Towards a futures strategy for the Victorian Community

Services Sector

A Knowledge PerspectiveRichard Vines

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

Alfred Felton Research Program

Acknowledgements

•Leaders within the Child and Family Welfare Sector

•Alfred Felton Trust Fund

•Telstra Foundation

What is a knowledge lens?

How might this contribute to a

“futures strategy”?

The child and family welfare sector as an example

… leading to some generalisable principles

for the community

sector

Comments about the knowledge management community generally

…..… uncertainty about how

KM is defined ….

…. And the primacy of the

“end user’ –

being people in community!

The Child Protection System… as a complex adaptive system

Child and Family Services

Complex adaptive systems

• Individual agents (people)• Adjustments to environment• Actions (individual and collective)• Inter-connected elements• Adaptive to change• Unpredictable

Characterised by

Knowledge as an emergent property of a complex adaptive system

Knowledge is relational … it is simply solutions to problems

Complex Adaptive System

Flow on impact into related sub-

systems and other service systems

???

Complex adaptive systems

Patterns before

Emergent pattern?

Complex adaptive systems

Complex adaptive systems

Emergent pattern?

Towards a Futures Strategy

A knowledge lens

A knowledge lens leading to …

…the idea of some general principles

Principle 1

Respect for the contextualised (inc localised) nature of knowledge

A knowledge lens

Principle 2

The need for new mechanisms to identify emergent patterns

Principle 3Negotiated agreements about intervening

in complex adaptive systems

A knowledge lens

Including emerging approaches to mass capture of narrative

and anecdotes

Principle 4

Support for organisational-knowledge capacity development

See formal paper for full details

Support for organisational-knowledge capacity development

Principle 4

● Examination and support for ways in which CSOs absorb new knowledge (solutions to problems)● Learning and development, including skills associated with working in complex adaptive systems● Inclusion of the voice of the user in impact analysis ● Aging workforce issues ● Support for mobile workforce infrastructures and technology support systems to enable mobile / flexible work activities ● Connecting with historical vision and mission

Principle 5

Support for strategic research (and brokering research)

Principle 6Specific support mechanisms for

data management (and knowledge management?)

Principle 6

A knowledge lens

Multiple data systems for different government agencies

Principle 6

A knowledge lens

Multiple schemas for quality assurance

Principle 7

Strategic research associated with interoperability

A knowledge lens

Principle 7

Thank you

Richard Vines

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

Alfred Felton Research Program