their families and thus there was thus little understanding of each other and a consequent lack of respect.
I am well aware of the segregation of men and women in Saudi Arabia but the impact of this brought it home to me in a very personal way.
I have often thought it would be good to bring men women together to discuss our differences in the safe, respectful setting of a Knowledge Cafe. One day I will but its unlikely to ever be in Saudi Arabia.
Introduction to the February 2011 Knowledge Letter - Comments
I seem to be coming across many more articles and blog posts about the importance of face to face conversation these days. Here are three recent examples
The recent conference in Iran was an interesting event with about 800 participants (almost certainly the largest KM conference I have taken part in). You can see my photos on Facebook.
So far I have seen lots of interest and enthusiasm for the subject and if the early mistakes, made elsewhere can be avoided, KM may have a bright future there.
Latest Knowledge Cafes: London and Edinburgh - Comments
I held a great Knowledge Cafe in London last week with Richard McDermott as speaker/facilitator on the topic of What about Thinking? and Deloitte as hosts. Thank you Richard, thank you Deloitte and thanks to the 60+ participants.
Here are couple of blog posts from the evening - thanks Ron and Rebecca.
I have another open Cafe coming up in Edinburgh on Wednesday evening (24th Feb) when I will be in Edinburgh to run a private Knowledge Cafe at Edinburgh University. 40 people signed-up so far so should be a good one. Not to mention a Knowledge Cafe Masterclass at KM Middle East in a few weeks time.
What is going on in the world, that when I propose a knowledge cafe instead of a talk, I am told it is not a good idea as people will not enroll if they feel they have to do something!
Is our educational system so bad that people would rather sit silent through a talk & chalk, death-by-powertpoint presentation rather than listen to a short talk followed by some engaging conversation?
Or is it that many of our organisations have created cultures where people are fearful of expressing their own opinion?
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for Jan-Feb 2011.
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.
Hold Conversations, Not Meetings http://bit.ly/eN59AR #KM #GoodToTalk 2011-02-20 14:02:15 UTC
The Primed Directive http://bit.ly/hfjP1J via @johnniemoore /I want to weep 2011-02-19 19:21:25 UTC
In communication, people taking part are always creating something new together. http://bit.ly/fIPPYd by @EskoKilpi #GoodToTalk 2011-02-19 17:27:27 UTC
RT @elmibester: Call for Papers - 10th Annual Information & Knowledge Management Conference , Joburg http://tinyurl.com/6g3njjz #km 2011-02-06 12:08:44 UTC
A neat summary of my keynote at DEVCO K-Day in Brussels last week http://bit.ly/egcfQ3 #KM #KDAY11 2011-02-06 09:06:42 UTC
RT @cdn: We must contribute to the commons: The more we contribute, the more we share, the more value! @DavidGurteen at #kday11 #KM 2011-02-04 00:19:08 UTC
Cognitive Edge Future Backwards in the school hall http://bit.ly/eyKgpt #km 2011-02-03 23:30:31 UTC
Quora Is Really About A Better Wikipedia, Not Robert Scoble’s Hopes & Dreams http://tcrn.ch/edaaAi 2011-01-31 08:20:15 UTC
Spending time with younger journalists http://bit.ly/ezAYhv /its all about conversation #goodtotalk 2011-01-29 09:07:48 UTC
Business has to set goals other than maximizing shareholder value http://bit.ly/eVzA44 #socialgood 2011-01-28 17:12:56 UTC
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace - John Perry Barlow http://bit.ly/hNUMB2 /wow! 2011-01-28 15:35:41 UTC
At the end of my life, I want to be able to say, "I contributed more than I criticized." http://bit.ly/dL5vti #socialgood 2011-01-28 08:53:23 UTC
Conversation - maybe we should just talk :-) http://bit.ly/e2c8RY #goodtotalk 2011-01-27 11:01:22 UTC
Social media challenges for leaders from @bonniecheuk http://bit.ly/hhF5bt #goodtotalk 2011-01-27 09:08:59 UTC
RT @bonniecheuk: 90% of 700 companies offer social networking tools to staff, 90% say efforts unsuccessful http://bit.ly/h2iblP 2011-01-27 08:13:37 UTC
A good video collection of interviews with a number of KM people - Comments
At the 2010 KM India Summit in Bangalore, Ankur Makhija of eClerx Services, recorded several mini-interviews with Verna Allee. he has uploaded them to their YouTube channel where you will find over 30 videos in total from people such as myself, Ron Young, Dave Snowden, Chris Collison, Madan Rao and Stefan Lafloer on such themes as:
Mapping Organizational Knowledge
Social Network Analysis for Knowledge Management
Creating a Knowledge Management Scorecard
Knowledge Management for Small and Medium Enterprises
What is good for business is not necessarily good for society! - Comments
Its good to see the likes of Michael Porter questioning capitalism in this Harvard Business Publishing interview on Rethinking Capitalism. In it he explains why business leaders must focus on shared value - creating products and services that benefit not only the company but also society.
