Adventures in Knowledge

Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Retention in the Modern Workplace

I have just returned from making two presentations and participating in the Ark Group conference - "Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Retention in the Modern Workplace". I made two presentations that are available on Slideshare:

Shift happens: how to share knowledge in a network centric world

Knowledge transitions: using narrative to understand the issues of attracting and retaining volunteers

This certainly was an enjoyable conference with active discussion and participation from attendees. What was encouraging was the discussion being based around people and connection. It seems that as knowledge professionals we have an important role to play in talent attraction and retention - in fact the alignment between HR and knowledge sharing is becoming even more important and valuable to the business. It was encouraging to see communities and collaboration being a key theme of the conference.

Do you RSS?

Coming into the new year of 2008, I still am amazed at the number of people who do not know about RSS or indeed know what it is, yet have failed to utilise it.

I wish my organisation was more proactive in using RSS, but it still does not seem to be on the radar screen of the IT department, despite the fact that Enterprise licenses for RSS are cheap!

Could the uptake and adoption of Web 2.0 be greater if people used RSS and were exposed to the benefits it provides? My view is a resounding YES.

Looking back to when I first took my first baby steps in using RSS, a whole new world opened up to me - the conversations I could now participate in amazed me, and indeed encouraged me to start blogging. Today, I do not know how I could survive without access to RSS feeds - it simplifies and amplifies my world at the same time. Conversations have allowed me to connect - RSS extends my reach and also provides a tapestry of rich rewards.

I wonder how much more connected people could be if they took a small step into Web 2.0 through RSS...

What's up with collaboration?

I don't know about you, but I have seen an huge increase in discussion around collaboration in the last month. Initially I thought that maybe this was me re-framing my thought processes, but my RSS feeds keep bringing up more discussion on collaboration. Interestingly, these discussions have not focused on collaboration tools, but rather on the people aspects of collaboration and the absence of vendor led discussions has also been noticed!

Recently, I have been dedicating a lot more of my thinking around the move to a networked world, and what is refreshing is that collaboration is a key aspect of this fundamental shift that is now occurring. But we are talking about collaboration not only face to face but also in a distributed framework, where teams are not co-located but can be located globally. Some are calling this Collaboration 2.0 which in reality is the focus shift from technology being the solution to an enabler for people to collaborate.

What I did find interesting is how collaboration can be regarded as one of the catalysts underpinning the four drivers I have previously mentioned that are moving us into a networked world:

Web 2.0 - it is people's desire to communicate and collaborate that has driven the development of Web 2.0 tools, rather than technology for technologies sake. So in utilising these tools, I believe people are now beginning to ask how they can truly collaborate. Rather than having some technology thrust upon them and being told "here you go - no excuse not to collaborate" people are selecting tools and processes that more closely fit their needs around collaboration.

The Rise of the Participation Culture - the new generation just beginning to come into the workforce are intuitively collaborating as this is the way they have always interacted and got what they wanted. The challenge now is how to collaborate in groups that span a multi-generational divide

Changing Business Models - the move to greater transparency, co-opetition, peer-to-peer networks etc are constantly challenging the traditional command and control structures. Connection across company and even industry boundaries is driving new ways to innovate. Central to this is how to effectively collaborate in these networks.

Shift back towards community - a desire to more effectively contribute to participate in the community also requires effective collaboration both at an individual and group level. If anything the challenge is for people to understand how to sharpen their listening skills!

However, I also see lots of organisations and businesses who do not have a clue about the change that is occurring around them. It almost seems that we are on the cusp of a "phase transition" i.e from water to ice  -  unless you recognise the fundamental shift that is going to happen, your chances of adapting to a changing environment are significantly less.

Eight business technology trends to watch

Happy New Year!

I have been remiss in my absence from posting over the holiday season. However, it was quite refreshing to turn off the computer and take a total break. I know 2008 is going to be an interesting and busy year, so now I am refreshed and ready to get back into it.

In a recent scan of RSS feeds, I came across an interesting article in the McKinsey Quarterly, discussing Eight business technology trends to watch in 2008. They are:

1. Distributing cocreation
2. Using consumers as innovators
3. Tapping into a world of talent
4. Extracting more value from interactions
5. Expanding the frontiers of automation
6. Unbundling production from delivery
7. Putting more science into management
8. Making businesses from information

If you have read Wikinomics, you would probably be familiar with a lot of the thoughts and views expressed here. However, what is good to note, is that when they get into a McKinsey type publication, then you know that there are more mainstream (read traditional) businesses beginning to think about their implications and how to proactively captialising upon the change that is happening now.

Future of Volunteering - mid project update

On Friday last week, I had the pleasure of hosting Dave Snowden at Deloitte in Sydney to give a mid project update on the Future of Volunteering project. It was interesting to see an independant report on the session by Brad Hinton in his blog "Plain Speaking". I will let you read his report on the session as it effectively sums up the proceedings.

One thing I will say is that whilst we do have an unbalanced survey set - the majority from the 17 - 59 yr age group (little from the under 17 age group, some from the over 60 and manager of volunteers groups) already some of the insights are beginning to challenge traditionally held assumptions about volunteers - for example, we are seeing a significant number of the stories being told by people who work full time, are degree educated, volunteer weekly and volunteer because it is their passion.

