Is knowledge on your Christmas reading list?

Infographic Hindenburg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At KIN, we advocate making knowledge as disseminated as possible, whether through reducing barriers to participation or making information accessible. We have held several popular events on 'Knowledge Visualisation', so I was pleased to see that David McCandless' new book on infographics is titled 'Knowledge is Beautiful'. This makes sense, as his previous book was 'Information is Beautiful'. 

His introduction states
"The more I visualise data, information and knowledge, the more I'm starting to feel and understand the difference between them... understanding really is the key'.

I was excited by this statement, as I'm always advocating differentiation between information and knowledge (terms that are often used interchangeably). Infographics that simply convey meaning in an attractive way can be very powerful. I always remember the excellent exercise that Lulu Pinney did for KIN - we were asked to determine the essence of the infographic's 'story' with the captions hidden. This is a simple test that I find most newspaper infographics fail miserably.

In looking at the reviews of 'Knowledge is Beautiful' it seems that complexity is creeping in. It also seems that the promise of McCandless' introduction is not really delivered in his graphic examples; if knowledge is about know-how and expertise the book still conflates this with information.

I'm hoping that another book that combines two of my interests (graphic design and London) London: The Information Capital finds it's way into my Christmas stocking (hint, hint!).

This will be the last KIN post of 2014. On behalf of all the KIN team, we would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and prosperous 2015.

Innovation prediction - a tricky business

If you pardon the pun, 'futurologists' may come and go, but Richard Watson of 'What's Next' tends to get innovation prediction about right. His infographics also really make his ideas very accessible.
Take a look at Watson's timeline of emerging science and technology predictions and you can see many of the things he was predicting, such as synthetic organisms, are now reality. It remains to be seen whether others such as the end of dementia or 'vibration energy harvesting' prove realistic.


Incidentally, this item was highlighted to me through the automatically created Knowledge and Innovation Network newspaper using PaperLi. PaperLi auto-curates your content based on pre-determined topics and can deliver the magazine through a variety of channels. We need to further refine the recommendation engine, but it is a smart way of delivering what's interesting.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Asking the right questions

Knowledge work predominantly focuses on finding solutions to problems. It makes sense that the quality of the answers is directly related to the appropriateness question, right? But do we always ask the right questions or are there more important questions that should be asked?

I'm indebted to Michel Lessard of SNC-Lavalin for introducing me the the concept of 'Question Formulation Technique' or QFT. Originally developed by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana as a method for engaging school children to be more inquisitive, it has obvious application for managing knowledge in a wider, organisational context.

Whilst the 6 step QFT process may seem over-prescriptive at first, once practiced, the results will deliver much richer questions that will deliver meaningful answers. In KIN we get a glimpse of this when we run 'Member Peer Assists'. We have noted a direct correlation between the succinctness (is that a word?) of the question and the relevance and value of the group's suggestions.

This short article from Harvard Educational Publishing explains the origin and QFT process. I'm going to try this out in future workshops; I'll let you know what the answer is!

Measuring the Value of Intangibles - a new KIN Masterclass record!

On 4th November we had an all-time record turnout for a KIN Masterclass ; 25 participants from 14 different organisations. Such is the importance of demonstrating value from organisational learning and related knowledge topics. The Event page now has lots of resources available, including our presenter Giovanni Schiuma's slides.  The discussion has continued, with Joe Cloonan from Airbus sharing how they measure supplier relationships - a great example of an important 'intangible'. Take a look at the Event page for more information.

Are you a phenomenologist?

Did you see the phenomenal 'Lego Movie'?
I use that adjective deliberately, as Lego's venture into things other than plastic bricks was a result of 'phenomenology'. Yes it is a real word; coined by anthropologists who applied 'sensemaking' to real-world problems and solutions in organisations.

Lego was facing increasing challenge to its much-loved product from electronic games and the internet. There was plenty of 'big data' from which they could tell exactly where the challenge was coming from and predict customer behaviour. What the data couldn't tell them was why customers were making these choices, whether they rational or spontaneous.

Rather than taking a hypothesis and testing it against a focus group, or running trials, a 'sensemaking' approach assumes nothing - a problem may not even be apparent at this stage. Phenomenology has been applied to Starbucks' renewal programme, 'nudge' marketing and healthcare policy and many other previously data-driven innovation programmes.

