Coming to the Edge: The future of knowledge in a network centric world (part 2)

This is a continuation of Part 1 (Warning - LONG post).

So what has all of this got to do with knowledge? Well we are seeing a change in perspective around knowledge from one of a content centric focus on Intellectual Capital, to one where social capital will be the currency. It will be about who we know and what we will do for each other. In essence, we are seeing shift to people being central to how knowledge moves through the organisation.

To define social capital, I refer to a recent thought leadership publication by Deloitte called Its 2008: Do you know where your Talent is? Connecting People to What Matters Here the author Robin Athey provides a very apt definition of social capital. In my mind it has some clear reference points:

- value people produce when working together
- people building trust
- a shared understanding
- willingness to co-operate
- producing something greater than the sum of their parts

To me this personifies what we should strive for in the sharing of knowledge. However, one cannot underestimate what this means for an organisation - implicit in social capital is the culture which is willing to work in this way, or the the change programme required to shift an organisation's way of thinking.

When I started to think about what this shift in knowledge away from a content based approach to a strong focus on people driving knowledge sharing, I put together a framework to help me make sense of where this is going.

Framework built on two axis:

•- Type of Knowledge: Explicit to Tacit (Vertical Axis)

•- Ways of working: Transaction based to Relationship based (Horizontal axis)

This framework can be divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant describing a categorisation based upon the relationship between knowledge type and the ways people would create/use that knowledge. There is no right or wrong as to where specific groups are located on the matrix, but it does allow one to see the current positioning of organisations today, and where they directionally would like to get to. By understanding where the focus is today, one is able to define how much effort and an approach to move up the value curve and change quadrants.

Four quadrants:

- Explicit knowledge and process based work = commoditisation – dealing with information and relatively low value in return to the business

- Explicit knowledge and relationship based = standardisation – still dealing with information, but packaging it in ways that have value to staff

These quadrants are knowledge foundations and are the space where a significant number of portal systems operate in. The cost of operating in these quadrants is relatively high and the value to the business incremental in return

- Tacit knowledge and process based = collaboration – dealing with experience and insight not codified and often not shared in a portal setting, however a structured approach to conversation and connection exists i.e. discussion boards, eRooms, Wikis etc

- Tacit knowledge and relationship based = innovation – connecting people and developing a network approach to business where conversation and communities are the norm. Social networks are leveraged to connect and collaborate in real time

To differentiate the business and have competitive advantage, it is important to look at how the organisation can move up the value curve to collaborate & innovate in knowledge. This is the space which will have increasing importance due changing business dynamics with exposure to Enterprise 2.0

Above all, collaboration and innovation are about knowledge developed by providing a true context to information through connecting people and building networks. Our challenge is to define the roadmap for our organisations that will get us up the value curve in ways which work within the boundaries of our corporate cultures or encompass strategies to shift the culture.

So in effect, there is a shift in focus from:

Content & Collection: The acquisition, organisation and aggregation, storage and dissemination of content under organisation wide taxonomies using cutomised tools and repositories, just in case it might be reuseable

to:
Context & Connection:  Connecting the right people just in-time, canvassing them to gain their knowledge and advice in the context of a specific business problem or pursuit, synthesizing that knowledge and applying it to the issues at hand

We are seeing the use of new Web 2.0 tools facilitating some of this move. Individuals and organisations are now starting to use wikis as a way of collaborating, using blogs as a way of sharing their views on specific topics - passionately! by extensive use of linking, people are connecting to others who share their interests and passion - both inside and outside of the organisation. Social networks applications are being considered by companies as a way of getting staff to develop and build their networks within the organisation.

Once again the biggest challenge is for companies to acknowledge and embrace these changes. If they don't, human nature is to seek out opportunities to connect - if this is not facilitated internally, people will go outside of the organisation to do so. In Facebook for example, there is the ability for anyone to setup their own group - I would not hesitate to wager that there are a lot of groups in place dealing with company issues that should be behind the firewall, but are being dealt with in this social network setting as these types of networks are not being facilitated internally. When I tell partners' in Deloitte where I work that there is a Facebook community of over 13,000 practitioners, they are stunned.

In a nutshell, connection is about people - both virtually and face to face. The role of knowledge becomes one of facilitation, to find the opportunities for people to connect - to seek out the "watercoolers" around which people can connect and hold conversations. Collaboration in a networked world is not one of forcing people into artificially contructed communities or work groups but seeding connections that allow people to gather around an issue or idea that is going to benefit them in getting their job done.

From my experience, getting leadership to see the business from the perspective of a network is challenging, as it does challenge the concept of command and control so well entrenched in business today. However, when they do see their business from the view of a network the mindset shifts and the need / want to support collaboration becomes that much stronger. There are tools that can be used to assist this process such as Organisational Network Analysis.

A case in point is a recent ONA I conducted for a business in China. They were moving into a growth phase and wanted to ensure that the business was structured in a way to cater for accelerated growth. To cut a long story short, the network analysis revealed structural problems in the business between offices, divisions and levels of staff that would act as an inhibitor to growth. The leadership said that they had a gut feel that these issues existed , but now that they were in "black and white", they had to acknowledge them and do something to change. In fact, the network analysis was a catalyst to reevaluate their strategy, and bulding a framework around collaboration has become one of the primary planks of their strategy moving forward.

So, I titled this presentation coming to the edge - not with the belief that we are going to fall over it, but rather on the basis that we are on a journey of change. These are exciting times to be involved in knowledge, but also the most challenging! The complexity of our world and the businesses within which we work are only going to increase and the problems thrown up only going to become more intractible. No longer can we view the world as a linear construct where A will lead to B etc. We need to understand that we are operating within a complex system or network if you like, that is in constant motion. We can only attempt to make sense of this today and probe, sense and respond to influence direction rather than ultimate outcomes. It is incumbent upon us to ensure our organisations "get it" so as not to become the dinosaurs of the 21st Century.

In wrapping up, I would like to leave you with the following quote which I believe sums upon knowledge in a networked world.

Comments

[David Cross]

Chris,

Interesting post, the emergence of strong social distribution networks is changing the way we look at business. I think you would probably enjoy reading the Black Swan as well as it confronts the idea of randomness and aligns well with your notion of the edge.

cheers

[Chris Fletcher]

Hi David,

Thanks for the comment. I just got my copy of the Black Swan from Amazon - will read it on my travels!

Regards

Chris