The Big Launch - a counterintuitive view

The business need was articulated, lessons have been applied, investment made in marketing materials, senior people briefed and supportive, facilitators' training organised, content seeding primed. So, you are all set to launch the big push for your organisation's new Community of Practice?
Wait!


Is a big launch with senior people backing the new Community of Practice the right thing to do?


At the recent Knowledge and Innovation Network Roundtable event, it was posited that a 'big launch' or aggressive marketing may be counter-productive for online community initiatives. It appears from the work done by the UK Local Government Association that their most sustainable and vibrant communities gain traction and engagement best from word of mouth. This is borne out by the success of many 'viral' communities; those that have sprung up because of a grass-roots need to connect. In some cases these may initially be successful because they do not carry the imprimatur of the organisation.

KIN research has shown that most sustainable Communities of Practice do have a clear purpose, trained leaders that are given time to facilitate the group and support from the leadership. This investment by the organisation can be light-touch; providing the capability, tools and support for individuals to make connections. 

Perhaps the big fanfare is best left until the Community is established and achieving some of it's goals.

A curates egg ?

twitter logo map 09 (Photo credit: The Next Web)

Are you a Twitter-phile or a Twitter-phobe?

Are you a Twitter-philes who thinks the Twitter-phobes are missing out?

Are you a Twitter-phobe who thinks they might be missing out but really can't - or doesn't want to - get Twitter?

Some KIN members are active on Twitter and are sharing content which may well be of interest to other KIN members if only it could be made more accessible.

In fact, there are a number of sources of information online which could be usefully tapped into by KIN members:

• Content discovered by other KIN members and associates and shared via social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Linked In and Diigo
• Content discovered by other people interested in KM 
• Content created by other KIN members and associates in the form of Blog posts
• Other relevant content by KM thought leaders on their blogs

These sources are scattered and not always easy to find - especially for the non social media savvy. Some of these sources can also be not very engaging.

So, we're about to start an experiment using paper.li and scoop.it.

These are two of a new breed of 'content curation' tools. They each have advantages and disadvantages and we thought that the best way of assessing which provides the best value to KIN would be to try both and see what our members think.

We're starting with paper.li and will be publishing both a weekly and a daily version of the 'paper' - these can be found here:

• The KI-Network Daily
• The KI-Network Weekly

Soon we will also be publishing similar content via scoop.it - watch this space.
{and here it is: http://www.scoop.it/t/kinatwbs }

There are two potential benefits to be gained by investing a small amount of facilitator effort into 'content curation'.

• Providing additional value to our members by making visible and engaging the social media activities of KIN members and Associates
• Raising KIN's profile on the major Social Networks

Any KIN members who want to know a bit more about how we are selecting the published content, please visit this page in the KIN memberspace. Feedback on and suggestions for content are very welcome - please join in the discussion here (members only).

Some other examples of content curated using these tools are :

http://paper.li/BexFerriday/1313408698

http://www.scoop.it/t/knowledge-management

http://paper.li/sahana2802/communitymanagers

http://www.scoop.it/t/google-product-news/

Related articles

• Content Curation: Discover Scoop.it
• The Benefits of a Fine-Tuned Paper.li (paper.li)
• Paper.li - a nice aggregator and also connector (markkellynet.com)
• Social Media - Are You Familiar with Content Curation? (cfcastd.wordpress.com)

Exploiting Knowledge in Networks

Description: Social Networking Source: own work Author: koreshky Date: 12/10/2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We had a very good turnout for the KIN Masterclass 'Exploiting Knowledge in Networks' on Tuesday 20th March at pwc in London.

The enormous growth of social media tools and social/professional networks over the past few years has created new opportunities and new challenges for people and organisations who want to embrace this dynamic world of social interaction and fluid knowledge flows. However, It is not widely recognised that collaboration and knowledge sharing and use of social media tools are skills and practices that rarely get taught. It's something we may learn on the job in a hit or miss fashion. Some people are natural at it. Others struggle to understand it.

This Masterclass - led by Stephen Dale - provided a practical, detailed and hands-on introduction to social media and social/professional networking that will enabled delegates to have a greater understanding of their context for use and deployment within their organisation and for personal and professional development.

Details of the Masterclass content can be found (by KIN members) here

I came away with a long list of new things to try - and it sparked some thinking about the uses and potential benefits of content curation.

Do you know how are you doing?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mention health checks and most people would think of cholesterol levels or cardiograms. This week KIN held a 'Health Checks' Roundtable event to look at how member organisations judge the health of their organisational learning programmes. In this case, by 'health' we mean impact, penetration and vitality.

The first thing to emerge was the variation in how KIN members go about this. Practice ranged from a formal evaluation, with rigorous empirical evaluation based on the 'Maryland Scale' for research evidence, user surveys, the creation of 'knowledge maps', to an evaluation of online community vitality.

One of the main conclusions was that however you go about it, the measurement of the effectiveness of your interventions and support is critical. It seems that the most credible evidence, typically combines both anecdotal and empirical evidence. How you communicate the impact is equally important for buy-in and further investment (assuming that it is positive!).

KIN will be holding a further related event, under the aegis of the 'Management Buy-in' special interest group, later this year. This will look at return on investment, stakeholder engagement and change management. This will be followed by our Winter Workshop in November on the topic of 'Knowledge and Productivity'.

"Maybe you wait a little longer..."

I came across this interesting article, written 2 years ago, on digital overload. Nothing new in that. However, one phrase really resonated with me "Maybe you wait a little longer before answering a question".

This refers to a neurological experiment, where a group of scientists were taken to a retreat in the desert, with no access to electronic devices. After 3 days a feeling of tranquility descended.  The participants self-observed their behaviours and feelings, one of which was expressed in the quote above.

I was reminded of a conversation I had with a senior manager at BP a few years ago. He put 2 hours  aside in his diary every Friday afternoon to do nothing. This time was inviolate. He simply spent this time thinking. He was convinced this time for reflection made him a significantly better manager. Not many of us have the luxury of clearing a chunk of time for meditation, but have we really tried to reflect more?

Earlier this week, Liz Nottingham, HR Director of leading ad agency Starcom Mediavest (SMV) gave an inspiring talk to KIN about talent management and knowledge transfer. SMV have won the accolade of the Sunday Times 'Best Companies to Work For'. Liz has achieved this by putting a lot of emphasis on culture and collaboration. This includes sending staff on retreats to Marrakesh for reflection and energising. As she puts it "it may be mad, but at some point I really want to employ a Buddhist monk here".

Marrakesh and monks may not be achievable in your organisation, but how about giving a little thought to the lost art of reflection? I'm going to try something else too. I have an email 'drafts' folder; I'm going to park immediate responses there for a couple of hours and re-read them before sending.