An anthropological approach to innovation will capture a huge amount of raw information. The anthropologist's skill is to look for patterns, themes or phenomena that lead to insights. Lego realised that by observing what else their customers (kids and parents) were doing, their growth strategy would be radically different - and it wasn't 'alternative bricks' or 'more kits'!

If you would like to know more about these case studies and the observational approach to innovation, I heartily recommend the Harvard Business Review article 'An Anthropologist Walks into a Bar...'

The next KIN Innovation Roundtable in April will invite all members to share their innovation approaches, be they data-driven, phenomenology-driven, or chocolate cookie and a cuppa tea driven. We will also invite all member organisations to benchmark themselves agains the draft KIN Innovation 'Maturity Model'. It should be a phenomenal event.

Community Manager Appreciation Day Events, 26 Jan 2015

This day is open to all Operational Community/Network leaders and facilitators from KIN member organisations. Activities will involve a series of face-to-face and on-line events throughout the day with KIN members and external providers celebrating the 6th annual 'Community Manager Appreciation day. Key take-aways from the day: An opportunity to hear from experts and gain valuable knowledge and advice from a variety of industry sectors. Experience a range of face to face and on-line social activities and technologies which you can implement in your own community groups. Wide range of tool, tips and techniques from fellow community leaders If you or any of your colleagues lead, facilitate, sponsor, administer or take part in any on-line, virtual or face to face networks or communities in your organisation, then this event is for you!! Don't worry if you cannot join in London for the face to face elements of the day, there will be plenty of on-line presentations and discussions too… Detailed line up for the day is still TBA, so watch this space to keep up with developments! We are looking forward to sharing and understanding what makes communities successful in your organisation and also celebrating the work of 'Great community managers', so if you have any success stories you would like to share on the day,or would like to nominate your community leader for recognition, then please contact Erica Hurley directly. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Community Manager Appreciation Day Events'

Learning from failure (or failing to learn)

Most people would regard Honda as a successful company. Their vehicles are regarded as the most reliable on the road. However it is not commonly known that this success is grounded in failure. In fact it depends on it. The most interesting thing about this video is hearing the leaders at Honda talk about encouraging radical innovation and not penalising failure, as long as it leads to improved understanding and consequent improvement. 

Whilst most organisations have had outright failures or 'near misses', they are too often swept under the carpet or not mentioned. In some cases processes may have quietly changed, in others they are still at risk of repeating the problem.

We know that some of the most valuable learning comes from looking at things that did not go as expected or failed. Not a 'drains up' or blame-seeking, but a rational examination of root-causes and seeking to change processes in the future, to avoid repeating the problem.

The issues around this are as much emotional as procedural. Nobody likes to be associated with 'failure'. It takes a brave project manager to flag something that did not go as planned to ensure their colleagues benefit from that experience. The airline industry is a great example where the culture has changed radically and many lives saved as a result.

The KIN Winter workshop on 2nd December will look at examples of learning from failure and failing to learn. We will have a mixture of learning activities (and yes some will be designed to fail!), expert speakers and case-studies from member organisations.

What's your motive?

All our investment in knowledge sharing technology, all the collaboration strategy papers, count for little... unless we are motivated at an intuitive and individual level, to share and collaborate.

Over 11 million people have watched this great TED talk from Dan Pink on 'The puzzle of motivation'. Even if you've seen it before, motivate yourself by watching it again, or take a look at the excellent RSA Animate version of Dan's talk.  

The research has proven that some types of reward can have exactly the opposite effect of that intended. If you think about incentives and rewards for sharing at all, the obvious seems to be focused on extrinsic reward (eg feedback stars). 

Have a think about whether you are supporting and leveraging the phenomenal power of intrinsic motivation in your knowledge-sharing endeavours? In discussing this with KIN members, it strikes me that very often it is simple things such as 'my manager has agreed that I can spend half an hour a week sharing with others outside my team' or 'I now have knowledge sharing as one of my appraisal criteria' can be the most meaningful.

Dan Pink's observations on what motivates us is backed-up by this article HBR 'Does Money Really Affect Motivation?'

What intrinsic motivations is your organisation recognising and leveraging?

