Social KM Cafe for SAFTI

The Social KM Cafe SAFTI, Singapore 28 th October 2008 David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge

Begin with the end in mind

Purpose of the Workshop

To look at the meaning of Social KM

To explore some ideas/tools/techniques/behaviors

To encourage you to think and learn about what it means and to take action

Make the most of the day

We are here to learn from each other

Get to know each other better

Be open - take risks

Informal, get up walk around, ask questions

Be yourselves - have fun

Ambiguity, chaos & differences in perception are OK

There are no right or wrong answers

The only dumb question is the one you do not ask!

My Style

Martin Buber

I have to tell it again and again: I have no doctrine. I only point out something. I point out reality, I point out something in reality which has not or too little been seen.

I take him who listens to me at his hand and lead him to the window. I push open the window and point outside. I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue .

Format of the Day

Day broken into sessions

Sessions in two parts

presentation

discussion

Agenda is a guideline - may depart from it

Much to cover in the day - time keeping important

Goal is to cover basics of each concept - not detail

Discussion/conversation/networking is a key

Capture Ideas & Issues

Capture ideas and issues

things to do

actionable insights

ideas

things to think about

people to meet

books to read

Capture one ‘actionable insight’ from the day!

gurteen.com

Workshop has been built from materials on gurteen.com

book reviews, conferences, events

links, people profiles, quotations

articles, downloads, weblog

Getting to know each other

David Gurteen

KM Consultant, Speaker and Facilitator

Knowledge Website

Knowledge Community/Letter

15,000 people

154 countries

Knowledge Cafés

London, New York, Adelaide

Speed Networking

A simple technique that can be used in a variety of settings to bring a group of people together

to start to get to know each other

or get to know each other a little better

How do you Speed Network?

Break into pairs

Find someone you don’t know

Two minutes to chat then move on to another person

Tell your partner something unusual about yourself

When I blow my whistle once - move on

When I blow my whistle twice - its all over!

Agenda

09:00 - 09:15 Begin with the End in Mind (15 mins)

09:15 - 10:00 KM 2.0 - KM goes social (45 mins)

10:00 - 10:45 Make your connections count (45 mins)

10:45 - 11:15 Coffee (30 mins)

11:15 - 11:45 Dare to Share (30 mins)

11:45 - 12:30 Learn before, during and after (45 mins)

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch (60 mins)

13:30 - 14:15 Conversation & Telling Stories (45 mins)

14:15 - 15:00 Social Tools (45 mins)

15:00 - 15:30 Tea (30 mins)

15:30 – 16:30 Knowledge Café (60 mins)

16:30 - 17:00 Share actionable insights (30 mins)

KM goes social

Objectives

A brief history of KM

The impact of social tools and Web 2.0 on KM

KM 1.0 and KM 2.0

KM goes Social

Two early forms of KM

Techno-centric KM

People-centric KM

Techno-centric KM

Corporate KM

Birth 1995 (Lotus Notes 1989)

Internet, Intranets, Office, E-mail

The management of unstructured information

Database and search centric

For many organizations what KM is about!

People-centric KM

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)

People Centred Knowledge Management (PCKM)

Soft tools e.g. Cops, After Action Reviews

Pioneers

BP (Chris Collison, Geoff Parcell)

Buckman Labs (Bob Buckman)

People-centric KM Tools

Communities of Practice

Storytelling and narrative

After action reviews

Peer assists

Retrospects

Knowledge Cafes

Open Space

Appreciative Inquiry

KM Today

Both forms of KM practiced

KC UK

Collaboration

Content

Over-hyped, underperformed

Is KM dead?

KM changing/evolving

Not driven by the traditional KM community

The Disruptor

Social Tools

Quietly evolving on the web

Roots not in KM

Social Tool thought leaders and even KM advocates avoid the label!

Social Tools

What are social tools for?

Finding and connecting with people

Building communities

Sharing Knowledge

They are in fact personal/social KM tools!

