What makes an effective knowledge worker?

Monday 2 October 2006 17:50 GDT

Title	What makes an effective knowledge worker?
Weblog	Gurteen Knowledge Weblog
Posted Date	Monday 2 October 2006 17:50 GDT
Posted By	David Gurteen

At the Osney Media European Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Forum last week In London we broke into several "discussion pods" to discuss topics of interest. Earlier, I had proposed a theme of "What are the habits of effective knowledge workers?" and was pleased that this was one of the topics selected.

There were about five of us at our table and we started by getting into a discussion about what were we talking about: habits; skills; attitudes; behaviors; values; mindsets or what? We decided quite quickly that we would run out of time if we focused on these differences and decided just to brainstorm everything without attempting to categorize them. This is the list we came up with. As the others carried on a conversation - I just scribbled down the key attributes - here they are - pretty much in the order they arose and unedited.

connect people with people
connect people with ideas
are good networkers
do not follow the rules
have strong communication skills
like people
feel good about themselves
motivate others
are catalysts
ask for help
demonstrate integrity
are self reliant
open to share
are not afraid
are goal oriented
are able to identify critical knowledge
add value to the organization
have strong subject expertise in a specific area
network for results

trustworthy - can be trusted and trusts others
make decisions
are not insular
do not conform
push the boundaries
assume authority - ask for forgiveness, not permission
strong belief in the value of knowledge sharing
are informal active leaders
take a holistic view
are catalysts, facilitators and triggers
good listeners - they listen first
do not need praise
see the wider picture
work well with others
do not have a 'knowledge is power' attitude
walk the talk
prepared to experiment with technology
playful
take calculated risks

An interesting set of attributes but by no means exhaustive. Will be interesting now to analyze them and pull them into some sort of structure and order. Seems to me though that many of these attributes are 'soft' in nature and difficult to teach or learn. How does someone learn 'not to need praise' for example and just how important an attribute is it?

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David Gurteen

Giving a talk at the Graduate School of Bangkok University, January 2008.

I help people to share their knowledge; to learn from each other; to innovate and to work together effectively to make a difference!

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Saturday 5 July 2008
12:49 PM GDT