Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support
Report
kjantinFollow
Jul. 12, 2016•0 likes•1,247 views
Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support
Jul. 12, 2016•0 likes•1,247 views
Download to read offline
Report
Technology
For TechChange KM course July 2016, by Kristin Antin
kjantinFollow
Recommended
Network EffectivenessBeth Kanter
Social Media in Nonprofit Organizations 2010Margaret Palmiter
Making the Case: Social Media for AttorneysCosta DeVault
Social Media For Social ChangeJason Scott
Communities of Practice: Conversations To CollaborationCollabor8now Ltd
Technology Stewardship Workshop Slides Nov09Nancy Wright White
More Related Content
What's hot
Digital Storytelling Expert RoundtableTechSoup
Social givingLisa Colton
Foundations Of Social MediaLisa Colton
Analysing the Effectiveness of Social MediaCheryle
Neias june 16 2010Amanda Edgar
An Overview of Social Media for ACT Sporting organisationsSport and Recreation Services, ACT Government
Similar to Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support
Social Media Strategy Game Workshop FinalBeth Kanter
Lutheran Communicators Network Presentation April 29 2009Michigan Nonprofit Association Online
Greater Expectations #FLRIFuturelab
What Is Important About Cop Concept And FrameworkKnowledge Communities
Social Media As A Recruitment ToolAylin Aron (Ahmet)
Social Networking, Online Communities & Research - WCHRI RoundsColleen Young
Similar to Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support(20)
More from kjantin
CEJIL uses Uwazi to improve access documents of the Inter-American Human Righ...kjantin
CEJIL uses Uwazi to improve access documents of the Inter-American Human Righ...kjantin
Sjt risks and mitigations of releasing datakjantin
How to send & receive private messages on newtactics.orgkjantin
How to tag New Tactics members in comments kjantin
How to participate spanishkjantin
Recently uploaded
Orchestration, Automation and Virtualisation Maturity ModelCSUC - Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya
Take Control of Podcasting thanks to Open Source and Podcasting 2.0🎙 Benjamin Bellamy
Experts Live Europe 2023 - Ensure your compliance in Microsoft Teams with Mic...Jasper Oosterveld
web test repair.pptxYuanzhangLin
Nymity Framework: Privacy & Data Protection Update in 7 StatesTrustArc
Die ultimative Anleitung für HCL Nomad Web Administratorenpanagenda
Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support
- 1. Facilitating Knowledge-Exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support For TechChange KM course July 2016, by Kristin Antin
- 2. “I see my work as being at the intersection of information & knowledge management, digital security, and community building within the field of human rights.” 2 MY BACKGROUND
- 3. CONTEXT: KNOWLEDGE- EXCHANGE IN HUMAN RIGHTS
- 4. What are the barriers to knowledge-exchange? 1.Competition. There is a small pool of funding and organisations often feel the need to prove that they know how to do something better than others. 2.Security. Human rights defenders need to think carefully about what to share, and how, in order to keep themselves and those around them safe. 3.Lack of time. Human rights work is hard and endless. It is hard to prioritise sharing your knowledge on developing mobilisation strategies over the actions themselves. 4 KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE IN HUMAN RIGHTS
- 5. Why do we share knowledge with peers? To strengthen our human rights work (mission-driven): 1.Learn what works and why: learn and apply successful approaches to human rights work 2.Learn what doesn’t work and why: we have a lot to learn from others’ mistakes. 3.Learn something new through reflection: the act of sharing in and of itself is very useful 4.Create a stronger network of peers that we can turn to for advice and support. 5 KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE IN HUMAN RIGHTS
- 6. 6 KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE IN HUMAN RIGHTS Community What they share Platform for sharing Rising Voices https:// rising.globalvoices.org/ Citizen media practitioners sharing knowledge Facebook Namati https://community.namati.org/ Sharing innovations in legal empowerment Discourse Kabissa https://forum.kabissa.org/ African Civil Society Orgs sharing knowledge using ICT Discourse New Tactics in Human Rights https:// www.newtactics.org/ Human rights “tactics” across the sector Drupal (forums module) Equitas https://community.equitas.org/ login/index.php Knowledge and experience on human rights education Not sure, closed platform
- 7. PROVIDING INCENTIVES FOR KNOWLEDGE- SHARING
- 8. We felt that these were the main incentives for participation: 1.To learn a new human rights approach/tactic. 2.To learn a new resource (guide, tool, platform, organization, etc). 3.To learn something new by reflecting on and sharing my experiences. 4.To meet new practitioners that may provide support and advice in the future. 5.To give back to the community. 6.To be seen as a leader in this field. 8 INCENTIVES: OUR ASSUMPTIONS
- 9. Average response to post-discussion survey for New Tactics conversation leaders Based on 198 respondents from 2010 to 2014. 9 INCENTIVES: WHAT WE LEARNED I learned a new approach or tactic that I hope to use in the future. I learned about a new resource or tool that I hope to use in the future. Sharing my experiences and challenges helped me to reflect on my own work. I met new practitioners that I may contact in the future. 1 2 3 4 5 3.9 4.3 3.8 3.7
- 10. 10 INCENTIVES: TACTICS TO UTILIZE THEM Incentives Tactics To learn a new approach/tactic/resource. Ask questions to get at the transferable knowledge, model the kind of knowledge you want people to share To learn something new by reflecting on and sharing my experiences. Provide questions, templates, guides and advice on effective sharing; lots of follow-up questions; they can share the output/summary w/ colleagues To meet new practitioners that may provide support and advice in the future. Video conference calls provide a way to build familiarity and rapport To be seen as a leader in this field. Promote their contributions through social media, newsletter, website, etc.