Social Tools

Weblogs

Wikis

Social book marking & tagging

Social Networking Communities

Instant Messaging/Presence

RSS Feed Readers

Micro-blogging

Podcasts, videocasts

Mashups

Blogger

Technorati

MediaWiki

LinkedIn, Facebook

Delicious

Google Reader, Bloglines

Skype

Flickr

YouTube, Google Video

Twitter

Odeo

Slideshare

iPod

Creative Commons

Web 2.0

The social web

The participatory web

Built around social tools

Evolved, emerged

Not planned

Not IBM or Microsoft

Open protocols

Low cost

Enterprise 2.0

Taking Web 2.0 into the organization

Weblogs and Wikis

IBM and Microsoft now in the game

And more …

Everything 2.0

2.0 meme is spreading!

Business 2.0, Management 2.0, Leadership 2.0, Education 2.0

Social Tools are incredibly powerful

Change the game

Put power in the hands of the people!

Can be seen as disruptive & even subversive

So what does this mean for KM?

KM 1.0

The old traditional, corporate, techno-centric command and control form of KM

KM 2.0

Take

People-centric KM, PKM

CoPs, AARs, KCafes, …

Social Computing

Weblogs, Wikis, …

To create

A new form of KM

KM 2.0 or Social KM

Social KM

Corporate

Top down

Centralised

Command & Control

Monolithic systems

Explicit Knowledge

Personal

Bottom up

Decentralised

Distributed

Ecosystems

Tacit Knowledge

KM 1.0 KM 2.0

KM Tool Comparison

Taxonomies

People Finders

Databases

E-mail

Newsletters

Discussion Forums

Social Tagging

Social Networking

Blogs & Wikis

Instant Messaging

RSS Feeds & Readers

Blogs

KM 1.0 KM 2.0

Social KM Anyone can say anything People are afraid to talk openly Work is open and transparent Work is behind closed doors Stories Best Practices KM 2.0 KM 1.0 Knowledge is naturally captured as part of my work Knowledge is forcibly captured just in case Knowledge sharing is people centric Knowledge sharing is database centric I have a choice & select my own tools IT chooses the tools I use Content is distributed freely and uncontrolled Content is centralised, protected and controlled Social Networking platforms reflect who is doing what with whom People directories provide contact information KM is part of my everyday work KM is extra work

Social KM Think out load together Think quietly alone Anyone can publish Centrally controlled publishing Anyone can start a CoP CoPs centrally controlled KM 2.0 KM 1.0 Improved decision making & innovation Efficiency and productivity Personal voice, 1 st person Professional voice, 3 rd person Rich stories, audio and video Context stripped Content is distributed freely and uncontrolled Content is centralised, protected and controlled Content filtered through experts Search for experts and content separate Subscribe to feeds Distribute by e-mail

KM is about Conversation KM is simply the art of enabling trusted, context-rich conversations among the appropriate members of communities about things these communities are passionate about. Dave Pollard A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter and getting smarter faster than most companies. The Cluetrain Manifesto

Summary

KM is fundamentally social! Its about people sharing their knowledge; learning from each other and working together more effectively

Resources

Category pages on gurteen.com

Knowledge Management & Personal Knowledge Management

Weblogs

Dave Pollard

Lilia Efimova

Steve Barth

Denham Grey

Conversation/Questions

Make your connections count

Objectives

Introduce you to the concept of knowledge networking

To encourage you

to think and learn more about it

to practice it

Forms of Networking

Social networking

to make friends

Business networking

to sell things

Job networking

to get a job

Knowledge networking

to build relationships in order to learn from each other & to get things done together

What is Knowledge Networking?

Knowledge Networking is

sharing with each other

learning from each other

working together more effectively

It is about

connecting yourself and other people to people

connecting yourself and other people to information & new ideas

It is also

reciprocal!

about emotional support

a form of two-way coaching

The Purpose

Knowledge Networking is not an end in itself

You need to keep the purpose in mind

To help you & others get things done that are of value to the business

that support the business strategy

more efficiently, more effectively

To help you discover new opportunities that are of value to the business

and to act on them

Personal Benefits

Get things done more effectively

Learn what is going on around you

other people are your eyes and ears

Gain new perspectives

other people think differently to you

You get to see the ‘bleeding obvious’

other people see things that you don’t - even when they are in your face!

A more effective & successful knowledge worker!

Ethics

Some people have a problem with networking

they think it is unethical!

