This could be one of the fundamentals of this blog: it takes two to tango and we are all part of a (same) system. The ‘I’ has a much lesser role to play to in our WElcoming world than we perhaps like to admit.
According to Eric Weiner’s study about the geography of bliss, happiness in Thailand is not a concept framed around unique individuals but around entire families, lineages. The goal, to be happy is not so much to be the most successful person on earth, but to make sure you add your (stepping) stone to make your whole family’s saga richer and better.
How about creating a social ecosystem, online and offline? (Credits: Erin Malone / FlickR)
And, surely, every step we take impacts others. There is no real I-solation possible…
Which means…
We should not just look at our activities but always at the whole system with it. We shouldn’t try to improve just ourselves but the whole ecosystem behind.
It does not only make sense to role model behaviours to influence others’ practices, but it also probably happens anyway because we are connected. Role modeling just accelerates the connection and alignment of us all, the nodes, to the mother grid.
Our only hope, our only grace, should be to connect more widely and more deeply to affect the whole system more directly, to actively contribute to creating a social ecosystem… surfing collective waves, and co-creating them.
But one thing is certain: we are not alone, we are a human and earth system… And our success depends on our ability to connect with each other in that system. So much for egoism!
Of successful people, and other people… (Credits: ??)
On this blog I talk a lot about (large) events, how they’re designed, facilitated, useful, successful, impactful… or not. There is a related, mundane, day-to-day topic: the case of everyday meetings. We spend sometimes so much time that we might want to think about how to make them as useful.
And in this post, I just want to stop and consider how to plan your time in these day-to-day meetings in the best possible way, from a KMer perspective (also because good KMers are innovation conveners – and good practice-shapers).
So many (bad) reasons to hold a meeting – time to reverse the trend (Credits: Axbom)
So here are some principles to get your started in planning your (attendance at) meetings:
Come prepared
Long preparation, short war so… If you’re not prepared, you’re likely going to be wasting your time and others’. And as I keep referring to meeting cost calculators (such as Meeting Ticker) everyone’s time amounts to quite a lot of money in the end.
Make sure there’s an agenda
If the agenda really concerns you there is a point in attending and contributing (unless you’re forced to attend). If there isn’t one, you’re wasting your time again.
Say no to meetings
If you’re not prepared, or if others aren’t, or if there’s no clear objective, the meeting is not worth it. Be ruthless and put a stop to this nonsense! Don’t encourage more fluffy and useless meetings. You can follow these simple rules to eliminate such useless meetings.
Plan your meetings in ‘bundles’…
Rather than have a meeting every other hour, how about clustering your meetings one after another so that you have some specific ‘meeting times’ and you can also enjoy some ‘non-meeting times’ to get other important things done?
…And at otherwise unproductive times (for me right after lunch)
Maybe you can use time when you’re least effective for your personal work to have meetings, it’s a great way to be productive at all times. For me that’s right after lunch. First thing after lunch. On the contrary, having a meeting at the middle of the morning or the afternoon (simply because you don’t have anything planned then) sounds -to me- like a missed opportunity to avoid seeing your productive time torn apart by islands of activities.
Now then, when you’re in the meetings / discussions…
When it’s over, it’s over!
This simple OST principle applies for day to day meetings too. Why use the time you planned just because you have it if you’re done or you’ve achieved your objectives? Stop when you’re done. Claim your freedom again :) Or spend it happily with others.
Claim your time back! (Credits: Scott Adams)
One thing leads to another – of balancing objectives and energy and keeping the process in sight
Sometimes a meeting unravels a whole set of issues that were unexpected and are actually really important to discuss. Then either there is an option to spend just a bit more time on the issue(s) and significantly negotiate its resolution, or a commitment to discuss this must be made at a later time. Just don’t let things hanging, which leads me to my penultimate point for today…
Summarise concrete follow up
Unless this was a blue sky brainstorming session, you should make sure there is a clear harvest of: insights, recommendations, decisions… so that the meeting – however productive it was while it happened – does not lead to a completely unproductive standstill afterwards. This is about managing your time in the longer run.
