Storytelling, Project Knowledge & Knowledge Management
by Eric Brown on Nov 06, 2009
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A review of stories, project knowledge and sharing project knowledge using stories. Includes an introduction to to my storytelling model for KM in projects.
A review of stories, project knowledge and sharing project knowledge using stories. Includes an introduction to to my storytelling model for KM in projects.
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My name is Eric Brown and I’m here talk about Storytelling for Knowledge Management.
I’ve been researching the topic of Storytelling as a means to convey knowledge in projects using digital tools. While my main focus has been on project teams, this could be applied in areas outside of project management.
Before we dive into the topic too far, let’s review what stories are and what they are good for.
They determined that stories were best utilized for: read bullets
In order for stories to work, they must (change slide)
Think about fables that you heard/read as a kid. (flip page)
episodic memory - something so vivid (and scarring?) that you remember it immediately.
written in fable format...starts out with the introduction to a character, the quest and sets the reader on a journey.
Let’s look an example of vivid imagery:
Everyone’s heard stories of bear attacks. There are movies and books about bear attacks. There are even products for hikers and campers to keep bears away but there aren’t many ‘moose-b-gone’ products.
Which one is more likely? A bear attack or a moose attack? (click slide)
We remember the stories of vicious bear attacks because they are more vivid, therefore we tend to think they are more regular activities than moose attacks.
yogi bear was an anomaly - but....how many people die each year because they thought of yogi bear when they see this animal?
I was within 20 yards of a moose...and I knew they were more dangerous than a bear...i set the world record of the 20 yard dash up a hill by a fat man!
So...let’s move on to projects and knowledge in projects.
2nd - project managers and leaders do not focus on these efforts
talk about types of knowledge in projects.
Domain Knowledge: knowledge that a project team or member has about the industry, technology, processes, current situation, business and products
Institutional Knowledge: knowledge that a project team or member has about the organization.
Cultural Knowledge: knowledge about the organizational culture as well as cultural backgrounds of the project team members.
When a new team member joins the project, they are asked to answer a series of interview questions using journaling / blogging software. These questions are added to their history.
Each member keeps a weekly journal. These are reviewed at weekly meetings. the journals entries are combined into weekly learning histories.
Weekly histories are combined into the Project Learning history which tells the story of the project. Learning Histories are based on Roth & Kleiner’s work.
Each team member writes about lessons learned during the week and comments on learning history (internalization).