Related articles

• Motivation
• Layers of Motivation

Beautifying Your Way Home...

erica.hurley posted topic Beautifying Your Way Home... in forum "Cafe KIN". Mapping services like Mapquest are used to find the quickest route from point A to point B, regardless of the quality of the route. A team of researchers in Barcelona, Spain want to change that with a new algorithm designed to get users to their destination in the most pleasant way possible.The team at Yahoo! Labs used crowdsourced opinions and mined data to find the routes which are "not only short, but also emotionally pleasant," according to Technology Review. Initially, the team used the site UrbanGems.org to crowdsource which areas in London were the most pleasant by having users pick the most beautiful between two pictures. They then plotted courses based on the highest rated images. Researchers soon realized it would take too long to do this for all cities and turned to the image sharing site Flickr to fill in the gaps. While a normal mapping algorithm will find the shortest distance, the Yahoo! one pulls location and date data from Flickr to identity routes which are often photographed and receive multiple positive comments relating to the images.  Using this method, the team should be able to find the most pleasant route in any city. When they sent residents of London and their second test city, Boston, to check out the routes plotted by the algorithm they reported the the new paths were more enjoyable than the quickest route. These more pleasant drives or walks won't cost you much on time, either. On average, the scenic routes are just about 12 percent longer than the direct routes. The team is hoping to come out with an app that will plot these pleasure cruises in major European and American cities soon. This got me to thinking - what is the most beautiful (work related) journey you have had the opportunity to drive?  Mine was during an air traffic controllers strike in France a few years back, when I had to drive from Perpignan to Barcellona in a hire car to catch a flight back to UK :) The topic can be found here: http://www.ki-network.org/ipb/index.php?/topic/3594-beautifying-your-way-home/?view=getnewpost

Learning vs lending culture

The World Bank has recently undergone a major restructure to reflect it's purpose of becoming a 'solutions bank'. This requires a significant shift in how knowledge is used and shared. Monika Weber-Fahr, head of knowledge at the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) recently chaired an excellent conference on the most important topics contributing to organisational learning culture at the Bank 'How the Bank Learns' (80 mins). The speakers are managers of front-line departments ('Global Practices'), so their ideas on knowledge sharing and collaboration are perspective and pragmatic.

This video is also very good to see an innovative panel format, quality of chairmanship and use of real-time event tools.

All of the ideas about learning culture and 'making time for learning' in large organisations are relevant to KIN members.

Give and take

It's something we probably knew deep-down; those who behave in a generous way to others, will in the long-term do better that only 'take'. This article from McKinsey is from an interview with Wharton School's Adam Grant. He posits that generosity in the workplace continues to be more effective than selfishness and why it is critical for personal fulfilment.

When it comes to knowledge work, identifying natural 'givers' and screening out 'takers' can be very powerful. But how to screen for takers and how do you convert them to givers? The article suggests practical ways of doing this, such as "Ask what would you do in a situation like this,” and give everybody the same situation. The problem is, no one wants to admit, “I would be a taker here.” But there’s an easy way around this, which is, instead of asking “What would you do?” you ask people to predict what other people would do.

(Photo credit: vaXzine)

Grant elaborates on his recent book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, which explores the evolving world of workplace dynamics, why selfishness fails, and how working with, for, and through others continues to be the recipe for personal and organizational success. 

Related articles

• Nice Guys Finish First
• How to Build Generosity in the Workplace
• Are You A Giver, Taker Or Matcher? Adam Grant Shares How It Could Affect Your Success
• The Top Ten Signs You Might Be a Taker

MBI SIG Announcement: The Value Paradox for intangible assets

In researching our proposed 'Measuring Intangibles' event, I came across an interesting research paper prepared for the Work Foundation. To see the importance of investing in and measuring knowledge work, this graphic speaks for itself (although the definition of what is an intangible asset must be understood). The report is available here and in the KIN Management Buy-in SIG library.