Use your time differently in meetings
You may want to try walking meetings, meetings in a totally different environment, online meetings where you’re learning to use a new technology (plan the time well on this one ;), meetings with a different dynamic… The point is to also think ‘differently’ about your time in meetings… so feel free to add your own meeting time tips here! But hopefully with all of this, you can finally say ‘good bye’ to acute meetingitis…
Think out of the box with meetings… (Credits: Todd Nielsen)
Paraphrasing always had a negative connotation for my French ears. Like beating around the bush or repeating things without value.
I know a much better meaning now: it’s a cornerstone of listening and learning.
I’ve been in this wonderful course from Sam Kaner about facilitation and participatory decision making. Quality stuff! And one of the first skills we learnt was paraphrasing.
Paraphrase, mirror, mimic each other, create a connection and have fun! (Credits: Arnold Newman / Getty Images)
This technique is useful for events and any piece of work involving people conversing, in fact even for personal life.
Essentially it’s about interpreting what someone said to check we understood. Sometimes it’s just mirroring (repeating), sometimes drawing the person to say more, or even ask others t osay more about the same topic. Obvious you would think! All the more so as facilitators. Yes, I do it often, but not systematically. And as Sam would say, you have to commit to it.
And yet how often have I really understood everyone’s point? How often have I taken things for granted? Time to change that and practice.
Paraphrasing is my new diet. And I’ve just learned again how humbling but refreshing learning is…
Feeling thankful…
PS. And with this post I’m ending the series of short daily posts. Not sure about the whole experiment…
The next learning step is everywhere. Curiosity and ritualised investigation accelerate these discoveries though (Credits: photonquantique / FlickR)
This may be related to the anatomy of learning. I notice that we tend to learn in a pervasive way: as we go along we discover micro patterns. But we can, and should, put our attention to the next mile, the next thing we can improve. These micro patterns that come to our attention are an opportunity paving the way for new learning, as they reveal to us a new change that is possible.
Good minds put attention to small incremental changes. Great minds – with wisdom and humility – put moments or happenings into entire wider trajectories of change, based on a conscious, purposeful, intention.
Typically that’s also what great parents do with their children: they raise their attention to the intention behind an act, and explain the very reason why it’s good to celebrate a particular moment beyond just appreciating it. They ritualise that learning.
Raising our attention is hard enough; emphasising intentions of greater significance is even more subtle to get to. Yet it’s what makes learning more collective, more sticky – and what makes long lasting change more likely to happen.
Two examples of putting measures in place to mark the intention and ritualise learning:
Asking for each post you share: ‘why you should bother reading this’ – because (I) you’ve realised that otherwise the value may not be so clear to readers.
Stopping criticising only and rather wondering what we (I) can personally do to improve something we are criticising.
Learning is hard. Hard to understand, hard to apply, hard to make consistent, hard to apply and change behaviour.
Learning about learning is a lot harder.
So when someone starts talking about ‘double loop learning’, eyes start rolling out. And when ‘triple loop learning’ splashes in a conversation, it ends in a circle of silence baked out of disbelief, compassion and impatience mixed with utter confusion…
People working hand-in-hand with the people involved in a given initiative to understand and evaluate their learning about what they’re trying to do – like the IKM-Emergent programme evaluation approach perhaps.
A community that has managed to work with all stakeholders in and around it to actually self-organise and find its own ways of dealing with its own wicked problems – possibly this was one of the objectives of the Millennium Villages.
Now the question is: can this be funded (by global development actors)? So far, very little chance, it seems. High risk, low certainty, extreme degree of complexity and abstraction (to start with).
But it’s, at the same time, remarkable that we haven’t yet put more attention to this if we want to be more efficient, more effective, more sustainable, scaled up and out and about…
How long before one funding agency, or one collective of people with a strong sense of agency, finds the boldness to just start an initiative that puts triple loop learning front and centre?
How long can we afford to stay at the surface of complex problems? When it’s too late?
Politicians discussing global warming (Isaac Cordal)
Maybe this year we’l be organising some sort of share fair of the process arts, looking at facilitation, graphic facilitation, social learning and some other process-oriented approaches and tools.
But why really? What is it that ‘process’ awareness, or process literacy has to bring?
