Welcome to the Gurteen Knowledge Log for 2002 - 2010 inclusive. See the side panel for other years.
In this blog I write about 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 Organizational Learning.
Like the rest of my site - it an eclectic mix.
If you like the blog you may wish to subscribe to my newsletter where I collate my best blog posts from the month plus other material and distribute it my email monthly.
Or you may subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog here:
I wanted to give some money to charity over Christmas so I decided to make a few more Kiva loans. You can see my loan portfolio here. I have now made ten loans of which three have been fully paid back.
What I like about Kiva is that I get to decide who my money goes to. And if I am lucky I get to see an update on how the money is spent. It's a great idea and makes giving so much more personal and rewarding. The loans and repaid to me without interest and I can then use the money to make further loans. The repayment rate is an amazing 98.94% and 81% of the loans are to women entrepreneurs. Here are the full stats.
I am not telling you this to show how good I am - each loan is only $US25 after all. What I am hoping is that you might take a look and make some loans yourself and help support this way of giving.
I have made the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn an open group.
The major advantage of this is that discussions are now indexed by search engines and anyone on the web can read the discussions. It is also now possible to Tweet interesting discussions.
To contribute to the group, however, you still need to be a member.
Discussions created before the switch have automatically gone into a members-only, read-only Archive and cannot be seen by anyone who is not a member of the group.
An unfortunate side affect of this is that discussions that were active before the switch, although still readable by members, are now frozen and not clearly visible.
If you wish to continue your open discussions I think you will need to repost them. I am sorry for the inconvenience but this was not clear before the switch. To my mind, LinkedIn have done an extremely poor design job here.
The bottom line though is that we should now have a far more useful place for group discussions that can be shared with the rest of the world.
The other good news is that over the past month, as a result of my mail-shot, the membership of the group has grown by almost 700 people to 1,989 members.
I have made the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn an open group.
The major advantage of this is that discussions are now indexed by search engines and anyone on the web can read the discussions. It is also now possible to Tweet interesting discussions.
To contribute to the group, however, you still need to be a member.
Discussions created before the switch have automatically gone into a members-only, read-only Archive and cannot be seen by anyone who is not a member of the group.
An unfortunate side affect of this is that discussions that were active before the switch, although still readable by members, are now frozen and not clearly visible.
If you wish to continue your open discussions I think you will need to repost them. I am sorry for the inconvenience but this was not clear before the switch. To my mind, LinkedIn have done an extremely poor design job here.
The bottom line though is that we should now have a far more useful place for group discussions that can be shared with the rest of the world.
The other good news is that over the past month, as a result of my mail-shot, the membership of the group has grown by almost 700 people to 1,989 members.
I hope you have better things to do than read my newsletter at this time of year so like past years I have kept it short. But if you would like a bit of fun and explore what the Nativity might have looked it in the modern world of social media then take a look at this short video The Digital Story of the Nativity.
And let me wish you a very happy Christmas and a New Year full of fun and lots of knowledge sharing!
I received an email from a student a month or so back in which she asked for my advise.
She told me that she was working on her KM thesis and thought she was doing well as she had received a merit on her literature review but was devastated when her supervisor told her 6 months later that she was doing worse than other undergraduate researchers as she had a very poor understanding of the main points.
In my reply I suggested that she found a small group of her fellow students whom she could come together with once or twice a week over coffee and have conversations around the work (a mini knowledge cafe) and that she would soon get to see that other people had different points of view - not necessarily right or wrong but different and this would cause her to think more deeply about the topics and reflect on her own perspectives and that this should help lead to a deeper understanding.
She replied very excitedly that she thought it was a brilliant idea and would try it. I have yet to hear back but I hope it works for her.
Funny though, when I think back to my undergraduate days - I never ever had conversations with my fellow students about our work. I recall once a few us thought about getting together to form a study group and my tutor urging me not to waste my time.
Now where did I read something recently that the critical success factor at Harvard was not innate intelligence (you need that to get there) or hard-work but the ability to network and to form study groups and learn informally and socially. I wish I could find the article.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Good advice, given its 2,500 years old! Almost everyday I seem to trip over recent and not so recent research that shows that much of what we take for granted and never question has little or no evidence to support it whatsoever.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of November 2010.
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.
APQC 2011 Knowledge Management Conference Call for Presentations http://bit.ly/d7AheY #KM 2010-11-22 15:59:31 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy." Anne Frank #quote http://bit.ly/7ROqfy 2010-11-21 13:55:56 UTC
RT @JohnGirard: David Gurteen’s keynote at KM Middle East 2011: Don’t do KM!, Abu Dhabi, 15 March 2011, http://bit.ly/9Urw0P #KM #KMME 2010-11-21 00:50:48 UTC
Key outcome from a knowledge cafe is what people take away in their heads http://bit.ly/9rnbpC /nice summary of my process 2010-11-20 07:02:33 UTC
Video: Hole-In-The-Wall-Education http://linkd.in/bA0Teo #socialgood /love it 2010-11-20 06:46:03 UTC
Listing of Bill Ives KM World 2010 session notes http://bit.ly/aLk0pu #km 2010-11-19 15:28:14 UTC
RT @AlecJRoss: 20 years ago today, Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web. The proposal http://bit.ly/bDgwb9 2010-11-19 11:54:44 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Quotation: On what GNP means. by Robert F. Kenendy http://bit.ly/du3Tcl 2010-11-19 06:51:41 UTC
RT @rotkapchen: "The only way you can understand a complex system is by engagement with it." @snowded #KMW10 #UX #ethnography 2010-11-19 06:48:44 UTC
RT @complexified: RT @snowded: Slides and podcast from #kmw10 loaded http://bit.ly/a8E5zn #km 2010-11-19 06:47:50 UTC
The Death -- and Reinvention -- of Management: A draft synthesis http://bit.ly/a3ceoO 2010-11-18 07:45:47 UTC
100 INSPIRING WAYS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM http://bit.ly/9WR55b 2010-11-17 10:31:03 UTC
KM World 2010 notes: Stan Garfield on Communities of Practice http://bit.ly/arSLEG #km #kmw10 2010-11-17 08:38:37 UTC
My KM World 2010 + Enterprise Search Summit 2010 Notes: Tom Stewart Key Note http://bit.ly/bbfpde #km #kmw10 2010-11-16 18:33:40 UTC
RT @amcafee: 1 of Gartner's 4 trends that will change IT + biz over next 20 years = Business impact of social computing http://bit.ly/97BqNq 2010-11-16 18:11:36 UTC
Video: Facebook’s New Messaging System Explained http://on.mash.to/9UvR9N 2010-11-16 06:24:13 UTC
RT @GurteenQuotes: The most moral activity of all is the creation of space for life to move around. Robert M. Pirsig http://bit.ly/aqmR4 2010-11-16 05:56:57 UTC
RT @GurteenNews: Share: Scott Berkun Covers the Many Myths of Innovation http://j.mp/cNJXdu 2010-11-15 00:23:13 UTC
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions http://bit.ly/bdQ1sO #km 2010-11-15 00:20:56 UTC
RT @AlexGoodall That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way Dorris Lessing 2010-11-14 02:29:49 UTC
I have most common followers with @snowded (1318), @NancyWhite (809), @euan (764), @hjarche (718), @jclarey (714): http://tweeple.me 2010-11-01 04:48:43 UTC
My son Jonathan bought me Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus for my birthday and I am looking forward to settling down to read it.
Clay Shirky has been talking about the Cognitive Surplus for a couple of years now and I have blogged about it in the past and I had assumed that everyone was aware of the concept but during my recent travels I was surprised how many people had not heard of Clay nor Cognitive Surplus so here's the gist and video talk here.
The central theme of the book Cognitive Surplus is that people are now learning how to more constructively use the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration.
It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States.
My son Jonathan bought me Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus for my birthday and I am looking forward to settling down to read it.
Clay Shirky has been talking about the Cognitive Surplus for a couple of years now and I have blogged about it in the past and I had assumed that everyone was aware of the concept but during my recent travels I was surprised how many people had not heard of Clay nor Cognitive Surplus so here's the gist and video talk here.
The central theme of the book Cognitive Surplus is that people are now learning how to more constructively use the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration.
It goes on to catalog the means and motives behind these new forms of cultural production, as well as key examples.
While Shirky acknowledges that the activities that we use our cognitive surplus for may be frivolous (such as creating LOLcats), the trend as a whole is leading to valuable and influential new forms of human expression. He also asserts that even the most inane forms of creation and sharing are preferable to the hundreds of billions of hours spent consuming television shows in countries such as the United States.
Over the past month, it has grown by over 100 people to 1,308 members. It's a great place to post questions and slowly more discussion and interaction are taking place on the forum.
Over the past month, it has grown by over 100 people to 1,308 members. It's a great place to post questions and slowly more discussion and interaction are taking place on the forum.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
Maggie Doyne is an amazing young woman. This is how her story starts (watch the video):
After my senior year of high school, as my friends were heading off to college, my parents dropped me off at Newark Airport where I boarded a plane and set off to travel the world. It was just me and my backpack on my first solo trip away from home. Four countries and 20,000 miles later, I was trekking through the Himalayas in war-torn Nepal, where I began to meet hundreds of orphan children. I fell in love with their bright eyes and beautiful smiles, but was shocked to see them barely surviving without the most basic things that I had grown up with as a child.
As I shared my dream to build a safe home for these children, with my hometown in Mendham, NJ, I was astounded by the outpouring of support. Three years ago, I officially opened the frontdoor of Kopila Valley Children's Home, built brick-by-brick, by me and the local community in Nepal. There are now 35 children living in our home.
I recently attended ECKM 2010 in Portugal and one of the participants, Kalle Tomingas, an amateur photographer, captured the social side of the conference so well in his photographs.
In an email, later, to Daniela Castrataro I commented:
"Yes I loved Portugal and Kalle's photos really captured the conference. I do like the ECKM conferences as they are so social. I think every conference should have a professional photographer to capture the spirit of the event - and its not that its an expensive thing to do :-)"
To which she replied:
"I think you're right about the photographer but I think that when we start adding the word "professional" to things, we somehow limit them. Talking about a photographer at a conference, he would certainly capture beautiful images and colours, actions, important moments, but the real essence will probably be missed out. If Kalle was called to take pictures at ECKM as The Professional Photographer, he would have seriously focussed on his job and probably missed the interaction and the 'social' of those days, and with that the true spirit of the event.
It's exactly the same difference that we have between conferences and your Knowledge Cafes. Conferences put pressure on people to do their job in a serious, formal and "professional" way. This will never change. I'm not saying that nothing good comes out of conferences, but it's a very slow process and often an empty exercise, which keep the brains stuck on the same ideas and beliefs for too much time. In just one hour of knowledge cafe you can get as much content, interactivity, flexibility, new ideas, opinions..., as you will get in 10 year of ECKM (maybe)!"
Daniela is of course right. I never do like that word "professional" and I am not too sure why I used it. I have written about my dislike for it in the past.
Some how "being professional" seems unnatural and is the antithesis of "being human".
In this one on KM Team Development she makes a point that I make time and time again, where she asks "At all times we must ask ourselves - what is the value that we are contributing to the organization?" Enjoy :-)
In this one on KM Team Development she makes a point that I make time and time again, where she asks "At all times we must ask ourselves - what is the value that we are contributing to the organization?" Enjoy :-)
Introduction to the November 2010 Knowledge Letter - Comments (0)
I am now back home after six weeks on the road (Singapore, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Auckland, Sydney, Singapore and home - phew!).
This is the third year I have made such a journey and I am still amazed that these trips go off without a hitch!
I met a lot of great people - many whom were good friends or I had met on earlier trips and many who introduced me to clients, hosted me for the night, bought me dinner and more. But also a lot of new people who so enthusiastically engaged in my knowledge cafes and workshops. To all of you a BIG thank you.
While travelling I have been making much more use of Foursquare and Facebook Places. And something quite beautiful has dawned on me. If bars, restaurants, coffee houses, hotels and the like wish to be serous players in this game then it is going to be in their interest to provide free wifi :-)
In the words of Euan Semple from a recent blog post "Listening to endless presentations about business and technology as I do it becomes more and more obvious that the opportunity to capitalise on increased connectivity, and the need to reinvent our institutions, are entirely dependent on the quality of our relationships. Shame people are still squeamish about talking about this."
Funny reading this, as only hours earlier in a Knowledge Cafe here in Melbourne, someone reminded me that the most important benefit of conversation was improved relationships. Why is it that some many people see conversation as a waste of time? I will never know.
Increasingly, I think that is there is any hope left for this world the answer lies in conversation.
I am still pondering whether to give up all the other stuff I do and just focus on my Knowledge Cafes and bringing people together to have "interesting conversations" :-)
I gave the keynote speech at the actKM conference in Canberra last week. Its one of my favorite conference and this was the third time I had participated so I felt right at home with a great a bunch of people. The dinner on the first night will long be remembered for the KM fables that we wrote and acted out and the KM song!
In my talk, I took the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the underlying principals that has made Positive Deviance a success and the lessons that KM practitioners can learn from this approach to complex social problems.
I gave the keynote speech at the actKM conference in Canberra last week. Its one of my favorite conference and this was the third time I had participated so I felt right at home with a great a bunch of people. The dinner on the first night will long be remembered for the KM fables that we wrote and acted out and the KM song!
In my talk, I took the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the underlying principals that has made Positive Deviance a success and the lessons that KM practitioners can learn from this approach to complex social problems.
As Cory concludes in his post "If you want to make sure you successfully communicate your message, get your point across or transfer some knowledge then you need to do a lot more than draft a document and upload it."
As someone else once said, databases are where documents go to die!
As Cory concludes in his post "If you want to make sure you successfully communicate your message, get your point across or transfer some knowledge then you need to do a lot more than draft a document and upload it."
As someone else once said, databases are where documents go to die!
Imagine a hotel consisting of three tall 55-storey tower blocks with a ship perched on top. I am serious. Well, something that looks like a ship LOL - an incredible roof top garden called a SkyPark. They have built one in Singapore - the Sands SkyPark.
I don't know how I am going to do it but I want to run a Knowledge Cafe up there :-) Has anyone got any ideas on how to make that happen?
Imagine a hotel consisting of three tall 55-storey tower blocks with a ship perched on top. I am serious. Well, something that looks like a ship LOL - an incredible roof top garden called a SkyPark. They have built one in Singapore - the Sands SkyPark.
I don't know how I am going to do it but I want to run a Knowledge Cafe up there :-) Has anyone got any ideas on how to make that happen?
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of October 2010.
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.
David Gurteen (DavidGurteen)
Doctors And Nurses Prove Clinical Sucess. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Article/201010115758767
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
When I was in corporate life, many things were inflicted on me that I either hated or felt very uncomfortable with. Brainstorming was one of them. I can't recall one where I felt anything useful resulted from them other than a pile of flip-chart paper.
It just never jelled with the way my mind works. I always felt the process far to controlling. I wanted to have conversations but that wasn't allowed. So I would accept and go along with brainstorming as no one else seemed to question it.
This to me, sums it up: "Ideas come out of relationships, they come out of conversations." and "good ideas are more likely to be the product of rambling conversations than brainstorming." Oh and yet another post from Johnnie Moore: Where (and when) ideas happen - "people simplify their ideas as solitary, Eureka moments, whereas ideas often happen in social environments."
There are some other good points made in the article too. "That people are attracted to the idea that complex things can be explained by a simple formula, or achieved by a step-by-step process. In this way, personalities are reduced to a number of types (such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and pathways to success are promoted with the packaging of a number of rules."
How many times have I been asked for ten simple steps to implement KM? The world is too complex for that! And those of you who have seen Dave Snowden speak know his views on Myers-Briggs.
There is a lot of fundamental things that we have long taken for granted that need questioning.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Johnnie Moore recently blogged on The Danger of Safety and pointed to some evidence that although you would expect that better brakes made for safe driving that is exactly the opposite of what happened in an experiment with a fleet of taxis.
So better brakes - can lead to more accidents!
This reminded me of some other articles I had read.
So improved road signs may lead to more accidents and posting calories counts on food may lead to people eating more food rather than less.
The lesson? Many things we do, we do for what seem like good intuitive reasons. We don't question things enough. Where we can, we need to back decisions up with evidence not intuition.
Here is an interesting post from Gautam Ghosh entitled Driving Enterprise 2.0 behavior change where he points to an article Not every blog has its day in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article makes the point that "Fostering collaboration in the workplace involves more than just building platforms".
I had to smile as its really about E2.0 folks learning what KM folks have long known.
I learnt this myself with Lotus Notes 1989 - 1999 (in fact it was one of the prime motivators for my moving away from technology and starting to focus more on the people side of things); KM folks then learnt it 1999 -2009 and now the E2.0 folks are learning it.
To my mind, the lesson: "Don't implement a technology tool (impose it on people) and expect them to see the benefits and use it. Work with them to help them solve their problems and introduce them to new tools that you think will help. Let them select the tools that work for them. They need to have ownership."
But it takes time ... 20 years or more and people are still learning :-)
DavidGurteen if you wish to track my personal feed that I use to point to interesting stuff, keep people updated on where I am, what I am doing, thinking etc.
GurteenQuotes if you would like to receive a quotation each day.
GurteenNews if you would like to track new and updated pages on my website.
The last two feeds, Gurteen Quotes and GurteenNews and automated Tweets fed by RSS feeds from my website. Up until recently, these have only been working intermittently but I think I have the problem cracked now by switching from twitterfeed to dlvr.it
I don't know about you but I have always been confused by the different types of Facebook entities: Profiles, Pages and Groups. Here is a brief description of each entity and how I am using them.
A Facebook Profile is meant for individuals. This is what most people use. You can see my profile here:
To build a fan base on Facebook, in addition to a Profile, you can set up a Page. Pages can be for individuals, such as authors or celebrities, or for non-human entities such as products, companies, organizations and campaigns. I have created a Page for the Gurteen Knowledge website though I am not making much use of it at the moment:
A Facebook Group used to be the only place to really build a community on Facebook. However, now Groups look similar to Pages, which look similar to Profiles. Groups on Facebook are where deeper discussions can take place, whereas Pages and Profiles tend to be used for shorter comments.
I have created a Group for the Gurteen Knowledge Community. This has a little activity and I would encourage you to use it more. But the prime on-line location for the community is the Gurteen Knowledge Community Group on LinkedIn.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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 @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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 @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of September 2010.
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 @MadanRao: Eric Tsui, #KM Research Centre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University: “The world can be viewed as an open KM laboratory” #KMsg
Fri Sep 17 11:59:59 +0000 2010
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I find it amazing and inspiring what some people manage to achieve almost by accident. They start out simply helping someone, doing what they love and it mushrooms into something much bigger without their really planning it. There is a lot of power in following your passion :-)
I am about to enter a busy travel period between now and the end of the year, including what is starting to become an annual event: five weeks in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand-Singapore.
I occasionally get called a "KM guru". I appreciate the compliment but I don't like the term and I don't like being labelled a guru.
I usually laugh it off by objecting that I am not a "Kangaroo". Say KM guru fast enough and it sounds like KM guru. LOL.
Given this, I rather liked this blog post by Rick Ladd Dont Call Me a Guru and Peter Drucker's observation that the only reason people called him a guru was that they did not know how to spell the word "charlatan".
Oh and one other pet peeve. If you call yourself an expert then you are most likely not one. To my mind only other people can bestow that honour on you. And even then, like the word guru, I am not so sure I like it. Both words smack of elitism and marketing hype.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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.
Here are some of my more interesting Tweets for the month of August 2010.
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 was talking with my friend David Pottinger the other day over a beer or two.
David has attended a number of my London Knowledge Cafes, including the last one at Arup.
He was particular interested in the conversations that took place before and after at the Arup event and had blogged about them.
As we talked we came to realise that there were up to eight quite distinct phases of the Cafe were different types of conversation took place.
This was something I had not seen before. Here are eight potential conversations:
Conversation with a friend at a pre-Cafe meeting and on way to Cafe on the tube
Conversation during the pre-Cafe networking session
Speed networking conversation at the start of the Cafe
Conversation in small groups as part of the Cafe
Conversation in whole group as part of the Cafe
Conversation during the networking session after the end of Cafe as people are leaving
Conversation at a local pub after the Cafe
Conversation on the tube or train on the way home
Not everyone gets to experience all eight of these conversations but many do. I for one, often meet up with someone before the Cafe and travel with them to the venue. There is conversation down the pub and I frequently travel home to Fleet with David as we live in the same town and of course the conversation continues.
That's a lot of conversations and each one is quite different. David's particular interest was the post-Cafe conversations as he felt this was the most interesting and productive phase. People are at their most relaxed and unfocused and thus the conversations often took an unexpected direction. People were also more likely to be themselves and not act out their job role.
Quite a fascinating insight. Its got both me and David thinking about how the nature of all of these conversations might be improved.
Since then, over 120 people have registered and we are now up to 1,120 members or thereabouts. A few new discussions have started also.
If you are not a member, you can find more information here and register.
Please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
Since then, over 120 people have registered and we are now up to 1,120 members or thereabouts. A few new discussions have started also.
If you are not a member, you can find more information here and register.
Please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Dan Remenyi is a visiting professor at the School of Systems and Data Studies, Trinity College Dublin.
