WIIIFM and making allowances

The KIN Community of Practice Benchmarking survey empirically confirmed a while back what we already had a hunch about - that your choice of technology is far less important than having a clear purpose and leadership for your online community.

Michael Norton of the LGA has just posted an interesting item on the LGA Knowledge Hub that illustrates that you can get away with all sorts of poor design, if the purpose is clear and users know they are getting something out of it for themselves. They make allowances, whereas they would be moaning and abandon a similar platform that didn't meet their community's needs.

Here is Michael's post:

"I've seen roll outs of different technology including SharePoint , Microsoft Office , CRM, Clarity Project Management etc, etc.   And you always hear the same comments, I don't like it, it's clunky, it’s the wrong colour, it makes my eye hurt (I made the last one up) etc, etc.  

So how do some online communities survive and thrive when the tech they use is sometimes odd, old and clunky.  My only explanation is the purpose and the WIIFM.  Otherwise known as COMMUNITY

Take sites such as Money Saving Expert and Golf GTI Forum.  They are a bit messy and on first look hard to understand.  I have to admit MSE is so much better now.  But what they do have is a strong sense of community, a clear purpose of what it is and what it can do.

So there are examples that show community beats technology.

All you need to ask yourself is, do you have a compelling purpose for your community, that no matter what barriers technology, people or otherwise that get thrown in the way that the community survives and thrives".

(Photo credit: AUSTIN_O)

Curiouser and curiouser

'Bland curiosity' - that is the term that ethnographer Steve Portigal uses for his approach to eliciting
knowledge from interviewees. This phrase might at first seem like a rather weak strategy for getting results, but it struck a chord for me.

Firstly 'curiosity'. I've always thought that this was the paramount quality for anyone involved in facilitating the transfer of knowledge. Whether it is to do with commercial laundry detergent dosing systems or financial governance (both real examples of recent client work), it is vital that you exhibit a genuine curiosity about the topic and the individuals concerned. I love the insights I get to how diverse organisations work.

Why 'bland'? I'm often asked by those on the Knowledge Elicitation and Transfer Skills courses that I run 'how much do you, as a facilitator, need to know about the topic'? The answer is 'just enough'. That is not a flippant response; you need to know enough about the topic in order to ask the right questions and then probe the deep knowledge, but not so much that you can't ask the damn-fool questions. The advantage an external facilitator has, is that they are entitled to ask revealing questions that might be skipped over by an insider.

The Steve Portigal quote comes from his recently published book 'Interviewing Users'. Whilst the title is pretty bland, it actually contains a lot of useful elicitaiton tips based on years of ethnography field work. It is worth bearing in mind that ethnographers generally elicit knowledge for their own (or client's) research purposes. The book doesn't focus on facilitating real-time dialogue between those that have know-how and those who need it.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If kids can do it, why not employees?

Sparktruck is a brilliant way of getting kids to learn about creativity and learning. As founder Eugene Korsunskiy puts it "You do your best work when you are having fun".

Whilst the concept is aimed at schoolchildren and teachers, the ideas and approach of sparking ideas and producing fast prototypes is absolutely appropriate, and badly needed, in solving complex problems that large organisations face. (8 min video)

If having seen the Sparktruck video, you thought this is great for kids, but 'what's it got to do with big organisations', this video from Cisco Systems shows you. It's amazing, and encouraging, that this high-tech engineering organisation utilises techniques that involve string, pins, Blu-tac and cardboard in developing end-user experiences and gets great results. The great thing about Cisco's approach to using Design Thinking for complex problem-solving is that it is:

• Low-cost 
• High-engagement 
• Can quickly show tangible (ie physical) results
• and yes, can even be fun

The video is 14 mins in total. It includes a great example of how Cisco used this technique to improve their 'new hire' experience. If you are interested in Knowledge Transfer for joiners, the excerpt from 9mins 47secs to 11:00mins is inspiring.

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KIN is holding an 'Creativity in Innovation training' Masterclass on 19th November, run by Dr Kamal Birdi of Sheffield University Business School. KIN Members can register for this event here. If your organisation is not a KIN Member, contact gary.colet@mail.wbs.ac.uk or go to www.ki-network.org for more information.

Christmas lights and hand sanitizer - really understanding the problem helps find innovative solutions

Two fascinating videos that illustrate how understanding a problem from a user's perspective can lead to really innovative solutions...

The first addresses the serious problem of hospital-acquired infection. Whilst personal sanitisers are commonplace, the designers of Swipesense realised that measuring their usage was key to making sure they are used properly, ie modifying behaviour. What does a 5 year old kid do when their hands get dirty? They wipe them on their shirt. The device mimics this action and sends a signal to a sensor which collects data. The combination of an intuitive action and knowing that usage is being monitored seems to be enough to have a dramatic improvement in sanitation and perhaps save lives.

The second is a video of an unusual approach to persuading Columbian FARC guerrillas to come out of the jungle and go home to their families. If you ignore the overly-dramatic soundtrack, the results of simply stringing Christmas lights from trees to send a message seem impressive.

What's this to do with organisational learning, collaborative working or applying lessons? As I've often suggested, if we do not appeal to innate behaviour then edicts, policy or technology are going to be ineffective. Here are a couple of examples of 'Design Thinking' that really try to understand the problem (empathy) and come up with novel solutions (ideation).

Stanford University MOOC course update

I've previously blogged about the 'Massively Open Online Course' phenomenon that is offering courses from many of the world's top university courses free of charge. Having taken the plunge with Stanford University's 'Design Thinking' course, I've been hugely impressed.

After only one week, I can see the there are many aspects of he way this course is structured that we could apply to wider knowledge sharing and learning in organisations.

• We are encouraged to join small learning syndicates and use the course discussion forum, Slideshare, Prezi Online and Skype to share. 
• The course content is well signposted and a nice mix of 2 to 3 minute tutorial videos and related short but challenging assignments, to be submitted on a weekly basis. 
• There is integration between the course diary and my own diary (for release of new materials and assignment deadlines).
• There are always peers and the course tutors to get feedback from.
• The importance of early prototyping and the validity of learning from failed tryouts.

There are lots of related additional resources made available. A couple that I have particularly enjoyed and are relevant for knowledge sharing and innovation practice are:

The Secret of Your Success? Make Others Successful
Taking Teamwork to the Extreme

Photo credit: turiskopio