Babelfish anyone? The Joy of Stats...

Image by psd via FlickrI've been a fan of Prof Hans Rosling and his gapminder.org site for a while. He not only makes stats interesting and fun, but also shows that their purpose is to tell a story. Rosling uses visualisation, and animated images, to convey knowledge and insight that lies hidden in the numbers.

Last week, BBC 4 showed an enjoyable documentary , available on iPlayer that showcased Rosling and others' work and the incredible change that statistical computing is having. Don't be put off by the title 'The Joy of Stats' - it is a real eye-opener.

One standout item was something that Douglas Adams predicted many years ago, and that Google is promising to bringing to life; the Babelfish. Through the hidden power of pure statistics, you will soon be able to hold a synchronous conversation on your mobile phone with someone who speaks a different language.

Spreading the word

You know that feeling - 'why didn't I think of that'? Pay With A Tweet.

Social media are changing our lives in many ways. Some subtle, some in-your-face, some annoying, some brilliant. Today I came across a really simple but effective example of an organisation that totally understands its target market and communication preferences. Onlightenment provides 'consulting, training, research and support to help organisations who want to excel in their online communications'.

I was interested in their e-book 'Live Online Learning - A Facilitator's Handbook'. The cost of the book is 'one Tweet'. Yes, to download the book, you have to Tweet that you have done so. See what they did there?

• They have added perceived value to the item by not giving it away, but the cost to you is nothing
• Spending the currency is effortless; you just have to click the button to allow the Tweet
• Customers beget customers - perfectly engineered viral marketing
• They are practicing what the teach - the communication medium is perfectly in line with their target audience's preferences
  

In case you were wondering, the e-book is pretty good too. Much of it will be fairly basic for experienced facilitators and many of the tips are equally valid for face-to-face facilitation, for example, the use of images in slides. There is however there is lots of well researched and practical stuff about the effective use of online chat, e-whiteboards and online etiquette. Highly recommended.

"Golden Spanner" proof that knowledge sharing pays

If you search the internet for 'Golden Spanner' the top item is likely to be something to do with Meccano, beloved of James May and toy geeks.

Look further and you will see that South West Trains was recently awarded a coveted golden spanner award for the best reliability of any UK train operating company. Now jokes about reliability in the snow aside, what caught my ear was the astonishing results that the company has achieved, compared to their competitors. The awards are based purely on fleet reliabilty metrics, not some subjective passenger survey. The average distance operated by any train between any technical defects (causing 5 minutes or more delays) is over 40,000 miles. This represents the equivalent of more than a complete round the world journey without any technical faults. This is even more remarkable when you consider that the industry average is only 13,000 miles.

How did they do it? Christian Roth of SWT, interviewed on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours, attributed much of their success to 'a knowledge sharing culture'. They also benchmark, measure and communicate the results constantly.

This is another example of what KIN Associate Ian Corbett calls 'technical limit' improvement. Knowledge sharing really can have a dramatic impact on performance, but measurement is a critical part of the improvement cycle.

Why don't they listen?

Image by PDR via FlickrI had an experience at the weekend which was enjoyable and terrifying at the same time. I went with friends for a trial ride at the Manchester National Velodrome.

It's a fantastic facility, as befits one of the few sports at which the UK excel internationally. The banked track looks impossibly steep from below and the first couple of laps were terrifying. Then I relaxed my death grip on the bars and soon found myself accelerating into the corners and taking the banking higher and higher. Looking down onto riders 10ft (seemingly vertically) below was disconcerting. Being on a fixed track bike means there is no respite. I finished exhausted but buzzing!

Chatting to the coach afterwards, I mentioned that when I relaxed, I found it so much easier and that she should mention this in her pre-ride briefing for novices. She responded with "yes, that's why I always say in the pre-briefing that the most important thing is to relax, but they never listen". I can honestly say that with the anticipation and nerves, I have no recollection of this at all. It just reinforces the point that in knowledge transfer, you need to pick your moment, often need to repeat the message, and in the end sometimes people just need to experience stuff for themselves.

Local Government online conference

Yesterday I participated in day 2 of the Local Government Improvement & Development's Local by Social online conference that started on 3rd November and wraps up on 9th.
I was privileged to be asked to facilitate one of the 30 conference themes on the subject 'Leaving but not Lost' - the impact of knowledge loss to the public sector as a result of the cuts.

I was bowled over by the event. This is, apparently, one of the biggest virtual events of its kind, ever. The stats alone after just 2 of the 6 days are impressive. Wembley Conference Centre would have been pleased with 955 people registered for the conference.

• 455 visitors yesterday alone
• 6140 page views yesterday
• 189 individuals posted a contribution

That last figure is the most impressive. As Michael Norton, the driving force behind the conference, says "Most online discussions follow the 1% rule. This states that 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing. So 19% contributing is a huge amount".

The experience was excellent too. The was a real buzz as discussions were underway. At one point I couldn't keep up with all the postings and great ideas flying in. I really wasn't sure what to expect, but was struck by how much like a real conference it was, but better. I loved the fact that that I could dip in and out of conference rooms without missing anything. At one point I think I was in three conference rooms simultaneously.

Of course there is also a valuable record of all every idea and contribution posted, for others to see and use at a future time. I'd love to know what the total travel, time and venue savings over a traditional conference were. I'd guess hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The best thing of all - I didn't have to small talk to over a luke-warm cup of urn stewed tea.