He is also a good friend.
Dan has created a new resource called Academic Talk on the Academic Conferences website.
It is a collection of videos of talks that should be of interest to researchers. I find the one on "The Moral Side of Murder" by Michael Sandel of Harvard University quite fascinating. Go take a look!
Everyone loves Dilbert. Over the years there have been some gems relating to knowledge management, collaboration, knowledge sharing and the like.
So I thought I would start to dig them out and create a collection of Dilbert comic strips on KM that can be viewed through my media player. You may find a lot of other interesting stuff there too. Enjoy!
A 1998 Dilbert Comic Strip taking a poke at Knowledge Management. Unfortunately, that language "We must develop knowledge optimization initiatives to leverage our key leanings" is still only too common in KM circles.
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over £100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over £100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over £100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I only recently realised that I did not need a Kindle to read Kindle books or magazines and that quite a few Kindle books where the copyright has expired are free.
You can currently download free Kindle readers for the iPhone, Android smartphones, the iPad or your PC or Mac. There are probably other devices but try as I may, I can't find a definitive list.
I have downloaded Henry David Thoreau'sCivil Disobedience for now to see how I get on reading a book on my iPhone. So far, despite the small screen size, I am finding it easy going .
But do I buy a Kindle? At just over £100 its not a big decision but I still like traditional books. Amazon would make the transition so much easier if their ebooks were only a few pounds each but every time I have toyed with buying an ebook it is only slightly cheaper than the paper version. Some are even dearer!
"Buy a paper version - get the ebook free" would be cool. I'd even pay a few pounds extra to get the ebook thrown in. I hope its only a matter of time :-)
I am starting to build a new section of my site dedicated to newsletters on KM and related subjects. I only have three or four newsletters at present and have yet to create the section page but here is one of the KM newsletters for you to be going on with.
Its from Nick Milton and Tom Young of Knoco.
Please let me know if you are aware of any other publications.
Nick and Tom have a YouTube channel with over 40 KM videos that you may also find of interest.
I am starting to build a new section of my site dedicated to newsletters on KM and related subjects. I only have three or four newsletters at present and have yet to create the section page but here is one of the KM newsletters for you to be going on with.
Its from Nick Milton and Tom Young of Knoco.
Please let me know if you are aware of any other publications.
Nick and Tom have a YouTube channel with over 40 KM videos that you may also find of interest.
I hoped someone would take the bait and ask what I meant by the question and one or two did.
Personally, I beleive that some conversations are totally pointless but I suspect far less than we think otherwise as Johnnie Moore quipped "if "pointless" why are we having em?"
My response is that we are having them to get to know each other better. Conversations help build and sustain relationships regardless of the value of the content - amongst other things they reveal the other persons values. Conversely they can also destroy relationships - often for the bad but sometimes for the good. There are some people whose values I so dislike that I don't want a relationship with them LOL
To my mind then trivial everyday conversations aren't pointless though like Theodore Zeldin I would love for many of them to be more meaningful.
Euan Semple also chipped in on the tweet to say this
@johnniemoore@DavidGurteen what a crap article! Now that technology is encouraging less face to face interaction," - rubbish!
Now this I would agree with. I think Theodore has got this wrong. "Conversational" technology such as blogs, Twitter, Skype, Facebook etc have connected me with many more people than the past and allowed me to stay in touch with them and keep up with their lives and interests. Thus I want to meet them more and enjoy their company and their conversation face to face and of course the technology allows me to do this too. I see this not only in myself but in my three children (Y-geners). They have phenomenal social lives compared to me when I was their age - where of course a lot of "pointless conversation" goes on LOL
I hoped someone would take the bait and ask what I meant by the question and one or two did.
Personally, I beleive that some conversations are totally pointless but I suspect far less than we think otherwise as Johnnie Moore quipped "if "pointless" why are we having em?"
My response is that we are having them to get to know each other better. Conversations help build and sustain relationships regardless of the value of the content - amongst other things they reveal the other persons values. Conversely they can also destroy relationships - often for the bad but sometimes for the good. There are some people whose values I so dislike that I don't want a relationship with them LOL
To my mind then trivial everyday conversations aren't pointless though like Theodore Zeldin I would love for many of them to be more meaningful.
Euan Semple also chipped in on the tweet to say this
@johnniemoore@DavidGurteen what a crap article! Now that technology is encouraging less face to face interaction," - rubbish!
Now this I would agree with. I think Theodore has got this wrong. "Conversational" technology such as blogs, Twitter, Skype, Facebook etc have connected me with many more people than the past and allowed me to stay in touch with them and keep up with their lives and interests. Thus I want to meet them more and enjoy their company and their conversation face to face and of course the technology allows me to do this too. I see this not only in myself but in my three children (Y-geners). They have phenomenal social lives compared to me when I was their age - where of course a lot of "pointless conversation" goes on LOL
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
This is the kind of research that is so important as it questions ways of thinking and working, so deeply entrenched that we take them for granted. For example, how many self-help books go on and on about the importance of clarifying and focusing on your objectives. Wouldn't it be tragic if this were actually counterproductive?
I am very much in the camp of "figure out broadly where you want to go and the rough direction and start walking today" - you never know you may see things along the way that are far more appealing than your initially desired destination and the walking is part of the living :-) Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Henry David Thoreau.
I recently read an interesting article on Do your employees think speaking up Is pointless?
I think there are many reasons why people do not speak up and ask questions or make suggestions in meeting. Here are a few:
I might ask a stupid question and make myself look foolish.
I might ask the speaker a stupid question and make him or her look foolish.
Who am I to ask questions?
I have never asked questions in my life. It doesn't even occur to me to ask questions.
I don't feel confident in this group of people.
I am an intensely shy introvert.
I have asked questions in this setting in the past and have been put down by the speaker or others in the room. I am not taking that risk again.
It was a great presentation. I just don't have any questions to ask.
I was so engaged in the presentation that I did not take time to think of questions to ask. And you have given me no time to reflect.
In the past no one else asks questions its not just done.
If you try to force me I will just clam up.
This presentation was totally boring and I am not going to spin it out any longer.
Although they ask for questions - they don't really want any - that's why they leave so little time.
Fear in various forms is one of the strongest reasons but in the article it is stated that futility was 1.8 times more common than fear as a reason for withholding ideas from direct supervisors in a large multinational corporation
I have had several conversations recently with clients who have problems getting people to speak up and contribute in meetings. It is always difficult to advise them without being there to observe and without knowing the history or the culture of the organisation.
Several managers have told me that they do their best to encourage participation; that they ask for questions and even refuse to end a session until say they have had three questions from the group.
But like all targets - this fails - people will ask a few easy, safe questions, to get the hell out of there.
To my mind, the managers are still trying to do things to people i.e. make them ask questions rather then work with them.
This is where I think Knowledge Cafe format type meetings play a part: simply allow people to have informal conversations about things that matter to them - don't try to force them into a rigid workshop format or Q&A sessions. Get them talking together and asking questions of each other in a natural way.
Once you stop talking at them and allow them to engage with a topic, questions, comments and good ideas will naturally follow. You still need to listen, enegage with them and act though else that futility will set in!
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past Tweets.
Take a look, if you are not a Tweeter, you will get a good idea of how I use it by browsing the list of micro-posts. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past Tweets.
Take a look, if you are not a Tweeter, you will get a good idea of how I use it by browsing the list of micro-posts. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
I have been Tweeting since 11 February 2007 and tweet most days when I am not too busy.
That's over 2,800 tweets in a little over 3 years.
Other then my website and this knowledge letter of course, it is one of my main ways of sharing and communicating.
I have never tried to capture and store these Tweets in anyway.
I had assumed Twitter threw them away after a certain time period but recently I discovered BackupMyTweets which has allowed me to capture all my past Tweets as an HTML file (it supports other formats too) and hence create a page on my website for all my past Tweets.
Take a look, if you are not a Tweeter, you will get a good idea of how I use it by browsing the list of micro-posts. And if you like what you see then subscribe to my Tweets.
But what it does also allow me to do - is to share with you a few of my favourites each month:
In the embedded video Devdutt Pattanaik makes the statement that while the rest of the world believes that "Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he will not be hungry again" in India the belief is "help him discover his own way of catching fish, because then that is his own!"
I so liked this, that I tweeted it and in turn it was automatically posted onto my Facebook wall. I was then delighted when Ana Neves chipped in with this comment "Or introduce him to some fishermen who can fish for him in exchange for something he can do really well :-)"
In the embedded video Devdutt Pattanaik makes the statement that while the rest of the world believes that "Feed a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and he will not be hungry again" in India the belief is "help him discover his own way of catching fish, because then that is his own!"
I so liked this, that I tweeted it and in turn it was automatically posted onto my Facebook wall. I was then delighted when Ana Neves chipped in with this comment "Or introduce him to some fishermen who can fish for him in exchange for something he can do really well :-)"
You can see more information here and register, if you are not a member. Please, please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn or not a member, could I encourage you to take a look. Its effectively the professional business equivalent of Facebook and to my mind anyone who is not a member is not taking their career or professional life seriously :-)
Also, please do connect with me, out of the 17,000 members of my community who receive my knowledge letter about only about 2,500 of you are connected to me personally and only about 1,000 are members of the LinkedIn Community group.
You can see more information here and register, if you are not a member. Please, please join-up and start to use the forum, as apart from Facebook, it is the best place to meet and have discussions with other members of the community.
If you are not familiar with LinkedIn or not a member, could I encourage you to take a look. Its effectively the professional business equivalent of Facebook and to my mind anyone who is not a member is not taking their career or professional life seriously :-)
Also, please do connect with me, out of the 17,000 members of my community who receive my knowledge letter about only about 2,500 of you are connected to me personally and only about 1,000 are members of the LinkedIn Community group.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
I came across the Red Campaign by accident when browsing my RSS feeds. Wondering what Red was I clicked through and discovered a film called The Lazarus Effect. Thirty minutes later with tears streaming down my face I came to end of the video. Watch it - is one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time.
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Education has to some degree lost its way; forgotten its identity. We've allowed ourselves and our institutions to be led away from our core value of openness -- away from generosity, sharing, and giving, and toward selfishness, concealment, and withholding. To the degree that we have deserted openness, learning has suffered.
We've been blessed with incredible technical capabilities in our day. Will we use them to increase the openness, generosity, and sharing of our institutions? Or will we use them perversely, against their own potential, to further close, conceal, and withhold?
Please help me expand the readership of my knowledge letter - Comments (0)
I have been writing and publishing this newsletter for ten years and there are now 17,000 or more readers in something like 160 countries - having grown from an initial circulation of about 300 in May 2000
I don't think that's too bad for one man but it's a drop in the ocean compared to the number of people on the web.
I receive frequent votes of thanks and complements and many of you have been readers for several years. Some of you for the full ten years!
And I would love is to significantly expand the readership. So here is the favour I ask.
Please, could you tell people about it. Email them or post an entry on your corporate intranet or whatever but help me push the readership through 20,000 by the end of the year. Point them to here for back copies and to sign-up: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/knowledge-letter
Think of it as your way of saying thank you to me! Its not often I ask for something quote so explicitly. LOL
I get several emails a week asking for help in some form or another. Often its a very specific question that I can answer in a sentence or two. But more often than not - its a broad, generalised, conceptual question that cannot be answered easily and even if it could I suspect it would be of litte value. Here are some examples:
Could you tell me all there is to know about KM?
How do I create a knowledge driven culture in my organisation?
How do I implement KM?
What are the KM issues and the best tools to use in my industry?
Could you give me a few tips and pointers on change management?
How do I roll out communities of practice?
How do I demonstrate the benefits of KM?
How do I measure the ROI of KM?
How do I make everyone in my organization share all their knowledge?
What are the best exit interview techniques?
When I get these type of questions I am concerned. I am concerned that I am talking to someone who has not the slightest clue of what KM is about. Its not the question itself or the knowledge they are seeking but the fact that they think I can effectively answer the question they pose.
Look at the questions above. What is missing? Yes the businesss context! None of them tell me anything about their organization or what they are trying to achieve for the business. And you know what when I ask they rarely can tell me!
We are discovering in this new realm that public exposure is not just a matter of egotism or idle voyeurism. This past year, several friends of mine have blogged their way through their battles with cancer. By taking their ordeal to the valley, they got valuable advice from strangers who posted comments and helped form an online support group — and an archive that could help future patients who happen upon it via cancer-related queries on Google. One of my friends -- writer Jeff Jarvis, now happily in good health -- talks about his experience as a lesson in the virtues of publicness. The Constitution may not contain an explicit reference to the right to privacy, but the notion that privacy is worth cherishing and protecting needs little justification. What Jarvis suggests is that the opposite condition needs its defenders: oversharing, in a strange way, can turn out to be a civic good.
As you know, I am often quoted as an example of a good knowledge sharer. There is not a lot I won't talk about in this newsletter, blog or website but I do tend to keep my intimate personal life to myself - no problem talking about my family etc but would I, could I, say talk about a battle with a serious illness? I am not so sure. But the above gives good reason to be more open and more public in our most intimate thoughts and private lives. Worth reflecting on :-)
We are discovering in this new realm that public exposure is not just a matter of egotism or idle voyeurism. This past year, several friends of mine have blogged their way through their battles with cancer. By taking their ordeal to the valley, they got valuable advice from strangers who posted comments and helped form an online support group — and an archive that could help future patients who happen upon it via cancer-related queries on Google. One of my friends -- writer Jeff Jarvis, now happily in good health -- talks about his experience as a lesson in the virtues of publicness. The Constitution may not contain an explicit reference to the right to privacy, but the notion that privacy is worth cherishing and protecting needs little justification. What Jarvis suggests is that the opposite condition needs its defenders: oversharing, in a strange way, can turn out to be a civic good.
As you know, I am often quoted as an example of a good knowledge sharer. There is not a lot I won't talk about in this newsletter, blog or website but I do tend to keep my intimate personal life to myself - no problem talking about my family etc but would I, could I, say talk about a battle with a serious illness? I am not so sure. But the above gives good reason to be more open and more public in our most intimate thoughts and private lives. Worth reflecting on :-)
The traditional way of thinking in business is that if some change is implemented you need to add measures and rewards/punishments associated with that change. You force people into the change, willingly or not. This can't work with the culture that needs to exist for Enterprise 2.0 to work. This has to be a culture of working together because we want to, particularly when it comes to using the tools. Forcing me to "share knowledge" doesn't even make sense. Neither does "you must ask for help."
I am delighted that Inside Knowledge have taken some of my best Gurteen Perspective articles and re-published them as a special Inside Knowledge supplement in the form of a commemorative compilation of my "10 years in KM".
Better still, as a member of my community, if you would like a hard-copy please e-mail Kate Clifton at [email protected] with 10 Years in KM copy request as the subject line along with your full name and postal address in the email body and they will send you a free copy. Note: if you already subscribe to Inside Knowledge then you will receive this supplement automatically and do not need to request it.
I would like to give a great big thank you to Inside Knowledge and especially to Kate Clifton for all her hard work in putting this together and helping to make "my ten years in KM" something special. Thank you!
I am delighted that Inside Knowledge have taken some of my best Gurteen Perspective articles and re-published them as a special Inside Knowledge supplement in the form of a commemorative compilation of my "10 years in KM".
Better still, as a member of my community, if you would like a hard-copy please e-mail Kate Clifton at [email protected] with 10 Years in KM copy request as the subject line along with your full name and postal address in the email body and they will send you a free copy. Note: if you already subscribe to Inside Knowledge then you will receive this supplement automatically and do not need to request it.
I would like to give a great big thank you to Inside Knowledge and especially to Kate Clifton for all her hard work in putting this together and helping to make "my ten years in KM" something special. Thank you!
At KM UK 2010, I was delighted to receive a "Lifetime achievement award for services to KM" from the Ark Group as part of their inaugural KMUK Awards 2010.
This is what the judges said about me (blush!)
We wanted to recognise David's 10 years of achievement in KM and to celebrate him as a thought leader in collaboration, through techniques such as his knowledge cafe concept. An excellent manager and willing sharer of his own personal knowledge, David has been instrumental in showing KM managers what social media can do for them.
I was in good company with Dave Snowden winning the award for "Best advance of KM as a scientific discipline"; Nick Davies for "Best KM presentation at an Ark conference"; ERM for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a professional services firm"; the Welsh Assembly Government for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a government organisation" and Pfizer for "Best KM initiative or implementation in a corporate enterprise".
Some time back I talked about TED Talks. These talks are still some of the most exciting, provocative presentations on the web and I am surprised by the number of people who have not discovered them yet.
Some time back I talked about TED Talks. These talks are still some of the most exciting, provocative presentations on the web and I am surprised by the number of people who have not discovered them yet.
I tweet most days especially when I am office based. Some tweets are personal comments or reflections but most are pointers to interesting articles, blog posts or videos that I trip over as I read my RSS feeds via Google Reader. Its quite slick. I mostly read my feeds on my iPhone and star the ones that I particularly like which gets synched back to Google Reader in my browser. As I step through the articles later I choose to tweet some of them by using a small Bitly Sidebar Bookmarklet that I have installed on my tool bar. It takes seconds to tweet an article in this way. Often it is just two clicks of the mouse.
One person I seem to be tweeting more and more is Robert Patterson. Almost everyone of his blog posts is a gem - he seems to find the most interesting articles out there on the web and then blogs them with his own insightful comments. What does he blog about? Well its quite diverse but the focus is on what's wrong in the world and needs fixing and that's not in a negative sense but more about here is a problem and here is what we could be doing better to respond to it.
Most of his posts have little to do with KM in a direct sense but all of them deep down are about how we manage and act on our knowledge.
Take a look! If you like the stuff I natter on about, I think you will love Robert's material too.
Here are three recent posts of his to wet your appetite.
In sum, there is no best way to do anything independent of context, so the leader cannot have privileged information. When leaders keep everyone in their place with the illusion of knowability and possession of this privileged knowledge the benefit to them is that we "obey" and leaders feel superior. The cost is that they create lemmings. Their mindlessness promotes our own mindlessness which costs us our well being and health. Net result, the leader, the led, and the company all lose.
This is all about knowledge management! We all need to be more mindful. Take a look at Ellen's two books that I reference above and you will start to see the importance of message!
In sum, there is no best way to do anything independent of context, so the leader cannot have privileged information. When leaders keep everyone in their place with the illusion of knowability and possession of this privileged knowledge the benefit to them is that we "obey" and leaders feel superior. The cost is that they create lemmings. Their mindlessness promotes our own mindlessness which costs us our well being and health. Net result, the leader, the led, and the company all lose.
This is all about knowledge management! We all need to be more mindful. Take a look at Ellen's two books that I reference above and you will start to see the importance of message!
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
Take a look at this blog post from Steve DenningHow do you subvert the world of Dilbert cartoons?. I am not so sure its the cartoons I would like to see subverted but the Dilbertesque business world we live in! But that is exactly the point that Steve is getting at!
The quote from Frederick Winslow Taylor's book on The Principles of Scientific Management jumps out from the page and clearly is the root cause of so many of the problems in the world today. But take a look at the quote in its original context. I am not so sure Frederick Taylor quite meant Man to be totally subverted to the System! But maybe he did - his ideas were for a past industrial age - not our modern knowledge based one.
How do you prevent people from stealing your ideas? - Comments (0)
I recently received an email from someone who pointed to an article on my website Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture where I said the following:
Some people object to sharing as they feel that others will steal their ideas and reap the rewards rightly theirs. This is a fallacy. Knowledge sharing isn't about blindly sharing everything; giving away your ideas; being politically naive; or being open about absolutely everything. You still need to exercise judgment. If you have a great idea - don't share it with a competitor - external or internal but on the other hand don't try to develop it on your own and don’t sit on it for fear of it being stolen from you. Figure out how you can bring it to fruition by collaborating with other people.
He asked: "Easy said. For years I have had ideas I would like to bring to fruition, but have no idea how to protect myself. Have you any practical solutions to sharing ideas without losing out on the benefits. e.g. I tell you of a good business idea and you do it without me."
And here is an expanded version of my response:
There are no magic bullets, I am sorry to say, but my key piece of advise would be to only share those ideas with people you really trust - that's where the judgement comes in.
Or, depending on the idea, it may be patentable, but most ideas are not patentable and can be taken and applied by other people - in which case don't worry about the idea being taken but make sure you are first to market with the best implementation of the idea. And if the application of your idea is internal to your company - ensure that everyone knows it is yours by publishing it broadly in some way such as on an internal blog.
It also seems to me that ideas are like knowledge. The important thing is not to have an idea but to have the ability to act on it. Without that ability: the knowledge, the skills, the contacts, the political nous, the passion, the energy and much more - the idea is probably worthless to you. In which case give it away!
Finally, Howard Aiken has an interesting perspective :-)
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I have long had a book section on my website with links through to amazon.com and amazon.uk to make it easy to order the books. (Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate and I so I earn a small percentage on most items that your order.)
I also have an Amazon banner ad on the left hand side of most of my pages which I have cleverly programmed to display ads pertinent to the topic of the page. Using the keywords I provide, Amazon determines the books to display in this panel and so they are not necessarily ones I would recommend but it makes a great serendipitous search and I often spot interesting books that I was not aware of.
