Adventures in Knowledge

Collaboration - an Ah Ha moment.....

I am just back from a visit to China with respect of an Organisational Network Analysis project. Having conducted the ONA and discussed the results, it was very interesting to see a distinct shift in thinking about the way the business is structured. I was also really encouraged to see the language used start to change. In meetings, the language and terminology being expressed moved to reflect a more network centric view of the organisation.

This particular business had quite a fragmented network, which showed up a number of issues and opportunities that needed to be addressed. The most interesting statement was that "we had an idea that some of these issues did exist, but have always been too busy to think about them. Now we can see them in black and white, we have to do something to improve this situation"

Additionally, it exciting was the shift in mindset that occurred as a result of undertaking the ONA. Senior leadership saw the need to develop a more collaborative approach to the business and have made building a collaborative workplace the number one strategy for the next year. Whilst this is only words at this stage, the challenge for them is build a series of programmes to make this a reality. They now have the ability to use the ONA maps and analysis to guide them where to start this process.

Above is a view of one location where there are clear clusters of people. Interviews showed the reasons why the location network had some challenges with collaboration - these are being addressed as part of a new look at how all locations work together. 

I wonder what this network map would look like if the ONA was conducted again next year.......

Prometeus - The media revolution

Ross Dawson in his blog "Trends in the Living Network" points to an interesting video on You Tube portraying the future of media called "Prometeus". Again whilst this is an interpretation of the future of media, the scary thing is that we are already beginning to see such changes beginning to play out today.

One cannot say that we don't live in exciting times! Our challenge is to adapt and succeed in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.

What's in a conversation?

It is a cold and lazy Sunday in Sydney.

What else does one do apart from listening to the kids tear down the house - read some blogs!

Anyway, my wife and I started to talk about where communication is going (more the fact that I was sitting by the fire, reading blogs and not engaging in conversation was the starting point!). In my defense, I started to explain the fact that I was indeed engaging in conversation - just in a virtual way, and it became "show and tell". I went through what RSS was, the various tools and social networks that are now becoming commonplace and some of the really interesting presentations, videos and podcasts that are at your fingertips that really highlight the changes that are occurring. Before I knew it, 2 hours had gone past and I still had an engaged audience of one :)

The most pertinent comment made: "I always thought that I had a good handle on where the world is going - now I feel like a dinosaur - perhaps I need to retrain or at least rethink the impact this is having on my business....." 

I think I managed to use my "get out of jail" card - I am still allowed to sit by the fire and blog, with an interested partner to boot!

Did you know?

You would have seen from some of my previous posts that I see some fundamental changes in the way knowledge is shared on the horizon, and there are a wide range of factors that are driving the paradigm shifts that are beginning to occur.

I came across this video on You Tube that really encapsulates some of the forces at work and makes one pause for thought. Take a look - it is called "Did you know"

Enterprise 2.0 Productivity

Following on from the excellent  "Ask Charlie" slideshow on Enterprise 2.0, another slideshow in a similar style on Enterprise 2.0 Productivity is now doing the rounds.

How important is education?

I have recently been watching the video of the Web 2.0 conference in Australia on Ross Dawson's blog. One point came up in a panel discussion on the state of Web 2.0 in Australia, that a major inhibitor to uptake might be risk aversion - in part due to lack of education and understanding about Web 2.0 tools.

This is one point that I have seen is a major stumbling block in corporates in Australia today. There seems to be a big gap between the baby boomer generation & Gen X with Gen Y & Gen C. If you don't agree, do a straw poll of people in your company and ask for their views on blogs and wikis. You either get a vacant stare or "what are you talking about" from the older folk, or an enthusiastic response and question as to why we don't already embrace these tools from the younger members of the company. Before there are howls of protest - I am generalising, but can see the need for a concerted education program to increase awareness and familiarity with such tools. Based on this foundation, it is much easier to discuss what are the risk issues of such tools objectively rather than getting told of their irrelevance to the organisation.

I also found it to be interesting that KM was pointed out as a possible facilitator for this education and change in mindset. A good point! However, the large number of Enterprise Knowledge Portals which dominant will probably act as a brake on this happening. There does seem to be a reluctance to experiment and try new tools outside of an enterprise portal framework.

Tell me your story!

Greetings from a wet and humid Shanghai!

I don't know if I am noticing more companies asking for people to tell their stories, due to heightened awareness of story telling and anecdotes, or if there is actually an increase happening.

I was in the Intercontinental Hotel in Tokyo checking out yesterday, when a little postcard caught my eye. The deal was that if you tell your story about your experiences staying at the hotel, you will go in the draw to get a free night. I started to think about this and it raised a number of questions:

- In soliciting stories of people's experience at the hotel - what are they going to do with them?

- Is this for customer feedback, input into marketing, to use in promotional material, to isolate issues that are arising in specific hotels - all of the above?

What does concern me is the fact that there is no indexing of these stories by the person contributing them. If someone else is going to do this then any kind of induction from the stories is immediately biased. How can you compare these stories? If a third person reads them and categorises them as "a good experience" what is that based on apart from their interpretation of what the story teller has said. If these stories were from two different hotels in different countries, then immediately a cultural bias exists for a start.

Perhaps they should be following the naturalised sensemaking approach aka pioneers such as Dave Snowden - this in my opinion would allow for  more accurate and richer perspectives to be gained from such activities.

A simple definition of knowledge

Over at the Knowing Knowledge blog, I was attracted to a post "A Simple Definition of Knowledge". The definition put forward:

"At its simplest, information is a node which can be connected. When connected it becomes knowledge (i.e. it processes some type of context and is situated in relation to other elements). The combined nature of many such connections results in understanding... i.e. understanding is an emergent property of the network"

I like the concept but would modify it to say that people are the nodes, information is the connector and knowledge is derived from the context generated through the range of connections each person makes.

This also then puts knowledge firmly in the people, collaboration and community space that is becoming more apparent everyday.

On another note, I am off to Tokyo and Shanghai tomorrow for a week for meetings and to deliver the results of an ONA I have undertaken for a business in China. I hope to be able to provide more details on this in the coming weeks once I have been given permission.

Hopefully (connections permitting) I will be able to put in a couple of blog entries next week).

RSS & Wikis in plain English

I have just come across a couple of videos from the Common Craft Show which explain wikis and RSS in simple English terminology - great for explaining to others who have no concept of Web 2.0 tools. The other great thing was the use of simple pictures, not complicated graphics. To source go here:

Wikis in plain English

RSS in plain English

Web 2.0 Framework

Ross Dawson and the Future Exploration Network have just release a Web 2.0 framework under a Creative Commons licence for all to use.

I recommend that you take five minutes to look at it as it does succinctly describe what Web 2.0 is all about and the players in the various spaces of Web 2.0 and would be a useful primer to open a discussion with people who need a starting place to understand Web 2.0