How Reddit Are Taking The Management Out Of Managing An Online Community

Not sure if you have heard of (or are a member of) the Reddit community, but this interesting article talks about how it has achieved incredible success worldwide by taking the approach of distributed control. Some really good points in here for Community leaders everywhere, that largely echo the findings of the KIN CoP Benchmarking study carried out a few years ago... Key points: 1. Start by helping an existing community 2.Give people a place to feel they belong 3. It's best for communities to grow steadily 4. When a community hits critical mass, start offering subgroups 5. The success of a community is directly related to the leader or moderator 6. Give your community leaders the tools they need to succeed 7. When you give up control, your community surprises you in amazing ways

KRT SIG Announcement: New Roundtable Event: Knowedge Retention and Transfer, 20 Aug 2014

The need to effectively share and exchange know-how, whether to proactively identify/mitigate knowledge risk, as part of staff moves or react to retirement/redundancy, is as great as ever. Many KIN member organisations are tackling this issue in creative ways. Some having moved from responding to a 'reactive' knowledge loss situation, to a proactive identification of critical knowledge. Whatever your need or whatever your approach, everyone is encouraged to bring along knowledge transfer techniques and tools for a 'show-and-tell', so that we share new insights and innovative approaches. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Knowedge Retention and Transfer'

Amazing Infographic Depicting '1 Second On The Web'

erica.hurley posted topic Amazing Infographic Depicting '1 Second On The Web' in forum "Cafe KIN". One second may not seem like much, but a lot can happen in a tiny time frame - especially if it's happening on the Internet! Every second online, there are thousands of tweets on Twitter, likes on Facebook, and much more besides... It's hard to imagine and hard to visualise, but there's now a Web page where you can see what so much activity looks like and watch it clocking up the numbers in real time. Designed by a young guy called Steven Lewis from San Francisco  :)

Show me the money....

I recently came across an interesting paper by Elias Carayannis of George Washington University on measuring the value of intangibles. As is so often the case, I agree with the principles of the methodology, but struggle to see the real-world application. Making a convincing empirical case of investment in organisational learning techniques has become a bit of a holy grail. KIN members can take a look at Carayannis' paper in the KIN Memberspace  Management Buy-in SIG Library .

In our recent member survey of potential event topics, Measuring the Value of Intangibles came out strongly as being a hot topic. I'm currently researching possible speakers for a KIN Masterclass. If you know of an expert (practitioner) in this field that can help us, please let me know.

(Photo credit: carnagenyc)

Innovation SIG Announcement: New Roundtable Event: Innovation SIG , 06 Nov 2014

Innovation and leading change is critical to organisational growth, or even survival. Markets and technologies are changing rapidly; what served us well even 5 years ago may be becoming irrelevant. Knowledge work has never been more critical in facilitating diversity of thinking. There will be two aspects to this Innovation SIG meeting: 1. I have been working with Jon Harman of Syngenta to update the KIN Innovation Maturity Model. This is useful for both benchmarking against other organisations and as a gap-analysis tool. The intention is to use this to highlight and share new insights in KIN member organisations' innovation practice and impact. 2. 'Big data' and 'data analytics' have emerged as critical tools to drive innovation in large organisations. We propose taking a look at the latest trends in deriving new insights and opportunities using these tools. The Director of Innovation and data analytics the Royal Mail will join us to share how they have taken advantage of big data to drive innovation. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Innovation SIG '

Data to Insight for Innovation

I guess you will be the familiar with the classic 'pyramid' above, or a variation of it.

Whilst in the US recently I met Thomas Davenport of Babson College and author of 'Working Knowledge'. These days, Tom is working at the data end of the spectrum; a topic that is getting a huge amount of attention through 'big data', 'data analytics' and 'Open Data'. Incredible advances in computing power and analytical engines hold the possibility of deriving insight directly from the data layer. Indeed a new breed of geeks have emerged to engineer this revolution - if you have seen 'The Wolf of Wall Street' you will know that the data 'Quants' are king in the world of finance.

Back to the more prosaic real-world, how does this impact the work we do in organisational learning? Tom has authored a report for Amadeus on how big data and data analytics have changed the travel industry. The impact has been in both effectiveness (for example targeting promotions) and efficiency (maximising airplane seat optimisation). So what's different? These improvements have always been possible, it's just that now the insights can be derived directly from the data without the interim stages of producing information (spreadsheets) and knowledge (analysts poring over spreadsheets, looking for trends and opportunities).

The conclusions in Davenport's report, which cites case studies from several innovative travel companies, can be applied to almost any industry, no doubt including yours. If you are a KIN member, take a look at the Amadeus big-data report on KIN MemberSpace . You will find the report in the KIN Innovation special interest group library.

In November, KIN will be holding a members' event on 'Data to Insight'. 