An implicit mutual contract

I’ll help you and you’ll help me

If contract broken - it is OK to walk away

Stories

International Czar

Lotus Development, Cambridge, 1989 - 1992

Responsible for ensuring all Lotus products were designed as global products

No authoritative power!

Achieved my goals through networking

Bangkok

United Nations

Bangkok University

How do you network?

Beware of business networking

Knowledge networking is quite different from business networking

Most books and web material are not relevant or just plain terrible!

How to handshake! How to make yourself seem more interesting!

Its not just about you

How do I connect with other people?

What is in it for me?

What is in it for him or her?

Also how do I connect other people!

And how do I connect people to new ideas!

You are a facilitator/catalyst

Balance the Operational with the Strategic

Short term

business outcome focused

existing stuff

develop relationships with people to get things done now!

Long term

capability outcome focused

new opportunities

develop long term relationships with key people in order to expand your and their influence

Manage your Connections

Make new connections

getting out and about

Develop your connections

building relationships

Leverage your connections

actually getting things done

Let some connections whither

rarely kill them

Make New Connections

Find people

Talk to people!

Make good ‘excuses’ to meet people!

Meet people when you travel

Join networks and societies, socialize

Let people find you

Give talks, publish articles

Ensure you have a strong web presence

Join LinkedIn,FriendsReunited

Develop your Connections

Rolodex or personal database!

Build relationships

email, phone call, face to face, lunch, dinner, drinks

Find other ways of staying in touch

Maybe a newsletter

Website etc.

Above all provide value to them!

Leverage your Connections

On any project think

Who can help me?

Who can I help?

Who should be kept informed?

Don’t be afraid to ask!

Involve people appropriately

Be Open & Be Transparent

Be open

Let ideas in - be open to other people

You see opportunities in the world and go out and connect to people

e.g. talk to a stranger or new recruit, take a crazy idea seriously

Be transparent

Let other people see what you are doing

Let them find you and connect with you

e.g. create a weblog, give a talk, publish regular reports

Focus on business outcomes

Beware focusing on activity

Beware focusing too long term/strategically

Focus on action - getting stuff done!

Align your activity with the business strategy

Understand what is important to senior managers

Focus on business problems & opportunities

Go the “battle”

Summary

Knowledge networking is very powerful

None of us do it enough

Take it seriously

Get out there and network more ...

Resources

Books

Personal Networking by Mick Cope

The Brand You 50 by Tom Peters

Knowledge Networking

Dialogue & Conversation

Social networking sites

LinkedIn

Facebook

Coffee

Dare to Share

Objectives

To take a look at knowledge sharing

what are the benefits of sharing?

what are the barriers?

To look at the importance of “trust”

Encourage us to think about why we share and how we can improve our ‘sharing’

Introduce you to the knowledge café

Run a knowledge café

Sharing

We do not ‘share knowledge’ in the literal meaning of sharing

Not like sharing a cake

Synergistic 2 + 2 = 5

More about:

Personal Networking

Helping each other

Working together

Collaborating

Personal Reasons for Sharing

To help other people & to help ourselves

Other people

to get things done

to build relationships so they in turn help us

Ourselves

Learning to be gained

Knowledge is perishable

Someone else will make our knowledge productive first

Personal Barriers to Sharing

An attitude that knowledge is power

Fear of job loss

Fear of embarrassment

Inertia

Lack of time

Barriers to Knowledge Sharing

A silo mentality

Knowledge is power

Lack of knowledge sharing processes

No time allowed

No knowledge sharing by executives

Managers do not walk the talk

Poor IT systems

Lack of encouragement

Bureaucracy

Resistance to change by managers

Karl-Eric Sveiby

Is Sharing Natural?

Some say

sharing is human & comes naturally

Other say

knowledge is power and sharing is not natural

Knowledge Sharing

Share your Knowledge

credit to somebody else

passed over for promotion

depression

alcoholism

marital breakdown

destitution

die a bum

Is this really true?

Reasons for Sharing

ego

money reward

guilt

Do we share?

At work we ALL help each other to a greater or lesser degree

Within our department

Within our project work

With friends and trusted colleagues

Within our network

Why do we share?

