The world is turning faster & faster and the only element that will remain is change. Organizations have to deliver better, faster, more efficient products & services to clients who demand more and more. You can wait until a great idea pops up but this reactive position can mean the end of your organization.

Another approach is being pro-active and continuously search for new opportunities. This workshop from the Belgian creativity expert Cyriel Kortleven can help you and your colleagues to break out of the box and generate lots of new ideas in a very short time.

In this very interactive presentation we cover the following:

• Thinking in patterns and the curse of knowledge
• Creative skills to break fixed patterns
• Postpone judgment and get into a ‘yes and’ mood
• Creative observing • And action – bring the wild ideas into action
• Networking exercise to get to know somebody in a ‘different way’

Participating in this event will enable you to break your own fixed thinking patterns, learn some simple tools and skills to generate loads of new ideas and network with interesting people of KMLF in a very creative way.

Agenda:

Thursday March 11 6:00-6:30 Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15 Cyriel Kortleven – Give yourself a creative boost
7:15-8:00 Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.
Venue: RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne Lecture room 158.2.4 (One level up from Ground level ).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).
RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Cyriel Kortleven is a crewmember and co-founder of new shoes today – a growing number of soul mates in business who give support to people and organisations on their road to creation, innovation and change. Cyriel makes people more conscious of the opportunities in life. Cyriel is a popular speaker in the domain of creativity and innovation. He gives workshops and presentations in creative skills and attitude and the breaking of fixed thinking patterns. Cyriel moves people in a literally and figurative way by means of a combination of creativity and improvisation – also brought together in the successful Dutch book ‘And … Action!’ More info on http://www.newshoestoday.com/site/we/cyriel_kortleven/

Matt Moore (of Innotecture and the NSW KM Forum) will be hosting a full-day event in Melbourne on Thursday 25 March on Social Media for Lawyers.  This event will feature attorney turned social media consultant Adrian Dayton.  Adrian consults to global 100 firms like Dorsey & Whitney and AmLaw 100 firm Womble Carlysle, and has been helping lawyers all over the world bring in business through social media.  Adrian is also the author of Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition.

Read more about this session, registration, and the “Word of Mouth” special offer on the Innotecture site.

Matt is also scheduled to address us at a regular KMLF meeting on Wednesday 26 May on Performance Enhancing – more information will be provided on this one closer to the time.

Kate Andrews spoke to us on this topic on 24 February.  We have now uploaded a copy of Kate’s Presentation, and a related article: “Knowledge Assets – targeted knowledge transfer to mitigate risk“.

A couple of thoughts from Kate’s session that were shared on Twitter (thanks @helmitch):

• “Knowledge risk” is the risk associated with the under-utilisation or loss of knowledge that is critical to organisational performance.
• The challenge – how to tap into the knowledge that is in our heads to share – knowledge that is critical to organisational performance – and get it into the heads and hands of those who need it now.
• It’s not about ‘experts’, it’s about knowledge among and within the team.
• There is a high risk of knowledge loss where there is a high reliance on tacit knowledge, and unique problems or situations.
• It’s not about succession planning, it’s about understanding knowledge about “what” is most important to our organisation. Then we need to find where the knowledge is, and who has it.
• Prioritising knowledge risk is a business decision – understanding which knowledge is business-critical.
• If there is anyone who “can’t” go on leave (without being on call) – this is a knowledge risk person.

Kate gave an example of knowledge risk – a utility company had staff reaching retirement age with a total of 17,500 years experience in the industry.  Is this a knowledge risk? It is if a major part of that accumulated knowledge is business-critical.

Kate has also kicked off some discussion on this topic on our LinkedIn group.  If you are not already a member, you can click here to join up.

You can also now follow Kate on Twitter at @knowablekate!

 - Keith De La Rue

Knowledge Risk and Retention – beyond the usual suspects

In 2003 Kate Andrews introduced the term knowledge risk to describe the loss of knowledge critical to a firm’s performance.   In our experience, even today many organisations who are deeply concerned about potential knowledge loss from imminent staff exit DO NOTHING because there is no clear starting point.  This session will take a fresh look at risk and retention, with a focus on what is working in practice.   Questions will be posed and responses generated through discussion and reflection. 

• Knowledge risk is not evenly spread throughout your firm:  you are likely to have particular knowledge risk hotspots. What are some ways to identify where they are?
• It’s not all or nothing:  effective knowledge transfer focuses on unique, critical knowledge rather than trying to transfer everything known by everyone!  How can we identify the critical subset of expert knowledge?
• Targeted knowledge transfer is a prime tool to mitigate knowledge risk.  Benefits of knowledge transfer include: retention of valuable, ‘can’t buy’ knowledge when key staff leave; reduced hand over risk through a structured knowledge transfer effort; and better supporting your key staff by building knowledgeable teams around them.  What organisational factors influence effective knowledge transfer?

