Personal Knowledge Management Project

Will Knowledge ‘R’ us (not “Knowlege 'R' ours”) shape the future of knowledge and KM?

Md Santo — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:04:48 -0600

Will Knowledge ‘R’ us (not “Knowlege 'R' ours”) shape the future of knowledge and KM?

By : Dr Md Santo – http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com

The nature of Homo Sapiens comprising three knowing tools components. The first is Peripheral Nerve System or Human Senses including our Autonomic Nerve System representing Human Knowledge with Lower Consciousness (KLC). The second is Central Nerve System or Mind Brain representing Human Knowledge with Medium Consciousness (KMC). The third is Human Consciousness DNA representing Human Knowledge with Higher Consciousness (KHC). If it is postulated that nature of Knowledge Management (KM) derived from the nature of Human or we could say Human System Biology (HSB)-based KM, then we will observe that KM Tools mainly generated from KLC, KM Process Framework generated from KMC as well as KM Standards (culture and value management) generated from KHC respectively ( http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com/forum/topics/brief-description-of-our )
Consequently Knowledge which is located at the domain of DIKW continuum model as commonly believed has a narrow meaning. Hence, I suggested to separate DI with KW considering each is an entity into DI – KW model to give emphasize the paradigm I’ve just mentioned above (http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com/forum/topics/blooms-taxonomy-knowledge-an... )
Therefore, Knowledge Management (KM) essentially is not management technique but behaving more as an access mechanisms that can be used across any management tool type such as Total Quality Management, Learning Organization, Benchmarking, Process Classification Framework, Business Process Reengineering, Balanced Scorecard, Business Intelligence including Social Media platforms etc. wherein each with their specific functions to be orchestrated under KM’s consciousness. So, here we put KM in incredibly broad meaning as subject with higher level than any other management tool type which is treated only as object ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/28696847/How-to-re-postulating-the-paradigm-of... ) From eastern concept, Knowledge with broad meaning also known as Noor or “Light”
I use the phrase “KNOWLEDGE ‘R’ US”, not “KNOWLEDGE ‘R’ OURS” as the expression of the paradigm of K as well as KM just mentioned above wherein human knowledge from beginning of our life represent human consciousness as well as our personality functioning to lead us in our journey through the path of Physical Realities – Data – Information – Knowledge (narrow meaning) – Wisdom and above . In eastern people beyond Wisdom frequently called as “Ma’rifat”
The overall description in schematic as well as in presentation forms could be accessed through the list of the links below. To get explanation more in details you could visit our gateway links by choosing relevant article(s) or topic(s) at http://delicious.com/mobeeknowledge and/or http://delicious.com/tags/mobeeknowledge?view=all& . And last but not least, just to emphasize from my point of view I’ve recognized at least 10 “symptoms and signs” toward the future of next gen KM – visit http://www.scribd.com/doc/27484344/Ten-Landmarks-Toward-Next-Generation-Knowledge-Management

List of the “KNOWLEDGE ‘R’ US” related links are as follow : (Source Link : http://www.scribd.com/doc/29259487/KNOWLEDGE-R-US )