We share because

it is in our interest

we have something to gain

We do not give our knowledge away

We implicitly TRADE things

tangible and intangible

The barriers to sharing

lack of TIME!

lack of obvious benefit i.e. there is no trade

lack of trust

Trading Knowledge

we need to do our job

we are afraid of the consequences if we don’t

we like them

we want to look good

we want them to like us

we enjoy it

we are looking for promotion

we are looking for a new job

we want them to be indebted to us

we want to build a potentially useful relationship

they pay us or give us some other tangible reward

We help people when they approach us for a variety of reasons - tangible & intangible (often implicit):

The Desire to Learn

By sharing our knowledge with others

WE learn

we learn from them

we make our tacit knowledge more explicit

our assumptions are revealed

we are forced to simplify things

We can often learn more than we teach!

If we want to learn we should teach! Stephen Covey

The trick to sharing more

If we approach someone

help make clear the benefits

If we are being approached

look for the benefits

Especially the learning benefits

Benefit & Time Time Availability Benefit high low high low no brainer Opportunity for learning/ relationship building explore/ escalate suggest an alternative

Summary

Knowledge Sharing is more about ‘trading intangibles’!

we need to look for the benefits

Learning is one of the the major benefits

It is important to build and maintain trust

Resources

Knowledge Sharing & Trust

Books

“ The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey

“ Personal Networking”by Mick Cope

Learn before, during and after

Objectives

Introduce the concepts of

learn before, learn during, learn after

Describe how to run after-action-reviews (AARs)

personal, informal, formal

Encourage the use of AARs

Learn from Doing

Need to learn continuously

Learn collaboratively by doing

Deliberately build learning into business activities

Adopt After-Action Reviews at all levels

Capture lessons

After-Action Reviews

What is an After-Action Review?

Review of an event

to promote learning

to reinforce success

to eliminate deficiencies

What is an event?

An event has a

a beginning and an end

a purpose

measurable objectives

entire action or

smaller part of an action

Project

Project milestone

Internal meeting

Presentation

Meeting or phone conversation with customer, supplier, or partner

How to run a After-Action Review

Questions

What were the desired outcomes?

What were the actual outcomes?

What were the differences?

What was learnt?

What else do you need to know to run an After-Action Review?

Open climate

practice dialogue

Observe the event

if possible

Do immediately

Involve everyone

no hangers on

Record lessons

use technology

What different types of After-Action Review can be held?

Formal

at end of project or project milestone

takes time

planned, need resources

need a facilitator

Informal

any time! May take just 5 mins

no resources, no facilitator

Personal

on your own, any time

What are the benefits of After-Action Reviews?

Learn from experience

Inexpensive, easy

Immediate payoff

Learning at 2 levels:

Individual learning

Team learning

Before, During & After

Learn Before (Peer Assist)

pre start of project meeting to learn from previous projects

Learn During (AAR)

continuous AARs, mainly informal

Learn After (A retrospect)

end of project AAR - formal

project post-mortem

ALL can be run at the personal level!

Summary

AARs are simple yet powerful learning tools

Start to practice personal AARs

Start to practice informal AARs with close colleagues or in teams

Ensure formal AARs are scheduled into all your projects

before, during and after!

Resources

Books

Learning to Fly by Chris Collison & Geoff Parcell

The Project Management 50 by Tom Peters

AAR & Project Management

National Electronic Library for Health website

www.nelh.nhs.uk/knowledge_management

Lunch

Telling Stories

Objectives

Introduce the concept of Storytelling

what is storytelling?

what are the benefits?

what makes a good story?

how can they be used?

Focus more on ‘personal storytelling’ rather than as a corporate tool

Encourage you to start to use storytelling more

What is storytelling?

Storytelling is the use of stories in organizations as a communication tool to share knowledge

Always existed - but now being used as a deliberate tool for sharing knowledge

Traditional communication is often dry, lacking in context and inspiration

Storytelling involves people and inspires them

Use of everyday language is more authentic & human

What are the benefits?

Good for complex ideas & concepts in an understandable form

Can be used to convey knowledge that is difficult to articulate

Provides the context in which knowledge arises

Increases likelihood of meaningful knowledge transfer

Provides a ‘living, breathing’ example of how to do something and why it works

rather than telling people what to do, hence people are more open to the lessons

Stories tend not to get interrupted!