If you are a knowledge professional in a large organisation and not a KIN member, do contact us to find out if your organisation could both benefit and contribute to the network. Please note that one of KIN's membership criteria are that we only allow one member organisation from each industry sector.

Photo credit: www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/chromogram.html (via Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Babson's Tom Davenport Among 21 Thought-Leader Professors in Data Science
• IT Life: Big Data For The Travel Industry

Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise Awards...

erica.hurley posted topic Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise Awards... in forum "Cafe KIN". It's that time of year again when nominations are invited for the MAKE awards! The awards are made in recognition of organisations which are outperforming their peers by above average growth in intellectual capital and wealth creation. Their survey takes about 5 minutes to compete and is your opportunity to nominate up to three organisations (commercial, not for profit or public sector) who you think are leaders in transforming individual and organisation wide knowledge into shareholder or societal value. A number of KIN members have received awards in past years and this is your opportunity to nominate any that you may have collaborated with this year or who may have inspired or helped you this year :) The topic can be found here: http://www.ki-network.org/ipb/index.php?/topic/3586-most-admired-knowledge-enterprise-awards/?view=getnewpost

Innovation SIG Announcement: New Roundtable Event: Innovation SIG , 26 Jun 2014

Innovation and leading change is critical to organisational growth, or even survival. Markets and technologies are changing rapidly; what served us well even 5 years ago may be becoming irrelevant. Knowledge work has never been more critical in facilitating diversity of thinking.  As Facilitator for the Innovation Special Interest Group, I have been working with Jon Harman of Syngenta to update the KIN Innovation Maturity Model. As you will know from the other KIN Maturity Models, this is useful for both benchmarking against other organisations and as a gap-analysis tool. The intention is to use this to highlight and share new insights in KIN member organisations' innovation practice and impact. We propose this approach…  1. Identify who in your organisation would both benefit from and contribute to this KIN innovation initiative. These may range from dedicated R&D functions or ‘ideation’ teams, particularly innovative individuals or anyone with a passion for creative problem solving.  2. Meet for an Innovation Roundtable, to review and agree the new draft innovation model (we have a draft to work with). We would also discuss the best level of ‘granularity’ to apply the model - too high level will mask pockets of excellence, too low will provide too much data. Those outside the UK are welcome to participate even if you cannot be present at the Roundtable.  3. Collect the data from your organisation and produce the innovation practice gap analysis. We will use the KIN online Maturity Model tool to do this.  4. Use what we learn to identify high performing innovators and those with a desire to improve. This may result in peer-to-peer learning, sharing of specific good practice, site-visits or events specifically tailored to bridge the competency gaps, including those outside the KIN network. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Innovation SIG

ET SIG Announcement: New Roundtable Event: Document Management Strategies, approaches and tools, 03 Jun 2014

In some way shape or form, KIN member organisations have to manage their documents. Some organisations are required to use auditable Document Management systems. Some utilise the document management capabilities of Sharepoint while others have implemented systems such as Documentum. This Roundtable will give KIN members the opportunity to share and discuss the approaches they have taken and the tools they are using in their organisations. This Roundtable is aimed at KIN members who are using a document management system (or systems) and are willing to share their experiences and learn from other members' approaches. It is also appropriate for members who are about to embark on the implementation of such a system to learn from the experiences of those who have already been down that path. So if you use Documentum, Sharepoint or some other document management system, please come and share your experience. (Please indicate what system(s) you currently use in the self registration form) Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Document Management Strategies, approaches and tools'

Post card from Washington

I was recently in Washington DC, working with the World Bank, who are KIN members.
Whilst I could share a snapshot of the White House, I wanted to share a few photos taken in the World Bank's 'Forum 2014' war room.

For one hectic and action-packed week in February, a crack team of knowledge and collaboration experts facilitated a cross-organisation knowledge-fest branded as World Bank 'Forum 2014'. Masterminded and led by Monika Weber-Fahr, this was a hugely ambitious programme of varied and innovative techniques designed to:

• Showcase practice specific knowledge to areas and people who might not normally see it 
• Introduce knowledge-sharing and collaboration techniques to a wide audience

The photo below shows the list of 'Formats' developed and the post-event learning Post-Its. The planning and delivery was meticulous and impressive.