Human Body Knowing Tools as Human Consciousness Related to Knowledge Management - http://www.scribd.com/doc/28959294/Human-Body-Knowing-Tools-as-Human-Con...
How to re-postulating the paradigm of Knowledge and Knowledge Management - http://www.scribd.com/doc/28696847/How-to-re-postulating-the-paradigm-of...
Road to Next Gen Knowledge Management : “Mobee Knowledge Top Four Articles of the Month” - http://www.scribd.com/doc/28435600/Road-to-Next-Gen-Knowledge-Management-“Mobee-Knowledge-Top-Four-Articles-of-the-Month”
Bloom's Taxonomy (Learning Domains)* related with Knowledge and Knowledge Management (KM)** - http://www.scribd.com/doc/28370204/Bloom-s-Taxonomy-Learning-Domains-rel...
How to convert Knowledge Into Knowledge Management - http://www.scribd.com/doc/28177748/How-to-convert-Knowledge-Into-Knowled...
Ten Landmarks Toward Next Generation Knowledge Management - http://www.scribd.com/doc/27484344/Ten-Landmarks-Toward-Next-Generation-...
The Origin of Knowledge and Knowledge Management derived from DI-KW separated entities model - http://www.scribd.com/doc/26869572/The-Origin-of-Knowledge-and-Knowledge...
Towards Human System Biology-based Next Gen KM - http://www.scribd.com/doc/25765257/Towards-Human-System-Biology-based-Ne...
Knowledge Management System Development Derived From Human System Biology - http://www.scribd.com/doc/25613526/Knowledge-Management-System-Developme...
Explaining Step by Step the Process of Knowledge Management 2.0 Map - http://www.scribd.com/doc/25036410/Explaining-Step-by-Step-the-Process-o...
KM Metrics to Locate Your Achievements in the Universe - http://www.scribd.com/doc/24808191/KM-Metrics-to-Locate-Your-Achievement...
You Are the Knowledge - Hybrid Definition of Knowledge - http://www.scribd.com/doc/24439826/You-Are-the-Knowledge-Hybrid-Definiti...
The Physics of Knowledge - http://www.scribd.com/doc/24339159/The-Physics-of-Knowledge
WEB-BASED KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 2.0 MAP - http://www.scribd.com/doc/24331515/WEB-BASED-KNOWLEDGE-MANAGEMENT-2-0-MAP

@2010 Md Santo

KM & Communications

How to save energy and money while computing

KMAadmin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:31:31 -0600

Here are some easy ways to save both energy and money while computing:

Turn off your computer and peripherals when you aren't using them
When you're not using your monitor, turn it off instead of using the screensaver
If you're using a CRT monitor, choose dark backgrounds for your screen display since bright-colored backgrounds consume more power. If you're using an LCD monitor, the opposite is true.
Activate the power management feature on your computer system. Power management is a way for your computer to use less power when it's not being used. According to ENERGY STAR, using the power management feature can save up to USD$75 per computer per year
Network and share printers when you can

Access your power management settings

Windows 7: Go to the Start menu, select Control Panel, and choose Power Options. In the subsequent screen, select "Balanced" under "Preferred Plans". Set the "Turn off the display" setting to 10 minutes. Set the "Put the computer to sleep" option to 30 minutes. Click the "Save changes" button.
Windows 2000/XP: Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and Display. Select the Screen Saver tab. In the "Energy saving features of monitor" section, click the "Settings" or "Power" button to reach the power management settings. Set the "Turn off monitor" to 10 minutes. Set the "Turn off hard disks" to 15 minutes. Click OK or Apply.
Windows Vista: Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, Power Options. Select the "My Custom Plan" button, and select "Change Plan Settings". Choose "Turn off the display" and select 10 minutes. Choose "Put the computer to sleep" and select 15 minutes.
Macintosh OS X: Select System Preferences from the Dock. Select Energy Saver. Under the Sleep tab, use the sliders to enable your display and computer to go to sleep mode after 10 minutes of inactivity for the display, and 15 minutes for the computer. For the hard drive, check the "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible" box.

More ways to be green

Reduce paper waste by: printing as little as possible; reviewing document drafts and emails onscreen instead of printing them out; using email instead of paper memos and fax documents when possible; using the double-sided printing functions on your printer.
Recycle your old computers, monitors, batteries, and ink and toner cartridges.
Use less ink by lowering the print quality when you print working or temporary documents.
Use recycled-content paper whenever possible

ENN Africa

Key issues in KM

Moustafa Wahba — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:48:33 -0600

We as KM Africa Members should enhance our awareness, knowledge and skills on the concept of Knowledge Management KM by concentrating on different KM issues such as:

What Constitutes intellectual or Knowledge-based Assets?
Why we need Knowledge Management KM within Enterprises & TVET Institutions?
What are the benefits and motivations leading Enterprises & TVET Institutions to undertake a KM project?
What are the KM Strategies?
Categorization of Knowledge Management Approaches
How to promote a KM project in an Enterprise or TVET Institution?
How to Demonstrate the Value of a KM Project?
What is the Best Way to Approach KM?
What Are the Challenges of KM?
How Can KM Project Be Supported?
What is the Most Important for Enterprises & TVET Institutions to Do in Knowledge Management?