What can stories be used for?

To stimulate thought, creativity and change

To help transfer knowledge

knowledge transfer is not about pouring knowledge into a person’s head

To help communicate complex ideas

To communicate messages that have an emotional dimension

To help build relationships & community

What makes a good story?

Relevant and timely

True and authentic

A ‘plot’ - something strange, remarkable or funny

Told from the perspective of a single protagonist

Structure - a beginning, middle and end

Focused on the positive!

Easy to remember

Personal Storytelling

We all tell, often without realizing we are doing it

Stories from personal experience

I tell many about my daughter Lauren

Identify those stories and refine them

Be on the look out for new ones

especially those from personal experience

Consciously tell more stories

Summary

Storytelling is an effective communication tool

Not a panacea - often not appropriate

e.g. objective reporting

Identify your stories & refine them

you use them far more than you realize

Practice them

Resources

Conversation, Dialogue & Storytelling

Books

“ The Springboard” by Steve Denning

“ On Dialogue” by David Bohm

Websites

www.stevedenning.com

www.theworldcafe.com

Coffee

Social Tools

Objectives

To look at social tools

To explain the ways in which they can be used

To encourage you to explore and experiment for yourselves

Social Tools

Social Tools

Social Software

Social Networking

Social Networking Platforms

Social Network Analysis (SNA)

All rather loosely defined

What is a social tool?

Social software enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities.

Social Tools

Weblogs

Wikis

Social book marking & tagging

Social Networking Communities

Instant Messaging/Presence

RSS Feed Readers

Micro-blogging

Podcasts, videocasts

Mashups

Blogger

Technorati

MediaWiki

LinkedIn, Facebook

Delicious

Google Reader, Bloglines

Skype

Flickr

YouTube, Google Video

Twitter

Odeo

Slideshare

iPod

Creative Commons

But also more traditional tools

E-mail

Instant Messaging

Discussion Forums

Lotus Notes applications

Groove, Teamroom, ...

And ones you might not expect

online dating

ebay

What Differentiates Social tools?

Used by large numbers of people

thousands, tens of thousands, millions

who do not know each other

To form loose communities

Allow you to find & connect to people who you don’t know

Draws on the power of large numbers

Tends to exclude more traditional tools

Properties of Social Tools

bottom-up

open - not closed

decentralized

subversive

emergent properties

uncontrolled

often free

enthusiastic amateurs

Weblogs

What can Weblogs be used for?

Personal journals

News logs/feeds (journalists, professional or amateur)

Knowledge-logs (k-logs)

Marketing & Support blogs/extranets

Real-time conference blogs

Status reporting blogs

Project blogs (group blog)

Lab note books

What can Weblogs be used for?

Used to support CoPs

Event weblogs (similar to status)

Idea logs

Meeting or Action weblogs …

Communications weblogs MD or HR

Feedback weblogs

Trend Indicator weblogs …

Education weblogs

schools, universites, business schools etc

a form of e-learning ...

What are Weblog communities?

Emergent

Naturally form - dynamic

like-minds tend to cluster together

Finding like-minds

google, day-pop, blog-chalking

blogrolls

trackback

referral logs

The feeling is of having a ‘conversation’ not one of ‘publishing’

What is the Psychology of Weblogs?

Own it and take pride in it

A record of your thoughts/ideas

A personal learning journal

Highly personal, own voice

Primarily for yourself

No pressure to publish, comment or reply

Ability to access

‘ like-minds’

‘ world-class minds’

What are the politics of weblogs

Dilemma of being open

“Thinking publically”

These may be my private thoughts

but they are now public

If legal issues with e-mail & IM then what about weblogs?

Ray Ozzie’s ‘corporate blogging policy’

Bottom Line

Weblogs are incredibly powerful knowledge networking tools

sharing and creating knowledge

networking and network formation

Their full power is yet to be really recognized!

RSS Feeds, Newsreaders, Aggregators and Podcasts

What is RSS?

RSS

Rich site summary or real simple syndication

Real simple sharing!

Widely adopted defacto XML standard

developed by Netscape for news distribution

Uses simple set of XML tags

to create a “news feed" e.g. headline, link, description

What is an RSS Feed?