You will see a number of familiar techniques, for example 'Masterclasses', but what this does not show is the innovative forms in which these were delivered. For example, 'experts' delivering Masterclasses were coached in the Socratic method of drawing ideas from a carefully selected group of participants, rather than just impart their expertise or views straight off. Another novelty was the rigidly enforced 'no PowerPoint' rule; all sorts of visual aids and story telling props were encouraged.

Another event format that was really successful was the 'Genius Bar'. As a result, he Genius label seems to have acquired a real cachet for some individuals. 

The 'Wikithon' format was hugely popular and like several of the other techniques being tried, will be taken forward. The Wikithon may become the Wiki-on.

The World Bank have been invited to share their great Forum 2014 story with the other KIN Members at our Summer Workshop on 11th June. This will be our 'Member Showcase' event, where 4 organisations will share in-depth case studies and other members will be provided with other ways of 'showcasing'. 

If your organisation is not a member of KIN and you think you could both contribute to and benefit from participation, talk to us with a view to coming along to share and hear about the World Bank Forum 2014 and other member innovations. 

What's in a name

I often advocate the inclusion of real names when producing 'knowledge assets' resulting from Knowledge Elicitation discussions. Used with permission and sparingly, verbatim quotes his add veracity and a personal connection to the story. Anecdote have written a very useful blog called 'Whodunnit' and added some sage advice about real names are and are not (for example negative experiences) . The caution about libel is also worth bearing in mind.
A highly recommended quick read for anyone involved in storytelling or producing written knowledge assets.

 Photo credit: ell brown

KIN Maturity model frameworks

Over the years, KIN has developed a number of 'Maturity Model' frameworks. To make it easier for KIN members to locate these, this page lists the frameworks currently available via the KIN MemberSpace. They are: Knowledge Maturity model KIN's Knowledge Maturity model was substantially revised in 2013 and there is a separate wiki Site dedicated to this model. The framework document can be found on this page. Communities of Practice Maturity model There is a separate wiki Site dedicated to this model Learning from Practice The Learning from Practice maturity model framework can be found in the LfP SIG Library under 4. Toolkit. Innovation There is an Innovation Maturity model framework currently in the early stages of development. (The links above are only accessible to KIN members using their KIN login).

Did you know all the ways you can connect with KIN ?

Join in the conversation at KIN’s discussion forum (sign in with your MemberSpace login ID ) tinyurl.com/KINdiscussion If you are a LinkedIn user, make sure you join KIN's LinkedIn Group. This group is private to KIN members (past and present). Make sure you set your settings for the group so that you receive emails when there are new posts. tinyurl.com/KINlinkedin If you are a facebook user, please visit KIN's facebook page. To have updates from KIN's facebook page appear in your news stream click on the 'Like' button. www.facebook.com/kinwbs If you are a Twitter user, be sure and follow KIN’s tweets If you are tweeting about KIN or a KIN event, please use the hashtag #kinwbs twitter.com/KINWBS twitter.com/KINWBS/kin-members Why not join KIN’s social bookmarking group tinyurl.com/KINbookmarks Follow KIN’s blog posts. tinyurl.com/KINbloggin Want to know what KIN members and other people working in the field are saying via twitter and their blogs in an easily digestable form? Subscribe to the KIN newspaper. Available as a daily or as a weekly version tinyurl.com/KINDaily tinyurl.com/KINWeekly See a list of books mentioned at events and recommended by other KIN members tinyurl.com/KINBooklist See a list of blogs mentioned at events and recommended by other KIN members tinyurl.com/KINBlogs See a list of YouTube clips mentioned at events and recommended by other KIN members tinyurl.com/KINTubes

Masterclass Event: TMA Developing Cross Cultural Awareness, 17 Mar 2014

This event has been set up in direct response to member demand following a number of interesting sessions at the Summer 2013 workshop where we started to explore the issues facing Global Organisations and the subtleties of managing and working with individuals from a range of different cultures under the banner of 'Knowledge Sans Frontieres'. Russell Harlow from TMA has been working with Global Virtual Teams and cross cultural issues for many years and ran a similar workshop for KIN back in 2005 which was extremely well received by all participants. If you, or any of your colleagues would like to know more about potential personal and Country cultural differences and how to best deal with these, then this workshop is for you. (KIN members only) Russell will use the TMA 'World Prism' to explore a range of cultural differences and what to do to minimise the impact of these. Sessions will include 'Definitions of culture', 'Our understanding of our own awareness, knowledge and skills', use of 'Country and personal Worldprism profiles' and 'exploration of how culture impacts decision making, teams and communications'. Full details can be found on this event page: Masterclass: TMA Developing Cross Cultural Awareness'

Top tips for Community leaders from KIN CMAD event...