What is good for business is not necessarily good for society!
There are not as many presentations as TED and most last longer than 20 minutes but its an excellent selection of talks that were videod at the RSA in London.
The most recent talk I watched was from Kathryn Schulz on Being Wrong where she presents a tribute to human creativity and the way we generate and revise our beliefs about ourselves and the world.
I am a fellow (just a fancy word for member) of the RSA and use the RSA in London as my "London office". It has a good though small library; wi-fi and a great little bar for meetings. There are also meeting rooms and seminar trooms you can hire; a members magazine and evening talks. All in all, excellent value.
I remember a girlfriend, some years ago, who did well in school and at University but was then floundered in the "real world".
I recall her saying that when she was in the education system, she was happy, she had her goals and schedule set for her.
She knew exactly what to do be successful - study hard and pass the exams. She did this well.
But then on leaving University and entering the real world, there was no one to set goals for her and she do not know what to do or where to start. She was lost.
"The mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled. ~Plutarch"
A poignant moment for me as Hosni Mubarak resigns - Comments
I have just returned from Iran to hear the news from Egypt.
My Iranian trip has made this historic event even more poignant for me as I met so many lovely people In Iran who are crying out for freedom themselves. And it was only last September that I was in Cairo for KM Egypt.
Oh how I wish I could be there now but I have the next best thing, I have downloaded the Al Jazeera Live iPhone App and am watching the whole thing live as I work :-)
An historic moment for the world and for me personally.
Its my second morning here in Iran and the first day of the KM Iran conference. I was expecting a few little surprises yesterday. The good news - wi-fi in my room at USD$2 for 1 hour, charged by the minute. If only all hotels charged at that rate. Bad news: FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn blocked. I can understand the first two but LinkedIn seems pretty harmless to me. But the real bad news - my iPhone does not work - that I really cannot figure out. On the other hand, our hosts have lent us all a phone to communicate with. Better dash - taxi picking us up downstairs at 7:00am.
From information to conversation - We have to talk! - Comments
This is a lovely post on conversation by Esko Kilpi on why we need to talk. For those of you who have attended one of my knowledge cafe workshops- you will recognise the message - I say it in different words but the meaning is the same.
People often need to act and make decisions in situations in which causality is poorly understood, where there is considerable uncertainty and people hold different beliefs and have personal biases. However, people very reluctantly acknowledge that they face ambiguity at work. Problems in organizations tend to get labelled as lack of information. It feels more professional to try to solve a knowledge management problem that is called lack of information than a problem that is called confusion.
Because any information can mean a variety of things, meaning cannot simply be discovered. Information does not help. We have to talk! Many meetings that are directed at the problems of ambiguity fail to handle it because potentially rich views are silenced by autocratic leadership, norms that encourage harmony or reluctance to admit that one has no idea what is going on.
The two meanings of Social Business and the future of Knowledge Management - Comments
Many of you may have noticed a new term kicking around the Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media space - that of Social Business. Its precise meaning is still the subject of debate - see the discussion on Quora: What are the distinctions between Social Business and Enterprise 2.0?
One good definition, that I like, also from Quora is "The application of social principles - transparency, open information access, collaboration, participation, crowdsourcing, engagement - to the conduct of business."
But the term Social Business has an alternative meaning that has been around a little longer than in the Enterprise 2.0 sense.
A Social Business is a non-loss, non-dividend company designed to address a social objective. This use of the term has grown from the work of people like Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank that he founded to provide micro-credit to the poor, would be a prime example of a Social Business. The measure of success of a social business is not profit but the impact that it has on society, on people and on the environment.
To my mind, we need more social businesses to create a sustainable world. In order to survive: we need to collaborate more, to make better decisions and to be more innovative. This to me is what Knowledge Management is about and is its future. It’s Social Business in both senses of the term.
Facts don't necessarily have the power to change our minds. - Comments
So we consider ourselves to be objective - well if not that, at least capable of being objective. But its much harder then we think. I recently tweeted the Wikipedia page that lists our cognitive biases. I am amazed just how many of them there are - maybe a 100 or more. Its a very sobering list including decision-making and behavioural biases, biases in probability and belief, social biases and memory errors.
You would think that if someone had a view on a subject and you set out very clear, indisputable facts that they were wrong, that they would change their mind. Well research shows that many of us don't! In fact, we often became even more strongly set in our beliefs.
Here are a few quotes from the article:
Facts don't necessarily have the power to change our minds.