A stream of “items” in the format:

title

date/time published

author

url/link to source

textual body

Produced by media organizations & amateurs

News feeds: newspapers, magazines

Podcasts: audio and video ‘magazines’

Websites: weblog postings and website updates

What is an RSS Reader?

RSS Reader or RSS Newsreader

Allows you to subscribe to & read RSS feeds

Many freely available

download to PC

AmphetaDesk newsreader

online web service

Bloglines (a social tool in its own right)

What is RSS Aggregator?

Often another name for an RSS Reader

Reads a number of feeds & consolidates them onto a single web page for reading or creates a new consolidated feed!

E.g. Planet KM

You can treat weblogs as news feeds

publish them in RSS format

aggregate them like news feeds

Podcasts

Video iPod

TEDTalks

Video podcast of all my Google videos

Undocumented Google feature + Feedburner

Took minutes to create

Summary

Powerful information distribution tool

Has established itself as a standard

Everything but everything is starting to support RSS feeds

Huge potential to reduce e-mail overload

Social Tagging & Folksonomies

Del.icio.us

"Del.icio.us is a social bookmarks manager

Allows you to:

add sites you like to a personal collection of links

categorize those sites with keywords

share your collection not only between your own pcs but also with others.

Del.icio.us

Uses non-hierarchical keyword categorization

Tag your bookmarks with a number of freely chosen keywords (folksonomy verses taxonomy).

A combined view of everyone's bookmarks with a given tag is available

the URL "http://del.icio.us/tag/wiki" displays all the links tagged "wiki".

Collective nature makes it possible to view bookmarks added by similar-minded users

Social Tagging

Del.icio.us

tags links

Flickr

tags photos

YouTube

tags videos

Technorati

tags weblogs

Wikis

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add and edit content

Especially suited for collaborative writing

The name is based on the Hawaiian term wiki, meaning "quick” or "fast"

Features

Easy to use

Do not need to know HTML

Anyone can edit a page

revisions kept

Free!

Wikipedia

Phenomena!

No reward or recognition!

High quality

Little central control

Low cost

Examples

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org

SocialText

http://www.socialtext.com

Confluence

http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence

Contactivity

http://groups.headshift.com/display/CONT06/Home

Flickr

I photo every event in which I participate

Upload to Flickr

Embed slide show on my website

Can merge photos taken by different people with a common tag & create a composite slide show

Skype

Lotus Notes, Firefox

Skype

Voip, Skype-in, Skype-out, SMS, IM

Presence

Conference calls

Webcam

Pamela: record interviews

YouTube & Google Video

Started out with “What is KM?”

Over 30 mini-interviews uploaded

Embedded in my site

Other KM and related videos on my site e.g. Patrick Lambe (blip.tv)

HK Knowledge Café, NLB talk

More planned

Twitter

Micro-blog

Update from mobile phone

Panel on my website

Twitter: current activity

Skype: online presence

78 people following me

FaceBook

Over 250 friends

About 200 Community members

Keeps you connected and in-touch at the ‘micro-level’

Waiting to see what emerges

Google Tools

Google Maps

Google Video

Google Search Engine

Google Alerts

Google Maps API

Google Reader

Google MP3 player

Google Gadgets

Google Webmaster tools

Google Adsense

Google Analytics

Google Docs

The operating system is the web!

Some thoughts on the future

The Future

I’ve been an early adopter

I take this for granted

I never foresaw the growth in social tools and their enthusiastic adoption

But we have only just started

The use of these tools and the new ways of working that they enable is transformational!

The Future

More and more amazing online tools

Powerful

Easy to learn, easy to use

Highly customizable/programmable

Free

All the things that I have done

Anyone can do today

Outside and inside the firewall!

You do not need to be a programmer

The Future

More home workers

More mobile people working, globally, anyplace, anytime

More independent workers

Social tools provide ideal support for this type of work

People will demand access to these tools within their organizations

Social Tools Summary

Social tools are in their infancy

But are very powerful

Tools for knowledge networkers

Driven from the bottom up

Fundamentally about “personal knowledge sharing”

Puts power in the hands of the users!