At the KIN CMAD event in January we asked participants for their top tips for community leaders. Here's a small selection of ideas that address the issue of 'What to consider and plan for before you start a community': ·           Ensure there is a demand for the community ·           Create a demand for the community ·           Have co-facilitators and champions ·           Spend time getting the charter/purpose right and agreed by the core group (1-2 sentences) ·           Appoint appropriate community champions as facilitators ·           Get a good online toolkit, stuffed full of guides, templates ready and accessible as early as possible ·           Agree file plan/file structure prior to launch ·           Agree the community rules (TOR) before the launch of the community ·           Staged launch – do not open to all users too soon ·           Offer online training ·           Self-help group – CoP for CoPs ·           1:1 community leaders training sessions (two hours)

Calling KIN Members: Do you Blog? Do you Tweet? Do you post on Google+ ?

If so, we'd like to know about it and share your activity with KIN members. Simple post the address of your Blog, your Twitter name and/or your Google+ ID in the comments and we'll do the rest.

World Bank 'forum2014' - innovative organisation-wide learning event

The World Bank has an ambitious 'forum2014' Knowledge Sharing Program running in February 2014; a series of Bank-wide events designed to showcase expertise and accellerate learning. The Masterclass format is intended as a highly participatory, immersive learning event, quite different to 'presentations' or other one-directional learning techniques. I was lucky enough to be involved with the development and deliverey a series of one day Masterclass Facilitators' training course for 28 individuals, who will in turn coach the Masterclass 'experts'. This included knowledge elicitation and transfer skills, as well as specific Masterclass facilitation techniques . I am hoping that Monika WeberFahr, who has been the powerhouse behind the World Bank program will present both the forum2014 program and learning formats employed, at the KIN Summer 2014 Quarterly Workshop.

Innovation SIG Announcement: Eddie Obeng Transformatory Innovation event

Innovation can seem scary – a CEO suddenly imploring his employees to “take risks and be creative” feels like you’re being asked to do crazy things, fail, and fired shortly afterwards. It doesn’t have to be this way. If implemented correctly, innovation can be the most powerful way of transforming your business, and allow you to permanently and sustainably outsmart your competitors in the process.   At this event, Eddie and the Pentacle team will be discussing how to achieve this with “Transformatory Innovation: How to Deliver Novel Change Beyond Your Capabilities”, using our own innovation, QUBE, the ultimate medium for a world changing faster than it learns.You can get an entry pass NOW to the  QUBINAR from http://PentacleTheVBS.com/EntryPass.htm   When:  Thursday 20th February from 17.30 to 19.00 UK time What:  PART 1, start time 17.30 - a 15-minute introduction to QUBE for people who want to learn e-coaching and e-facilitation.            PART 2, start time 17.45 - a free-of-charge QUBINAR led by Prof Eddie Obeng. This will cover the following:- •            Can you innovate without having to become more creative? •            How do you persuade others to buy into radical change? •            Case stories from Pentacle and more .. and then networking. Where: On QUBE Download the app NOW from http://qube.cc/Getting-Started/ Watch the QUBE explainer video at http://PentacleTheVBS.com/QUBE_Explainer.htm Pentacle The Virtual Business School +44 1494 678555  www.PentacleTheVBS.com  www.QUBE.cc

SNA SIG New: Update on Webmapper by Laurence Lock Lee

We have been updating our SNA web based toolsets (Webmapper) to enable us to share the results of an SNA more broadly than only through snapshots in Powerpoint (though we still use this as well). The facility enables us to change the dynamics of how the "Analyze and Share Results" stages (see SNA Toolkit Summary) as the audience can be expanded beyond workshop participants alone. We have also recently added some of our basic business focused analytics to the map that can also be viewed online. The maps are similar to the technology used to visualise KIN member connections through common interests. We have been using this recently with KIN member PWC UK. Works best with Chrome and Firefox browsers and the most recent versions of the others ... will display on tablets with variable interaction capabilities. See here.... http://www.optimice.com.au/demomap.php . Happy to demo to any other interested KIN members.