And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information. And then we vote.
But instead, it appears that misinformed people often have some of the strongest political opinions.
And if you harbor the notion — popular on both sides of the aisle — that the solution is more education and a higher level of political sophistication in voters overall, well, that’s a start, but not the solution.
Its a rather scary article and demonstrates why change is so difficult. To me, this is part of what Knowledge Management is or should be all about. How do we recognise our cognitive biases when we make decisions and how do we avoid them, if that is at all possible, or at least mitigate them.
It is far too easy both in business and in international development to be armchair philosophers. We so often think that the world's problems are simple and that we have the answers to them.
There are always unintended consequences of our actions. Sometimes these are beneficial or a minor annoyance but often they are worse than the problem we are trying to solve.
Konrad J. Friedemann defines the law of unintended consequences as “the proposition that every undertaking, however well-intentioned, is generally accompanied by unforeseen repercussions that can overshadow the principal endeavor.”
And more subtly, you reward children for studying but you end up punishing them.
The list goes on ... in complex world we must always stop and think and anticipate the unintended consequences of our actions. It always makes sense to talk and take advise and to conduct small pilot experiments, to probe and observe before committing to a major change.
KM Middle East Knowledge Management Survey - Comments
I will be giving a keynote talk at KM Middle East in Abu Dhabi, 15 -16 March.
Paul Corney of Sparknow has created a KM questionnaire to better understand the take up of KM in the Middle East. Here is his invite:
Knowledge Management is beginning to attract attention in the Middle East. But how many organisations have set up a programme to make better use of their knowledge to gain a business edge. We invite you to help us find out.
In advance of the 2011 event Sparknow has developed a short, simple and anonymous survey that we'd invite you to complete in the next few weeks. The results will be made available at KM Middle East blog and published on the Sparknow website afterwards.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for Dec-Jan 2011.
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 @chris_collison: Does social media help us to learn like babies? http://ow.ly/3EVU6 #km #kmers 2011-01-17 08:43:03 UTC
Dilbert: Oh dear its the decline of social business http://bit.ly/erKTIq 2011-01-17 08:29:14 UTC
RT @timkastelle: Interesting - The power of networked workers http://bit.ly/ic8aPm #km 2011-01-17 08:24:41 UTC
Change only happens when ideas are shared. http://bit.ly/ebo7wz via @maggiedoyne #km 2011-01-17 08:21:02 UTC
Rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday - McKinsey http://bit.ly/e41bVw #km 2011-01-16 08:13:30 UTC
They do some great collaborative research through their working groups, hold several 1-day seminars each year and a two-day conference which is coming up on 16-17 February that is open to non-KM Forum members.
What has long disappointed me is that most of their papers are only available to forum members and are not freely available on the web which means I cannot blog or tweet them. But this is starting to change and they have made a number of Knowledge in Action Leaflets available. These leaflets are only a few pages long but summarise the findings of some of their more interesting collaborative research projects. Well worth taking a look.
The major advantage of the group being open is that discussions are now indexed by search engines and anyone on the web can view the discussions. It is also now possible to Tweet interesting discussions which I have started to do.
In a good conversation you can reach out and touch each other - Comments
I recently came across a post by Viv McWaters in which she advocates getting rid of tables in meetings or when facilitating group sessions.
By and large I agree with all she says.
But I ran a lot of Knowledge Cafes at the end of last year when travelling, and on one or two occasions, I had no tables, not out of choice, but simply because there were no tables in the room or there was not enough room for tables.
Although I like the idea of "no tables" in a Knowledge Cafe, I have found in practice that I would rather have them
The more I run Cafes the more I realise the importance of close physically proximity when having a conversation.
My new rule is that if you can't reach out and touch the other people at the table then the table is too large or there are too many people.
A 3 ft round table with four people is perfect.
What I find in a Cafe with no tables is that groups tend to merge. So two groups of four tend to merge into one group of eight. People also move the chairs around. A small round table provides focus.
I ran one Cafe in Singapore for SAFTI (the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) last year. Here we had no tables and all the chairs had wheels. What I loved about this was that when we came to change groups, the participants did not even stand up ... they just scooted the chairs around while remaining seated ... I wish I had captured it on video. Like many good things in Cafes, it just emerged.
In a banked lecture theatre recently, (the worst place to hold a Cafe) people tended to naturally form groups of six to eight - often so broadly spread that people on the fringes were never quite part of the conversation. I vowed never, ever to run a Cafe in such a setting again!
If I have a choice now between large tables and no tables at all then I tend to go for no tables.
Think about it, in all good conversations, you are within touching distance of the other people and although I am not advocating that you do touch ... often you do ... it makes the whole conversation that much more natural and human.
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