The New Edge in KM
Thursday, May 1 | 8:30 am
Presenter: Carla O'Dell, president, APQC
Always on the leading edge of KM, APQC President Carla O'Dell is a practitioner, speaker, and writer in knowledge management strategy and methods. She has been the subject matter expert for most of APQC's 19 major consortia aimed at discovering best practices in KM. O'Dell is the author of The Executive's Role in Knowledge Management (APQC, 2004) and co-author of If Only We Knew What We Know: The Internal Transfer of Knowledge and Best Practices (Free Press, 1998).
Note from Carla:
I'm so glad that you're exploring our new KM Web site. With regard to KM Edge, I invite you to do three things during the conference.
First, I encourage you to use the comment feature on the keynote and breakout session pages to react to what you hear in the sessions--let's extend the conversation online by sharing our insights and perspectives. Everyone here has experience and expertise in KM, and yours might be just what someone else is looking for. Plus, every time you comment on one of the sessions, you'll be entered to win one of 10 $100 Amazon.com gift cards.
The second two actions relate to shaping the community aspects of KM Edge. What you see here during the conference is phase one--robust community forums and social networking are on the way. Please help us build a KM community site that you want to be part of. We don't want to over-engineer this until we see what you value. Stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us as we develop the community aspects of the site. Send us ideas, feedback, and useful content you would like to share with the community. build@kmedge.org
And finally, if you would like to really do some work and be a featured contributor to the blog or moderate a forum, please let us know. build@kmedge.org
Resources:
Email: codell@apqc.org
Further Reading:
New KM Research
KM Consortium study on expertise location and social networking
Links cited in Presentation
http://www.internetworldstats.com/
http://www.pewinternet.org/ppf/r/198/report_display.asp
Here's a reaction to
Carla's keynote by APQC's Cindy Hubert
I love
the weather--so does Dr. Carla O'Dell. In
her talk today, she used the unpredictability of the weather as an analogy for
the unpredictability of the new forces bearing down on KM practices. She suggested that these new forces, while
they have the potential for "disaster," also open the door to new
opportunities. Social computing and networking are scary for organizations
because using these tools involves giving up some control to users. However,
these new practices are revolutionizing the way people collaborate and share
their knowledge.
The
question that keeps coming up for me is: Are we putting too much emphasis on
the formality of managing knowledge, and should the new forces be allowed to
merge into the "old way" of working and thinking?
Are these
new forces capable of changing the paradigm for knowledge and creating new ways
of working? How will "formal" KM programs need to adjust their current
approaches for helping knowledge flow and ensuring that it gets organized,
managed, and used? Will social
computing, networking, and tapping into the wisdom of crowds help us show
tangible value to the bottom line? And
will the current structures of our organizations allow us to really stand face-to-face
with the storm of change that is already here?
Don't we still need to demonstrate the value of our KM efforts--and will
the new forces that enable knowledge to flow more freely allow us to show this
value?
Carla
talked about a number of tools and methods--social networking, wikis, blogs--that
are pushing KM to the "edge." She asked whether, for those of us who have been
in this KM game for a long time, these new forces are going to change some of
the enduring truths we know about KM.
For
example, a basic tenant of KM is not trying to change the organizational
culture--you are not as strong as your
culture, and it will win every time. But what about social computing
tools? They potentially make connecting
to people easier, faster, and more efficient.
Will they help us alter culturally ingrained behaviors for sharing and
connecting to people who "know" what you need?
I don't
think the tools alone will do it. The
question for us to answer is: How do you combine the new forces with the
enduring truths in order to bring people together?
A warm hello to Peter Stinson who is blogging live from the APQC pre-conference training. Check it out. Carla
http://www.cgblog.org/2008/04/greetings-from-chicago-live-blogging.html
Nice presentaton Carla.. almost wish it was video captured so I could re-broadcast inside our organization.
On the Enduring Lessons table discussion, one comment that came out was what I'l interpret as "leadership signals".. certainly an enduring lesson is the role that leaders (and managers too) in creating the conditions that support knowledge creation, capture and flow in their organizations. Not everyone is an anarchist and able to fight against barriers and thrive in so doing.
Thanks, Dale. I was also impressed with the other "eduring truths" that emerged from the group: senior exec support, resources (which seem to go together :) ), intrinsic rewards.
The unknown issue is whether the new tools of social computing are just an overlay on a foundation of people and process, or whether they help change the fundamentals. Larry Prusak believes they are just tools, and he may be right. this is a hotbed of experimentation and learning, and APQC is proud to be part of the exploration.
Carla
Carla, your comments about the generational differences got me to thinking....at some point in the discussion I realized that I, as a baby boomer, still have some mistrust of the broad public social networking tools. I'm an avid user of the internal ones we have in IBM, but, for example, I haven't really jumped on the bandwagon with Facebook, and I'm still a little nervous about being known in Second Life. I think baby boomers develop trust differently. I'm not sure what the nature of the difference is. Does it require a more explicit affinity, such as working for the same company? A face-to-face basis? A more direct purpose? I'd love to hear what other people think.....