These features have been on my site for many years and recently I thought I would take a look to see what Amazon had done to update things and found that I could actually create my own Amazon stores. What's more, the effort was trivial. So you will now find a stand-alone Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.com store and a Gurteen Knowledge Amazon.co.uk store and also find them embedded on my site: Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
I have yet to fully configure the stores with the books and products I would recommend but take a look at the work in progress. You will find a lot of good KM books in both stores.
Its all very easy to do and those of you with your own sites or blogs might like to take a look and build your own store!
I am often told that there is shortage of KM jobs or that people do not know where to look to find them. To help with this, for some time I have had a KM Jobs section on my website and you can access this via one of my RSSJob feeds. You might like to subscribe to the Global Jobs feed as this is the most comprehensive.
Alternatively you can subscribe to my Job Alerts Service which sends you an email whenever a new job is posted on my site.
But recently I have added a Twitter Job Feed to my Jobs Section. Quite simply, I have embedded a Twitter Search Widget at the bottom of the page that searches for Tweets that contain the words "knowledge management" and "job". Unfortunately the Twitter search syntax is extremely limiting and despite a lot of experimentation this turns out to be the best search.
But take a look - I think you may be surprised - there are more KM jobs out there than you might think. Also if you see a KM job - Tweet it and add the hashtag #kmjob so that myself and others can pick it up.
I am often told that there is shortage of KM jobs or that people do not know where to look to find them. To help with this, for some time I have had a KM Jobs section on my website and you can access this via one of my RSSJob feeds. You might like to subscribe to the Global Jobs feed as this is the most comprehensive.
Alternatively you can subscribe to my Job Alerts Service which sends you an email whenever a new job is posted on my site.
But recently I have added a Twitter Job Feed to my Jobs Section. Quite simply, I have embedded a Twitter Search Widget at the bottom of the page that searches for Tweets that contain the words "knowledge management" and "job". Unfortunately the Twitter search syntax is extremely limiting and despite a lot of experimentation this turns out to be the best search.
But take a look - I think you may be surprised - there are more KM jobs out there than you might think. Also if you see a KM job - Tweet it and add the hashtag #kmjob so that myself and others can pick it up.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Victoria Ward recently emailed a bunch of people to ask the question "What do you reckon the best pithy read on social capital is?" and like many a web conversation, what started off with a simple question, quickly turned into an interesting exchange on a related but tangential topic!
It was so good to see that people like Madelyn Blair, Seth Kahan and Steve Denning HATE the way that people are referred to as "human capital" or "human resources" and the like. I have been gently ranting about this for some years and I back searched my blog and came up with this post from May 2003 People are people - not things!.
In the email exchange, Steve Denning captures the issue well:
There are thus two deep streams in management in today.
They are like oil and water. We can pretend that they are just evolutions or developments or nuances or verbal nitpicks and that it would be divisive to draw sharp distinctions between them.
But the reality is that these two ways of interacting with the world are incompatible and don't have much to say to each other.
One stream is about turning into people into things--human resources, human capital, social capital--which can be manipulated as things to produce goods and services (MORE THINGS) or profits (MONEY) for the organization and its shareholders. A dispiriting activity for all involved.
The other stream is about inspiring people (i.e (PEOPLE) doing work to generate continuing delight for clients and customers (also known as PEOPLE).
One is a simple linear activity under the control of management. And if it isn't under their control, the object is to get it under their control, as soon as possible.
The other is a complex undertaking in which only successive approximations can make progress to the goal. No one is in control. It is an interaction, a conversation, a joint voyage of discovery. The aim is delight. Generating that is more fun than fun.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
Many of you are familiar with my views on Measures,Targets and Rewards so you will understand my pleasure at discovering the work of John Seddon. Just take a look at this talk of his entitled Cultural change is free. Its almost one hour long but I would strongly recommend you watch it.
Targets and all other arbitrary measures make your system worse - always - you can't do the wrong thing right - there is not a good way to set a target.
There is a systemic relationship between purpose measures and method .... when you impose arbitrary measures into a system like targets you create a de factor purpose which is "meet the targets" and you constrain method. On the other hand when you derive your measures from the purpose of the service from the customers point of view and put those measures in the hands of the people doing the work you liberate method, innovation occurs.
One of the major objectives of Knowledge management is improved decision making and so anything that helps us think better about a subject to me is KM. Take a look at these ten thinking traps (part 1) and ten thinking traps (part 2) and how to avoid them.
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Only last week I was pondering what would happen if all global flights were suspended for some reason for several months. What would be the impact on the global economy? Would we cope? Or would it be disastrous? Just how fragile is our high-tech civilisation? I pondered what might cause this? Maybe a solar storm wiping out all GPS and communication satellites (and our electricity grids) or a major volcanic eruption grounding flights across a large part of the globe.
And then what happened only days later - the Icelandic volcanic eruption. I still cant believe the coincidence in my thinking. I really hope our governments have thought these sorts of scenarios through and have contingency plans.
But the long term solution is to recognise our vulnerability and build more adaptable, less interdependent systems. What would happen if air flights were grounded for months or maybe even shipping? What would happen if we lost all power for as little as 2 weeks? What would happen if all our communication and GPS satellites were wiped out overnight? Could our civilisation survive? My best guess at the moment is no!
Conversational lessons from Jakarta - Comments (0)
I was recently in Jakarta to run a 2-day workshop for KM-Plus - Learning Lead. One of the challenges of such workshops is the language barrier. Although everyone can understand English and speak it quite well - it is not their native language and so me talking in English all day is huge a strain on people.
It also makes interactive sessions difficult to run as clearly the conversation with me is not so smooth flowing and it makes sense for me to allow conversation at tables in Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). But of course this means that I can't listen in and get a sense of what is being said.
At an earlier event in Jakarta I ran an "Introduction to KM" workshop for a large Indonesian Bank and although going fine the language barrier was clearly an issue. And so my host Alvin Soleh stepped in and we modified the day's format on the fly. I would present for about 20-30 minutes and then Alvin would run an interactive piece in Indonesian.
We carried this format through to my main two day public workshop and it worked well.
During Alvin's sessions I had time to observe and reflect and I came to the decision that I was never going to speak for more than 20 minutes again (well 30 minutes at most) before turning my talk or that part of my talk in to an interactive session of some description.
At the very least and at its simplest I will do what I often do and that is come to the end of my "chalk-and-talk", pose a question relating to my talk and then ask the participants to have a conversation at their tables. Optionally asking each table to report back to the group and for me to take questions.
First I like his suggested skills for managers. Clearly I like his last two items regarding conversation.
Self-reflection
Noticing what is going on
Facilitating free-flowing conversations
Articulating what is emerging in conversations
And his concluding paragraph:
The competencies in competency frameworks do not acknowledge the interdependence of human beings and the importance of context. If you are using competency frameworks, it is likely then that you are using the wrong competencies and you should therefore limit the importance you place on such competency frameworks.
I love my iPhone and would be lost without it but increasingly I feel I have made the wrong long term choice. Apple has done an amazing job and I am sure the iPad also will be a huge success. But I hate the fact that the Apple products are closed and how Apple is using its power to crush Adobes Flash.
I think Jeff Jarvis hits it right on the nail in this recent article iPad danger: app v. web where he says that "The iPad is retrograde" and that "Google is competing with openness, Apple with control". I have no doubt that openness will win in the long run but the Apple products are so good that could be several years away. In the meantime I still might buy an iPad but there will be a big part of me trying to resist.
I love my iPhone and would be lost without it but increasingly I feel I have made the wrong long term choice. Apple has done an amazing job and I am sure the iPad also will be a huge success. But I hate the fact that the Apple products are closed and how Apple is using its power to crush Adobes Flash.
I think Jeff Jarvis hits it right on the nail in this recent article iPad danger: app v. web where he says that "The iPad is retrograde" and that "Google is competing with openness, Apple with control". I have no doubt that openness will win in the long run but the Apple products are so good that could be several years away. In the meantime I still might buy an iPad but there will be a big part of me trying to resist.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
It reminds him of the classroom and the industrial age educational system where the one and only right answer comes from the lectern which I would like to see burnt!
Read the comments on his post, most people agree (but not all) and despair of the educational system!
There are many ways of breaking the "chalk-and-talk", "sit-and-git", "death-by-power-point", "preach from the lectern" paradigm of the "industrial age classroom". But a simple "no-brain" start is to turn them into a Knowledge Cafe format. Cut the speakers speaking time and then follow with a period of conversation around the speakers theme and finally Q&A. This is easy to do in most contexts and if you are the speaker you need no permission to do it.
This comment from Steve Jobs (via my friend David Pottinger) in a great article by Stephen Fry on the Launch of the iPad:
"I don't think of my life as a career. I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That's not a career -- it’s a life!" really resonates with me. I like the concept of just "doing stuff" - love that fuzzy word "stuff".
People are always telling me that if I wish to build a business I should do "x, y, z" and I reply "I am not looking to build a business I am looking to do stuff that I enjoy and earn a living in doing it".
To my mind, life is not a career, its not a business, its not a profession - its just about doing fun worthwhile stuff!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Dave Snowden also posted an item on the conference and there was a lot of good tweeting going on mainly from Bill Proudfit.
I also ran a post-conference Knowledge Cafe Masterclass - slides here and photos here. I am getting better all the time at capturing "people in conversation" but I really need to get a better camera that works well in low light conditions.
All in all, a very good conference with some excellent speakers but like most conferences I attend, it was no where near as interactive and participatory as I would liked to have seen it. I would love to see my "20:10:10" format as standard, that is 20 minutes presentation; 10 minutes conversation and 10 mins Q&A rather than 40:1 i.e. 40 minutes presentation and 1 minute for one rushed question and answer else the conference will overrun!
Excel makes a poor shared database! - Comments (0)
Fifteen years ago or more when I was developing Lotus Notes applications I was often asked to take an Excel spreadsheet and turn it into a Notes app. A common way of sharing information then was to create an Excel spreadsheet and store it on a shared disk drive where people could access it and update it or to pass it around by email.
Why Excel and not a database? Well Excel was the only tool that everyone had easy access to. Either they did not have access to a database tool because IT would not allow it or they did not have the skills to develop a database application themselves and could not afford to ask IT. But everyone had Excel and everyone knew how to program it - however crudely. Turning a spreadsheet into a Notes app was usually trivial and only took an hour or two but hugely improved the quality and accessibility of the information.
Using a spreadsheet was a very poor fudge back then but today its a crazy solution given all the modern tools we have! But guess what I came across an organisation a week or two back that were sharing information just that way - Excel spreadsheets on a shared drive! I still find it hard to believe.
I recently discovered Cinch and I love it! It's a really easy way to create and share audio, text and photo updates using your phone or computer. Using a simple interface, you can take a photo and annotate it with a short piece of audio. You can then notify people through Facebook, Twitter or CinchCast. Its very simple and very effective and has the potential for being a powerful sharing tool. For example, photos could be taken of artifacts and annotated with a short voice description to form a simple library of sorts. Here are my Cinches so far.
I have run Knowledge Cafes in lots of interesting places but this Kcafe at the Indosat Innovation Week last week in Jakarta was the first time I had held one in a reception area with people walking by :-)
To my mind the failure by business but more so governments to understand the adverse affects of measures, rewards and targets is a colossal Knowledge Management failure. As far as I can tell nearly all the research and evidence shows that rewards and targets do NOT work in complex environments. In fact they have the opposite effect of what is intended! But despite all the evidence to the contrary they continue, out of habit, to put their heads in the sand and do not change.
This post from Ron Donaldson on A blind pursuit of targets points to yet more evidence. I really wish I had collected all the stories of the failure of targets by the Labour government over the last 12 years or so. I think there is enough to write a book! As Ron says "Is anyone in Govt health, education or the environment listening?"
This really is a KM issue. We have the knowledge but we refuse to act on it!
But apart from anything else "we really must stop trying to do things to people and to start to work with them".
I am not so sure I am comfortable with the style of this speaker Dan Brown on the theme An Open Letter to Educators but I have learnt over the years to try to overlook the presentation style and focus on the content. I may not like his style but although Dan is only 20 years old he is already a minor YouTube celebrity with over 100,000 subscribers and 2 million page views to his credit.
Two messages jumped out at me:
"Society no longer cares how many facts we can memorize because in the information age, facts are free."
" Education is about empowering students to change the world for the better."
The first point is clearly a somewhat similar message to my recent post on Father Guido Sarduccis Five Minute University. Interestingly, Dan claims to have recently dropped out of school as his "schooling was interfering with his education". I think he will be one of the first of many!
This is so funny because at its heart it is so true. Universities, schools and other educational establishments in their current form have had their day!
Take look at what Chris Brogan. has to say on Revolutions. My way of looking at this is that you get to achieve major revolutions one day at a time or as Chris puts it one tiny revolution at a time. Its pretty much the way I have worked over the last fifteen years or so. I have had a vision in my mind of what I have wanted to achieve and each day I have tried to take small steps in that direction. No grand plan but learning and adapting as I go. Chris describes the process well.
If someone asked you for a bribe and you offered them a zero denomination note, how do you think they would react? Woild they get angry and demand the full bribe they were asking for or apologise and back down?
I often think that confronting people with the reality of their actions or behaviour in an in indirect, non-threatening way can cause them to reflect and change. Maybe we should experiment more with counter-intuitive ideas like this one. So often our intuition gets things wrong - nothing beats testing ideas - even crazy - ones in practice.
Its great to see a Linkedin KM discussion group Women in KM set up only for women! And by four of my favorite KM women at that - well done Karen, Nerida, Diana and Jeanne :-)
As they explain in the Group description, they have set it up to see if it would be beneficial for women who are in a field that is often male-dominated. And that it is a chance for women to explore, network, share ideas about KM among other women.
Interestingly, I have noted that online forums are male dominated but I tend to find at conferences, workshops and certainly my knowledge cafes there are more woman - often a 60:40 or even 70:30 ratio of women to men.
You may be familiar with Douglas McGregor's "Theory X and Theory Y". Theory X says that "employees are lazy, inherently dislike work and will avoid it if they can" and thus Theory X managers believe that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. On the other hand Theory Y managers believe that, given the right conditions, most people want to do a good job.
In Theory Y, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. According to Papa, to them work is as natural as play. They possess the ability for creative problem solving, but their talents are underused in most organizations.
Given the proper conditions, theory Y managers believe that employees will learn to seek out and accept responsibility and to exercise self-control and self-direction in accomplishing objectives to which they are committed. A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Many people interpret Theory Y as a positive set of beliefs about workers.
A close reading of The Human Side of Enterprise reveals that McGregor simply argues for managers to be open to a more positive view of workers and the possibilities that this creates. He thinks that Theory Y managers are more likely than Theory X managers to develop the climate of trust with employees that is required for human resource development. It's here through human resource development that is a crucial aspect of any organization. This would include managers communicating openly with subordinates, minimizing the difference between superior-subordinate relationships, creating a comfortable environment in which subordinates can develop and use their abilities. This climate would include the sharing of decision making so that subordinates have say in decisions that influence them. This theory is a positive view to the employees.
The more I talk to KM managers the more I come to believe that Theory X thinking runs deep in KM even when people strongly deny it. KMers frequently ask me or others in on-line forums - "how to do you motivate or incentivise people?" "how do you make people share their knowledge?" or they are looking for ways to manipulate people into using some KM tool or another. I can often discern in their wording that just beneath the surface they think other people are lazy or stupid. It's Theory X thinking!
To my mind - the problem does not lie with the employees - it lies with the managers and a deeply rooted Theory X mindset!
I am often asked what I think about KM Certification and whether it is of value or not. This is a hotly debated topic and much has been written and discussed on the web and so I have created a page on my website dedicated to the subject of KM certification that I will update from time to time.
My bottom line is this: On KM certification - go for the best course regardless of whether it is certified or not - do you wish to genuinely learn or buy an expensive bit of paper!
I often catch myself using the word "solution" or the verb "to solve". But slowly but surely I am eliminating these measly marketing words from my vocabulary. Let me explain.
We talk all the time about "solving business problems" or of "business solutions" or "KM solutions. Marketers love such phrases. But there are no solutions to complex business problems. There are only partial solutions. And even these may only work for a limited period of time in an ever changing business environment. And there are always unintended side-effects that can often be more detrimental than the original problem.
Thus we can only ever "respond" to problems in a continuous adaptive way. So we really need to stop using the word "solution" as it tends to seduce us into a false sense of security that problems can be solved once and for all.
There are NO "solutions" to complex business issues – only “responses” to them.
I am a keen follow of Chris Brogran - he writes some insightful stuff.
I particularly liked this recent blog-post entitled Pursue the Goal Not the Method as it reminded me of what so many people do wrong with KM. They pursue KM for its own sake and ask questions like "How do you do KM?" Doing KM is not the goal. Responding to business objectives, problems, barriers, opportunities and risks is the goal. KM is just an affective approach.
In other words - merging the two tag lines: "Don't do KM - Pursue the Goal Not the Method"
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
There has been much discussion on the web recently about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom or DIKW hierarchy and it is described by Patrick Lambe as "that most hallowed of mental models and glib explanations".
Here is a little bit of reading for you. I have started with Patrick as I think he provides a very balanced view of the concept. Like most diagrams of this kind so much depends on how you interpret its meaning.
Personally, I have never thought of it as a model and have never tried to use it to describe any form of process of moving from one to the other. I have simply seen it as a pretty diagram and have used it when explaining the differences between, data, information and knowledge and in recent years dropped it from my slide-set.
I recently read an interesting article entitled Our Panarchic Future by Thomas Homer-Dixon about the work of the ecologist Buzz Holling. In the article, he concludes:
Holling thinks the world is reaching "a stage of vulnerability that could trigger a rare and major pulse of social transformation." Humankind has experienced only three or four such pulses during its entire evolution, including the transition from hunter-gatherer communities to agricultural settlement, the industrial revolution, and the recent global communications revolution.
Today another pulse is about to begin. "The immense destruction that a new pulse signals is both frightening and creative," he writes.
"The only way to approach such a period, in which uncertainty is very large and one cannot predict what the future holds, is not to predict, but to experiment and act inventively and exuberantly via diverse adventures in living."
I agree, in a complex world, it is impossible to predict or to plan the future -- we need to experiment and learn what works and what does not work and continually modify our actions accordingly.
Yes I do it. I started doing it about ten years ago. And yes I too have something to sell at times. Ten years ago almost no one was doing it and I had many a debate with people who thought I was crazy.
Today many more are doing it and as Hugh MacLeod says in his post on Selling by giving in another five years it will probably be considered normal.
I am still surprised how few conference organisers have really caught on to social media and have learnt how to use it effectively. So much can be done with social media to help market an event and make it more participatory and engaging but one of the simplest things is to agree and communicate a conference tag as early as possible.
At KM India recently tweeters had to guess the tag which resulted in two tags being used #KMIndia and #KMSummit which resulted in a lot of confusion.
This great post on Tagging and face-to-face events by John David Smith makes the case for conference tags and gives some solid tips.
Why oh why do we still use podiums at conferences? I was at a conference recently and there was no lapel mike available and no hand mike - just a fixed mike on the podium which meant I had to stand behind the damn thing, not walk around and not move my head too much. How can you relax and interact with your audience tied to the spot like that!
And then in South Africa, at a recent conference - again only a fixed mike on the podium but the podium was a large wooden one, at least four feet high maybe higher. Two of the African women who spoke were not much taller than the podium!
Take a look at the photo - yes there really is a speaker behind that podium! Crazy!
In this year’s letter Bill talk's about the importance of innovation for solving some of the world’s biggest problems and how he and Melinda see innovation as the factor that will make the difference between having a bleak future and a bright one. The letter explains how they decide which ideas to fund and talk about the benefits, time frame, and risks of each one.
If Bill and Melinda only achieve a fraction of their vision they will make a real difference in the world.
Also take a look at Bill's new website Gates Notes if you want to track what he is up to. He has also just started a twitter account and already has over 300,000 followers.
In this year’s letter Bill talk's about the importance of innovation for solving some of the world’s biggest problems and how he and Melinda see innovation as the factor that will make the difference between having a bleak future and a bright one. The letter explains how they decide which ideas to fund and talk about the benefits, time frame, and risks of each one.
If Bill and Melinda only achieve a fraction of their vision they will make a real difference in the world.
Also take a look at Bill's new website Gates Notes if you want to track what he is up to. He has also just started a twitter account and already has over 300,000 followers.
I have long admired Lilia Efimova's work on blogging. If you are interested in what it means to blog within an organisation then I suggest you read this recent article by her on Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas.
Here is a little taster:
Blogging is primarily known as an instrument for personal publishing, reaching a broad and often unknown audience without pushing content on them. While blogging is personal, most of its advantages are the result being part of an ecosystem, where weblogs are connected not only by links, but also by relations between bloggers. Those relations do not appear automatically: it takes time and effort before one can enjoy social effects of blogging. To sustain blogging before those effects appear it is important to find a personally meaningful way to use a weblog.
I have long admired Lilia Efimova's work on blogging. If you are interested in what it means to blog within an organisation then I suggest you read this recent article by her on Blogging for knowledge workers: incubating ideas.