- 11. FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE- EXCHANGE
- 12. Webinars, Conference Calls and Hangouts For my research on affordable platforms, read: https://www.theengineroom.org/useful-online- meeting-tools/ 12 FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE
- 13. Email Discussion Lists Is your community concerned about privacy and security? Read: https://www.huridocs.org/?p=4833 13 FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE
- 14. Online Discussion Forums Drupal: New Tactics in Human Rights BuddyPress: GPSA Knowledge Platform 14 FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE
- 15. Online Discussion Forums Twitter: #CommBuild —-> Discourse: OKFN 15 FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE
- 16. In-Person Exchange Each participants is a skill-sharer and a skill-learner. • Write down a skill to share • Write down a skill to learn • Mingle! More info on facilitating in-person events from AspirationTech: http://facilitation.aspirationtech.org 16 FORMATS FOR EFFECTIVE KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE
- 17. FACILITATION TECHNIQUES AND PROVIDING SUPPORT
- 18. A few ingredients for successful facilitation 18 FACILITATION AND SUPPORT What seems to work What doesn’t work so well Selecting specific topics leads to sharing of practical, useful information Big, broad, or vague topics often stay conceptual/ theoretical Coach a few people to share their knowledge on the topic w/ structured format Present a list of questions to a group of people and ask them to respond = chaos Encourage participants to share examples and case studies grounds the information in the real-world Sharing hypotheticals and ideas can only provide so much info (can’t provide advice and experience) Encourage less background info, more of the “how we did it” info Open-ended discussion/presentation, with little format/structure
- 19. Model the behavior you want • Sharing examples • “Here is an example of the kind of comment we’re looking for…” • “Watch this recorded presentation to give you an idea of what we’re looking for…” • Participate, yourself. As facilitator, you set the tone. • Recruit champions to model what want • “I know you have developed an open source tool for video verification - can you please reply to this comment and share why you decided open source was the best approach.” • Guidelines and templates • “When replying to comment, include: acknowledgement of author’s situation, your own experience that relates, any advice, resources or ideas. End with a question for others.” 19 FACILITATION AND SUPPORT
- 20. Encouragement This is SO important! Here’s what it could look like: • Lots of “That comment you shared was really useful!” emails. • Show your appreciation with lots of thanks. Promote their contributions on social media. • Do whatever it takes to get a few people to ask follow up questions. • Share info on the reach of their contribution: If possible, update them on who is listening/reading/watching their contributions (can you pull stats, use Google Analytics, etc?). 20 FACILITATION AND SUPPORT
- 21. Technical support Make it as easy as possible for people to contribute to your initiative. • Providing very clear instructions on how to use the platform (consider creating a video or a guide with lots of screenshots, or both!) Example: https://www.newtactics.org/resource/how-do-i- participate-new-tactics-online-conversation • Host a conference call with participants before the knowledge- exchange event to walk them through all the steps, layout expectations, share advice, and answer any questions. • Be available for additional support. 21 FACILITATION AND SUPPORT
- 22. THANK YOU You can read about me at www.kristinantin.com, and reach me at kristin@huridocs.org or @kjantin on Twitter.
Editor's Notes
- Facilitating knowledge-exchange: providing the right format, incentives, facilitation and support Capturing knowledge is an important and sometimes difficult step in knowledge management. That’s why it’s important to provide the right format, incentives, facilitation and support to your community. Whether you are working with project team, an organisation, or a broader, cross-organisational community of practice, you need to find incentives and formats for members to share their knowledge. Based on my experience working with communities of practice in the human rights field, I will share what I have learned about formats for effective knowledge-exchange, helpful incentives, and techniques for providing useful facilitation and support.
- I see my work as being at the intersection of information & knowledge management, digital security, and community building within the field of human rights. I have over 8 years of experience building communities of practice and creating opportunities for peer-to-peer learning for: the New Tactics in Human Rights Project at the Center for Victims of Torture, the engine room, and CIVICUS. Now, as Community Knowledge Manager for HURIDOCS, I am excited to be capturing our community’s knowledge on human rights information management and documentation.
- Competition. I don’t see this often, but I know it exists. There is a small pool of funding and organisations often feel the need to prove that they know how to do something better than others. It would be hard to keep your hold on the market if you are sharing your trade secrets with peers! Security. Sharing the ins and outs of your LGBT rights campaign in Uganda might be incredibly useful to other practitioners, but it could also land you in jail (or worse). Human rights defenders need to think carefully about what to share, and how, in order to keep themselves and those around them safe. Lack of time. This work is hard and endless. It is hard to prioritise sharing your knowledge on developing mobilisation strategies over the actions themselves.
