Sep 03
Why is Knowledge Sharing Important?
My colleague Edgar dropped me a note about some workshops on knowledge sharing that he’s preparing for about a hundred practitioners in a knowledge sharing programme organised through the FAO. He asked me these questions, which he believes need to be answered in the programme:
1. what’s knowledge sharing?
2. why is it important for organisations and specifically for projects?
3. is all knowledge sharing good?
4. why should we encourage knowledge sharing?
So I sat in front of a camera and made this 15 minute podcast. I don’t think I got to question 3, but I think I met the other questions. Why do you think knowledge sharing is important?
You can download the original video file here, and view it on blip.tv here.
Aug 26
Origins Gets Press
The Straits Times today had a double page spread on the Origins Conference and its parent, the Singapore International Storytelling Festival. Some interesting quotes from our speakers that have me looking forward to the event even more. If you haven’t booked your place yet, time is running out!
Aug 23
The Realities of Virtual Collaboration
From Jack Vinson via Facebook
Aug 20
Many a Slip Twixt Template and Code
So we’ve been working on upgrading our web store (nice job, Simsys!) to put in a shopping cart and be able to manage more products. And we have just published a new set of KM Diagnostic Cards to support organisational KM audits and to go with our Culture Cards and Method Cards. And we got agreement from some select partners to sell their niche KM related products from our store.
Big deal, right? And so, big announcement and celebratory 20% off coupon code in our August Straits Knowledge Newsletter sent out to our several thousands strong contact database. Hurrah!
At which point, our payment services provider Plimus mysteriously disappears the coupon code field on the checkout page… sigh. Oh did I mention that it was just after I went home for the evening?
So 24 hours later after multiple support requests, transatlantic phone calls, and placating confused and possibly frustrated buyers, the coupon code box mysteriously reappears on most, not all pages. And then on all. No explanation or reply from Plimus. However, from changes in the payment page templates, we suspect that this was Plimus shifting to a new set of templates, and somebody simply forgot that little piece of script to include the coupon code box.
This was a big deal for us, evidently a small one for Plimus. But our increasing reliance on complex and opaque technology infrastructure, serviced by people who are careless, working for companies that evidently don’t care for their customers, leads to more and more of such errors. In July, the largest ATM network in Singapore serving DBS and POSB bank customers, crashed for over seven hours (peak morning hours) as a result of repeated – and apparently stubborn – errors by the IBM engineers servicing the network. They got a slap on the wrist. Who will slap Plimus for us?
Oh, that coupon code is available and still active – check the newsletter link to find it.
Aug 16
Does Giving Up Control Bring Out the Worst in People?
Via Johnnie Moore these two short videos about the growing evidence that less control sometimes means greater efficiency and more considerate behaviour. What happens when an entire town full of busy roads and regular traffic congestion switches off its traffic lights? What would happen if you switched off access controls and security classifications except for the most sensitive of documents and contexts?
Aug 06
Thoughts on “Absolute” KM Objectives - or Guiding Principles
At our company we are currently putting some intensive thoughts into a new corporate Knowledge Management strategy. I hope you understand, that I can not go into details of our strategy itself but one specific part I would like to share and discuss with you.
In order to lay the foundation of the new KM strategy, we were sketching the “absolute” or “ultimate” KM objectives, which could be generic for any company (edit: user Joachim suggested the term Guiding Principles, which describes the ideas below very well). We started this process with a reverse brainstorming based on the question ‘which behaviour is totally destroying knowledge sharing?’ - to some of you this might be familiar. Based on the outcome, we then started to formulate the antidotes. As a result, we established seven desired behaviours for Knowledge Sharing, which I would like to share here:
Jul 17
Updates on Expertise Project and the Origins Business Narrative Conference
In case any of you are wondering about our “Using and leveraging expertise” project, I have posted an update on the Origins Business Narrative Conference Blog – which, by the way, is building really nicely as different story experts share their insights and start discussing important themes in the run-up to the conference.
For those of you interested in the conference itself (Singapore 7-8 September 2010), arrangements are in full swing, and we’re hoping to have a range of storytelling resources on display, with help so far from John Wiley in Singapore and Corban & Blair In Sydney (have you seen their “What’s Your Story?” cards?). Do get involved if you have things to suggest! And do register soon... the early bird rates expire in two weeks!
Jul 16
Find the Pain, Fix It
A few weeks back I had the privilege of a conversation with Patricia Eng who directs knowledge management for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I had met Patricia at KM World the previous November, and was impressed by her passionate, no-nonsense, deeply practical approach to KM, not to mention a very robust sense of humour.
In this conversation, which she agreed to have filmed, we explored how she got into KM, and what it takes to be effective in a knowledge management role. Patricia downplays her technical knowledge of KM, and explains that she came into it because she was running into knowledge access problems in her then role at NASA. KM was just one of the problems to be solved along the way. What was interesting to me in this conversation was (a) the credibility she brought to the role from her experience in a technical role and history in the organisation (b) the value of being opportunistic and thick skinned© the passion for focusing on helping real people get real work done (d) there’s often more value in access to knowledgeable and experienced peer-advisors in KM, than from the KM theory.
Enjoy! (You can download the original video file by right clicking here).
Jul 15
The Negative Archetypes of Gov 2.0
Well, we have our cultural archetypes cards portraying positive and negative patterns of behaviour in organisations, and Mike Reed has his spectacular “Flame Warriors” representing online community behaviours. Now from Steve Radick comes this neat piece on the “Six Villains of Gov 2.0”, supplemented by an additional villain “The Man” described by Gwynne Kostin (her photo selection is hilarious). How many of these villains do you know, and how many times have you reacted in one of those roles? I recognised a few in myself! Via Tony Joyce (thanks, Tony!).
Jul 14
Robots, the Turing Test and Transference
Here’s a fascinating video interview by the New York Times with a robot modelled on a real person. One of the really intriguing parts of this video is how the anthropomorphic features of the robot draw the interviewer into feeling the robot is almost a real person, creating as much sympathy as frustration at the confusion the robot exhibits in the conversation. That’s one way to sidestep the Turing Test problem.