Participating in this event will enable you to

• Identify knowledge risk hotspots in your organisation 
• Take a fresh look at knowledge transfer and retention options

Agenda:  Wednesday February 24^th 2010

6:00-6:30          Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15          Dr Kate Andrews – Knowledge Risk and Retention – beyond the usual suspects

7:15-8:00          Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 

RMIT Graduate School of Business and Law, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne

Lecture room 158.1.2C (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

 

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Kate Andrews is an organisational psychologist who has worked in knowledge management for over a decade.  Her doctoral research highlighted psychosocial factors affecting knowledge sharing[1] and remains influential.  She is principal of knowledge asset consultancy KNOWABLE knowable.com.au, Adjunct Professor at QUT’s Faculty of Science and Technology and has lectured in KM at post-graduate level for Mt Eliza Business School as well as in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.   Her current knowledge risk assignments include projects with Water Corporation, Perth; Main Roads, Queensland; Sustainability Victoria; Valuer-General Victoria; and TAFE NSW.

 

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[1] Influences on knowledge processes in organizational learning: the psychosocial  (2000) KM Andrews, BL Delahaye – Journal of Management Volume 37 Issue 6, Pages 797 - 810  - article has over 150 academic citations

Topic:  User Adoption Strategies for Collaboration Technologies

What is the biggest complaint around the introduction of new collaboration technologies into a group or organization? The answer: No one uses them.

New tools are often rejected.  The very people who are supposed to use them don’t do so—they keep going with earlier ways of working.  Sometimes “culture” is blamed for this failure, but our speaker, Michael Sampson believes it is more accurate to point the finger at the lack of intentional effort on user adoption.

This discussion session provides an opportunity to learn about user adoption strategies, how other organizations around the world are tackling user adoption for collaboration technologies, and to share what strategies are working well in your organization.

Participating in this event will enable you to:

• Learn about the current state of play with user adoption strategies
• Develop your thinking about the user adoption strategy for collaboration technologies at your organization.

Agenda:  Monday February 15^th

6:00-6:30      Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15      Michael Sampson – User Adoption Strategies

7:15-8:00      Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 
RMIT Graduate School of Business and Law, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2C (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

 

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Michael Sampson is a Collaboration Strategist. He helps end-user organizations in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Europe and other places around the world improve the performance of distributed teams.  Key themes are the effective use of collaboration technology to enhance distributed teams, using SharePoint for collaboration, and encouraging user adoption of collaboration technologies.  Michael has written two books on collaboration strategy, and is about to publish a third.  Michael is running a Masterclass on SharePoint Collaboration and Governance in Melbourne on Tuesday 16^th, for details see:  http://www.sharepointroadmap.com/melbourne.html

Go is the most revered of Asian strategy board games.

But simply calling Go a game is like calling the space shuttle a glider. The game has been used for centuries to discuss and model political, economic and military strategy in China and Japan.

Often Go has been compared to Chess to highlight the differences between Eastern and Western thought, but recently David Snowden of Cognitive Edge commented that Chess and Go can be used to highlight the differences between the “Complicated” and “Complex” domains respectively.

Come along to learn about this fascinating subject. Play a few games then learn about complexity theory and how it applies to business strategy today.

We have a few boards, but if you have a notebook computer, please bring it along as Go software will be supplied for you to take away.

Participating in this event will

• Introduce you to the concepts of complexity theory and David Snowden’s Cynefin framework,
• Give you a grasp of how understanding complexity can help in your business projects,
• And may just begin a life-long fascination with a game of intriguing mystery that will change the way you think about everything.

Agenda:  Wednesday January 27th

6:00-6:30      Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).

6:30-7:15      Stuart French – Complexity & the game of Go

7:15-8:00      Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).

Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

 

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About our Guest Speaker

Stuart is the IT/KM Projects manager at Daniels Sharpsmart, an Australian based global business in the medical waste technology industry.  An avid KM’er, author of the DeltaKnowledge.net blog and enthusiastic participant in a range of social networking forums, he has a Masters Degree in KM.  His research project investigating the impacts of organisational culture on the use of Wikis has highlighted a number of interesting perspectives in how we can motivate others to become involved in better knowledge interactions.

Link to the  presentation that Nancy decided NOT to deliver, instead facilitating conversations based on the concepts.  Conversations went very well and a great interactive session was enjoyed by all participants.

December reflections

The changing face of Knowledge Management

Wednesday 16 December, 6:00 pm

And so we near the end of a very busy year.  It has certainly been busy for the KMLF, with 13 sessions over the year!  (You can read what Nancy White had to say about our November meeting here.)  

As mentioned, our final session for this year will celebrate our tenth anniversary, and will feature some open discussion on this history, and how the group has emerged over this time.  We will have some of the founding organizers of the KMLF along to share their thoughts, and we particularly welcome any of you that we haven’t seen for a while to come along and share your stories.  This will also be a chance for us to say “thank you” to those that had the vision to put this group together in the first place. 

One question to start with will be to tie down exactly when the KMLF got started – is it actually our tenth anniversary? Other points may include: 

• The motivations behind the formation of the group – are they still relevant today?
• A brief look at the history of the group, how we organized ourselves, and how it worked.
• What the KMLF has meant to us – what insights did we gain, what important relationships did we develop, how did what we learned help us to overcome obstacles in our work?
• Is an awareness of history relevant to KM?
• Finally, we will talk about of where we think we are going (and why).