- learn and apply successful approaches to human rights work (whether these approaches related to efforts of advocacy, healing, strategic litigation, mobilization, policy making, etc). learn what doesn’t work and why. We have a lot to learn from others’ mistakes. reflect on and celebrate the work we’ve done, so that we learn something new. create a stronger network of peers that we can turn to for advice and support.
- Examples
- Human rights practitioners do not have a lot of time, so how can we ask them to take the time to share their knowledge? Answer: they *have to* feel like they benefit directly from the exchange in some way: it helps them do their job well, they feel less isolated.
- People will have different reasons for sharing their knowledge and experience. These are the reasons/incentives that we came up with. Within the human rights and nonprofit areas, we know that many practitioners are motivated by the mission of their work. Therefore, it isn’t so strange for these practitioners to be motivated to share their knowledge in order to “give back” to the community - as long as they believe it will be valued and used. We felt that the first 4 incentives on this list represented the main areas of impact for our community-building efforts. So, we decided to include questions about these incentives/areas of impact in our post-discussion survey for community members.
- People benefit from sharing. We were surprised to learn how many participants felt that the opportunity to share and reflect on their own experiences was particularly valuable. Often, human rights practitioners barely have time to tie their shoes let alone reflect on their work. But providing the format and structure for practitioners to reflect on their work is something that is extremely valuable. (and being able to share these reflections in a helpful way with peers is an added bonus!)
- Remember: It is also important to demonstrate the impact that this knowledge-sharing is having on the community. Only then do people know that their contribution is meaningful. Collect a few stories of people who have benefited from this exchange. Example: https://vimeo.com/84681639 (more tactics later in the presentation)
- Great way to engage people (visuals, short and sweet) Recordable and can be used over and over Recruit and coach 2-3 people to present their experience/knowledge on the topic, then open it up to questions. Allow for ongoing discussion on an email discussion, forum, Twitter, or other format. Good facilitation is important. Have someone on hand to help with tech issues. Link to list of platforms: https://www.theengineroom.org/useful-online-meeting-tools/
- A good option for communities that want their exchange to be more private/closed (depending on how you set it up). For more info, see: https://www.huridocs.org/?p=4833 Good moderation is important. Encourage people to reply to each other - it’s within these person-to-person exchange that useful knowledge is shared. Tap members to post questions to the list to model the behavior you want. Tap other members to reply! You need to figure out how you want to capture/share/organise the knowledge shared in the list. Do you simply use the email archive? Or, provide a summary of the exchange on your website?
- A way to crowdsource knowledge and have it live as content online. If you do it right (using a CMS), it can connect to other content on your website. This could also be part of an online community of practice. Could host regular discussions once per month, recruit practitioners to lead the discussion. Good moderation is important. Encourage people to reply to each other - it’s within these person-to-person exchange that useful knowledge is shared. Also helpful to provide a summary of the exchange so people don’t have to read through 100 comments. Examples: New Tactics #commbuild OKFN Namati
- A way to crowdsource knowledge and have it live as content online. If you do it right (using a CMS), it can connect to other content on your website. This could also be part of an online community of practice. Could host regular discussions once per month, recruit practitioners to lead the discussion. Good moderation is important. Encourage people to reply to each other - it’s within these person-to-person exchange that useful knowledge is shared. Also helpful to provide a summary of the exchange so people don’t have to read through 100 comments.
- I’ve used this approach at a few conferences. We usually spend about 40-60 minutes on this activity. Each participant writes down on a colored piece of paper: one skill that they can share. On a different colored piece of paper, write down: one skill you want to learn. For 20 minutes, half of the group is on a mission to learn a new skill. They mingle throughout the group to find someone with a skill they want to learn, then they discuss. For the next 20 minutes, the group switches and the other half mingles to find a skill they want to learn. Bonus: participants meet each other, and learn a little more about what their peers know and what they are struggling with. Hopefully they’ll continue the knowledge exchange over lunch!
- It’s important to find the right balance between providing a good amount of structure to the exchange while also keeping the space open to all voices and perspectives. Structure is especially important if you need to keep the discussion within a certain timeframe. What do I mean by “structure”? At New Tactics, we had a pretty good formula down for each online discussion: each discussion lasted 5 days, we recruited 6-10 discussion leaders, each leader posted at least twice per day, we had a clear timeline of steps so everyone knew what to expect, we provided a conference call the day before. (Example of expectations: https://www.newtactics.org/resource/what-conversation-leader) We also provided tips for useful participation: https://goo.gl/ncybLc
- People learn from observing you and others.
- 2. Encouragement This is SO important! Here’s what it could look like: Lots of “You’re doing great!” emails. You could even provide some additional advice or tips based on their contribution so far. (Afterall, they want to do this well) Show your appreciation with lots of thanks. Promote their contributions on social media. Do whatever it takes to get a few people to ask follow up questions. If your sharers know that people are interested, they are more willing to share! If possible, update them on who is listening/reading/watching their contributions (can you pull stats, use Google Analytics, etc?).
- Example of instructions: https://www.newtactics.org/resource/how-do-i-participate-new-tactics-online-conversation