Alice.. I too share your sentiments.. there was a news article recently about how easy it is to write a Facebook application, disguised as a harmless game, that in the background extracts personal information as soon as you install the application and proceeds to do the same with all your Facebook Friends.
The reality is that the bad guys are always a step ahead of the good guys, so personal information out on the internet is at significant risk. Period. And, Internet stuff rarely goes away. I still find references or copies of stuff I created years ago when I Google for a bit. And Facebook will let you disable your profile, but will not.. or at best reluctantly, delete your information.
Just because younger generations are unafraid to put themselves "out there" doesn't mean they're right.
Caution is definitely a good idea.
Cindy wonders: "...should the new forces be allowed to merge into the "old way" of working and thinking?" I think the calico cat is out of the bag and it won't be possible for the new forces to simply merge into the "old" ways. Rather, the new forces should be allowed and encouraged to transform the old ways so the end result is a better way of communicating -- one that leads to deeper critical thinking, to more substantive creation of new knowledge, and to more meaningful and true sharing of knowledge, not just information.
We need hours to discuss this. I'm with Alice and Dale. I'll share freely inside ApQC and will a community I choose to join (which bodes well for social networking inside firms)but my ut instinct is that there is no value for me on the public sites. won't it be ironic if we "sandwich" gens are the power users of social networking and expertise location inside the walls. Darcy and Jim, lets find a way to get at this in the new consortium study on expertise location and social networking. What do the rest of you think are the actionable questions we should address?
Alice, I'm totally with you about the reluctance to join Facebook. I've been on the edge of doing it a couple times but decided to listen to my inner voice of caution. Then I read stories by people who went through months of agony and struggle with Facebook trying to get their profiles deleted. Some people even had to take legal action.
I can't help wondering if younger people are seemingly bolder about sharing their information so publicly because they don't yet have the worldly experience required to know or understand how such freely shared information can be compromised or used against them. I was a lot more reckless re just about everything when I was in my 20s. Having said that, I would be comfortable and willing to participate in a social network that was secure and protected within my own agency.
I really like the information that is listed after Carla's Note: further reading, APQC research, and links. I hope this becomes the standard for briefers so attendees can follow up on the ideas presented and "deepen" their learning. I also appreciate having the ability to download the presentation.
Regarding social networking and the posting of what many might (or should) consider private information publicly, I share the caution/concern of Alice and Ellie. Young people may be more familiar with the tools and processes of social networking, but there is a certain naiveté they exhibit that I really chalk up to lack of experience. Just like you, I have read in the WSJ and other publications the horror stories from people who were surprised at who knows what about them and how it can be used. Caution is certainly the order of the day here for me.
I cannot find a "general" place to put comments about kmedge and overall conference, so I will put them here.
- All the feedback forms need to be available electronically so attendees do not *have* to provide feedback the old fashioned way.
- The guides to the events available from the KM Conference Agenda should include the meeting room for the event.
We cannot make comments to the panel presentation (no link to a page like this) so I will make comments here.
I enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the panel session, but really feel like it was too short. I wish Cindy's remarks could have been shorter (even though I thought the introduction was useful, perhaps they could have been provided through a link that people could have accessed in advance) so people had more time to ask questions.
If anyone wanted to ask more questions that they did not have time to ask, they can contact me via email at soulert@supship.navy.mil) and I can try to answer them off-line.
Carla, your presentation was outstanding! It was a wonderful introduction to APQC and the KM conference for newbies like me. Being a researcher from a company that measures satisfaction, I was particularly intrigued by your second slide noting the trends in knowledge management usage and satisfaction from Bain & Company. I just found the 2007 report (http://www.bain.com/bainweb/
PDFs/cms/Public/Management%20Tools%202007%20BB.pdf). For the first time, KM ranked among the top ten "most used" management tools (http://www.bain.com/management_tools/mt_detail.asp?groupcode=4&id=25728
&menu_url=articles_overview.asp). Unfortunately, overall satisfaction with KM was significantly below the overall mean. What's worse, the report defines KM as a "blunt instrument," one that increases in usage due to a real need but fails to refine its effectiveness with continuing low satisfaction rates. Ouch.
Thanks to everyone for a super conference! I heard from many who have attended before that this was our best ever, and from the new folks that they were overwhelmed by the great content and networking. I concur on all those observations.
In fact, I'm still so jazzed about it that I'm contuining the conversation from the Miami airport where I just arrived a few minutes ago. Due to the cancellation of my flight home from yesterday, I only got as far as Detroit by air, but fortunately I'm used to the drive from Detroit to Clevleand from a previous worklife so with a one-way rental, I was home by 3AM. But that's another story.