Here is a little taster:
Blogging is primarily known as an instrument for personal publishing, reaching a broad and often unknown audience without pushing content on them. While blogging is personal, most of its advantages are the result being part of an ecosystem, where weblogs are connected not only by links, but also by relations between bloggers. Those relations do not appear automatically: it takes time and effort before one can enjoy social effects of blogging. To sustain blogging before those effects appear it is important to find a personally meaningful way to use a weblog.
I will be visiting Jakarta once again in March where I will be leading a two day KM workshop with KM Plus - Learning Lead on March 10 - 11. This will be the third such workshop over the last few years and I will be sending out more information to those of you in the region in the next week or so.
I have yet to finalise my itinerary, so if you would like to invite me to work with you in any way or if you would like to meet with me informally for coffee, lunch or dinner please get in touch.
Detail of the workshop is as follows:
Topic: KM for Business: Managing Successful KM Projects to Achieve Business Results
Venue: The Boardroom, Four Seasons hotel, Jakarta
Date: March 10 - 11, 2010
Target audience: Directors, Managers, Business Profesional, and KM practitioners.
This workshop is a series of KM-Plus annual International KM events, which was started with Knowledge Cafe (March 2007), Social KM (July 2008), and now KM for Business (March 2010).
I have a huge respect for Alfie Kohn and have been blogging about him since 2002! But I have only just thought to look on YouTube for some video clips of him speaking. Well, I got lucky and found several clips from which I have created a YouTube playlist of clips from some of his talks.
Alfie demonstrates time and time again how our thinking is screwed up when it comes to the education and raising of children. This is bad enough. But the same habits and practices get carried over into the work place. We still try to punish and reward employees to "make them" to do what we want - even when there is no evidence that it works and plenty of research to show that it does not!
Video: Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation
Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think.
I have long been saying that Universities are in for trouble - as why would a student get out of bed early in the morning to attend a boring lecture when he or she could watch one of the world's best professors on the subject deliver the lecture at any time of the day and night that they chose - maybe with a friend or two and a few beers.
So all you KMers who enjoy shooing and editing video - Patrick Lambe of Green Chameleon has announced a Make a Video about KM Competition. Go for it - it should be fun!
If you have not had the chance to participate in one of my Knowledge Cafes and have wondered what they are all about then I will be giving a 1 hour webinar about them for the Ark Group on 9th February at 16:00 GMT where you will have a low cost opportunity to learn a little about them.
Video: David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management
David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management: David Gurteen talks on how incentivizing knowledge management kills intrinsic motivation and negatively affects true value of the practice. This interview was conducted by Alakh Asthana of eClerx Services at KM India 2009 in Chennai.
Media Information:
In this interview at KM India, I was asked for my views on "Incentivizing Knowledge Management". Well I explained the reasons for not doing it but did not suggest an alternative approach which was picked up in one of the comments by "firetangent". Here is my response.
So if traditional incentives can have a negative impact, what's the workaround?
First stop using them; they don't work and do great harm.
The problem with traditional incentives, rewards and talk of motivating people, engaging and empowering them etc. is that this approaches the situation from a mindset of "doing things to people". It says "they are lazy people; we know best and we will find ways of manipulating them to do what we would like them to do".
People see through this; they resist; they become cynical and it actually makes matters worse!
Here is my answer "Stop doing things to people and start to work with them!" Rather than "Hello I am here to help you!" (Oh yea!) Take the attitude "Hello, lets talk and see how we can better work together."
Its that simple!
But there is secondary issue here. Asking "how do we incentivise people" - makes the big assumption that they need to be incentivised. Yes, they may not be doing what you would like them to be doing but how do you know that the reason is lack of motivation. You don't. If there are problems then you will only find them out by sitting down and talking with them!
Interactive 5 day workshop supported by extensive eLearning program.
Workshop Leaders: Barry Hardy, Beat Knechtli, Pavel Kraus, Michael Wyrsch, Stephan Bohr, Douglas Weidner
Topics: KM Practices, Business Case, Strategy, Program Planning, KM
Frameworks, KM and Organisational Culture, Change Management for KM
Programs, Leadership and Competencies for KM, Knowledge Assessment,
Metrics, Enterprise KM, Process-oriented KM, Knowledge Mapping,
Benchmarking, Expertise Location, Search, Personal KM, Web 2.0,
Communities, Collaboration
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
I agree with him when he says that we are increasingly trying to document and control the world - to professionalise it, to require academic qualifications and certification. I find it a worrying trend. And I love Johnnie's labelling of it in all its forms as the tyranny of the explicit!
When I was at KM India 2009 in Chenna, Alakh Asthana of eClerx conducted a series of short interviews with me on a number of KM topics. Here is the first in the series on what I had to say about incentivizing KM.
Video: David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management
David Gurteen on Incentivizing Knowledge Management: David Gurteen talks on how incentivizing knowledge management kills intrinsic motivation and negatively affects true value of the practice. This interview was conducted by Alakh Asthana of eClerx Services at KM India 2009 in Chennai.
We asked CLOs if their organizations encouraged reflection, because we know that if there is no reflection, there is no learning. Less than a third of them said that their organizations encouraged reflection. And that’s just encouraging reflection. You know that in most organizations it isn’t happening at all. That is suicide. If you don’t set aside time for reflection it will always be set aside for today’s immediate task.
To my mind, this is yet another benefit of open conversation and knowledge cafes in that they encourage reflection. If you are not reflecting, you are not learning!
One of my good friends in Singapore is Lt Col Karuna Ramanathan who is Deputy Head of the Center for Leadership Development in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
I met up with him during my recent trip and we had lunch together. I knew he had been doing a lot of work with AARs but did not realise that the SAF had slightly modified the After Action Review (AAR) process.
He spoke about this at KM World and Robert Swanwick blogged about it in an article entitled 2-5-1 Storytelling. Take a look! The key difference is the bit about relationships and the final item "what was the most important takeaway from the event?" I rather like the changes and think I will adopt them myself when ever I facilitate an AAR in the future.
One of my good friends in Singapore is Lt Col Karuna Ramanathan who is Deputy Head of the Center for Leadership Development in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
I met up with him during my recent trip and we had lunch together. I knew he had been doing a lot of work with AARs but did not realise that the SAF had slightly modified the After Action Review (AAR) process.
He spoke about this at KM World and Robert Swanwick blogged about it in an article entitled 2-5-1 Storytelling. Take a look! The key difference is the bit about relationships and the final item "what was the most important takeaway from the event?" I rather like the changes and think I will adopt them myself when ever I facilitate an AAR in the future.
Those of you who know Patrick Lambe of Straits Knowledge may also know his alter ego Dr David Vaine. Dr Vaine gave a short speech at the ACTKM Annual Conference Dinner in October earlier this year where he outlined the key features of Fourth Generation Knowledge Management, and dealt with the difficult question of managing the transition between Generation X and Generation Y in the workplace.
Here are the first three generations of KM according to David Vaine! Enjoy the video!
Ist generation KM pioneered by No Knuckles "making tacit knowledge explicit"
2nd generation characterised by David Green Teen "lets all just chat"
3rd generation characterised by Dennis Snowden "its all about complexity, complexity"
You will find other video talks from David Vaine and more serious ones from Patrick Lambe on Patricks blip.tv channel.
Those of you who know Patrick Lambe of Straits Knowledge may also know his alter ego Dr David Vaine. Dr Vaine gave a short speech at the ACTKM Annual Conference Dinner in October earlier this year where he outlined the key features of Fourth Generation Knowledge Management, and dealt with the difficult question of managing the transition between Generation X and Generation Y in the workplace.
Here are the first three generations of KM according to David Vaine! Enjoy the video!
Ist generation KM pioneered by No Knuckles "making tacit knowledge explicit"
2nd generation characterised by David Green Teen "lets all just chat"
3rd generation characterised by Dennis Snowden "its all about complexity, complexity"
You will find other video talks from David Vaine and more serious ones from Patrick Lambe on Patricks blip.tv channel.
Whenever I run my Knowledge Cafe Masterclasses, a few people always have a serious problem with the fact that when run in its "pure form" there are no tangible outcomes of a Knowledge Cafe.
There are plenty of intangible ones, such as a better understanding of the issue, a better understanding of ones own views, a better understanding of others perspectives, improved relationships and genuine engagement and motivation to pursue the subject but no outcomes in the form of a decision or a consensus or a to-do list.
My belief is that the way we create conversations that overcome the fragmented nature of our communities is what creates an alternative future.
This can be a difficult stance to take for we have a deeply held belief that the way to make a difference in the world is to define problems and needs and then recommend actions to solve those needs.
We are all problem solvers, action oriented and results minded. It is illegal in this culture to leave a meeting without a to-do list.
We want measurable outcomes and we want them now.
What is hard to grasp is that it is this very mindset which prevents anything fundamental from changing.
We cannot problem solve our way into fundamental change, or transformation.
This is not an argument against problem solving; it is an intention to shift the context and language within which problem solving takes place.
Authentic transformation is about a shift in context and a shift in language and conversation. It is about changing our idea of what constitutes action.
Whenever I run my Knowledge Cafe Masterclasses, a few people always have a serious problem with the fact that when run in its "pure form" there are no tangible outcomes of a Knowledge Cafe.
There are plenty of intangible ones, such as a better understanding of the issue, a better understanding of ones own views, a better understanding of others perspectives, improved relationships and genuine engagement and motivation to pursue the subject but no outcomes in the form of a decision or a consensus or a to-do list.
My belief is that the way we create conversations that overcome the fragmented nature of our communities is what creates an alternative future.
This can be a difficult stance to take for we have a deeply held belief that the way to make a difference in the world is to define problems and needs and then recommend actions to solve those needs.
We are all problem solvers, action oriented and results minded. It is illegal in this culture to leave a meeting without a to-do list.
We want measurable outcomes and we want them now.
What is hard to grasp is that it is this very mindset which prevents anything fundamental from changing.
We cannot problem solve our way into fundamental change, or transformation.
This is not an argument against problem solving; it is an intention to shift the context and language within which problem solving takes place.
Authentic transformation is about a shift in context and a shift in language and conversation. It is about changing our idea of what constitutes action.
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
Chris and Geoff's first book was Learning to Fly and I consider it one of the best books available on KM. This new book is of equal calibre.
We have been taught to look to "experts" for help and advice. And although we often do need guidance, we know more than we think. Given the complexity of our twenty-first century organizations it is dangerous to rely on external consultants who can never fully understand the richness of the context in which we work.
In this book, Chris and Geoff provide tools and techniques that allow us to tap into our innate capabilities and to do away with rather than automatically relying upon external consultants!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
I love this story of TOMS shoes. So far they have given over 150,000 pairs of shoes to children in need around the world. The story is a great example of how you can create a for-profit business and still do "social good".
Blake Mycoskie, while on holiday in Argentina. and with no desire to get into philanthropy, met some kids who didn't have shoes and the idea was born. One man! One great idea!
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
You may be interested in this recent interview with Theodore Zeldin by Ana Neves. It seems it was me that put Ana on to Theodore and as many of you will know I love his work and quote him in most of my talks and workshops. You will find lots more about him on my website including some of my favorite quotes of his.
If you have heard Dave Snowden speak you will almost certainly have heard his children's party story. I must have heard it a dozen time or more and it get better with each rendition. Take a look :-)
You will find two more videos on the Cognitive Edge YouTube Channel and I gather from Dave that several more will be posted over the coming months.
So what is identity? What is digital identity and what is identity 2.0?
Until recently I had not given this a lot of thought but than I got talking to Serge Ravet about running a knowledge cafe at the MISC 2010 conference to be held in London in late January and he introduced me to the topic.
After a conference, have you ever left your name tag on by mistake and had complete strangers say hello to you.This happened to Scott Ginsberg some years ago and he decided to keep his name tag on. He has been wearing a name tag now 24 x 7 for over ten years and turned it into his trademark.
I wore a name badge once at a talk by Theodore Zeldin at the Tate Modern in London. It was a public event and I wore the badge so other people who were attending whom I had invited but never met would recognise me. I was the only one there with a badge and was surprised at the number of strangers who said hello and started up conversations with me. So I can emphasise with Luke's experiences.
I love it in hotels, restaurants, conferences etc when people wear name tags so I can address them by name. Its just so much more friendly and makes it easier to strike up a conversation. One criticism I have of many conference organisers is that the persons name is in very small print so you cannot read it, or the badge is covered with marketing logos so the name gets lost or those name tags you hang around your neck that always twist away from you so once again you cannot read the name. The best name tags contain the name only as BIG as possible and with the given name larger and in bold compared wit the family name!!
As I love to network and talk to strange, I like the idea of always wearing a name tag much of the time though I am not so sure about 24 x 7. Do I have the courage? LOL! I am not too sure. Do you?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
I often work in a coffee shop. More often than not a Starbucks. For some tasks, I need peace and quiet, in which case I switch my phone off, drop my internet connection and focus on the job in hand. But for many tasks I find the background noise and the coming and going of a coffee shop or hotel lobby more conducive to say creative thinking. The distractions paradoxically help my thinking process.
And in public places I also get the opportunity to meet people; occasional people I know but more often complete strangers. I like to talk and have developed a few techniques to start conversations with strangers. Asking a parent about a child is always a great conversation starter or something as mundane as commenting on the weather. And its always easy talking with service people such as receptionists, waiters or maids.
But it always strikes me how hard it is for many people (including myself at times) to talk with strangers at conferences or lectures especially when the organisers have given no thought to helping facilitate networking and conversations.
In this article on Starbucks: Whats true cost of a Starbucks latte, Bryant Simon laments about the lack of conversation and community. If he owned a coffee shop it would have a big, round table strewn with newspapers to stimulate discussion.
The article concludes with Bryant saying "People want these conversations, people want to feel connected," he said. "I'm pretty sure about that." I am pretty sure about it too! What do you think?
Many of you will be familiar with the speed networking sessions I hold at the start of my knowledge cafes and workshops. Its a great way of breaking the ice and getting people talking and engaging with each other.
I often hug people rather than shake hands though usually only when I know them and more often with women than men. The Speed Hugging post by Steve Pavlina has prompted me to hug more. Its not that difficult even with strangers and like Steve suggests if in doubt I ask first.
I also need to achieve some balance and give hugs to more men. LOL
Many of you will be familiar with the speed networking sessions I hold at the start of my knowledge cafes and workshops. Its a great way of breaking the ice and getting people talking and engaging with each other.
I often hug people rather than shake hands though usually only when I know them and more often with women than men. The Speed Hugging post by Steve Pavlina has prompted me to hug more. Its not that difficult even with strangers and like Steve suggests if in doubt I ask first.
I also need to achieve some balance and give hugs to more men. LOL
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
Dave Snowden frequently criticises the concept of best practice such as here in this article and in an article in Harvard Business Blog, Susan Cramm questions it too.
Steve Billing in his blog recently added weight to what David has to say. He comments that best practice" ignores the most important factor – the people who are working with the practice or model". He adds that "best practice and its forebear benchmarking both divert attention from the people and the context, focusing entirely on the disembodied prescription or model, as though it can be implemented anywhere and get the same successful result".
I am often asked for best practices in KM though what I discern is that what people really want is a prescription - a recipe they can blindly follow. But as I am so fond of saying "there is no substitute for thinking for yourself!" - in the complex real world of KM - there are no best practices; there are no simple recipes!
Steve says this "Instead of looking at best practice, focus your attention on the particularities of your situation, trying to understand all the factors at work, not just those prescribed in your model or best practice. Reflect on how your own participation is affecting, and is affected by, the way these factors are playing out in your organisation. That way you can help to make sure your attention is on what really matters so much more than a best practice or model – how you are others are interacting with each other and influencing each other in the process of getting the work done."
A little while back I blogged about the idea that we would do better not to focus on idealistic solutions but to focus on the small, pragmatic things that we could do on a day-to-day basis to move ourselves forward. I drew on comments by Dave Snowden, Stephen Billing and John Dewey.
Well now Johnnie Moore has blogged along similar lines see Behaviour change revisited. His post reminds me of a quote from Alfie Kohn that I oft use in my talks and workshops "An innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them."
I have just discovered Pecha Kucha - a presentation format in which a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
Looks like the driving force was similar to the one that inspired my Knowledge Cafes - a desire to avoid Death by Powerpoint.
I wonder if I could adapt the idea to create a variation of my Knowledge Cafe? But I cannot believe that they have patented the process!
I have just discovered Pecha Kucha - a presentation format in which a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds.
Looks like the driving force was similar to the one that inspired my Knowledge Cafes - a desire to avoid Death by Powerpoint.
I wonder if I could adapt the idea to create a variation of my Knowledge Cafe? But I cannot believe that they have patented the process!
The best definition of KM yet and some excellent guiding principals from Dave Snowden in a recent blog post.
The purpose of knowledge management is to provide support for improved decision making and innovation throughout the organization. This is achieved through the effective management of human intuition and experience augmented by the provision of information, processes and technology together with training and mentoring programmes.
Why do I like this? It starts with the purpose; the business outcome that you wish to achieve. And then follows through with the "how". To my mind, all definitions of activity should take this format. So if I ask "What is your KM project about?" The reply should not take the form "We are implementing COPs" but "Our aim is to improve innovation in R&D through the use of COPs". Start with the specific purpose and then the how.That way you don't get to take your mind off what you are really aiming to achieve! Its the "outcome" that is important not the "how". KM is a how not an outcome! That's why I always say "You don't do KM!".
KM should not be about "knowing more" - it should be about "understanding better". Better understanding leads to improved decisions and innovation. How do we understand better; how do we make sense of the world? Through conversation!
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
You may have noticed that over recent months that I have often referred to Stephen Billing in my newsletter or tweeted some of his posts. I found Steve only a few months back when I stumbled over his blog and instantly liked his work, what he had to say and the values he stood for and so it was a delight to have dinner with him the other evening in Wellington (thanks Stave for such an excellent meal and great conversation).
This is the power of the web ... I get to meet someone in cyberspace literally half-a-world-away and form a relationship that is later, often much later, cemented in a face to face meeting.
Steve is not the only one who does not like the idea of "putting people in boxes". Dave Snowden thinks that a special place in Hell should be reserved for the creators and perpetrators of what he considers the worst of these psychometric tests such as Myers Briggs. LOL
Personally, I find these tests a bit of fun; they do give a glimmer into people's personalities and are great for triggering reflection and conversation but they shouldn't be taken too seriously.
Its not very often I "sound off" but the other day I tweeted a section of an article and tagged it as #RUBBISH and having been gently reprimanded, I agreed, backed off and tagged it #DISAGEE LOL.
To me, this not only seems impossible and a huge waste of time but it will almost certainly be "gamed" by many individuals. Value and respect trust - yes - but that's it.
In response, Johan Lammers expanded on the post in a comment which helped explain a little more but I am still not convinced. I think we need to stop trying to do things to people and work with them :-)
I think most of you are aware of my views on the rewards ... if not see what I have to say here on Measures Targets and Rewards.
And you may also have seen my little blitz on the subject in Twitter ... tagged #NOREWARDS.
I know many of you believe in rewards - from my Twitter Poll - well over half. But watch this TED video from Dan Pink and see if it changes your opinion at all. Even more compelling evidence that traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think!
The iPhone: always on and always on you - part of you - Comments (0)
A few weeks back I brought a new 3GS iPhone. Up until then I had an old Nokia handset. I had been putting off the purchase for a long time. I was happy with my dumb phone and did not see the real need for anything more. I knew at the back of my mind I was wrong but I did not realise how wrong!
Those of you with an iPhone will be chuckling by now as you KNOW just how wrong I was!
The iPhone is NOT a phone - it is a personal information, navigation, communication and connection device. It is THE most powerful Social Tool you can imagine. And like all Social Tools you have no idea what they can really do for you until you start to play with them.
I think what amazes me about the iPhone the most - is its potential. The device I have is impressive but I feel there is huge room for improvement.
Out of the box I get the following and more:
phone/sms
contacts database
still camera
video camera
voice recorder
all my music
most of my photos
a very functional browser
a storage device
And these are just some of the Apps I have downloaded so far (and I have yet to pay for an App):
Skype
Facebook
Twitteriffic and TweetDeck
Yahoo Messenger
Wikipedia
Dopplr
Google Maps
Google Earth
Weather (Guide)
Time Zone Guide
Currency (Convertor)
Several news feeds: Telegraph, Sky News, ITN News, NPR News
But it is the geolocation functions enabled by the iPhone's inbuilt GPS that seem to me to have the most promise:
Know where I am e.g. Google Maps
Let others know where I am e.g. Google Latitude and Plazer
Know where others are - both friends and like-minded people e.g. Brighkite and Whoshere
Know what is around me e.g. Nearest, AroundMe and WCFinder
Get directions to places e.g. TomTom
And then I have been playing with two apps
PicPosterous that allows me to take photos and automatically uploaded them to the web including Flickr, Facebook and Twitter
12cast that allows me to take 12 second video clips and automatically upload them to the web as a sort of micro-video blog - a video version of Twitter
So a whole new world in the making :-)
If you haven't woken up to the iPhone yet - then go out and get one tomorrow! Its only a matter of time before everyone has an iPhone or smart phone equivalent and we are all connected in real-time. The thing about the iPhone is that it is "always on" and "always on you". It becomes "part of you".
I think this technology will completely transform the way we interact with the world. And I can only just begin to imagine the implications of that!
This short video explains joint enquiry as a key way that as a change leader you can engage with your people when trying to generate change in your organisation.