The important thing is not your process, the important thing is your process for improving your process.
What connects objectives, activities, outputs, outcomes etc. The glue that holds it together. But also and more importantly it is what creates conversations: budding conversations, sticky conversations, morphing conversations. Because it relates deeply to human connections.
What creates engagement, empowerment, alignment, thirst for betterment – a sense of collective action, which drives that action for arguably a much longer term.
What keeps track of micro and macro patterns by putting much emphasis on understanding and assessing – both before, during, and after the action. M&E and all the rest of it…
Last week was very rich in conversations that relate to this blog as my organisation was holding its annual communication and knowledge management review and planning meeting. And on the back of that, lots of great free-floating conversations with colleagues and friends…
The blogging experiment this week: one short working out loud post every day (Credits: Jonolist / FlickR ‘Random Musings’)
So I start this week with lots of ideas in mind to further develop as blog posts, including:
What is it that the focus on processes can really bring to sustainable development? Is it all and only about the micro-patterns of learning, engagement, or even about getting to a higher level of consciousness that would help us think differently about development?
In relation to this, what are genuine examples of ‘triple loop learning’? And in relation, why does no one want to fund ‘social learning’ and attempting to reach that third loop?
Thinking about all kinds of platforms that help us save time make informed decisions about e.g. which social media to use (non profit tech for development for instance)… and taking stock of stock-taking exercises…
Wondering about Facebook for organisational work – a good idea? A dangerous approach? Is there such a platform as mentioned previously that can inform me well about this?
Using Fridays for creativity – what could be the best ideas (and boundaries) to make it work?
I’m also having to facilitate a Powerpoint hell trip and wondering what to do about this and in relation, wondering about setting up a blog specifically on facilitation.
…Lots of ideas, lots of questions, lots of blogging material…
And the blogging experiment will be to try to do a series of Seth Godin‘s: a short ‘working out loud’ post every day… Let’s see if I manage to get to this ;)
Nothing like having your back to the wall to do some useful research.
Here I am, fishing for ideas on good communication and knowledge management strategies. I addressed how to develop a communication strategy a while back. And though I’ve shared some ideas on how I would go about a KM strategy, I haven’t really synthesised all the stuff I’ve found useful to do so through the years; so here’s some stock-taking exercise for resources dealing with designing and rolling out a knowledge management strategy.
How to develop a KM strategy? (Credits: UNU-ViE_SCIENTIA / FlickR)
Caveat: This is not a simple exercise, as most companies want to preciously hoard their information about this business-critical area of work. Case studies do exist a bit everywhere but this post doesn’t attempt at highlighting those in particular.
Caveat 2: Because it is not simple, and I didn’t get enough time to search thoroughly for all that might be out there, this will be a ‘living post': I will enrich it with other resources that I think should feature here. So, feel free to bring up your key readings on this :)
A KM4Dev conversation (Credits: Westhill Knowledge)
As ever, the KM4Dev wiki is a gold mine of relevant information and as you might expect, KM4Devers have explored this topic more than once. So we have four waves of KM strategy conversations here, as well as some useful (quite recent) case studies at the end.
The four conversations cover:
How a 10-year vision about KM can be developed in an organisation
Where to start with a KM strategy
Using frameworks and getting started
The stealth approach in KM strategies
What’s useful: the attention to principles of action and the fact that this resource is quite easy to absorb and to implement as it has a good, concrete, summary section. An excellent starting point.
Their interactive KM strategy framework allows you to select a different phase of KM strategy development and zoom in on specific challenges and related posts, other writings or resources… So a good complement to the KM4Dev wiki. However here nothing is said about how you should go about it, but that’s because APQC, like quite a few other people mentioned here, makes a business out of advising you on KM too.
This series of 12 Powerpoint presentations might, at times, seem a bit dry to read but it contains a wealth of advices regarding knowledge and knowledge management. The part 5 focuses on developing a knowledge and then a knowledge management strategy, looking also at how to measure KM successfully and how to launch your KM program.
There is perhaps nothing really brand new in this but the merit of this master course is to be quite comprehensive and to be transparent.
