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...

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.

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.

Face your fears

I just came across this article Facing your fear of Facebook which premises the argument that to really understand Facebook or Social Networking sites you need to actively participate in them. The one quote which stands out is:

"We are digital immigrants. Our kids and perhaps many of the people we're now hiring are digital natives. We need to get over the "them vs. us" mentality. Bottom line: Digital immigrants will never be as fluent as natives, but that doesn't mean, as immigrants, it's OK to pretend we don't live in a new world."

I have blogged about previously in the Rise of the Participation culture and how if we don't "get it" we will not be able to attract the best talent to our organisations. To "get it" means not only understanding new ways of connecting, but participating in them, giving blogs, wikis, RSS, Social Networks etc a go. The cost is only time - the reward is an enlightened view. You might not necessarily want to use these tools to connect, but at least you will have an informed viewpoint and a right to participate in the conversation. I know I am preaching to the converted here, but I am sure there are people in your organisation who have no idea - can I suggest that instead of explaining how this all fits together, take them on a real journey of experiencing connection through these tools. I can guarantee that they will start to "get it" in a more meaningful way.

Interesting who you meet - on a plane

I am always amazed by the interesting people you meet on planes. On the Sydney to Auckland leg of my current trip, I struck up a conversation with "Bob from Austin". Bob has retired and is spending his time seeing the world. A quiet spoken gentleman, but one with a wealth of knowledge and insight. We spent three hours talking about the world, how complex it is getting and about my view of a networked world. Bob certainly was well read and indeed versed in Web 2.0. What I found rewarding from this conversation was to see a gentleman who had seen major change in his lifetime able to provide perspectives I had not considered and indeed add new trains of thought to my thinking. One "gem" that I picked up was in our discussion about narrative and story telling. Bob is greatly concerned about the the use of narrative by the media as a thinly veiled way to project the opinion of certain interest groups. He rightly pointed out that narrative is only as good as the experiences being shared. Many people are more willing to provide their opinion rather than tell a story about an experience which will significantly skew interpretation.

Well three hours certainly flew by (pardon the pun). I am looking forward to seeing if there are any other interesting characters to be met in my travels - I will let you know!

Profound Knowledge in an Networked World

I just came a cross a posting in Value Networks by Jay Deragon titled "Profound Knowledge in a Networked World" His opening paragraph:

"The Relationship Economy will require transformation of knowledge, management, media, technology and individual participation.The prevailing cultures that are driving all business must undergo transformation.  The "system" of relationship networks can not understand itself. The transformation to the Relationship Economy requires a view from outside."

certainly has struck a chord with me, as this is the fundamental idea that I have been putting foward in our move to a networked world. Jay goes onto talk about the transformation of the individual as part of a "profound knowledge of the networked world". When reading how he sees an individual being transformed, it certainly mirrored a lot of my experience in changing the way I looked at knowledge in a networked world. Also, in talking about the relationship economy, once again People are at the centre - not technology.

On another note, I will be taking a "short break" from blogging for the next two weeks as I venture to New Zealand for some skiing - hopefully the gods will be kind and bring some healthy snow showers in the coming week!

On the Road.....

It's been a little while since my last decent post - life's been rather hectic since KM Australia! I just have been on a whirlwind visit to Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur which has put me out of contact more often than not.

I previously mentioned an ONA project that I was doing for an organisation in China. Since then I have been invited to talk about ONA and how Enterprise 2.0 can be used for collaboration, at their annual conference in September where all senior execs from across the country attend. This certainly continues to validate my belief in organisations becoming more network centric. I will post the presentation on slideshare if I can get permission.

On anther note, I have recently been involved in a Cognitive-Edge project called "The Future of Volunteering" where we are looking to uncover the drivers of people volunteering, the policy implications of such and provide recommendations to government. This is a milestone project in that it will be the first time that the Cognitive Edge tools and processes have been applied to explore an issue of critical public policy. We will be using the Cognitive Edge Sensemaker suite as part of the process. I intend to blog more on this as we get further into the programme of activities. This is a really exciting project to be involved in!

Finally :) I will be speaking at a conference Public Relations Summit 2007 in Melbourne (21/22 August) with the MD of Dow Jones Asia - Bruce Macfarlane. The topic we are talking on is The rise of "Turbo Capitalism" and the impact on decision making. This should be an interesting presentation as it really is focussing on the implications for decison making by changes in the way information and knowledge transfer is occuring today. We are intending to make this more of a discussion between us, and try to involve the audience in the discussion.

Shifts Happen - How Knowledge is Created in the Information Era (repost - links fixed)

Here is a link to a blog entry on my presentation at KM Australia, posted by Ralph Kerle at the Creative Leadership Forum titled Shifts Happen - How Knowledge is created in the Information Era.

Thanks for the feedback Ralph!

A shift to new ways of thinking in Knowledge Management

Ross Dawson has a recent blog entry Knowledge Management shifts to new ways of thinking where he makes the case that:

“Organisations have been trying to find ways to make knowledge management more productive, but a lot of problems have stood in the way,” says Ross Dawson, chairman of Future Exploration Network. “But we have now moved into a new phase of emerging technologies.”

Dawson likes to refer to this organisational shift as Enterprise 2.0, where the tools and approaches of Web 2.0 are now captured inside the enterprise. “It’s about getting group input to create an emergent response, getting many people to create input,” says Dawson. “You can click input, tag input and rate input and as you get more input on creating outcomes, emergent results occur. Things get better the more people that use them.”

I think the point Ross makes about emergent outcomes cannot be underestimated, as this is really a fundamental aspect of the network centric world we are moving into. However, it does require the mindset shift to thinking about Enterprise 2.0 application in the business. I have seen examples of organisations who don't "get it" trying to retrospectively fit  / build Web 2.0 applications into content portals with the aim of generating more content in a very structured environment. This kind of effort will burn lots of cash and effort, with little return - return being uptake / participation from employees. Indeed, why would one spend time / effort  in connecting with others if they cannot determine the reasons why they want to do so, and customise their network to reflect their identity. Part of this comes down to a reluctance to losen the "command and control" ties and acknowledge that networks are inherently messy. A better approach would be to provide the tools that allow people to connect, and then get out of the way! If content is the ultimate objective, then this will follow as people network and collaborate.