Best regards.
Eng. Moustafa Wahba
Competency Assurance & TVET Consultant
mmm_wahba@hotmail.com

Personal Knowledge Management Project

KMAfrica.com KnowledgeHub Greetings

KMAadmin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:16:07 -0700

Zulu culture, language & traditions

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE TOWARDS 2012

Md Santo — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:40:15 -0700

GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE TOWARDS 2012 or “CONTINUUM OF PHYSICAL REALITY WITH KNOWLEDGE AND BEYOND : GREAT TURNING FROM MIND BRAIN TO CONSCIOUSNESS DNA” (see the Attachment) showing global trends towards 2012 in which the domain of Knowledge evolved in continuum universe as emergent behavior within human body as complex (adpative) system, having consciousness and free will (mind and value) as well as behaving dynamically as subject

A brief description about the sentence ..."After Singularity between Human Mind and Technology reaching its peak (in 2012 ?)"... :
"Singularity" here means the phenomenon of the race between smartness of Human and Technology (Machine) which is at present occured exponentially and exponentially at very tremendous speed and will reaching its peak around the year 2012. To cope this situation, Human as Complex Adaptive System will migrate or making "great turning" from Brain as "center of play making in science or scientific knowledge" (locus of Mind) to the DNA as "new center" (locus of Consciousness). This migration or "great turning" will give impressive impact on how Human manage the Science and Technology. In this circumstances, it will appropriate if we put or coin a new term called as "Knowledgeable Science" which is entirely different with Scientific Knowledge as commonly used. (Consciousness) DNA as new vital locus will certainly has a higher level than the (Mind) Brain as former human vital locus.

To get more comprehensive insight, should you visit also :

http://isivivane.com/kmafrica/forum.hybrid.definition.of.knowledge - "We are the knowledge: a hybrid definition of knowledge"
http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com/forum/topics/next-generation-of-knowledge - "NEXT GENERATION OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT (KM)"
http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com/forum/topics/five-basic-implications-of-n... - "FIVE BASIC IMPLICATIONS OF NEW PARADIGM OF KNOWLEDGE"
http://mobeeknowledge.ning.com/forum/topics/knowledge-towards-2012-great - "KNOWLEDGE TOWARDS 2012 : GREAT TURNING FROM MIND BRAIN TO CONSCIOUSNESS DNA"

Tourism Knowledge SIG

Research Funding Toolkit

KMAadmin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:45:52 -0600

Funding is vital for any research endeavour and writing funding proposals that have the desired impact is vital know-how. This Research Funding Toolkit toolkit can be found on the Global Development Network website. It provides tips and practical suggestions for applying for funding and proposal writing. It is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers.

Proposal Writing and Fundraising Toolkit GDN Website

Contents of the toolkit:

This toolkit is divided into six sections. Here is a brief description of each section.

Before you start This section provides a list of things to consider before you start. Key points are grouped under what you should know about the potential donor and what you should know about yourself and your organization.
Writing the proposal This section provides a checklist of things to consider when writing a proposal, such as style, structure and clarity. Some useful links on proposal writing are also listed.
Budgeting Budgeting is a critical element of a proposal, and conveys to the donor whether an organization has the capacity to manage and account for monies in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. This section of our proposal guide outlines points to remember when you come to putting together a budget to justify the funds for which you are applying.
Guide to donors Most funding requests, estimated at 90 percent, are declined immediately, either because they fall outside a donor’s stated interest areas, or because they are inadequately prepared and do not reflect the organization’s expertise and its ability to carry out the project’s objectives. This section helps you to judge which donor to approach and how best to approach them, starting with general points followed by more detail on individual donors.
Institutional insights The case studies in this section has been compiled from researchers and institutional bodies in developing and developed countries. They provide useful insights and advice on many aspects of the proposal process, highlighting the reality of fundraising and key issues that should be considered by researchers and institutions alike.
Networking This section provides a guide to networking with donors and funders, highlighting the importance of forging and maintaining relationships.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development

KMAadmin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:18:37 -0600

Web 2.0 tools and approaches are radically changing the ways we create, share, collaborate and publish digital information through the Internet. Participatory Web 2.0 for development – or Web2forDev for short – is a way of employing web services to intentionally improve information-sharing and online collaboration for development. Web 2.0 presents us with new opportunities for change – as well as challenges – that we need to better understand and grasp. This special issue shares learning and reflections from practice and considers the ways forward for using Web 2.0 for development.