This is a big part of what my Knowledge Cafe's about. It also reminds me so much of Alfie Kohns comment:
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
This is the key ... "We have to stop trying to change people and work with them!".
Side note: I have referred to Steve Billing's work several times over recent months. I have never met him but that is set to change when I have dinner with him during my upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand. I look forward to some great conversation.
This short video explains joint enquiry as a key way that as a change leader you can engage with your people when trying to generate change in your organisation.
This is a big part of what my Knowledge Cafe's about. It also reminds me so much of Alfie Kohns comment:
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
This is the key ... "We have to stop trying to change people and work with them!".
Side note: I have referred to Steve Billing's work several times over recent months. I have never met him but that is set to change when I have dinner with him during my upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand. I look forward to some great conversation.
Theodore Zeldin is most interested in conversations when we "discover what it is like to be somebody else, and what other people feel".
Watch this recent video interview with him where is celebrates his 76th birthday by inviting members of the public to a central London park to talk to strangers - a delight!
It does not matter if no one reads your blog! - Comments (0)
I have long advocated that blogging is a thinking tool and not a publishing tool. And so many non-bloggers have looked at me as if I was crazy. I will say it again the only way you get to REALLY understand social tools is to play with them. Things then emerge that were not apparent by looking at them or reading about them.
If you don't blog and still don't quite get it - take a look at what Seth Godin has to say about blogs for example it does not matter if no one reads your blog! short video clip with Tom Peters. He is SPOT ON!
With the G8 expanded to the G20, the discussion of a new world order is underway. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a "New Bretton Woods" agreement in October 2008. Jean Dermine, INSEAD Professor of Banking and Finance called for a new international financial order. The World Bank has issued its World Knowledge Development Reports. The UN released major reports on Knowledge Societies.
My fear is not that this event will not happen; it WILL. I worry that the visionaries who have pushed the frontiers of financial measurement to include the variables of intangible wealth and intellectual capital may not have a prominent seat at the table.
What can WE do - collectively - to help shape the agenda?
A month or two ago I had a meeting at HMRC - the UK's HM Revenue & Customs. While waiting in the lobby I spied their mission statement and was quite impressed. Rather than say "We collect taxes." LOL It said this:
HMRC Purpose
We make sure that the money is available to fund the UK's public services.
We also help families and individuals with targeted financial support.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Ellen has recently published another book Counterclockwise. I have yet to read it but it looks equally as powerful.
She asks the question "If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?" and answers that by opening our minds to what’s possible, instead of clinging to accepted notions about what’s not, can lead to better health at any age. The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.
What interests me here is that if our mindless reaction to cultural cues can exert such a strong influence on our health and well being what is the impact on our creativity and ability to learn and achieve things.
Michele Martin builds on a post by Meredith Levinson on a series of six questions to identify change agents and innovators during a job interview and adds four questions of her own.
These are great questions to consider about your working life, regardless of whether you are going to a job interview or not!
What do you do to build, manage and maintain your network?
If I Google you, what will I find?
What do you do to stay focused?
What do you do to stay relevant?
What innovative solutions have you created?
Walk (me) through a time when you administered change.
What important problems or questions do you see facing our industry? Your occupation?
What do you do to expose yourself to new ideas and new thinking on a regular basis?
What big mistake have you made recently and what did you learn from it?
What matters to you? What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning or keeps you awake at night?
Michele Martin builds on a post by Meredith Levinson on a series of six questions to identify change agents and innovators during a job interview and adds four questions of her own.
These are great questions to consider about your working life, regardless of whether you are going to a job interview or not!
What do you do to build, manage and maintain your network?
If I Google you, what will I find?
What do you do to stay focused?
What do you do to stay relevant?
What innovative solutions have you created?
Walk (me) through a time when you administered change.
What important problems or questions do you see facing our industry? Your occupation?
What do you do to expose yourself to new ideas and new thinking on a regular basis?
What big mistake have you made recently and what did you learn from it?
What matters to you? What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning or keeps you awake at night?
I love the bit about being authentic and shaping your brand by sharing little bits of your life one tweet at a time. And using social tools to influence people and tell your story.
Although her advise is primarily aimed at independents and small organizations - I think if you read between the lines and consider yourself or your team as a brand then everyone can learn from what Juliette has to say especially KM practitioners and KM managers.
I love the bit about being authentic and shaping your brand by sharing little bits of your life one tweet at a time. And using social tools to influence people and tell your story.
Although her advise is primarily aimed at independents and small organizations - I think if you read between the lines and consider yourself or your team as a brand then everyone can learn from what Juliette has to say especially KM practitioners and KM managers.
Instead of borrowing a book, you can borrow a person for a 30 minute chat. An east London library has 26 "human books" available. The aim is to confront and breakdown stereotypes. You can "borrow" a Muslim; a police officer; a person suffering mental health issues; a gay guy; or a young person expelled from school.
So the stereotypes might be religious fanatic; corrupt; unstable; promiscuous; rebellious and so on. It's about having frank and rich conversations with people and learning about different cultures or ways of living. It's about the "borrower" offering up what misgivings or fears they might have of a stereotype and the "human book" responding.
Violence, hatred and racial issues often occur when there is misunderstanding, ignorance and cultural insensitivity. Listening to the narrative of another person who is entirely different from you is a powerful experience. The Living Library challenges preconceptions through promoting dialogue.
I think this is a great idea - maybe I should borrow one of these "human books" and use them to seed the conversation for one of my London Knowledge Cafes - what an interesting thought :-)
I mentioned recently that I would be participating in KM Asia in November. The organisers - the Ark Group - have just announced great early bird deal - take a look at the early bird brochure. It expires on the 21st August.
If you don't already know him, I'd like to introduce you to Nick Milton of Knoco by way of a recent blog post of his:
Knowledge Management is not an end in itself. Companies do not exist for the purpose of propagating and advancing knowledge - they exist to sell products and services. But to the extent that competitive advantage relies on informed decision making within the business - knowledge management has a crucial role to play.
This is spot on and to my mind is one of the prime reasons so many KM initiatives and KM teams fail. They are simply not focused on the business.
But take a look at all the other material on Knoco's website (though I do wish Nick would lighten up and smile on his videos) - especially Nicks blog and his short KM videos - he has been very prolific of late and you will find a wealth of good KM material.
Last week Google Wave was open to around 6,000 developers and Google is planning to send out an additional 20,000 invites over the next month. In addition, Google is planning to release Wave to 100,000 users beginning on September 30th. So register your interest.
There is a lot of interest in this product - if you haven't taken a look at it yet - I suggest you do! I am registered to be informed when it is ready and can't wait to get my hands on it :-)
Euan Semple was recently interviewed for GuruOnline.
Its an interesting format, fifteen high quality teeny video clips where Euan is asked questions about social media and working in a wired world. You can skip any of them and play the clips in any order. Its neat! And of course Euan has some great stuff to say about social tools. Well worth a watch.
I love all the little conversations I inadvertently have in Twitter - many of them via Facebook. They engage me and open my eyes to the world and help me realise that not everyone sees things as I do - either because they actually have a very different perspective or because a little bit of information or context is missing. Here is one example.
I recently re-tweeted a quote from Henry David Thoreau "David Gurteen RT @ThoreauPage: I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad."
To which I had a reply in Facebook (my Tweets automatically update my Facebook status) from Stuart Keeble an old friend of mine from my Lotus Development days: "I don't like this - but FB doesn't give me a simple button to press so I have to comment. Where's the challenge to humanity to leave a better legacy to our children?? Or do we suddenly lose interest in green ideals, in a sense of community and appreciation of diversity??!! "
This was my reply: " Stuart, how familiar are you with the works of Thoreau - if you are - read the quote again and think about what he really means and you may see it differently. If you are not familiar with him and you have the inclination, read Walden Pond and I think you will see it in a new light :-) And see http://www.walden.org or http://www.ti.org. Thoreau was THE original environmentalist :-)"
Stuart learnt a little about Thoreau here but more often or not it is the other way around and I get to do the bulk of the learning :-)
I will be attending KM Asia in Singapore this year (24 - 26 November 2009). I will be in good company with
Dave Snowden, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd
Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services, Harvard Business School
John Girard, Associate Professor, Minot State University
I will be busy ... not only delivering a keynote talk but also running a workshop and facilitating a reverse brainstorming cafe. The theme of the reverse brainstorming cafe will be either "How do you utterly, totally destroy openness and transparency within an organization and ensure that people won't collaborate or share their knowledge?"
or "How do you totally decouple KM activities from the real work of the business and ensure that senior managers kill off KM and that others in the organisation despise you?" (Get the idea of the reverse thinking LOL!) I am hoping we will go with the second question as I feel this represents one of the greatest challenges that KM faces today!
I plan to spend a week or more in the region - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner.
I will also be attending KM Singapore in Singapore in August.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
I plan to spend a week or more in the region and may also be running a workshop in Jakarta or Bali - so please get in touch if you would like to call on my services or simply meetup for coffee, lunch or dinner. Those of you who know me - know I love to meet new people and to network.
I will also be attending KM Asia in Singapore in late November.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
You might like to road-test Bing - a search engine from Microsoft that was unveiled by Steve Ballmer on May 28, 2009 at the All Things Digital conference in San Diego. Bing is a replacement for Live Search
According to Forester Bing Will Change The Face of Search as "Bing focuses on delivering answers, not Web pages" and "helps consumers make decisions, not just to catalog content."
I am going to start to play with it on occasions where I am looking to make "consumer decisions" and compare it to Google.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
I hope you caught the announcement of Google Wave. Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 27 May 2009 and is expected to be released later in 2009.
Google would like the Wave protocol to replace the 40 year old e-mail protocol and so are open sourcing the protocol and the source code. People have been predicting the death of email for some time and Google Wave might just precipitate that!
It's only too easy to get over excited by a new product but Google Wave looks like a major innovation and its development is worth following closely. Sign up here to be informed when it is ready.
Dave Snowden said something recently that typified my approach to everything that I have done in life over the last 10 years or more.
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.
Benner suggests that decreasing your reliance on a preconceived end or means of getting there can offer a new point of departure for new possibilities that were not previously available. To me, this applies as much to individuals in their personal lives as much as it does to people in organisations.
And then yet again I got to build on Snowden's original statement with this quote from John Deway that I found in the comments to the above post.
The ideal of using the present simply to get ready for the future contradicts itself. It omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared for his future. We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. This is the only preparation which in the long run amounts to anything.
I have long heard Dave Snowden at KM conferences and workshops espouse his views on some of the serious mistakes that he feels governments make and I have always agreed. You only have to look at the disastrous consequences that measures have had on the National Health Service in the UK. The government 48-hour target of a few years ago which stated that patients should only have to wait 48 hours for an appointment to see their doctor was a prime example of one that back-fired.
Well Dave has recently starteed to document some of these mistakes. Here are his seven errors of governemnt - each one is explained more fully in his blog post.
You get what you measure, so if you set a target humans will achieve the target at all costs, ignoring context or the unstated goals that the outcome based target was attempting to achieve.
Outcome based measurement can make people far too comfortable. It's all to easy to achieve an explicit target, especially if you can turn off an empathy (or at least suppress it).
A mechanical approach is by its nature dehumanising in its effect on people and inhuman in its impact on society.
You waste an awful amount of resource just managing the measurement system.
We try and solve issues with idealistic fail-safe designs rather than allowing systems to evolve.
Re-organisation is a disease and an excuse. It's the knee jerk reaction to any failure that ends up breaking your jaw with the recoil.
Communication is all up and down the chain, ironically this mediates information to senior decision makers so they are immunised from the real data
they need, and also from the consequences of their actions.
He also makes the point that this all comes back to one fundamental error, namely we are treating all the processes of government as if they were tasks for engineers rather than a complex problem of co-evolution at multiple levels (individuals, the community, the environment etc.).
We are an award-winning graphic and media design agency offering a wide range of expertise and service in the visual communication sector : covering logos; brand identity; adverts; art direction; marketing and POS material; illustration and animation; books and brochures; websites and content management systems.
Our client base is ever-growing and includes both B2B and B2C and by working closely with our media partners; we are able to provide competitive rates in every aspect of the design process.
If you would like an informal chat with regards to a forthcoming project please contact René Morency on +44 20 3355 6891 or email [email protected].
Work on something that matters to you more than money.
Create more value than you capture.
Take the long view.
But to me this is key:
We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
Basically, Wolfram Alpha is a “computational knowledge engine” for the web - an online service for computing factual answers. You can ask it factual questions and it computes answers for you.
Have a play with it and see what you think - its a brilliant concept and like most great ideas - rather obvious in retrospect. I agree with TechCrunch - I think it will be BIG!
When I was in Singapore last year walking near Clarke Quay - I saw that what I thought at first could only be a UFO. An amazing colourful craft swooping and diving in the night sky. But then I realised there were several of them dancing together.
I have been running the beta version for the last few weeks with no problems at all. What I enjoy about Chrome is its minimal user interface design and the fact that is blindingly fast and has some cool features.
If you have not got around to checking it out yet I suggest you do.
I originally tweeted this post of Stephen Billing's Three reasons not to aim for shared values a little while back. Stephen tells me that it resulted in a large number of people visiting his blog and as you can see from the comments it kicked of an interesting discussion.
Shared values are a complete fallacy and the pursuit of them will not help your organisation one bit.
I have empathy with some of Stephen's points but like several of the comments I feel there is a need for shared values but too often like many mission statements they seem trite and self serving and I am really not too sure they achieve a great deal.
Stephen has blogged on the subject again today More About Why Shared Values are Futile. What are your thoughts? Post your comments on Stephen's blog - not here - and join the conversation :-)
The greatest benefit of conversation is that it produces five categories of responses (answers, meta knowledge, problem reformulation, validation and legitimization), not just the answer. We get so much more from conversation, e.g. an unexpected insight, a sense of affirmation that inspires us to new heights or, equally useful, having to confront a realization that we've been trying to avoid; deepening the relationship with a colleague or the introduction to a collaborator we would never have discovered on our own; and on and on.
I suspect, there are even more then five categories. When you enter into a conversation, you are never sure where it is going to take you. Sometimes, you set out with a goal in mind but end up in a very different place. I always tell people at my Knowledge Cafes that it is OK to go off topic - if that's where the conversation leads you - don't resist it - go there - you never know what you might find. So I would add serendipity to the list of categories. What would you add?
ADVERTISEMENT: Online Master of Science in Knowledge Management program - Comments (0)
Interested in pursuing a formal qualification in Knowledge Management? The MSc in KM offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University may suit you. Entering its 6th year of operation, characteristics of this program are
Balanced coverage of human and IT-oriented approach to managing knowledge at the personal, group and organisational levels
Suitable for knowledge workers in all industries and learnt concepts are widely applicable
True multi-media delivery with games, animation, peer-to-peer interactions supplementing online content and web seminars
To find out more about this program, please register to attend the next online information session:
7pm (GMT +8 hours), 2nd June 2009
I thought you would like to know that I will be chairing the knowledge sharing stream of KC UK 2009 8 - 9 June this year. This is the major UK KM event and the organizers - the Ark Group - have kindly offered all my readers a 25% discount. I attend this conference most years and have chaired it twice in the past. Its a great event and I look forward to seeing many of you there.
Later in the year, I will be speaking and running a workshop at KM Asia 2009 24 - 26 November in Singapore.
And you may wish to check out KM Australia 2009 4 -7 August if you live down-under. This must be the only major KM conference I have yet to participate in but one of the other David's Dave Snowden will be there giving a keynote.
I'd like to give a big thanks to Marja Kingma (@Marjakingma) for introducing me to BookCrossing - a great way of sharing books you no longer need.
I can't remember who but someone also told me about BookMooch. But I think I prefer BookCrossing as it is less effort.
I have not started using BookCrossing yet - but I do have piles of old business magazines. Every time I go out, I take one with me and leave it somewhere such as a train or a cafe! Hopefully it gets read again before being binned and finally recycled!
Jerry Ash has just gone live with his new magazine Smart People. You can view the first issue online or download it as a pdf.
The entire first issue of Smart People magazine is free, and all lead stories in subsequent magazines are unlocked for public access. The remainder is open to subscribers only.
Smart People Magazine turns corporate knowledge management inside out, brings the power of knowledge work to the mainstream and applies it to living, learning, choosing, creating and working. The power has always been there, and the Web has multiplied your knowledge a million times through the search, communication and social network capabilities of the Internet.
Its a great new magazine and I'd like to congratulate Jerry and his team on all their hard work. I am also pleased to say I am on the editorial board representing KM.
TEDx is a program that enables schools, businesses, libraries or just groups of friends to enjoy a TED-like experience through events they themselves organize, design and host. We're supporting approved organizers by offering a free toolset that includes detailed advice, the right to use recorded TEDTalks, promotion on our site, connection to other organizers, and a little piece of our brand in the form of the TEDx label.
Maybe not too surprisingly, I am still hugely enjoying my daughter Lauren's blog - The Curious Cat (Welcome to The Curious Cat, a blog about being curious, about all the little things in life that bring me pleasure and happiness: cooking, art, literature, friends and family, cats...).
I recently discovered TweetBrain - a complementary tool to Twitter. It allows you to post a question and receive answers from fellow tweeters. Others can vote on the answers given and finally you can choose what you consider to be the best answer.
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
In April 2005, BLU, the UK's Business Link University, which no longer exists, hired Fifty Lessons to produce a series of video stories for them and I was invited to contribute. They shot six short videos that you can view here on my website - little stories of mine relevant to KM.
I had loaded them to Google Video but Google is putting little effort into Google Video since they acquired YouTube - so much so they have actually lost many of my videos and I am having to upload them again to YouTube.
ADVERTISEMENT: Online Master of Science in Knowledge Management program - Comments (0)
Interested in pursuing a formal qualification in Knowledge Management? The MSc in KM offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University may suit you. Entering its 5th year of operation, characteristics of this program are
Balanced coverage of human and IT-oriented approach to managing knowledge at the personal, group and organisational levels
Suitable for knowledge workers in all industries and learnt concepts are widely applicable
True multi-media delivery with games, animation, peer-to-peer interactions supplementing online content and web seminars
To find out more about this program, please register to attend the next online information session:
7pm (GMT +8 hours), 5th May 2009
Well, it seems there is some doubt about its future and a survey is being carried out.
The reason for the survey is to gather people's views on the site, the resources, its relevance to their work and also how they would like to see the site developed.
The future of the library is uncertain. It has already been made a static site and there is a real possibility that it will be closed. On the other hand if there is sufficient support it may be provided with a proper budget. So in addition to the above the survey is being carried out to:
Gather evidence on the value of the site, including case studies of how the library has impacted on people's work
Identify people that it would be helpful to include in the lessons learned review
Identify people that it would be useful to involve if the library needs to look for a new home
Gather information that would be helpful to pitch the library to a new host or funder
Generally stir up support for the library
If you have used this specialist KM library and found it useful could you please help out by completing the survey. It is short and simple and should not take long to complete.
Well, it seems there is some doubt about its future and a survey is being carried out.
The reason for the survey is to gather people's views on the site, the resources, its relevance to their work and also how they would like to see the site developed.
The future of the library is uncertain. It has already been made a static site and there is a real possibility that it will be closed. On the other hand if there is sufficient support it may be provided with a proper budget. So in addition to the above the survey is being carried out to:
Gather evidence on the value of the site, including case studies of how the library has impacted on people's work
Identify people that it would be helpful to include in the lessons learned review
Identify people that it would be useful to involve if the library needs to look for a new home
Gather information that would be helpful to pitch the library to a new host or funder
Generally stir up support for the library
If you have used this specialist KM library and found it useful could you please help out by completing the survey. It is short and simple and should not take long to complete.
I thought I'd share ten of my recent tweets for those of you who might have missed them. And for those of you not using Twitter - it gives you some idea of the richness of the tweets.
By the way, RT means re-tweet - a bit like forwarding an e-mail i.e. they are not my original tweets but those of others.
You can see a summary of these articles on my website with links through to the actual articles on the InsideKnowledge Magazine website. Or you may prefer to view them in full color on Scibd where they are also downloadable and embeddable.
You might like to note that all these articles including a short booklet that contains many of them is available freely for re-use.
A recent article is one of my favorites Raising all the ships on the sea where I look at the concepts of the commons; the tragedy of the commons and the more recent concept of the cornucopia of the commons where use of a common resource leads to abundance rather then depletion!
Take a look and see what you think of this three-and-a-half minute rant about leveling the preacher-and-congregation model of learning from Jay Cross. I of course love it as you will recognize that is what my knowledge cafes are about. You can hear the story here of how I started the knowledge cafes in response to death-by-powerpoint presentations.
But also read the comments on Jays post. Some people do not agree with him. But note Jay is not saying that we need to get totally away from the teacher-student model of learning more that we need to shift the balance. Jay himself is in preach mode in delivering the rant and I am sure he was well aware of it. My Knowledge cafes also have a chalk-and-talk component.
And the comments about the road sign metaphor - its not that we need no road signs or no rules of the road but we need more balance. People need guidance at times but by and large we are quite capable of think for ourselves. Once again it is about balance.