What I'd like to do is to stay in touch this week---from a cruise ship. Last year I took a cruise and brought my laptop. My friend was none too happy about that (and truthfully, neither was I). So this year I promised her a break and only brought my smartphone. I sure do hope I'll be a beneficiary of her happiness! By the way, it's amazing how light you can travel when you don't need a computer bag!
I've already read some cool articles on the flight that I hope to comment on, so hopefully I'll find the time. For Cindy: there's a Starbucks here at concourse F, but for Darcy, you know I just stopped when I got to the Dunkin' Donuts!
So if I am able to stay connected, I'm going to call this, The new way to work?: The great experiment.
Thanks again everyone! See you all in Houston next year!
Jim,
I'm so glad to hear you don't have your laptop. Only comment if it is fun to do so--after all, you are on a well-deserved vacation! Carla
There seemed a lot of folks at the conference who hadn't heard of Twitter before Carla's talk on social networking. Michael Hyatt just posted "12 Reasons to Start Twittering" here after a 30-day experiment. His number one reason: "It will enable you to experience social networking first-hand."
I think it was a great idea to have wireless internet (even if I could not take advantage of it) and a web cafe (which I *could* use) at the conference. Thanks a lot to the vendors and thanks also to the excellent support staff of APQC who fixed my nametag the first day and let me use their printer to print my airline boarding pass the last day.
Here are some other references for knowledge sharing and building expertise that others might find useful:
http://books.google.com/books?as_auth=Gary+A+Klein&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&hl=en
Link to books by Gary Klein, two the most pertinent to Knowledge Sharing being Sources of Power and Intution at Work.
Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions is a report of the fieldwork Klein conducted to find out how people tackle challenges in difficult, nonroutine situations. Sources of Power is based on observations of humans acting under such real-life constraints as time pressure, high stakes, personal responsibility, and shifting conditions.
Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do. This book is full of useful, practical advice about building professional expertise and learning from experts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_A._Klein
Here are several links to After Action Reviews (something that came up many times during the week).
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadaar.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Action_Review
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/tc_25-20/tc25-20.pdf
http://events.fcw.com/events/2007/KM/downloads/USAID_Wallace_The%20After%20Action%20Review.pdf
In fact, just doing a Google search on After Action Reviews brings up a wealth of links. This is a great, quick, low-paperwork way to capture useful knowledge in real time.
Carla, it was so nice to meet you at the conference. Would you and others at APQC consider creating an Amazon.com book list on Knowledge Sharing? It seems like you have so much experience in this area that you and your team could create this and it would be a wonderful tool for others.
Here is another crazy idea. It would be really neat if the profile one creates for this web site allowed you to post a low-resolution picture so that could be displayed with your comment. I have seen some sites that do this and it would be a nice (if optional) feature.
If you are interested in the concept of Triple Loop Learning (right in the lane of Knowledge Sharing), do a Google search on the term.
Wikipedia has a great entry on James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
This was referenced by Carla and there is a link to the book above, but this entry is also a good way to get the basic idea of the concept.
Here are two good links for the topic of Knowledge Management (sorry for using the *old* term)
http://www.media-access.com/whatis.html
http://www.sveiby.com/portals/0/articles/polanyi.html#Main%20Theses
I've been thinking about the Social Networking part of this presentation quite a bit and am not sure what I think of it. On one hand, you can't deny that there are huge numbers of people using the sites that are available. But what are they really using it for? In some ways I think users are strictly socially networking for entertainment. If they want to do a job or task online, like buy a watch, do they go to myspace and ask their friends where to get one? Or do they type it into Google and pick what they want?
I think that when they want to complete a task they use search engines and more task specific tools than networks. So if those are the tools they are using to perform actual tasks, if networking is waiting for them at work will they use it? Or rely on self-service applications instead?
If robust social network tools are the future of information gathering, are we just wasting our time building self-service tools and IVR phone menus?
As we heard in the "Bridging the Generational Gap" presentation, the new generation makes a definite distinction between worklife and social life. From my personal experience of seeing social networking tools being used by their main audience (my younger brother is in college), sites like myspace are used primarily for "play" and not for "work." So when these millions of users pour into the workforce, will they even use social networking tools? or will they start looking for the company's equivalent to google?
If and how these tools get integrated into the workplace will be very interesting to see.
Phil - while I can understand your concerns about social networking and how it might be used in the workplace, I have seen the potential in a couple of different ways. (1) People from different companies sharing tools developed for a specific task; (2) Sharing experiences with vendors including cost of product and SLA's and; (3) Seeking advice on making a large-scale purchase that is being considered such as a software platform. Here at my organization, we frown on the term "social" networking because it does carry the image that it only has value for entertainment. We tend to refer to these types of tools as collaboration tools to ensure that there is no confusion.
Kim