Thinking out loud about “strategic knowledge sharing practices”…

PART 2!

Or…I get by with a little help

from my friends (The Beatles)

This is the second version, augmented with comments on my blog post at

http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2007/06/strategic-knowledge-sharing-practices.htm

I was talking with my friend Shawn

and he showed me this post about

knowledge strategy on his blog…

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http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2007/05/focussing_your.html

I wondered… what if we use this framework of “knowledge strategy” to think about our knowledge sharing (KS) practices?

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jay said... Nancy, this ties directly to my work on informal learning. Ping me when you have time. All the best.

Everything is connected…

Shawn said... Hi Nancy, the post you referred to isn't really a framework but just something I've noticed. That is, when you ask different organisations about their objectives for improving how knowledge is used in their organisations, they tend to say the same thing. This incomplete list (it doesn't say too much about information management) is something I present to an organisation as a smorgasbord of possibilties from which I get them to choose three to focus on for a year. Then I get them to implement our Three Journeys approach (which is more like a framework) described here: http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2007/05/knowledge_strat_3.html

I would love to hear what Jay is thinking on this topic. I loved his book on Informal Learning.

Shawn said... Hi Nancy, the post you referred to isn't really a framework but just something I've noticed. That is, when you ask different organisations about their objectives for improving how knowledge is used in their organisations, they tend to say the same thing. This incomplete list (it doesn't say too much about information management) is something I present to an organisation as a smorgasbord of possibilties from which I get them to choose three to focus on for a year. Then I get them to implement our Three Journeys approach (which is more like a framework) described here: http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2007/05/knowledge_strat_3.html

I would love to hear what Jay is thinking on this topic. I loved his book on Informal Learning.

OK, what is a framework? Especially in the context of

pulling it out of a set of observations from Anecdote?

Will it help us do a better job of STRATEGICALLY exploring and applying our knowledge sharing

practices in our networks and organizations?

Will leadership see value and understand

why we are so passionate about KS?

Bong said... Nancy,

As I view it, the framework needs structure to support the domain and community element. This includes reinforcement like education, training, and etc. to improve the practice.

Moreover, the strategic value of knowledge sharing is found in its meaning - the premise, leadership plays a great role in here. The meaning could empower the people and encourage them to make a difference. And the benefits are limitless.

Hope this could help.

Kind regards,

Bong

What IS the role of leadership in KS and who exercises that role? How should we reflect

that in our organizational and practice designs?

Danilo AlsonadoIn the Philippines said:

Is this framework useful in practice? Is it flexible enough to allow things to fit in multiple places? Simple enough to help

orient and organize ourselves?

So then I started reading, “Everything is Miscellaneous” by

David Weinberger. I realized was I was trying to maintain the flexibility of the different ways KS practices can be applied, display them with some context of their value to an

organization – thus creating a faceted structure. Hmmm…

Floris Koot said... Hi Nancy,

Two questions:Storytelling. How could you use the ambivalence of storytelling to draw people to essential topics and information and how could it be used to overcome the issue of different jargon/tagging, so that same issues/different wording can find each other?How is the understanding of the need for info sharing strengthened? In war the need for sharing info is clear. But what if no pressing matters seem at hand. What incentive can people stimulate to share info? A working model is a step, but not the step to overcome this issue, i think. Floris

This faceted and “miscellaneous”

approach may be linked to part of Floris’

observations…

That still leaves the issues of power, motivation and leadership

hanging over our heads…

Insert the sound of thinking…

1. Attract and retain the best people2. Minimise the impact of people leaving – or better retain our

knowledge3. Encourage people to call for help4. Build better relationships 5. Improve ability to find relevant expertise6. Improve ability to search for and find information7. Avoid reinventing the wheel8. Find and applying good practice 9. Build skills and know-how10. Improve innovation11. Improve how we learn from mistakes and successes12. Better deal with complex situations13. Enhance collaboration

What if we explored Anecdote’s observations with a “communities of

practice perspective?”

Community

Domain

Practice

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Knowledge/information

(Domain)

People(Community)

Practices(Practice)

Find expertise

Ask for help

Build relationships

Avoid “wheel reinvention”

Attract &retain greatpeopleCollaborate Minimize

impact of people leaving

Vision &plan

Learn from mistakes &success

Build skills,

practices and knowledge

Search andfind information

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(Exercise) leadership

New stuff in red

E.g. Storytelling

Negotiation of meaning

Find value

Sense of shared domain?

I’m still not quite sure how it expresses the

strategic value of knowledge sharing. Do you have any ideas?

Knowledge/information

PeoplePractices

It could be flexible…With tagging and categories,

any particular KS method could fit in a number of areas. “Calling for help” could fit in

both “People” and “Practices.” So I could sort

through methods with either view! (Ah, faceted views!)

Knowledge/information

PeoplePractices

People could attach stories of methods in use, again

tagging by main area, sub area or any other way. This could facilitate organizing

methods even across languages! Woo hoo!

I’m getting excited. If this makes sense to

you, it might be something USEFUL!!!

We could dig deeper into any area, such as

collaboration, helping serve as a way to organize collections of practices and

resources for knowledge sharing.

For example, “collaboration” might

branch more deeply to methods for teams,

choosing collaborative tools, etc.

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Can this serve as a way to share, find, organize and reflect on

knowledge sharing practices? Is it a more strategic way to apply KS in an

organization?

What do you think?

???Full Circle Associates