What horrifies me is the "sit-and-git" style of teaching taken to extremes. Like the young Chinese woman in Norway who explained to me that when she was a little girl in China, she and the rest of her class were made to sit in nice neat rows and to actually sit on their hands to discourage them from fidgeting; heads up, chests out, facing the front of the class and be talked at! It seems they were not even allowed to ask questions!
To participate in KMWorld 2009 as a possible speaker or workshop leader, or suggest a speaker, please post your submission no later than April 15, 2009 at http://www.kmworld.com/kmw09/SpeakerSubmissions.htm
The event will be held 17 - 19 November 2009 in San Jose, California. I attended in 2007 and I am hoping I maye get to do so this year as well as it is one of the largest and most exciting KM Conference and Exhibition going.
The theme this year: "Resetting the Enterprise: Focusing on People, Talent & Knowledge".
I never encouraged my daughter to Lauren to blog even though I knew she loved writing and was a good writer. So I was delighted when she started last year. As a dad, I have loved her posts, as in each one I have learnt things about her that I have never learnt in conversation. That's part of the power of blogging! And then recently, I was delighted to read of my influence on her.
Some people know from the age of five or younger that when they grown up they want to be singers or doctors or accountants etc. I wasn't quite so lucky. My career aspirations changed every couple of years. I found lots of things interesting and could never fully commit myself to one passion. I just followed the advice my father gave me: "Do what you enjoy most" and with the back-up justification to all my interests that: "variety is the spice of life".
The excerpt is from a post is titled A life of domesticity: a worthy ambition? and in it she talks about her struggle to find a definitive career path. Later in the post she says:
So, I argue that my desire for domesticity can be classed as an ambition, and it can still be feminist because it is not about women conforming to rules laid down to them by their male partners, but about the freedom they have to be able to choose and the support and means they have nowadays to achieve it. With all this talk in the media of "Broken Britain", I think it is a rather worthy ambition and may I even go as far to say that it speaks volumes about the women who choose to pursue such a life. The slight question of taboo almost creates a feeling that I am embarking on a road less travelled! (Which I certainly like the idea of!)
I wonder what she will do with her life? I am pleased, that unlike earlier generations, she has the choice and as a dad I enjoy observing and supporting her. Follow your passion Lauren!
And if you read her post about the Lovely Sunday Roast - it was a great Sunday lunch despite the chilly gravy LOL.
One of the challenges for those of us who believe that we are at the beginning of a very significant period of change in how we see ourselves, our societies and our businesses is how to imagine what the future will be like. Having grand schemes and megalomaniac designs seems out of place with something that is in essence personal and intimate.
Part of me believes that we will get somewhere worthwhile if each of us takes the small steps that seem to make sense to us and that in aggregate these small steps will achieve something significant. The other part of me believes that this will confine us to thinking small and achieving less than we could and that without some inspiring, grander and more comprehensive vision we won't make much difference at all.
This ties in with concerns I have about making things happen in a world where making things happen is associated with old values and ways of thinking. How do you bring about significant change using conversations, influence and sticky ideas rather than command and control and grand plans?
In response, I shared with Euan one of my favorite quotes:
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.
Like Euan, I have been wrestling with these very thoughts for some years and clearly Dina has too. Coincidentally, Euan and I met up in London last week and briefly discussed the issue and we agreed to take a long walk along the river Thames in a week or two to discuss the topic. I am looking forward to it.
One of the challenges for those of us who believe that we are at the beginning of a very significant period of change in how we see ourselves, our societies and our businesses is how to imagine what the future will be like. Having grand schemes and megalomaniac designs seems out of place with something that is in essence personal and intimate.
Part of me believes that we will get somewhere worthwhile if each of us takes the small steps that seem to make sense to us and that in aggregate these small steps will achieve something significant. The other part of me believes that this will confine us to thinking small and achieving less than we could and that without some inspiring, grander and more comprehensive vision we won't make much difference at all.
This ties in with concerns I have about making things happen in a world where making things happen is associated with old values and ways of thinking. How do you bring about significant change using conversations, influence and sticky ideas rather than command and control and grand plans?
In response, I shared with Euan one of my favorite quotes:
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.
Like Euan, I have been wrestling with these very thoughts for some years and clearly Dina has too. Coincidentally, Euan and I met up in London last week and briefly discussed the issue and we agreed to take a long walk along the river Thames in a week or two to discuss the topic. I am looking forward to it.
But I am disappointed to find so few KM people Tweeting. Twitter is one of the most powerful knowledge sharing and relationship building tools on the web.
I know I keep banging the Twitter drum but do go take a look and check out my list of KM tweeters! And follow me. I usually tweet several times a day on something of interest :-)
If you change your behavior, you change your mind. This is an idea I have believed in for some years and have tried to practice it, so its great to see Michele Martin blog about this having been inspired by A.J. Jacobs. This is the essence:
If you change your behavior, you change your mind. This is one of those deceptively simple, profoundly important realizations. It's the "fake it till you make it" school of thought that says if you want to become something different, you have to start by behaving differently.
We tend to think the opposite, that our beliefs must change first and then our behavior will come along later.
Much of professional development is about trying to change people's attitudes by "training" them that they should think differently. This is often unsuccessful because in many cases, we need to first change our behavior before we can change our beliefs.
I'm not going to truly believe in the power of exercise until I actually begin doing it. I have to start with acting differently and it's the process of engaging in new behaviors that helps me start to develop new attitudes.
But, interestingly, Michele goes on to talk about trust - a question that is often asked by KMers "How do we build a culture of trust in our organization?". My answer has always been just start engaging with people and trusting them. Michele says pretty much the same: Act trusting and trustworthy and trust in yourself and others will follow.
Dave Snowden also has some interesting thoughts on trust
(see his posting on Confusing symptoms with cause)
where he sees it as an emergent property of people working together and not something you can create as such or tell people to do.
These two views may seem opposed but I am not so sure that they are. Yes, trust is an emergent property of people working together but then so is distrust. Entering into a working relationship where by default you trust people (even if you are not too sure of them) is much more likely to lead to a truly trusting relationship than entering in to it with an attitude of lets wait and see.
Knowledge can only be volunteered, it cannot be conscripted.
We only know what we know when we need to know it.
In the context of real need few people will withhold their knowledge.
Everything is fragmented.
Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.
The way we know things is not the way we report we know things.
We always know more than we can say, and we always say more than we can write down.
He has explained each one of them in more detail in his original posting on rendering knowledge.
Great stuff! But the key one for me is:
Everything is fragmented. We evolved to handle unstructured fragmented fine granularity information objects, not highly structured documents. People will spend hours on the internet, or in casual conversation without any incentive or pressure. However creating and using structured documents requires considerably more effort and time. Our brains evolved to handle fragmented patterns not information.
The real world is complex, fragmented and inherently messy and that is not necessarily a bad thing! As Dave says, we have evolved to handle that. Documents? A document is where knowledge goes to die. I think Bill French said this originally in the form email is where knowledge goes to die.
Knowledge can only be volunteered, it cannot be conscripted.
We only know what we know when we need to know it.
In the context of real need few people will withhold their knowledge.
Everything is fragmented.
Tolerated failure imprints learning better than success.
The way we know things is not the way we report we know things.
We always know more than we can say, and we always say more than we can write down.
He has explained each one of them in more detail in his original posting on rendering knowledge.
Great stuff! But the key one for me is:
Everything is fragmented. We evolved to handle unstructured fragmented fine granularity information objects, not highly structured documents. People will spend hours on the internet, or in casual conversation without any incentive or pressure. However creating and using structured documents requires considerably more effort and time. Our brains evolved to handle fragmented patterns not information.
The real world is complex, fragmented and inherently messy and that is not necessarily a bad thing! As Dave says, we have evolved to handle that. Documents? A document is where knowledge goes to die. I think Bill French said this originally in the form email is where knowledge goes to die.
One of the reasons I love Twitter is that I trip across little gems like this one on poetry tweeted by Mary Abraham.
I have little artistic or literary inclination and my knowledge of poetry is limited though there are still one or two poems that I was forced to learn at school that I can still recite almost word for word such as: The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna by Charles Wolf and Adlestrop by Edward Thomas.
The joys of a Grammar School education! My old boys Grammar School in Worcester has recently merged with the Alice Ottley, a private girls school, to create the RGS Worcester & The Alice Ottley School Family. And to think in my day they did everything possible to keep us away from the girls but on the other hand my first serious girlfriend at 17 was from the Alice Ottley. LOL.
But I thought I'd share with a poem that has been my favorite for over 40 years.
With Annie gone,
whose eyes to compare
with the morning sun?
Not that I did compare,
But I do compare
Now that she's gone.
You are probably aware of my love of conversation and my belief in its importance in our lives. So you will understand why I find this blog Conversation Kindling by Jim Ericson so amazing. Here is what is says about it.
The purpose of this blog is to share stories, metaphors, quotes, songs, humor, etc. in hopes they'll be used to spark authentic and rewarding conversations about working and living fruitfully. There are at least three things you can gain by getting involved in these conversations.
First, you'll discover new and important things about yourself through the process of thinking out loud.
Second, you'll deepen your relationships with others who participate by swapping thoughts, feelings, and stories with them.
Finally, you'll learn that robust dialogue centered on stories and experiences is the best way to build new knowledge and generate innovative answers to the questions that both life and work ask.
At the end of most of the postings are some beautiful afterwords (quotes that relate to the post) and questions for conversation. And don't miss the post on Schindlers List.
What is the one idea at work which is more powerful than any other? - Comments (0)
One of the things I love about my website is that it as much for me as for anyone else. For example, I have over 750 quotations on my site that I have collected over the last 20 years. Not any old quotes, but ones that personally move and inspire me and I wish to share with others.
I also post a quote of the day on most pages of my website and this is the one I noticed for today:
In every great time there is some one idea at work which is more powerful than any other, and which shapes the events of the time and determines their ultimate issues.
And it set me to thinking. What is that one idea at work today that is more powerful than any other? And wouldn't that make a great topic for a Knowledge Cafe. I must do it!
But this is the joy for me. Francis Bacon has provoked me to think about this but he has been dead almost 400 years! Another man that hugely inspires me is Henry David Thoreau but that's another story.
There are a growing number of LinkedIn Groups many of them dedicated to KM. There is no KM directory but here are most of the Groups (in no particular order) that I have found:
This might just be of interest to some of you - especially the photographers amongst you. Quite simply, for last few years I have been photo-blogging my life on Flickr. Mainly my business life but their is personal stuff too though much of it is restricted to friends and family.
Even I am quite amazed at the places I have been and the things I have done. It is so easy to forget. I wonder what I will make of this collection in ten years time!
You might want to think about doing it yourself - its so easy to do with a digital camera.
I am experimenting with a new Google application called Google Friend Connect - a tool that website owners can use to give their site a more social feel.
Take a look, you will find two widgets on most pages of my website including my home page. The first is a members widget that allows you to join my site, sign in and out, see other members, and use other social features and the second is a wall widget that allows you to post comments, or links to videos on my site.
Its a little like MyBlogLog which I also use on my site but Friend Connect has no where near the same functionality but then it is early days.
I am experimenting with a new Google application called Google Friend Connect - a tool that website owners can use to give their site a more social feel.
Take a look, you will find two widgets on most pages of my website including my home page. The first is a members widget that allows you to join my site, sign in and out, see other members, and use other social features and the second is a wall widget that allows you to post comments, or links to videos on my site.
Its a little like MyBlogLog which I also use on my site but Friend Connect has no where near the same functionality but then it is early days.
If you have not realized it already, LinkedIn has well and truly established itself as the de facto standard social networking platform for your professional life. LinkedIn is for professional connections. FaceBook is more for personal connections but for many people like myself professional ones as well.
Slowly, I am connecting with all my professional contacts via LinkedIn and have over 1,000 established connections. Why? It's the one place I can guarantee finding an up to date profile of the people I know and a means of contacting them.
Fort those of you who have connected with me - Welcome. Its great to see that many of you have only recently joined and I am your first connection.
If you have had an invite from me - please accept it. LinkedIn limits the number of invites I can send to about 2,000 and with 15,000 members of this community that restricts me a little!
If you haven't joined, you should. And please, if I have not invited you yet, invite me to connect with you.
You might also like to join the Gurteen Community group on LinkedIn but although it has several hundred members I am not making full use of it as yet.
Knowledge managers are always asking how they can obtain support for a KM project by demonstrating the ROI especially as the measuring the ROI of a KM initiative is so difficult.
This article by Susan Cramm on the Harvard Business Publishing website is about IT projects but I think is even more applicable to KM projects. This is what she says:
In most cases, the benefits outlined in business (proposals) are a work of creative fiction, and, once the initiative is approved, they are filed and forgotten.
Smart leaders don't waste their time with this. They play the game, but they know how to make the game worth playing. They understand that only 30% of IT-enabled business initiatives deliver as expected and that the other 70% are plagued with unclear business objectives, missing-in-action executive support and inadequate user involvement.
It's a ritual that needs to played! Susan then offers some very sound advise in my opinion. The words below, especially the ones I have highlighted in bold are KEY. In short, business life is political :-)
To build support, it's important to align the initiative to the overall strategic business objectives and to align the initiative to serve the selfish interests of the individuals who will be impacted most.
Knowledge managers are always asking how they can obtain support for a KM project by demonstrating the ROI especially as the measuring the ROI of a KM initiative is so difficult.
This article by Susan Cramm on the Harvard Business Publishing website is about IT projects but I think is even more applicable to KM projects. This is what she says:
In most cases, the benefits outlined in business (proposals) are a work of creative fiction, and, once the initiative is approved, they are filed and forgotten.
Smart leaders don't waste their time with this. They play the game, but they know how to make the game worth playing. They understand that only 30% of IT-enabled business initiatives deliver as expected and that the other 70% are plagued with unclear business objectives, missing-in-action executive support and inadequate user involvement.
It's a ritual that needs to played! Susan then offers some very sound advise in my opinion. The words below, especially the ones I have highlighted in bold are KEY. In short, business life is political :-)
To build support, it's important to align the initiative to the overall strategic business objectives and to align the initiative to serve the selfish interests of the individuals who will be impacted most.
Recent research shows that our behaviors and habits are more strongly influenced by friends and relatives than we might imagine. Furthermore, it seems that behaviors, ill-health and even moods pass through friendship networks across several degrees of separation, and we are almost bound to "catch" them.
The research applies to our face to face social networks but what intrigues me is the unanswered question: What about our on-line social networks, mediated through FaceBook, discussion forums and the like? What influence do these networks have on our behaviors? I suspect they too have an influence albeit to a lesser degree.
In the article, they offer five tips for a healthier social network:
Choose your friends carefully.
Choose which of your existing friends you spend the most time with. For example, hang out with people who are upbeat, or avoid couch potatoes.
Join a club whose members you would like to emulate (running, healthy cooking), and socialise with them.
If you are with people whose emotional state or behaviours you could do without, try to avoid the natural inclination to mimic their facial expressions and postures.
Be aware at all times of your susceptibility to social influence - and remember that being a social animal is mostly a good thing.
So what to do? Well first I have merged; removed duplicates and sorted Patrick's lists and turned them into links to the individual's tweet page. This allows me and others to quickly click through to their page and check them out. See the list at the bottom of this page.
In clicking through on these folk - many are clearly not focused on KM - a place to browse, a place to start but not a top 80 by any means. And this is a general problem, as many KMers like myself and Nimmy tweet on a wide range of topics but only some on KM. So I am trying to remember to tag my KM tweets with a #KM tag to make them easy to find.
The criteria for my list? That's difficult, but mainly people whom I know and respect; who I follow myself and who frequently post good, relevant KM tweets even if they would not label themselves a KM person as such.
If you consider yourself a "KM tweeter" and are not on any of these lists or you know of others who should be here then please let me know.
So a first crack at my list. But note I will be updating it. (last update: rev 5: 31 March 2009)
David Gurteen's top ten KM tweeters (in no particular order)
In a recent conversation with Dominic Kelleher in Brussels we discovered a joint appreciation of the poems and songs of Leonard Cohen and Dominic told me of one of his favorite songs and a quote from it that I too particularly liked. This was the quote.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
But then in googling the song and the quote I found this fragment from an interview with Leonard Cohen that brought the words even more to live for me.
In another song you also say "There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". It is not a very happy thought to believe that something will always have to break, to open a crack, in order to the light gets in...
It is a happy thought if we enjoy the truth. There is always something that will have to break. Usually it is our personal pride.
A Buddhist thinker said that disappointment is a great way to illumination. Other masters said: "from the broken debris of my heart I will erect an altar to the Lord".
The idea that there is a staircase of gold and marble, which leads to knowledge is seductive, but seems to me that the idea of something needing to get broken before we can learn anything is a more true idea. It is my experience, maybe you can escape it, but I doubt it. Unless the heart breaks, we will never know anything about love. As long as our objective universe doesn't collapse, we'll never know anything about the world.
We think that we know the mechanism, but only when it fails we understand how intricate and mysterious is the operation. So, it is true, "there's a crack in everything", all human activity is imperfect and unfinished. Only that way we can have the notion that there's something inside us that can only be located through disillusion, bad luck and defeat. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case.
I hate the bags usually given out at conferences. Most of the time I don't need them. I empty the contents into my own bag and hand the conference bag back. What I dislike is all the advertising over the bag that pretty much ensures you would never want to use it again and certainly not give it to say to a child or friend who might otherwise appreciate it.
But when I arrived exceptionally early at an event (Tsiba Appreciation Breakfast) in Langa on the outskirts of Cape Town a few weeks back I was asked if I minded to help pack the delegate bags which of course I was only too happy to do especially as the bags were something special. They were designed and made locally and were simple and colorful - unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the supplier. Here is a photo of a small selection of some I helped pack!
Some interesting thoughts via Harold Jarche on the changes we might see in the next 20 years.
In just twenty years, between 2000 and 2020, some 75% of our lives will change dramatically. We know this because it happened once before. Between 1900 and 1920, life changed.
Nine Shift explores the uncanny parallels between today and 100 years ago, examining the changes between the two transition periods and the forces that restructure society in the new economic era.
Some interesting thoughts via Harold Jarche on the changes we might see in the next 20 years.
In just twenty years, between 2000 and 2020, some 75% of our lives will change dramatically. We know this because it happened once before. Between 1900 and 1920, life changed.
Nine Shift explores the uncanny parallels between today and 100 years ago, examining the changes between the two transition periods and the forces that restructure society in the new economic era.
But did I, when I was twenty-something? To a large degree yes. I was by and large quite conventional and a little afraid "to ask" but I wanted all the other things - especially the freedom "to do what I loved". I guess that's why, today, I am working for myself!
As Gen Y enters the professional world, we bring a whole new set of rules. We’re often criticized for our restless job-jumping or our sense of entitlement. The truth is, we might play the game differently, but that doesn’t mean we’re not every bit as bright, innovative, and hardworking. Here’s why.
I find myself using Twitter more and more these days since on Dave Snowden's advise I installed TweetDeck as my primary user interface.
TweetDeck just runs in background and every so often I pop it up so see what my friends are up to. It also allows me to follow a large number of people and not be overwhelmed. I have two groups: my core network of about a dozen people and then several hundred others.
So if you like to tweet - take a look. And if you are not doing so already follow me on Twitter.
If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid?
So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.
I think over the coming years we are going to see more and more social businesses as capitalism evolves and they will go a long way towards alleviating many of the sustainability issues we face in the world!
For most of us, business means one type of organization--the for-profit company that is the backbone of the free enterprise system. Ranging in size from a one-person corner store to a giant corporation like Wal-Mart, such companies recognize one fundamental purpose: to maximize profits. To be sure, they create other benefits along the way: they employ workers, provide useful goods, and pay taxes. But the bottom line is, precisely, the bottom line--the profits generated for owners and shareholders.
But we all know this is an incomplete pictue of human nature. People are driven by the profit motive, of couse. But they are driven by many other forces as well. Among these are the desire to do good for others, to help the needy, to make the world a better place--in fact, to solve all the unsolved problems that challenge humanity around the world. Yet today's capitalism is powerless to act on these motives, because it makes no place for them.
Unlike an NGO or a charity, a social business produces goods and services, sells them for a fair price, competes in the market for customers, and strives to cover its costs through revenues generated. But unlike a traditional profit-maximizing business, it exists to serve a social goal: to feed the hungry, house the homeless, provide health care for the sick, or clean the environment. What's more, it does not generate profits. Instead, any surplus generated goes right back into the business, enabling it to serve more customers and expand the benefits it provides. Hence this simple definition of a social business: a non-loss, non-dividend business with a social objective.
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of The Grameen Bank, explains his "social business" model, a plan for addressing social issues through entrepreneurship.
Dave Snowden has worked hard to try to establish a high quality KM article in Wikipedia but it still needs a great deal of work to bring it up to an acceptable standard.
I have agreed with Dave that I will get involved and help achieve this but we could do with few more collaborators to help ensure a balanced view point.
Take a look at the article and if you would like to play your part introduce yourself at the bottom of the discussion page.
Have you discovered Common Craft yet? I am surprised just how many people are unaware of them! Their videos are short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand.
There are a range of videos but many of them focus on explaining Social Tools in simple entertaining ways. Take a look, its a great resource. You will find them in my media player.
Online 2008 and London Knowledge Cafe - Comments (0)
If you are attending Online Information 2008 in London in November then although I will not be at the event this year I will be holding a Knowledge Cafe in central London on Wednesday 3rd December that coincides with Online.