PART I: OVERVIEW

Change at hand: Web 2.0 for development
The two hands of Web2forDev: a conference summary

PART II: STUDIES OF WEB 2.0 TOOLS

Exploring the potentials of blogging for development
Web 2.0 tools to promote social networking for the Forest Connect alliance
Promoting information-sharing in Ghana using video blogging
Mobile phones: the silver bullet to bridge the digital divide?

PART III: ISSUE-BASED STUDIES

Anti social-computing: indigenous language, digital video and intellectual property
Tools for enhancing knowledge-sharing in agriculture: improving rural livelihoods in Uganda
Ushahidi or ‘testimony’: Web 2.0 tools for crowdsourcing crisis information
Web 2.0 for Aboriginal cultural survival: a new Australian outback movement

PART IV: THEORY AND REFLECTION ON PRACTICE

Circling the point: from ICT4D to Web 2.0 and back again
Web 2.0 tools for development: simple tools for smart people
The Web2forDev story: towards a community of practice

PART V: TIPS FOR TRAINERS

Web 2.0 tools: a series of short introductions

Each introductory guide provides a brief description of the Web 2.0 tool and how it can be used for development purposes, along with links to further information and where applications can be downloaded online (more information also in e-participation):

Blogging
Micro-blogging and Twitter
Wikis
Online social networking
RSS feeds
Tagging
Social bookmarking
Glossary of Web 2.0 terms

This special issue is co-published with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

KM & Communications

The technology of reminding yourself

storytelling — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:10:12 -0600

An important aspect of PKM is stimulating the right habits and reminding yourself to attend to a particular thing at the appropriate time. For example, you might want to remind yourself of some of the following recurring events such as:

when to exercise
when to pay the bills
when to water your plants
when you should study
when you need to take medicine
when a proposal, project deadline or assignment is due
when an important anniversary is happening

A simple way of doing this is via google calendar available on calendar.google.com Website and if you don't yet have a gmail account, we strongly recommend that you set one up on google.com Main Website so that this feature works. Once you have setup your appointments - including the recurring appointments, remember to register your mobile number (google will send you a response code that you will need to enter into the google calendar interface). You will now be able to receive reminders by SMS to your cellphone sent when you require. The result of this approach that you don't need to spend your time worrying about what you have/have not done and it frees you to attend to a schedule that you create rather than schedules that are imposed on you. You can choose to receive alerts through a combination of emails, popups and sms messages and the the service is free at the current time. The result is you can focus on what you are doing without worrying about what you might have forgotten to do.

There are a number of useful public calendars available from Google Calendar including public holidays, astronomical calendars, phases of the moon, tides etc.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Sourceforge - a resource for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

KMAadmin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:07:00 -0600

SourceForge is the world's largest open source software development web site. As of February, 2009, more than 230,000 software projects have been registered, making SourceForge.net the largest collection of open source tools and applications on the net. Software is available for download for most major operating systems including Windows, Windows Mobile, Mac and Linux SourceForge.net Website

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Feedback, learning and change

storytelling — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:02:49 -0600

When most of us were at school failure was seen as something that was negative, should be avoided and often worth punishment. And yet most learning theorists agree that it is only through failure that we really learn – as opposed to just memorising. Failure is useful when it helps us critically appraise our own performance. This is evaluation is an example of feedback. A simple way to think of feedback is experiencing the output of your own performance as a new input.

Students of psychology and education are becoming increasingly aware of the vital role that feedback plays in how we learn. All complex systems (like your body, your organisation, your family, your community) change their behaviour or learn through feedback - even if this means weaving in and out of the best path (like Wiener’s boat example) rather than sticking to the best path in any strict way.