This will also be a time of celebration of the end of the year, and our usual time of networking with colleagues.

After the session, anyone interested can join us over dinner for further discussions.

Agenda 

6:00-6:30          Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15          December reflections – The changing face of KM
7:15-8:00          Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue: 
RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).
Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

Realising Our BroadBand Future – This Thursday

The Government is hosting the “Realising Our BroadBand Future” forum on 10 and 11 Dec to map the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia’s high speed broadband future.  

We have an opportunity in Melbourne to contribute to the discussion, at 8:30 to 12:00 this Thursday 10 Dec.  Deloitte are very kindly hosting us at 550 Bourke St.  This is a free session, but you must register.  See the details, and click through to register here: http://bbfmel.civictec.net/. 

We’re talking about our connected future. This isn’t about technology, it’s about how we can all use it – to connect communities, build businesses, improve our education and health systems, create and innovate, improve our quality of life for all.

For those of you wishing to come along, please register as quickly as you can, as there are limited places available!  If you are unable to make it, please pass on the invitation.  It would be great to see some KMLF people there.  If you can’t make it, follow us on Twitter at #bbfmel.

Information continuity

Safeguarding business & community identity

Early notice and call for papers for inForum 2010

 The RMAA are holding their 27th International Convention at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on 5-8 September 2010.   KMLF members are invited to respond to the call for papers for this convention.  Their intention is to broaden the scope of topics and the audience.

 For further information, please refer to http://inforum.net.au/.

Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities

In order to fit in with Nancy’s travelling schedule, this month we will depart from our usual meeting schedule (again), and will meet on
Monday evening, 16 November (at the usual place).

Technology has changed what it means to “be together” for teams, groups and networks. We can now connect and interact across time and space, co-create and share our creations across the globe. This also means we face a dizzying array of tools and platforms which seem to morph and change daily. We all seem to use the tools in different ways, creating gaps and friction in our groups. What’s a person to do? Consider technology stewardship, the practice of scanning for, choosing, implementing and supporting useful practices using technology in a community. Nancy White will share a few frameworks and stories, then we’ll open the conversation.

• What is community technology stewardship?
• What inherent tensions does a steward work with in a community?
• How can we explore a community’s activity orientations as a way of making decisions around technology?

Agenda

6:00-6:30 Networking with other thinking collaborators (over drinks and nibbles).
6:30-7:15 Nancy White: Digital Habitats
7:15-8:00 Informal conversation amongst the group to explore the ideas and concepts.

Venue

RMIT Graduate School of Business, 300 Queen Street. Melbourne
Lecture room 158.1.2B (Ground level – just behind reception).
Ample metered street parking nearby in Queen Street (between La Trobe and Little Lonsdale).

RSVP: by email to melbournekmlf@gmail.com

About Nancy White

Founder of Full Circle Associates, Nancy helps organisations connect through online and offline strategies. Nancy is an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed communities of practice, online learning, distributed teams and online communities. She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector. Nancy blogs as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media. She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.

Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addictions. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two grown sons.

But wait, there’s more!

If you would like to spend more time with Nancy learning about online communities and online facilitation, there are two half-day workshops being held on Tuesday 17 at Abbotsford Convent.  These are as follows:

• Introduction to Online Communities (08:45 – 12:00) – Price $250 + GST – Register Now
• Advanced Online Communities (13:00 – 16:00) – Price $250 + GST – Register Now

More information and alternative payment methods are available here.

These workshops are being arranged in partnership with Innotecture (Matt Moore’s company). (Disclaimer: I am assisting  Matt with these sessions.)

CoPs – a Personal Journey

Peter Chomley’s slide pack for last month’s event: “CoPs – a Personal Journey” is now available for download here.

Some of the things that struck me from the presentation, shared on Twitter during the session (see the slide pack for more details):

• How many “communities” have you been a member of over your life? How many things have changed over that time?
• Looking back, you can see times when you made decisions that fundamentally changed your life.
• Information Management is  explicit, individual, and about technology. Organisations do it for efficiency and productivity.
• Knowledge Management is tacit, and is about people in teams and communities. Organisations do it for effectiveness, learning, competency, responsiveness and innovation.

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Free event – Intranet Innovation Awards

Also, Step Two Designs will be announcing the winners of the annual Intranet Innovation Awards on 5 November in Sydney.  They will then be taking the show on the road with a free event in Melbourne on Tuesday 10 November:

“This year’s winners come from the USA, UK, Denmark, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. One winner has demonstrated $8 million of savings from their intranet project, and others have delivered solutions that have become core to how their organisations work. With ten winners, there are ideas that can be implemented by every intranet team.”

The event will be at the Telstra Theatrette, 242 Exhibition St, at 2:00 to 4:00 pm.  Step Two will share insights, screenshots and ideas from this year’s winners. Note that while this is a free event, registration is required before attending. Get all the info, and book your place promptly here!