The recent book by Stephanie Barnes and Knoco’s Nick Milton is allegedly one of the best reads on this topic and is most likely selling fast too. I don’t like to promote pay-for resources so much, that’s why I’m keeping this for the end of this selection.
Designing a successful KM strategy
The reason why this features here – and before I have even read the book myself (though I ordered it) is that Nick Milton has been blogging very regularly the past few years, and very regularly about some very good stuff. So do check his blog.
The points that I like about his approach to KM strategy include among others: Pilots, change management (not just KM), attention to facilitation as part of the skill set of a knowledge manager, guerrilla strategy, attention to principles and key knowledge areas, in addition to the standard stuff you can find in other resources mentioned here.
What we think about with KM strategies is sometimes just the tip of what needs to be taken care of (Credits: Infertilegirlinafertileworld)
Sarah Cummings and I wrote this overview of KM strategies a few years back. Although dated (2009) this comparison draws a few conclusions that are relevant regardless of the KM strategy context:
Four pointers to make decisions: the complexity of the organisation (or network etc.), strategic orientation (navel-gazing or outward-focused), learning phase in the strategy development and reference framework;
Four elements of a KM strategy: scope, approach, tools/practices, monitoring and evaluation…
Now, if I’m true to my own model of KM=CDL, I would end this stock-taking exercise by wondering how a KM strategy addresses a) cultivating conversations, b) documenting these and other experiences and c) stimulating action-focused learning, and this at organisational level but with a strong inclination to connect with individual level and (inter)institutional level. But that is too much at this stage, so more matter for another post.
You can see more resources in my bookmarks on KM strategy and as mentioned above I’ll keep on updating this so watch this space!
A short post, for an idea that is not really new in my (mind)world: Training is great. But it won’t give you the superpowers you were expecting…
Where do people get this idea from? Even in my close surrounding people believe training is the surest way to become someone else, and I see countless CVs that display a sometimes endless list of training courses like a proud badge of capacity. Like: Training transformed me into a superhero!
Become a superhero with training? Errrrm…. (Credits: MindMappingSoftware)
I don’t deny that training:
Can bring critical new information and skills;
Challenges your thinking about some theories and practices that you may not have been exposed to;
(If done well) Puts you in concrete situations where you have to show and encourage new behaviours.
… and probably a few more benefits…
But on the downside:
How many training courses are actually designed around your context, your issues, your needs and opportunities?
How many training courses pay attention to how you will apply the new information and skills in your work tomorrow, next week, next year?
As a result, what is the likelihood that you apply new information and skills in your day-to-day work (unless you have the capacity/authority and discipline to enforce this? We already know how difficult it is to change.
How likely are you to change that behaviour if you don’t have a practice of reflection about your ongoing work and naturally try to accommodate the new skills and information in your natural ecosystem and routines?
Training goes back to way back when and yet it feels to me as likely to be a fit as playing bilboquet (cup and ball) guarantees… (Credits: Noël Tortajada / Rita Productions)
So: training? Yes! But make sure it’s adapted to you, prepare yourself to putting the training insights into your context… and just don’t put all your eggs into the training basket…
I’m just sayin’…
And for whatever it’s worth, if you consider training, you might look at how to calculate return on investment. If anything, it just shows how complex it is to have training lead to value and impact.
Knowledge management (KM) can be a very dry topic to explain, so how about a bit of fun to do the job?
A mate of mine was recently compiling some ideas to present KM to a group of people who don’t know anything about it. She picked my brains and I told her, among other ideas, to use illustrations explaining the challenges that (agile) KM can solve.
Here are some ideas if you want to ignore those challenges…
Information and knowledge are of no help when you have a hammer anyway! (Credits: Mugsy’s rap sheet)
Don’t mind your information and knowledge, it’s all over-rated
True! What’s all the fuss about the information age and the knowledge era, and being smart and all. Rote learning has proven a long time ago that it was by far the most successful way to respond to current problems, let alone future challenges. Just keep nailing (or hammering?) down your problems all in the same way, as you’ve always done. Why change a winning strategy?