Resources

Weblog

Social Networking

RSS

Google Reader

Business is a Conversation

Objectives

To raise awareness & interest in the role of conversation in our organizational lives

To encourage us to think about conversation and to improve the quality of our conversations

Business is a conversation Business is a conversation because the defining work of business is conversation - literally. And 'knowledge workers' are simply those people whose job consists of having interesting conversations. David Weinberger The Cluetrain Manifesto

Conversation is a meeting of minds Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards. Theodore Zeldin Conversation

KM is about understanding For all our knowledge, we have no idea what we're talking about. We don't understand what's going on in our business, our market, and our world. KM shouldn’t be about helping us to know more. It should be about helping us to understand. So, how do we understand things? It's through stories that we understand how the world works. David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto

Conversation “A mechanistic and unproductive debate between people seeking to defend their own views against one another” “A frank exchange of ideas or views on a specific issue in an effort to attain mutual understanding” Debate or dialogue?

Dialogue

When we engage each other in dialogue

we enter into a conversation with a view to learn from each other

rather than impose our views on the other.

The kind of conversation I’m interested in is one in which you start with a willingness to emerge a slightly different person. Theodore Zeldin, Historian

Principles of Dialogue

Suspend assumptions, do not judge

Observe & listen to one another

Welcome differences & explore them

Allow taboo subjects to be raised safely

Listen to your inner voice

Slow the discussion

Search for the underlying meaning

Summary

Business is a conversation

Conversation is creative

Understanding is more important than knowing more

Dialogue is the key to quality conversations

The Knowledge Café

Background

Background: conversation & dialogue

My dislike of ‘chalk & talk’ presentations

My desire for people to engage with the subject and to learn through conversation

Three concepts:

People already have the knowledge

A good question helps surface that knowledge

If people see things for themselves they are more committed to act!

What is a Knowledge Café?

A knowledge café is a means of bringing a group of people together to have an open, creative conversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface their collective knowledge, to share ideas and to gain a deeper understanding of the subject and the issues involved.

Why is the K-Caf é important?

The world is a much more complex place than it used to be - at times even chaotic - it is not always clear what is going on - we need to take time to UNDERSTAND

We do not find the time these days to have open conversations, we are under pressure to make quick decisions

KM for example should not be about creating and sharing ever increasing knowledge but understanding more fully the knowledge that we do have!

Where can it be used?

Used for many purposes

To help form a team or community

To gain insight into a complex problem

To better understand an issue

To help solicit input to a new project

To get buy-in for a new project

What resources are needed to run a K-Caf é?

Not a lot to run to a simple format

A group of people

A facilitator or host

A room with plenty of space

Tables & chairs - ideally round tables to seat about five people

but you can run one in a lecture theatre if need be!

How do you run one?

K-Cafés can be run in a number of different ways. Some formats are simple others are more complex

I use a simple format

A K-Caf é runs from 60 minutes to a couple of hours

They work best with between 20 and 30 people

But can be run with a dozen or as many as 100 people

The Knowledge Café

One person speaks for 10-15 minutes to set the theme for the conversation

poses one or two key questions

Group breaks into small groups of five to discuss - dialogue (30 mins)

Come back together to have a large group conversation and to share insights (30 mins)

Engage in Dialogue

When we engage each other in dialogue

we enter into a conversation with a view to learn from each other

rather than impose our views on the other.

Dialogue is based on the work of the physicist David Bohm

The Outcomes of a K-Caf é

Real outcome is what you take away in your head

New connections with people

A deeper understanding of the issue discussed

A deeper understanding and insight into other people’s perspectives

A better appreciation of your own point of view and how it is seen by others

A better knowledge of what you know and don’t know and what others know and don’t know

In a better position to make more informed decisions

Principles of Dialogue

Suspend assumptions, do not judge

Observe & listen to one another

Welcome differences & explore them

Allow taboo subjects to be raised safely

Listen to your inner voice

Slow the discussion

Search for the underlying meaning

Where can I learn more about Knowledge Cafés?

A good stating point is gurteen.com

My regional Knowledge Café’s

London, Bristol, Manchester, New York, Adelaide

The World Café

theworldcafe.com

The Society for Philosophical Inquiry

philosopher.org

The Knowledge Café

The Challenge of Knowledge Sharing Now you know what Social KM is all about - what are the challenges and opportunities in applying it within your organization?

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Actionable Insights