The Kafe is hosted by Deloitte and starts at 18:00 for 18:30 and goes through to about 20:30 with drinks in a local pub afterwards for diehards :-)
Do register and come along if you can make it. I can assure you a great evening with plenty of intellectual stimulation with a great bunch of people. And hey even if you are not attending Online - you are still invited!
I will be staying in London the week 1-5 December. If you would like to meet with me - please get in touch.
He makes some good points but I just don't agree that this is a generation war. I have run scores of knowledge cafes and knowledge sharing workshops around the planet these last few years and although I have met people of all ages: Boomers; Gen-Xers and Millennials - I have not seen attitudes and behaviors differentiated by chronological age.
As Mark Gould commented in his blog post Oh good grief… "Date of birth does not determine a generation. Where you fit in the generations will depend on a range of personal factors — personal responsibilities (are you a carer or a parent, or are you fancy-free), political focus (do you tend to respect authority, or do you seek your own gurus), and age (not when you were born, but how old are you)."
Personally, I think the post is nicely argued but it is a crude stereotype and is wrong but take a read and decide for yourself from your own experience.
I love this concept of "service learning". Why can't most learning be like this. It seems to me that teaching in its quest to be objective is too academic; too theoretical and simply not grounded in the real world and this strips it of its context and relevance and to put it bluntly makes it dull and boring. Service-learning not only brings learning back to life but achieves worthy social goals at the same time and we have those in abundance that need addressing.
Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.
For example, if school students collect trash out of an urban streambed, they are providing a service to the community as volunteers; a service that is highly valued and important. When school students collect trash from an urban streambed, then analyze what they found and possible sources so they can share the results with residents of the neighborhood along with suggestions for reducing pollution, they are engaging in service-learning. In the service-learning example, the students are providing an important service to the community AND, at the same time, learning about water quality and laboratory analysis, developing an understanding of pollution issues, learning to interpret science issues to the public, and practicing communications skills by speaking to residents. They may also reflect on their personal and career interests in science, the environment, public policy or other related areas. Thus, we see that service-learning combines SERVICE with LEARNING in intentional ways.
Benjamin Zander was the closing keynote at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. In this short inspirational talk, amongst other things, he explains how he gives all his students an "A" grade at the start of each year and how it transforms his relationship with them! Take the time to watch the clip, I think you will love it.
Benjamin Zander was the closing keynote at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. In this short inspirational talk, amongst other things, he explains how he gives all his students an "A" grade at the start of each year and how it transforms his relationship with them! Take the time to watch the clip, I think you will love it.
Having watched the video Money as Debt, I now realize that if we are to create a sustainable world we have to fix the money system first! I had often wondered how money was created and why it was never taught in schools - now to my horror I understand!
Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created.
Google have launched a new service called Google SMS Channels. It is only available in India.
With it, you can create SMS groups to communicate with your friends, family, and co-workers.
Google SMS Channels are free both for content publishers as well as mobile phone users who subscribe to text updates via SMS.
It seems they have only released it in India because Indian Telcos have made SMS free.
This seems like an interesting development. It raises two questions in my mind. What does it mean for services like Twitter and how long will it be before other Telcos make SMS a free service.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because 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.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because 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.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because 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.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
Because there’s poverty, and war, and hunger, and AIDS, and because 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.
But while those 600 million adolescent girls are the most likely agents of change, they are often invisible to their societies and the world.
So what can you do about that? Help make girls visible. Tell the world that you think the 600 million girls in the developing world deserve better – for themselves, and for the end of poverty.
That’s a start. Ready to learn and do more? Head over to girleffect.org.
This seems to be building on the philosophy of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in lending primarily to women as women are far more likely to spend the money wisely on their family then men ever are.
I love the concept but I need to figure out how best to personally take action though lending some money to Elitza Naidenova to buy a cow a while back was one teeny-weeny contribution.
When I run my knowledge sharing workshops - one of the sessions is about networking and more often than not the question of ethics is raised. Some people falsely see networking as unethical as they seem to think that networking is about making friends with other people for personal gain - they don't quite understand that although its possible to behave like that - genuine networkers approach networking with a mindset of "mutual advantage" - they as much want to help the other person as they wish for help from them.
The question of ethics also gets raised in other KM settings. Storytelling is one of them. Is it ethical to use storytelling to say sell an idea to another person? Another might be is it OK to reward people with tangible rewards such as money or intangible rewards such as praise to get them to do what you want.
It seems to me that we all have agendas; we all have the need, for good or for bad, to influence people; to get their buy-in on an idea or to obtain budget or resource from them. If we wish to get things done in life then we need to be good at gaining the support we need.
But is persuasion or influence, inherently manipulative and unethical? Well of course not; so much depends on the intent. `But what is the yardstick? How do you question yourself to determine if you are being unethical or not?
The test in this blog post seems a good stating point: “Would it lose its power if people knew exactly what you were doing and why?”
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I held one of the most energetic knowledge cafes for a long time in London recently. It took place at the end of the first day of a Unicom Web 2.0: Practical Applications for Business Benefit conference that I was chairing. (Sue Charman-Anderson blogged the conference). The speaker was Luis Suarez of IBM (whom I got to meet for the first time after many years of cyber-contact) who spoke on the subject of email overload and proposed the question "Could you stop using email?".
As you can imagine, a lively debate ensued Several folks have blogged the Cafe in a little detail see Nick Bush and Jon Mell. And also the Gurteen Forum.
I am not all that hot at predictions but the one thing to me that does seem obvious is that as more and more devices such as laptops, digital cameras and of course mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone have GPS and Wi-Fi built in, we are going to see some interesting applications.
I am looking forward to the day when most people have GPS enabled devices.Unlike some, I would like others to know where I am in real time and have the ability to connect with me though I also like the idea of being in control and having the ability to "hide" at times.
Someone told me recently of a person they had met who had given them his business card and suggested that she called him to talk further but had also given her a password. He explained, that when she phoned, her call would be answered by his secretary and unless she quoted the password, his secretary would not put the call through to him!
I guess one good way to prevent "sales calls" but I am not so sure i like it!
Note-Taking: A Fundamental Skill of the Independent Learner via Stephen Downes.
Some time back I wrote about the importance of note taking - Simplest KM Tool - in a Gurteen Perspective article for Inside Knowledge magazine. So I am delighted to see that others recognize the importance also.
I find it odd that so few people take notes. At an academic KM conference recently, I looked around the room of maybe 120 people during the opening key note talk - I noticed only one lap top open and just a hand full of people taking notes - most just sat and listened and the audience was mainly students and academics. I was also the only one taking photos and video. It was the same throughout the conference.
I don't care how you take notes. Use the computer, like I did today. Use paper and ink, like I did at the collaboration workshop last week. Take photographs, as I do when I travel. The main thing is, if you want to learn, take notes. Learning is not a passive act; it is an act of engagement, where you involve yourself physically and mentally, where you struggle to understand and integrate the material. Note-taking is your contribution to what is a two-way communication with the source of the learning. Maybe you'll review them again, maybe not. Keep your notes in good order, just in case. But the main this is, that you take them.
Note-Taking: A Fundamental Skill of the Independent Learner via Stephen Downes.
Some time back I wrote about the importance of note taking - Simplest KM Tool - in a Gurteen Perspective article for Inside Knowledge magazine. So I am delighted to see that others recognize the importance also.
I find it odd that so few people take notes. At an academic KM conference recently, I looked around the room of maybe 120 people during the opening key note talk - I noticed only one lap top open and just a hand full of people taking notes - most just sat and listened and the audience was mainly students and academics. I was also the only one taking photos and video. It was the same throughout the conference.
I don't care how you take notes. Use the computer, like I did today. Use paper and ink, like I did at the collaboration workshop last week. Take photographs, as I do when I travel. The main thing is, if you want to learn, take notes. Learning is not a passive act; it is an act of engagement, where you involve yourself physically and mentally, where you struggle to understand and integrate the material. Note-taking is your contribution to what is a two-way communication with the source of the learning. Maybe you'll review them again, maybe not. Keep your notes in good order, just in case. But the main this is, that you take them.
Like Patrick Lambe, I loved this story of telling stories to hear stories. Only wish I had thought of it when my children were younger. It's a great technique - well actually its not a technique at all - that would soon be seen through and is manipulative. What it is really about, is treating the person you are talking to with as an equal; not talking down to them or patronizing them. When you do that then you can have a conversation of equals.
When I see my teenage daughter after school I would often ask how her day went, whether anything interesting happened at school, and the standard response is often monosyllabic: yep, nup. In fact the more questions I’d ask the shorter the answers. So I changed tack and rather than ask questions I simply recounted something that happened in my day. I would launch into something like, “I met a bearded lady today. This morning I drove down to Fitzroy to run an anecdote circle for …” and immediately my daughter would respond with an encounter from her day. A conversation starts and it’s delightful.
Its also what I try to do in my knowledge cafes - ensure that everyone is an equal - there are no table leaders; no people nominated to report back. Everyone has an equal voice and this helps free up the conversational flow.
I recently tweeted this talk of J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivering her Commencement Address, The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.
Its a great address and I had several people who commented how much they enjoyed it. It was brought to my attention by Heather Davis - thank you Heather. Here is a quote from the transcript that Heather sent me:
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is
inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless
you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in
which case, you fail by default.
I recently gave a keynote talk at KM Brasil titled "People 2.0: Working in a 2.0 World". I only got to take a few photos but you will find them here though many more here.
Here is a description of the talk and the slides. If you have seen my KM 2.0: KM goes social presentation then you will recognize the early slides but fast forward and you will find the new stuff.
People 2.0: Working in a 2.0 World
David Gurteen, Gurteen Knowledge
KM and the world of work is on the brink of a profound transformation.
Driven by new technology, increasingly, we are no longer consumers: of goods, services or education - we are prosumers - we can now both produce and consume. We have the potential to be participants in everything and not the “victims”. The emerging 2.0 work place will reflect this and be a fundamentally participatory world.
We are moving from an organizational world where we were told to do things; where things were structured and planned for us to a world where managers and staff work more closely together to decide what to do and how to do it.
This has deep implications for KM and already we see a move towards Social KM or KM 2.0 where new social tools such as blogs and wikis put the power and responsibility for knowledge sharing in the hands of the individual.
But the real challenge is in people's mindsets - both managers and individuals. Managers need to stop trying to manipulate people and doing things to them and to take a more participatory approach. On the other hand, individuals need to open up and grasp the potential that the new tools and mindset offers them - to be more proactive; to take responsibility for their work; to innovative and to work in new ways. It’s about a change of mindset, attitudes and behaviors.
If the central question asked by managers in the KM 1.0 world was “How do we make people share?” the question of the KM 2.0 era is “How do we get things done by better sharing, learning and working together?” And is asked by everyone!
In this talk, David will explore what it means to live and work in a 2.0 business world; to be a 2.0 worker and indeed a 2.0 manager. And what we need to do to make it a reality.
I gave a talk, well in fact two talks, back to back, to about 150 librarians at the IFLA conference (IFLA: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) in Quebec City in early August. My first talk was KM2.0 KM goes Social and the second was a rerun of a talk I gave at actKM Conference in Canberra last year where I look at how I use social tools. You can find the slides in SlideShare.
My talks were the lead in to three shorter talks from Mary Lee Kennedy, Executive Director, Knowledge and Library Services (KLS), Harvard Business School; Moira Fraser, Parliamentary Librarian & Group Manager, Information & Knowledge, New Zealand Parliament and Patrick Danowski, Project Manager, Statsbibliotek su Berlin. All ably chaired by Jane Dysart.
We then broke out into a panel Q&A and discussion. There was a huge amount of interest in KM and social tools from the librarians in the room. I think everyone was pretty much trying to figure out how they could apply social tools in their own organizations. And of course the perennial question came up : "how do you measure the benefits of social tools?"
There were some answers from the panel but my answer was that there are basically two approaches: 1. Was the traditional - figure out your business outcomes and measure against those and 2. if you don't understand social tools and what they can do for you then there is no way you can measure the benefits. So experiment and pilot first. (There is a short article or blog posty brewing in my head on this!)
In his travels he looks at the views of many different people and so if you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the state of thinking on KM 2.0 then this series of posts is well worth the read.
Lucas McDonnell has some interesting comments on what I have to say on KM 2.0 and "2.0" in general.
I understand his concerns. I too was hesitant, at first, to apply the "2.0" moniker more widely to KM and other areas. But I have come to believe that although it all started with Web 2.0 and the new participatory technology and tools that it is not just about the technology and that we are moving to a "2.0 world" - a more participatory one.
I feel that far from devaluing the "2.0" concept - it expands it and makes it more powerful.
And of course I agree, 2.0 is not the answer to everything and brings as many new problems as it answers old ones. That's the nature of things!
I always love to learn new things and often its the little things that excite me the most. When I am in Thailand I love the way people greet you by placing their hands together and giving a little bow and I started doing it myself although I did not fully appreciate the meaning or the tradition.
And then recently some one signed off their e-mail with the greeting: "Namaste". I was intrigued and went straight to Wikipedia to discern its meaning and was delighted with my find. Take a look at the 7 global meanings. Which one works best for you? For me its :
"All that is best and highest in me greets/salutes all that is best and highest in you." or maybe "The Divinity within me perceives and adores the Divinity within you."
The precise meaning does not matter and I like it that the word can mean slightly different things to different people. Its the intent behind it that I so love.
I had a conversation recently when I was in Indonesia - I don't recall whom it was with but the subject turned to motivation and the person I was talking to started to talk about the need for rewards and charismatic leaders and the like but I did not agree and when I got back to my hotel room - I listed some of the things that I think motivate people - they certainly motivate me!
listen to them
show them respect
help them find their voice
have conversations with them
show genuine interest
give them help and support
engage with them
trust them
give them responsibility
give them recognition
give them opportunities for self fulfilment and personal development
don't try to tell them what to do
Now the crunch: you don't deliberately do these things to motivate people - that's not motivation - that's manipulation. You do them because you genuinely care in their development. Its more akin to the love you might show for a son or daughter than anything else.
I recently came across this interview with Peter Taylor, research fellow and leader of the Participation, Power and Social Change Team of the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex). I love his ideas though that is hardly surprising given my own interest in the role of dialogue and participation in the transmission of knowledge. Here are a couple of quotes from the interview.
My reason for wanting to see an integration of citizenship, sustainable development or multiculturalism in the curricula of universities is to enable people to learn in a way that is different from simply being passive recipients of preformed ideas. For me, education is about learning and learning is about change. So where we see the need for social change, for human and social development, which really is rooted in issues of rights, power and voice of people, then I think it is absolutely necessary for higher education to actually build the curricula upon these issues, not just to add them but actually to integrate them and use them as foundations for learning and teaching.
A lot of educative curricula, especially in higher education, are still based on the idea of transmission of knowledge. In fact it is what Paulo Freire called “banking”, and it is still very common that university teachers provide information, that is to say, the idea of transferring knowledge from the expert to the passive recipient. For transformative education to take place there really needs to be a much more experiential form of learning, for people to actually engage in processes of change, to try things out from themselves, to address real world problems, and to realize that not all solutions can be found easily. And it’s when you start to ask the hard questions and grapple with some intractable problems that you begin, perhaps, to open up opportunities to learn in a different way.
Wikileaks - a document-leaking website has some amazing material that many people would rather wasn't shared! This is the power of the web for good or for bad. Its getting very difficult to keep secrets anymore. Take a look - there will be something there for you! I find the military manuals the most fascinating.
So why do I have threeTwitter identities? - Comments (0)
I recently created two Twitter feeds in addition to my regular one and received this email from my friend Lilly Evans.
David,
Just a quick question re Twitter. You have created two other identities. Why? And, have you got any business from being on Twitter? Basically, what is the main benefit for you hanging in there?
Thanks Lilly
This was my reply:
Hi Lily,
Its not so much that I have 3 identities on Twitter more that I have created 3 Twitter feeds in addition to the 20 or so regular RSS Feeds that I support.
1. DavidGurteen is my personal feed that I use to keep people updated with where I am, what I am doing, thinking etc i.e. the traditional use of Twitter.
I embed this "what am I doing..." status on every page of my website so unlike many other twitterers I tend to only twitter once or twice a day and do not use the in-built Twitter messaging feature.
This status is also automatically displayed in FaceBook, Plaxo and other social tools like FriendFeed which is very useful for keeping people updated on what I am about.
2. GurteenQuotes - this starts out as an RSS feed that I generate from my website (where I have over 700 quotations stored) and feed through TwitterFeed to convert it from RSS to Twitter format. People can follow this (subscribe to it in RSS terms) and get a neat little quote from me each day.
A Lotus Notes agent does all the work here - only selecting those quotes in my database that are less than 140 characters and thus fit in the limited space allowed by Twitter.
3. GurteenNews - is similar to GurteenQuotes except that I post newsitems to my site and an agent releases one or two each day to an RSS feed that again gets turned into a Twitter feed via TwitterFeed.
I plan for most of these to be short hot items i.e. "Google releases Knol" along with a direct link to the announcement. When I come across such news items it takes me less than 30 seconds to post to my website and so the overhead is not high. Again a Lotus Notes agent running in the background takes care of all the detailed work.
As for money, I make no direct income from any of this but :
1. the cost and time of doing this is negligible and the feeds provide a valuable service to my community.
2. it helps build my network - people get to know me and visit my website; sign up for my knowledge letter; get to know me even better and this is how I get my work and ultimately my income.
3. also, by following people on Twitter I get to know them better and this helps me develop and build my relationships with them; additionally I get breaking news in near real time and lots of useful little insights to what is going on in the big wide world.
So the bottom line: I find the Twitter ROI high. I couldn't imagine life with out it!
My opinion: I am in the Snowden and Boyd camp. Without any robust process to ensure the accuracy of the articles - the breadth of quality will vary from extremely good to total rubbish or articles published by people in order to promote themselves or their obscure point of view. And whilst, Wikipedia articles are alive - they are always being challenged and updated, Knol articles are pretty much dead once posted.
I understand Knol is different to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia whilst Knol is a library of articles but it still does not make up for the lack of screening or quality control.
Take a look at the articles on KM and draw your own conclusion. And in particular note this article - see the comment from Ron Young at the bottom and the author's reply!
I just came across this article by Tom Davenport referring to an article on the KnowledgeBoard site in which supposedly IBM have stopped using the term Knowledge Management and have started to call to Knowledge Sharing as Knowledge Management implies command an control!
I understand the sentiment but it all seems rather silly to me - especially when KM is far more than just Knowledge Sharing. As I have argued for a long time - KM is not meant to be a descriptive term - its simply a LABEL, a NAME for a diverse collection of practices that seek to 'leverage' knowledge. But the IBM article is well worth a read as to my mind IBM really seem to have understood what KM is all about. See:
IBM now sees organic and unimposed sharing as the biggest agent in the circulation of knowledge. Its stated strategy is to facilitate that sharing, not through any vertically integrated structure but through the empowerment of its many communities and individuals to network as openly and efficiently as possible.
Like Patrick, I believe that KM has not been irredeemably corrupted. To my mind, it is evolving rapidly under the impact of social tools and although it may be implemented differently and at times not even be called KM - it is still fundamentally unchanged as a discipline with similar goals and objectives.
In a conversation held in Kuala Lumpur on July 1st 2008, Larry Prusak, Dave Snowden and Patrick Lambe discuss the topic of whether KM is dead or dying, and what lies in store for it.
I am sure that many of you know Victor Newman and will be delighted to hear that he has started a blog. He has put his blogging-toe gingerly in the water with a slightly controversial article: "The Innovator's Got To Do It!". Well worth a read, especially if he can keep it up as I hugely respect Victor's insights and his wit.
There is also, online, a video of him explaining 4 Faces of a CEO to an audience of Chairmen of CEO mentoring groups from the ACE (Academy for Chief Executives) franchise. It lasts under 20 minutes, and he claims only to have made two mistakes!
Over the past two years, I have written about 20 Gurteen Perspective articles for Inside Knowledge magazine and it seemed somewhat a waste to not do more with them and so I have merged them together with the profile that was written about me recently into a little twenty page saddle stitched A5 booklet.
I have had a batch of these printed off in color and plan to give them away to people at workshops and conferences. They really look quite stunning and I am delighted with them!
To top this, you may recall I recently mentioned the Scribd iPaper utility that allows you to publish PDF files on-line. This is a great little service and I have loaded all my PDF files up to the site including all my past Inside Knowledge Perspectives where they can be viewed individually; downloaded and even embedded in other sites or weblogs.
But since then I have come across yet another great site called Calaméo. It turns PDFs and indeed other files into on-line interactive web publications such as magazines, brochures, sales catalogs, annual reports, presentation brochures and more.
The Knowledge Management Specialist will be responsible for the strategic development and implementation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) Knowledge Management and Intellectual Property Strategies and Policies both within the NDA and its wider estate. In addition they will lead the creation of a sustainable learning and knowledge culture.
To join us, you should be educated to degree level in a Science, Engineering or Business related discipline and have substantial practical experience working as a professional Knowledge Manager. In addition to this, you’ll have experience acting as an agent of change within a large organisation and have a thorough understanding of financial, contractual and commercial issues.