Well, perhaps when it’s no longer winning, and you DO need to take stock of what people think and do around you ;)
Ensure slow, and regular death by powerpoint
Another common one that can easily be avoided by (agile) KM: Make sure your meetings and events are as loaded with information as possible (yes: encourage logorrhea). Who cares about knowledge sharing and co-creating?
Death by Powerpoint, slow and painful, and totally AVOIDABLE (Credits: Media Fake Posters)
Who said involving people was a good idea? What can be better than provide all your great thoughts to others and let them digest your excellent thinking rather than come up with a watered down version of it by themselves – even together?
Keep it solid, keep it straight: it’s all about your experience enlightening others, and frankly you have little to get from interacting with all those morons around you.
Make sure everyone around you is endlessly searching information and wasting time
The gazillions of hours wasted searching for stuff are killing us! (Credits: Kirtok)
That’s right, one of the benefits of not organising and managing your information is that it forces your colleagues to search (for hours) through the web, looking for what they need. They will get really web-savvy with this, and finding lovely kitten pictures, Buzzfeed’s latest nightmarish creations and perhaps even saucy videos will have no secret for them. Finding business-critical information on the other hand… well, it’s probably not part of their terms of reference really is it? So…
Don’t reinvent the wheel (Credits: S. Wiertz / FlickR)
Reinvent the wheel – in a worse way, and in order to reinventing the wheel
Let’s go one step further: Since searching for information hasn’t reaped any tangible benefit for your business, don’t bother building upon the past, just CREATE IT ALL ANEW, bigger, flashier, fancier, ahem, though perhaps not better.
People who worked on similar challenges before didn’t understand your context, your needs, your problems, so they likely have very little in store to help you…
Just ignore them and fix that damn wheel. Someone still needs to create it, right?
Make sure your colleagues are all drowning in emails
It’s such a hassle having to learn a new tool that pretends it can do away with (part of) your emails, so just wallow in your email soup and relish the deluge that keeps coming in and keeps your heart and tension very healthy. And you may beat the record number of emails in your inbox, or amount of emails received per hour. Just go for it, there wouldn’t be anything sillier than trying to fix this since it’s so fun replying to emails endlessly. It also keeps you away from other work that needs to be done.
Life if sweet without KM.
Try and beat that record (Credits: Gideon / FlickR)
Don’t learn, don’t look back, and if you do, think single loop only
Learning? That’s for pupils and students. You don’t need it. You surely have all the best answers to all the problems in the world anyway… And even if you did need to learn, it’s just to improve your very same approach to problems – sharpening that hammer so to speak.
If you have some success, just celebrate. If you had problems, quickly ignore them. At any rate DO NOT try and document what happened. It’s a complete waste of time. Everyone knows that a success can easily be replicated elsewhere, and that a failure doesn’t help anyone, certainly not you.
Don’t bring people together to (come on, that big picture blatantly doesn’t exist!)
That big picture does NOT exist. Just relax and keep your head in the sand (Credits: Kat Banaszek / FlickR)
Thinking there might be other solutions for the issues you face, or bigger issues affecting you and your organisation is a gross exaggeration, a conspiracy from outside to prevent you from doing what you do best: business as usual. The solution must be in one deeper ply of your thinking. You’ve always found the right answers to all problems so you can figure out that big one too.
Oh, and don’t forget to run for presidency next time you can ;)
Don’t pay attention to your institutional memory, don’t do exit interviews etc.
Institutional Memory (Credits: Thomas Hawk / FlickR)
One of the common challenges that KM tries to fix is to mitigate the loss of institutional memory through buddying/coaching, on site training, codifying practices at work, implementing a proper induction program and handover process including a good, grounded exit interview.
But hey, that’s a whole waste of time. Just get on with work, focus on the here and now only and when someone leaves your company you’ll find a solution for the replacement. Anyway chances are they are not really good employees and wouldn’t leave much behind at any rate (after all: they’re working for you, a worthless company that has proved well beyond the point that they don’t take KM seriously because they are not smart).
There is so much more I could mention, all these buzz words and idiotic ideas like innovation, resilience, adaptive management etc. fail fail fail… Just rejoice at the idea that your company may start looking like The Office – so prepare your jelly supplies, and sit back, relax and enjoy the KM-free world. A world free of hassle, at least mañana…
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