Knowledge Cafe [15 February 2008]

In our first knowledge Cafe for the 2007/2008 class of KM strategies participants were exposed to the idea of knowledge cafes through discussing a KM theme.
The idea is taken from a knowledge cafe organized by David Gurteen hosting Victor Newman, who also run together innovation-cafe (i-cafe). Innovation cafes are run in a similar setting to knowledge cafes, where a group of practitioners and researchers come together in a different venue each time to discuss a vital issue in KM. The main difference between the 2 genres is that innovation cafes aim at producing documented usable insight of can we achieve something by investigating and discussing how do we ensure failure to achieve it!

The theme of our first knowledge Cafe was 'What are the 3 things you would do to enure NO Knowledge Management in organization'. Then we asked participants to reverse these 3 things to ensure success of KM in organizations; "based on Montgomery’s rule of three: that if you deal with the top 3 issues, everything else will sort itself out" (Gurteen 2005).

Particpants produced very valuable and documented insight around the issue. I will state here few examples:

Fiona Hinds describes her experience: "Well I can say with no doubt that this was a welcomed experience. The setting was what was usually our univerity lecture session on a Friday afternoon. The change from the normal session was eagerly awaited by all students. I had never experienced or done little research on knowledge cafes before the day and therefore was not sure what to expect exactly... [the] lecturer and facilitator explained that Knowledge Cafes involve a conversion of people from differing disciplines with a common interest of deliberation. Ours was Knowledge Management."
She argues that " the top 3 'would do's' to ensure knowledge management in an organisation. That included: (1) A communication strategy, (2) A learning & Development strategy and (3) An identification of the organisations required knowledge"

Munir Bello describes his first knowledge cafe: "The aim of the knowledge café is to open up conversations and discussions that will lead to knowledge sharing. It is a simple means for a group of people to have an open, creative conversation on a topic of mutual interest to gain a deeper collective understanding of the subject and the issues involved."
He proceeds to argue argue in his blog that the 3 most important issues to be addressed in his company (Gum-Arabic Manufacturing Plant) are: (1) A Communication Strategy, (2) A Learning and development strategy and (3) An identification of the organisations required knowledge.

Samir Shaikh described the process: On 15th February 2008, we organised a small knowledge cafe in our class. The question given to all groups was to find out three things that will prevent Knowledge Management in any organisation. On the basis of that each individual was asked to come with three things that they will do as Chief Knowledge Officer of an organisation to enable the Knowledge Management. All the groups came up with quite a number of things that will prevent knowledge management in any organisation. Each group was asked to select top three things (selected on the basis of voting) out of their list. Each group consist of around six members. Following are the lists of three things selected by all the groups.".
Then he wrote in his blog that : "to solve the existing problems in my organisation [Software Development Company] related to Knowledge Management" the most important 3 issues that they need to address are (1) Communication between people (2) Regular Training & Development and (3) Allowing and encouraging people to express there ideas.

Waseem Iqbal gives his opinion on the cafe: "Over all this café practice was fantastic and a very good practice which I have learnt out of this café is reversing the problem.It won’t be wrong if I say it was kind of a practice which doctor’s suggest as CARE IS BETTER THEN CURE. The reversing practice minimize the chance of error as in this practice the most common problem already high lightened and it becomes in our mind before even those problem arise."
Regarding the 3 most important issues to ensure KM in organizations he argued the following are the most important: "(1) communication between employees (encourage people to talk to each other), (2) allowing employee’s to express their ideas (Management need to create an environment where employees can express & share their ideas) and (3) Documentation of procedures/functions"

Tubo Azeez adds: "The Important Things for an Organisation to do to Manage KnowledgeFrom the foregoing, the writer believes that to effectively manage knowledge and promote organisation learning, leaders in the organisation must take necessary steps to consciously and actively identify the knowledge required to achieve its goals; promote organisational learning through a well documented training and development plan for all its members; and encourage effective communication amongst its members using both information technology enabled tools as well as other informal means of socialization which are best for sharing tacit knowledge."

You can read these blogs and other blogs of all class participants through links from each other blogs.

Social Technologies

In the last 2 sessions we investigated social technologies and their impact on KM.

We discussed concepts underlying Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0/ Business 2.0 and what does this mean to what is currently dubbed as KM 2.0.

We looked at one of the presentations by David Weinberger in Enterprise 2.0 - the Collaborative Technologies Conference, Boston MA, June 18-21, 2007 [ A full speech by David Weinberger was given in another conference (57 min) can be found on YouTube]

BIS4410: KM Strategies - Learning Programme 07/08

Week I: Introduction to Knowledge Management

Week II: Knowledge Management Models
(1) Epistemological Vs. Ontological models / Actor Vs. analytical models;
(2) Classification of Knowledge Management Models (Earl’s 7-schools of knowledge management);
(3) Knowledge management frameworks
(4) Knowledge management lifecycles

Week III: Knowledge Management Theory
(1) Knowledge management definitions;
(2) What is Knowledge Management? Can knowledge be managed?;
(3) What are the obstacles to Knowledge Management, Resistance and Change Management?

Week IV: Knowledge, Information and Data
(1) Relationship models in literature;
(2) Differences among knowledge, information and data;
(3) Definitions of the terms.

Week V: Group Research
Working in groups to devise a knowledge management strategy for an organization of your choice:
(1) Individual and organizational learning resources;
(2) Corporate curriculum;

Week VI: Knowledge Networks
(1) Social Networks;
(2) communities of practice;

Week VII: Social Technologies
(1) What is the role of IT in Knowledge Management?
(2) Web 2.0: Weblog; Wiki; RSS; Podcasting

Week VIII: Social Network Analysis
(1) Social network analysis concepts;
(2) Application of social network analysis in organisation

Week IX: Group Research
Working in groups design a knowledge network/community of practice for your organization:
(1) Individual and organizational learning resources;
(2) Corporate curriculum;

Week X: Knowledge Cafe