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.