Building a Learning Organization: Models for Personal KM (PKM)

Jon Husband and Steve Barth

kevinmarks  says @jobsworth we live in a deeply personal and interconnected world, but now enterprises are noticing #defrag

"I wish the software I used every day at work allowed me to find what I want; discover what I need to know - along with surprises; and connect with people I don't even know to get my job done, learn more, and work in an enjoyable place."

Or much more narrowly:

"Why can I find what I need with Google on the Web, but have to pull teeth to find anything useful when I go to work?"

A New Set Of Conditions ?

Plugged into … and surrounded by…

the Web, integrated software

streaming real-time images and information

Are these conditions causing fundamental change to the ways we work and live ?

R Barsalo, SAT, 2005

Rapid… and Ongoing … Evolution

Software - smarter and more integrated

Interconnectivity continues to grow…

Internet-literate generations streaming into the workforce… (social too)

New business models and new ways of working are emerging…

Today's Increasingly Interconnected Workplace

Continuous flows of information, people increasingly interconnected:

What (We Think) It Means

- Increasing Complexity & Uncertainty

- Wirearchy

- Mass Customization of Work

Increasing Complexity and Uncertainty

Turbulent Environments Unexpected changes Uncertainty Unintended

consequences Complexity

Weisbord 1993

Active Adaptation Principles Flexibility Innovation/creativity Social responsibility

Participation and collaboration

From Hierarchy to Wirearchy

Jon Husband, 2001

Knowledge Worker - 2010

Mass Customization of Work

Mass Customization Adapting products, services or activities that are

used or carried out by large numbers of people to the specific needs of individuals or small groups/niches

Necessary response to increasingly complex environment & continuously changing conditions

Concept popularized by Stan Davis

Mass Customization of Work“from the outside-in”

The “Job”

20 yrs. of “diversity”Social Values

LegislationLifestyles

DemographicsEducation

Mass Customization of Work“from the inside-out”

The Person

My “style” of

working

The other things I want to do

The other things I need to do

Who I

really am

My long-

term

goals

My short-term goals

The choices available to me

My rights

Other People - Most Important Source of Information

People seek critical information from other people far more frequently than from impersonal sources

People seek information from other people regardless of the issue

Solutions – direct answers Meta-knowledge – point to other sources of

answers Problem Reformulation – help reframing an issue Validation – validating plans, ideas, thinking Legitimating – it’s OK

Social & Organizational Networks

Interconnected networks of people and information are key

Causes “flow” of information & knowledge

Information in context creates knowledge

Knowledge is what “triggers” action

Why Should We Care ?

Where Work Happens

Lack of boundaries

Informal networks increasingly important

Where Knowledge Lives

Rely on people for information

People can provide more than databases

Where People Engage

Join and commit to people

Trust builds up in relationships

But…

Invisible

Different than formal structure

“Rather than being nurtured by institutionalized group structures, … workers are increasingly thrown back on their own individual resources. … access to labor and information comes through workers' own social networks - structures which they must carefully propagate and cultivate themselves...”

However ...

Bonnie Nardi

Collaborative relationships are very often point to point--two people having a conversation, acting as apertures for the knowledge of others in the network behind them, as well as the organizations they represent

A Story about Making a Difference

Introductions

Please introduce yourselves with a story about when your or another person's unique contribution or perspective made a difference in outcomes at your organization

Intuition's Role

What is it ? Your opinion

How do we know it when we see it / feel it ?

Others' peoples' role in developing our intuition

Did you decide based on:

Evidence?

Experience?

          What’s in it for Me?

Reconsider personal gain as ... personal satisfaction

Sometimes people want to know what’s in it from me

We can only be egocentric, but that doesn’t mean selfish or egotistic

Bottom-up:

natural = successful

What makes the connection real ?

What instantiates initial trust ?

Drucker’s “Managing Oneself”

What are my strengths?

How do I perform?

What are my values?

Where do I belong?

What should I contribute?

Knowledge and/or Learning?

What is the relationship?

Similarities

Differences

Social cohesion depends on social grooming for primates, but led to language for us. Gossip may have been a greater evolutionary driver than hunt coordination. (60% of modern conversation is small talk)

Community size determined by size of more intimate group sizes

Sweet spot sizes for different types of group at (roughly) 5, 15, 50, 150, 500, 1500, 5000…

Dunbar NumbersDunbar Numbers

• Natural scales: 5, 15, 50, 150, 500, 1500, 5000

• Neocortex size limits ability to model other people’s mental states (to 7 levels of recursion)

• Social cohesion depends on social grooming… or gossip (% of conversation is small talk)

• How relates to Nardi

29KMWorld & Intranets 2007

Orders of Social Magnitude

Six Degrees of Connection(or, 10,000 maniacs in my hive)

The universe has lost its centre overnight, and woken up to find it has countless centres. So that each one can now be seen as the centre, or none at all.” (Life of Galileo, by Bertold Brecht)

PKM isn’t bottom up (or edge-in), but self-organizing (inside out)

Each of us is the centre of our own universe

–almost concentric

–almost identical to the universes of our peers

Learning LoopsLearning Loops

34KMWorld & Intranets 2007

Deep End

for sustainable transformation, integrate personal and organizational values (and tools)

Teams, networks and markets are consequences of individual values and behaviors

The combinations and interactions determine the emergent properties of the group

The foundations of any true knowledge-sharing culture are:

– leadership, – trust, –adaptability to changing conditions

Shared values derive from the deeply held attitudes and assumptions of each member of an organization or community

Corporate and personal goals must be aligned for long-term success through sustainable growth and deeper fulfillment         

Today's knowledge-intensive environments require new cognitive and social skills and tools to support and grow the efficiency and effectiveness of communication and collaboration

In an always-on, every-which-way connected era, the ultimate competencies will be the ability to:

–Stay connected to oneself in the midst of continuous flows and changes

–Make connections with other people in ways that are effective personally and for the purposes of organized activities