We are currently working on strategies to redress this imbalance and get more stories from the under represented groups with tweaks to the survey language and a phone-in to a call centre being held on 31 Jan - 2 Feb (more details early next year). We also will have a release of the Sensemaker package in January that will allow us to get stories through Facebook - an exciting development and one which will hopefully extend the reach of this project.

Blogs in Plain English

Here is another great production from the team at Common Craft: Blogs in Plain English. For those of you who are not aware, Common Craft have produced a series of plain english productions on RSS, Wikis and Social Bookmarks to name a few.

I have found these to be invaluable when having to talk to those who still do not know about Web 2.0. They have been great in introducing these concepts in a none threatening manner and have greatly assisted in getting people engaged and in conversation on Web 2.0

The Future of Volunteering - a real experience

As you would have seen in previous posts, I am involved in a project called the "Future of Volunteering" where we are looking to uncover the drivers of volunteering in Australia.

A key tool we are using in this process is the Cognitive-Edge Sensemaker suite. Now this is NOT a plug for Sensemaker, but rather me voicing an opinion on how powerful this tool is. We are now at the midpoint of the project and are assessing the initial data collected. We now have over 800 stories, but require LOTS more. In doing the initial analysis of the anecdotes that we do have, it is impressive to read the views and heart felt sentiment of people involved in volunteering. No where else have I been able to immediately start to spot patterns and trends emerging and understand REAL insights behind them. It has also been refreshing to be able to undertake some statistic analysis around issues correlation.

What is already apparent is that we have more work to do on getting a representative cross section of the community as we have had no responses from the indigenous community or other language groups. It is also interesting to see the minimal response we have had from under 17 years demographic, pointing to the need to develop a specific programme to target this group.

Next Friday, Dave Snowden will be in Sydney to present a mid-project review to the Stakeholder group for the project. After this meeting I will post some more detail on some of the initial findings, issues and feedback we are getting on the project.

What does the Future of Management look like to you?

I have just been rereading a post by Gary Hamel on his blog Management 2.0 called "What does the Future of Management look like to you?". He asked a question a while ago:

Looking twenty years out into the future, what one characteristic—principle, practice, or structural feature—of the “modern” industrial organization will appear to be the most antiquated or anachronistic?

It is interesting to see some of the responses he has received to that question. Whilst the responses are made with the frame of Management, the views and observations equally apply to organisations holistically and reflect the rise in importance of Social Capital and the demise of "command and control" structures that is even occurring today.

I previously have covered the move to a networked world and we are seeing more organisations start to consider what this means for them. More importantly it is also revealing that there is no one right answer / solution to the impact this will have. This says to me that we need to embrace the complex world in which we live, acknowledge that we don't know the answers and look to understand the present in order to influence our future direction. We need to make sense of our environment today if we are to be successful tomorrow.

Will this make sense and resonate with a lot of people today? Probably not, but I am willing to wager that as change remains the only constant and the goal posts shift even faster, the organisations that thrive will have made this shift in mindset.

The earliest social network?

I am currently reading a book called Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. It is a fascinating look at an area in which I have an intense interest - the development of networks. One of the anecdotes Barabasi uses is his pointing arguably one of the earliest social networks:

Early Christians were a renegade Jewish sect that were persecuted by both Jewish and Roman authorities with a reach that should have by all intents and purposes been bound to the scope of Judaism. In a time where news and ideas traveled by foot, distances were long and society was very fragmented, Christianity would it seem doomed to oblivion. So how despite all the odds do approximately 2 billion people call themselves Christians today?

Many credit the rise of Christianity due to the message offered by Jesus of Nazareth - his message was "sticky" - resonating and passing down the generations whilst other religions faded away. However, it has been pointed out that the success of Christianity arguably could be credited to an orthodox and pious Jew who never met Jesus. His Hebrew name was Saul, but was more commonly known to us by his Roman name, Paul. Paul's life was to curb Christianity. He traveled from community to community persecuting Christians because they put Jesus condemned as a blasphemer on the same level as God. He used every means at his disposal to uphold the traditions and force these people to adhere to Jewish law. However, historical records have shown that Paul went through a sudden conversion in the year 34 and became a fierce supporter of the new faith, making it possible for a small Jewish sect to become the dominant religion in the Western world.

Paul's success was due to his understanding that the message had to spread, so using his firsthand knowledge of the social network of the first century's civilised world from Rome to Jerusalem, he set out to reach and convert as many people as he could. He walked nearly 10,000 miles in the next 12 years of his life. However, he did not walk randomly, he reached out to places which held the biggest communities of his era, to the places where faith could germinate and spread more effectively. He was the first and by far the most effective salesperson of Christianity, using theology and social networks equally effectively. In effect he was a bridge builder between Christian communities and a master of first century social and religious links - the only network at the beginning of the modern era that could carry and spread a faith.

One could start to ask if this was a small world network.

Change this.....

I recently came across a site in my web travels called "ChangeThis". I found the content presented in a range of formats to be refreshing both in the viewpoints presented and the way in which they are tabled. I always am willing to view different perspectives with an open mind as it broadens the way I think and injects new thoughts.

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. The authors state that they are on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds. In the same vein as TED they are certainly on an exciting journey.

I encourage you to have a look!