RioTinto Community of Practice success story - Comments (0)
Mark Bennett of Rio Tinto in Perth, Australia has told me about a brief (5 minute) video which describes a Community of Practice success story.
I think that everyone who has embarked on a CoP Programme has struggled with communicating what success looks like, and so when we (Rio Tinto) came across a great example of how our Maintenance CoP fixed a vexing problem by quickly transferring knowledge across the world between people who didn't know each other, we decided to make a video to communicate what happened by telling the story using a video medium.
Credit: Mark Bennett, Rio Tinto, Principal Adviser - Communities of Practice
Ron Young of Knowledge Management Online has created a Global Community of KM Practitioners where he invites KM practitioners, consultants, students and interested parties, to join, create and upload their own web page about themselves, their KM interests, and their KM needs, problems, issues and challenges to his website.
ebic 2008 is the key networking event for people working in the Knowledge and Information arena. Berlin is the venue for the 17th ebic conference.
Between 1-3 October 2008, outstanding speakers and facilitators will work with Knowledge and Information management (KIM) leaders and influencers to explore the trends and drivers that are determining the future of our organisations, market places and societies.
They will 'imagine' how the KIM community can play a significant and positive role in this future.
The theme of the conference is 'Connecting with the future' and the underlying focus is innovation. For programme information or to register please visit www.tfpl.com/ebic
I had a great time at the SLA coneference in Seattle last week. Started out on the Saturday with a boat trip on the Seattle waterways thanks to Paulette deGard and her family. It was a beautiful evening as you can see in the photos.
Dave Snowden gave a keynote talk on the Monday morning that was well received and that he has podcasted. However, many times I see Dave and hear the children's party story I always come away feeling motivated and energized.
I had been a little nervous about my talk and knowledge cafe as it was to be held in a room with lecture style seating for up to 200 people. In the end I need not have worried as we the only had 100 or so people and as everyone told me - librarians love to talk. So just getting people to turn to each and talk where they sat and to move between groups worked just fine.
The only real down side was that we could not have a whole group conversation and people had to report back via the fixed microphones. But the event pretty much proved what I have often said that a knowledge cafe cannot go far wrong as long as you have a good facilitator, a bunch of people and an interesting theme. Nothing else matters!
We have a tendency to want to find "incentives" that will encourage people to learn and engage in new workplace behaviors, but these incentives are often external, such as prizes, financial incentives, good performance reviews, etc. Kohn's research indicates, though, that linking learning to external rewards actually has impacts that are the opposite of what we are generally trying to achieve. Instead, we need to appeal to intrinsic motivators, such as people's desire to help others, getting enjoyment out of the task, feeling like they belong to a cohesive group and feeling like they're contributing to something meaningful.
Michele is talking about the negative impact of external rewards on social media participation; I talk about it more in the context of KM while Alfie tends to focus on education but Alfie's views apply right across the board. Let me conclude with one of my favorite quotes from him (the bolding is mine):
Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them.
Now here is simple yet powerful sharing concept - a website Glassdoor.com that allows you to share your salary details with others! Here is how they describe themselves:
Glassdoor.com is a career and workplace community where anyone can find and anonymously share real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs for specific employers -- all for free.
What sets us apart is that all our information comes from the people who know these companies best -- employees.
I have always admired the one or two organizations that I have read about who have been prepared to be open about their salaries but this is another way of getting close to achieving the same end.
It reminds me that some years ago I came into the office early and on going to the print room found the whole of the organization's salary details sitting in the print hopper. Of course I rescued them and delivered them safely to the MD who had printed them out late the night before and then forgotten about them. Of course, not before I had thoroughly digested them and realized the downright lies that were being told by senior managers about how salaries were managed but of course I couldn't act upon it.
Alexander Kjerulf, in this article has some interesting thoughts on the subject and on openness in general:
I believe on a very fundamental level that openness is better than secrecy, in life and in business. I’m not naïve enough to share all information all the time, but my chosen approach is “Let’s make everything open by default and only make those things secret that absolutely need to be”. Would I share my list of prospective clients with my competitors? Nah. Would I share it inside the company? Heck, yeah!
You may recall that I ran several knowledge cafe workshops for StatoilHydro a month or so back. These were so successful that I have agreed to run a public workshop for the Arkgroup on September 10th 2008 in London. I am really quite excited about this. Take a look at the brochure.
In his early twenties, my grandfather was fighting in the trenches in the so called Great War; my father was a prisoner of war in Germany having fought and been captured in the desert of North Africa and I, having graduated, was in my first job.
Where is my son, Jonathan, at 22? Having graduated, he is back packing around SE Asia and I am following him almost day by day, tracking his photos on Facebook and his whereabouts on Google Maps. I even talk to him on Skype. What I find amusing is that he tries to tell me where Hanoi is, thinking that I don't know, when at his age the Vietnam war was in full swing and then he tells me he has passed through a sleepy little border town called Dien Bien Phu and is even more surprised that I knew where he had been although I was only 6 years old when the French garrison there was overrun.
Oh how the world has changed but the wars still go on; though I haven't had to fight in one and hopefully neither will my son.
Sometimes you go through life with a little blind spot. I have, for as long as I can remember, never been sure whether to put am or pm after 12:00 noon or 12:00 midnight if I am not using the 24 clock which of course I normally do to avoid any confusion.
It never occurred to me that appending am or pm to midday or midnight made no sense whatsoever. Am I the only one?
It took a Google Search and this Greenwich Meantime site for the penny to drop.
A.M. and P.M. start immediately after Midnight and Noon (Midday) respectively.
This means that 00:00 A.M. or 00:00 P.M. (or 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M.) have no meaning.
Its interesting to think that maybe we have developed our cognitive abilities through learning to consciously teach our children and of course each other. Dare I even say "share our knowledge"!
It is one of the hottest questions of our time: how did our cognitive abilities explode, leaving other animals for dust intellectually?
Now a new explanation is emerging. Controversially, it challenges the idea that biology alone is what drove the evolution of intellectual skills. What if we acquired abilities such as the capacity to invent, converse or work in unison as a result of a continual process of cultural cross-fertilisation with the world we inhabit, and through the way we interact with other people and material things?
Not only does this idea help explain how our species blossomed intellectually in the first place but it implies that our brains are continually changing whenever we meet new cultural concepts, objects and technologies, whether they are cellphones or new religions.
Yet perhaps the biggest opportunity opened up by a theory of mind and an expanded working memory was the ability to learn, and to systematically educate other people. Animals learn by random observations of what other animals do. It is very seldom that they recognise the value of an innovation by their peers and then copy it themselves, such as shaking a tree to make fruit fall.
But thanks to theory of mind and the ability to divine the intentions of others, humans were able to train their offspring. During the process of teaching, both pupils and teachers are well aware of what's happening and know they must pay special attention beyond random observation. What's more, as working memory expanded, learning would have become more efficient.
At a social tools conference a few months ago, someone asked a question of the speaker. He said that he would love to blog but did not have the time. "How can I find the time?". Someone in the room piped up and said he should "Stop doing other things!" The questioner wasn't amused and thought it a flippant answer.
But to my mind, the answer was spot on! In today's hyper-busy world we all have far more that we would like to do than we have the time. The issue is not a question of insufficient time but priority. Things low down our priority list don't get done. But we don't say "Oh that's not a priority for me" we simply answer - "I don't have enough time".
Our priorities, typically, reflect the value we see in doing something. If we don't perceive the value in blogging as greater than other things then we won't do it. Its the same with knowledge sharing. Saying "I don't have enough time to share." really means "I don't believe it is of sufficient value to me to stop doing other things". And its why I try to help people to see the value for themselves!
But as I write this, at the back of my mind, there is a little voice saying, David, its not just about the business value - we tend to do the things that we enjoy doing regardless of the business value!
The value of knowledge sharing, indeed many things, is in the enjoyment for many of us.
Oh this is a delight to see a major conference with an Unconference portion. This is how they describe it:
Enterprise2Open is the "unconference" portion of the Enterprise 2.0 Conference and is open to anyone who would like to attend. This open event blends some pre-scheduled content with an open grid where the attendees fill in the sessions they either want to discuss or present themselves. It is the perfect space to provide the community at large with a place to connect with other attendees and share your knowledge and experiences.
Credit: Enterprise 2.0 Conference June 9-12 2008, Boston.
Why oh why, won't more conference organisers bite the bullet?
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mind set that many people still do not get or like to see.
Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.
To my mind, this is more than a switch from the passive watching of TV. Millions of baby-boomers like myself are coming up for retirement. I am often asked when I am going to retire. I am NOT. In the past you retired when you were physically no longer fit for work and died soon after. Today at 60 or 65 you may still have twenty years of active life left in you.
Why would I want to cultivate my garden; knock a little ball round a field; walk the dog; play bingo or watch TV when I can still contribute to the world; enjoy doing that and leave a little bit of a legacy. Sure its not for everyone; some people want to retire in the old-fashioned way. I and I hope millions like me will no longer do that! And the web ensures that we have a choice.
A lot of Kafe fun in Amsterdam and Norway - Comments (0)
Well a lot of Kafe fun. First, a Kafe on a canal boat in Amsterdam on 30 April 2008, for a group of delegates representing Dubai Holding and related organizations. The event was organized by Sheffield Hallam University, Centre for Integral Excellence.
Carol Webb shot some video and I took some photos. If you are interested in applications for the Knowledge Cafe then watch the three minute introduction video as this explains the purpose of this particular Cafe and is a good example.
Second, my first cafe in a crane (albeit a pretend one) in Bergen. This was part of my tour of Norway with StatoilHydro: four knowledge cafe workshops and four open knowledge cafes in 4 days in Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo. See photos.
During the Cafe Workshops, I taught about 50 people from StatoilHydro how to run and facilitate Gurteen Knowledge Cafes. If you are interested in my running such a workshop for you - you will find more information here including the slide set I used.
I love feedback. And I adored this short email from Betsy Nein as it enunciates the very reason I carefully select and post quotations on my website and distribute them via email and RSS feed as the Gurteen Knowledge Quote of the day. Sign up, if you too are inspired by them like Betsy.
Hello. You don't know me and I really don't know who sends these to me but I recall asking for them to be sent. I'm so glad I did. I open them every time and save them also. They are either inspiring or funny or tender or meaningful, etc.
I've always been a "short story" kind of person. Don't tell me too much, don't say too much. I usually get the point with as few words as possible. So these fit perfect in my brain. Also in my heart and soul.
I'm a vocalist here in The Villages, Fla and sing twice a week at a small cafe. On many occasion I'll quote the sayings to my audiences. It makes a hit with them every time. Just writing today to say thanks.
Betsy Nein
Though not everyone likes them:
I hate quotes. I really do. I wish every one would stop reading quotes and spend more time thinking about the issues at hand; the ones that really matter in their life. Instead, they wallow away looking for that brilliant person who fit an entire life's story in one beautiful grammatical sentence. I would just like to ask the world to stop dwelling on quotes about how one should live his/her life, and spend more time trying to activily enjoy his/her own life.
When are we going to start working with people rather than trying to do things to them?
Measures, targets, rewards, incentives - even education and training are all a waste of time if the people being 'targeted' don't see the point or have not been involved in the decision making.
Thanks to Nerida Hart for pointing to me to this awesome web site on Famous Trials. As a child I learnt the song John Browns body lies a-mouldering in the grave but never knew who he was. And as a Brit, why should I ever have learnt the song - I don't recall!
So in a few minutes of browsing this site, not only did I discover the details of his trial and death but also Thoreaus moving plea for his life to be spared.
Those of you who know me, will know that Henry David Thoreau is one of my heroes and mentors. Yes I know he is long dead but he can still be a mentor to me! And making connections like this is just pure joy!
If you hate "death by PowerPoint" as much as I do then you will adore this short video but watch it through to the end - it gets even better during the Q&A! Absolutely brilliant!
Amazingly Twitter brought us one extra participant Colleen Carmean who blogged a little on the Cafe; said some nice things about me (blush) and had some interesting comments about the format that I had not quite seen before given my closeness. Here are two quotes from her:
David uses a specific, distributed, what I would call "emergence" format where 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts' for encouraging knowledge transfer amongst participants. No leaders, no report outs, no death by PowerPoint. Everyone matters, every voice counts.
The closing moments of a Knowledge Cafe reminded me of a Quaker meeting. You don't speak unless you're compelled to share an important thought, realization, or theme that emerged from your multiple small group discussions. Some participants violate the framework and just need to be heard, but like the Quakers, everyone listens respectfully and reflects on the thought without the need for comment or debate.
When I read this, a light bulb flashed. When working at home, I am a documentary junkie - the UK History Channel and other documentary and news channels are pretty much all I watch. But time and time again I get a angry when I see the program makers turn the problems facing the world into entertainment. Their objective is not even to educate but to entertain. Often I switch off and throw the remote at a distant chair (a soft one I might add as I never get that angry)!
What I have long wanted more media companies to do - is to start taking the problems seriously and move from saying "here are the problems - isn't it tragic; isn't it crazy" to "here are the problems and here is what you can do to help solve them. And this is what we are setting up to help support you".
But the participatory web is moving us in this direction. In 50 years time I think we will look back at old news clips and documentaries of today in a similar way we look back at the propaganda newsreels of the Second World War and wonder why so many people at the time did not see things for what they were.
Whenever I meet new people with whom I would like to work I often say lets find a small project on which we can work together so we can build mutual trust. The process is simple.
We work on something small and build trust.
Having built trust we work together more and the trust grows.
Its an iterative process: work together; build trust; work together build trust ... but this is key - it always starts by working together.
If at any time either of us lets the other down badly or abuses the relationship then the trust is pretty much destroyed and its unlikely that we will ever work together again.
The trust question is a classic confusion of symptoms with cause, just as creativity is a symptom of innovation not its cause, so trust is the symptom of interaction over time. If that interaction is not testing, then the trust is fragile. If the trust is simply the result of few contextual exercises (throwing yourself backwards off a brick wall is the classic) then it is temporary. Focus on the process, rather than trying to preset emergent outcomes and you get a more sustainable solution.
Would you like to know almost everything I or friend has been up to of late then take a look at FriendFeed.
FriendFeed enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. It offers a unique way to discover and discuss information among friends.
Sign up for FriendFeed, invite some friends, and get a customized feed made up of the content that your friends shared - from news articles to family photos to interesting links and videos.
FriendFeed automatically imports shared stuff from sites across the web, so if your friend favorites a video on YouTube, you get a link and a thumbnail of the video in your feed.
And if your friend likes a news story on Digg, you get a link in your feed. FriendFeed makes all the sites you already use a little more social.
I have been using it for a month or so now but I'm not yet convinced of its use as it gives me TOO much information. But the good thing about social tools - what does not work for me might work for you and vice-versa.
I recently wrote about Kiva - an amazing microfinace website and then on the human touch - the importance of face to face communication in my Knowledge Cafes and so I was delighted to receive this email from Larry Gardiner that I have included in full:
First an update on your item about Kiva. We asked our family and friends to send Kiva Gift Certificates instead of cards and presents at Christmas after reading about Kiva.org in your newsletter. 15 Kiva certificates have now been redeemed and we receive regular bulletins on our portfolio of micro-finance investments from Cambodia, Vietnam, Peru, Mexico, Nigeria and Kenya. Each of our investments is thriving and the most rewarding part of watching their progress is the sense of solidarity which I think is also a feature of the human touch you were talking about.
We have started convening Parent Cafe's too. The purpose here is to facilitate knowledge sharing around the development of parent and peer advocacy for families with disabled children (http://www.parentadvocatestogether.org.uk). We also have used the time-discipline you talked about so that each person has the same amount of air-time.
We have not intentionally set out to create a therapeutic knowledge cafe, or I suppose what would be a support group session, but to simply borrow from a framework of ideas (which we do use to promote emotional support and 'discharge' in other parent support groups convened for that specific purpose). I suppose that when everyone knows that they will get their own space, their own air time and their own opportunity to think and listen out loud, it makes it easier for us to relax and to listen and to process on what what each speaker is saying.
While we didn't deliberately set out to do this awarely; solidarity and mutual self-help and assistance are what we seem to be eliciting in each of our own knowledge cafe ventures. It is very satisfying and rather beautiful both to see and to experience. It is rather that the experience of using co-counselling tools in that setting that has enabled us to cross-pollinate some of the ideas. We have noticed that they have been useful in promoting an emotional safety allowing people to enjoy and even to revel in the human touch you talked about.
You are absolutely right to claim that it is this human touch which is the key distinguishing feature of the knowledge cafe phenomenon. Essentially, we now set out purposefully to cultivate, nurture and promote every opportunity for creating that human touch you have described in every knowledge cafe where we participate. From experience we can state that 'the human touch is also the magic touch!' As far as culture change is concerned; this is simply a smarter way to work.
Much of Dubai has this Disney feel to it at times but Luke is blogging his stay in Dubai and his blog is a great way to get to see a lot more of Dubai and the region that is far from Disney-like!
The idea of thoughts making love - what a lovely metaphor!! Two thoughts coming together, intermingling their DNA to create new baby thoughts with a unique life of their own. I am getting carried away now!
I recently spent the whole of January in SE Asia; giving talks and running knowledge cafes in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. As always I learnt as much as a I taught at these events.
Most of us understand what Web 2.0 is all about as we move from a read-only web to a read-write or participatory web.
And we are starting to come to grips with so called Enterprise 2.0 where the concept and technologies and social tools of Web 2.0 are moving from the open web into organizations.
It is still early days and there are many issues to be grappled with as we try to balance the structure and stability of the old world with the more fluid and complex nature of the new.
But the "2.0 meme" is starting to affect everything. In a talk in Kuala Lumpur I was asked how you implement Enterprise 2.0 and I was talking about some of the barriers when someone spoke up and said "We will never have Enterprise 2.0 until we have Managers 2.0!” In other words it was managers and their out-dated mind sets that was a major barrier to change,
And a few days later while giving another talk at the National Library in Singapore I found us talking about Libraries 2.0 and Learning 2.0. It then hit me that “2.0” thinking was permeating everything. People were also taking about Business 2.0 and Education 2.0.
So what does this mean in its broadest sense? Well, we are no longer consumers: of goods, services or education - we are all prosumers - we all have the opportunity to create and consume. For the first time we are participants in everything and not the “victims”. Fundamentally it is about "freedom".
We are moving from a world where we were told to do things and where things were structured or planned for us to one where we get to decide what works best for us. We are moving from a mono-culture to a highly diverse ecology.
We are moving from a simple world to a rich, complex, diverse one. One where power is less centralized and more distributed. We are moving from a command and control world to a world where people can do as they please within the boundaries of responsibility.
Another talk I gave in SE Asia was to SAFTI (the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute) and there I realized that the 2.0 concept could be applied to the military too. In the past warfare was a relatively simple affair; there were rules of engagement and things such as the Geneva convention. It was a male dominated world but now with terrorism, men, women and children are actively involved in the fighting - there are few rules of engagement. Its complex – everyone participates.
The SAFTI talk was the last of 20 talks and Knowledge Cafes over a period of a month and they helped crystallize my thinking. It’s not just about Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 - about tools and technology. Its far more than that. It’s about World 2.0. The “2.0 meme” touches everything.
More than anything we need "Mindset 2.0" or "Thinking 2.0" - new ways of looking at and thinking about the world and seeing the opportunities to work in new innovative ways that these new technologies allow.
Here is a brief comparison of the two worlds. This thinking can be applied in business, in education and learning, to adults and to children and to government and to society. Its not just about technology!
World 1.0
World 2.0
Knowledge sharing and learning is imposed additional work
Knowledge sharing and social learning is a welcome natural part of people's everyday work
Work takes places behind closed doors
Work takes place transparently where everyone can see it
IT Tools are imposed on people
People select the tools that work best for them
People are controlled out of fear they will do wrong
People are given freedom in return for accepting responsibility
Information is centralized, protected and controlled
Information is distributed freely and uncontrolled
Publishing is centrally controlled
Anyone can publish what they want
Context is stripped from information
Context is retained in the form of stories
People think quietly alone
People think out loud together
People tend to write in the third person, in a professional voice
People write in the first person in their own voice
People especially those in authority are closed to new ideas and new ways of working
Everyone is open to new ideas
Information is pushed to people whether they have asked for it or not
People decide the information they need and subscribe to it
The world is seen through a Newtonian cause and effect model
The world is recognized to be complex and that different approaches are needed
“The real paradigm shift in Web 2.0, I believe, is the blurring the line between publication and collaboration. In the old days, people collaborated in private. They talked to their friends and colleagues, wrote letters. Later they sent emails. All the real thinking happened in those private conversations. Eventually, once the key insights had been extracted, refined, and clarified, they published: books, articles, speeches, blast memos, etc.”
“…the really exciting thing that’s happening in Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 is that more and more of those private “pre-publication” interactions are happening in public (or at least semi-public). I think of this as the dawn of the “Work in Progress” culture. We no longer think that something has to be finished before we let strangers into the conversation.”
And then Gerry McKiernan in this post on Science 2.0.
A small but growing number of researchers--and not just the younger ones--have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wikis and social networks of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement--yet--their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based "Science 2.0" is not only more collegial than the traditional variety, but considerably mo
/VIEW-IMAGE/$File/view-image.png "Media information"){kind=small}