The concept of feedback was developed by Norbert Wiener, who used the analogy of someone steering a boat: “When the boat deviates from the present course, say to the right, the steersman assesses the deviation and then countersteers by moving the rudder to the left. This decreases the boat's deviation, perhaps even to the point of moving through the correct position and then deviating to the left. At some time during this movement the steersman makes a new assessment of the boat's deviation, countersteers accordingly, assesses the deviation again, and so on. Thus he relies on continual feedback to keep the boat on course, its actual trajectory oscillating around the present direction. The skill of steering a boat consists in keeping these oscillations as smooth as possible.” (Capra 1996:57)

Even if you cannot predict the outcome, turning up the volume of feedback will always produce more sustainable results. As long as all the bits are talking to each other, something better will emerge. Feedback can be seen as a flow of information, in the in-between spaces, that constantly invites new responses from all the parts, improving the quality of all relationships within the system and allowing a system to learn how to do more for less effort. Sometimes something completely new and unexpected can arise out of the in-between spaces and take the whole system to another level.

Feedback allows you to make those corrections to your own behaviour that are necessary to lift your performance to another level. But how, and from where, can we get effective, reliable and performance enhancing feedback in the systems in which we live and the organisations in which we work?

Many people respond quite negatively to feedback, irrespective of how well intentioned it might be. Many people resist useful feedback because they fear failure and rejection. They therefore experience critical feedback as a personal attack. People who live in short timeframes experience critical feedback as something that defines them as a failure. By contrast, people who live in long timeframes experience critical feedback as data on how to succeed and grow on their own learning path.

Those who resist feedback are unlikely to change their behaviour when they receive it. This has important implications for the way your organisation deals with performance appraisals and the way it helps members design career paths. Opportunities for feedback are often misappropriated to make people feel worthless and incompetent. For feedback to be effective, organisations have to link feedback and learning and commit to both as core values in their corporate cultures.

One solution is to engage feedback as an ongoing conversation in your organisation, rather than a formal summary of someone’s performance, at a single and arbitrary point in time, with an abstract mark attached to it.

if you are not failing at something, you aren't learning anything new

People often fear their appraisals or assessments, whereas they could be looking forward to an opportunity to learn and to grow both themselves and the organisation. This is what Weiner called “reciprocal modification” – the change in me is a change in you. This ongoing “conversation” is what is often referred to as continuous assessment as opposed to summative assessment.

Effective feedback also has implications for top performers. In the old days people who were getting 80% were “better” than everyone else and did not have to try as hard. In the philosophy of Outcomes-Based Education, people should not be measured against each other. Individuals should be measured against their own potential and expectations. If they are getting high marks it does not mean they can rest in the knowledge of their superiority. It means it is time to find a new growing edge, a new challenge on their learning path. If you are not failing at something you are not learning anything new.

Members of your organisation need to be coached in the mechanisms and dynamics of effective feedback and how it relates to their own learning path. They need to begin to see feedback as an opportunity to improve and grow rather than as a personal attack or a defining statement of their identity. It should also help people to experience their lives in long timeframes in which criticism doesn’t define them but is experienced as useful information on a long and fruitful learning path. It should also encourage them to experiment with behavioural changes in a way that is slightly demanding, but is relatively safe, enjoyable, creative and rewarding.

Some questions about the feedback you're getting

How are you providing feedback?
Is it working?
How would you know that it is working?
How do you respond to feedback?
Are you growing?
What tells you that you are growing?
What are the current mechanisms of feedback in your organisation?
How could you evaluate and improve their function?
How does cooperation pay in your organisation?
Are you ready to experiment with new feedback processes?

From Art & Science of Change - A Resource for Management and Leadership - (ISBN-978-0-9802550-3-4) Ubuhibi Media used with permission

Fireside Chat

About Paradigms and Change

storytelling — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:54:21 -0600

A paradigm is a self-consistent set of ideas and beliefs which acts as a filter, influencing how we perceive and make sense of the world. The way in which we often structure our organisations is based on the model of a Egyptian pyramid and is an example of a paradigm. Other examples of paradigms include – how to make bread, what a bed looks like, the characteristics of a chair that lend the idea of “chairness”, the general features of a ship or an aircraft and so on. The term was first used by Thomas Kuhn in “the structure of scientific revolutions” (1962) to describe the the impact of change within the ruling theory of science when fundamental assumptions changed. Kuhn argued that the history of science is not a linear and continuous assimilation of facts but rather a number of revolutions in which new paradigms or new ways of seeing the world, entirely replace the old. Some of his conclusions include:

No matter how flawed, no paradigm can shift until there is a new paradigm to replace it.
Most paradigms shift when enough of the people who supported the old paradigm die.
Paradigms shift because their internal contradictions become unsustainable. This implies that one way to shift paradigms is to reinforce the internal contradictions. An important reason why Apartheid crumbled, for example, is that it became increasingly unprofitable.
Paradigms also shift as a result of the introduction of new metaphors. Kuhn suggested that the most consequential characteristic of a scientific revolution is “central change of model, metaphor, or analogy - a change in one’s sense of what is similar to what, and of what is different.” This usually occurs when different disciplines intersect and there is a “cross-pollination” of metaphor sets leading to a new way of “seeing” the world.
A paradigm is a constellation of concepts, values, perceptions and practices shared by a community, which forms a particular vision of reality that is the basis of the way a community organises itself. (Fritjof Capra 1997:6)
A paradigm at the heart of a culture can influence perception and meaning: if we believe that there is a culture of entitlement, we will hear and remember words that support that frame. In addition, the prevailing paradigm encourages certain types of behaviour. If everyone believes there is a blame culture, it is likely that people will behave in blaming ways. In this way, the paradigm becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a sort of filter which helps make life manageable and gives us a sense of stability in a changing world.

However, it is not the existence of paradigms which can cause difficulties but their stability. Even when a paradigm is no longer useful it will tend to cling on, continuing to filter perceptions. Like culture, paradigms emerge from the interactions between the individuals within the community. They become apparent when they are named and characterised. And when enough people language their reality frequently, it has the quality of becoming “real”.

The term “paradigm shift” has found uses in a number of other contexts including a radical change in personal beliefs, a change in complex systems or organisations and replacing the former way of thinking with a radically different way of thinking.

Fireside Chat

How to decode your position of power

eugenie — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:01:18 -0600

While we all know something about power, working in conflict or change management requires a clear understanding of power and how to decode and understand it. So what is power really and how is it constructed? Our world identifies certain individuals as 'having power' and then proceeds to make them more powerful by talking about them in the media. Politicians, high profile business leaders, characters from the entertainment industry and those frequently in the public eye are often said to examples of ‘powerful people’.

A useful way of decoding any phenomenon is to go beyond the 'what is it?' question and rather look at 'what does it do?'. In organisations, power can do many things. It can speed things up, slow things down, alter trajectory, transform our understanding of ‘what is going on’ and divert attention to something altogether different. We each have some measure of power and your position of power could be defined by:

Knowing what you want – having a clear vision of where you are going
The timeframes of your visions and strategies – how far into the future does your story go? (tip: a Long Timeframe contains a greater sense of power than than visions with short timeframes)
The way you talk and think about yourself and your frustrations
Your ability to learn & pay attention
Authority over the way others perceive you and what they say about you
Your choice of language and metaphors
Control over the money and the PIN numbers
Control over the story (are you in your own story or someone else’s story?)
Ability to mete out brutality and violence in all its forms (such as exclusion / ostracising, disapproval, withholding sex and intimacy, firing, physical punishment, active / passive aggression etc..)
Knowledge / Know-How
Freedom of choice
Your ability to sacrifice / let go / move on / forget the past
Access to powerful, interesting people in positions of power (who are as smart or smarter than you are)
Know-how to access to information that will help your get what you want
The ability to tell a good story that arouses emotion on others
Access to the internet and an interest in communication & networking technology
Access to software tools that enable you to stay current and in touch with thought leadership from diverse fields
Having a good story to tell
Having interesting stimulating people with budgets whom you tell your story to
Your preparedness to experiment and try new things
The ability to network powerfully with the people with whom you desire to network
The scary stories people tell about you, particularly tales of what you have done in the past / the mythologies of violence you have enacted
The ability to make people uneasy or frightened and your ability to be unpredictable & ruthless (you might be able to do this better than you think!)
Your ability to actively work and play with your own metaphors
Keeping up with new metaphors, jargon
The ability to say NO and to absolutely, positively mean it
The ability to say YES and to absolutely, positively mean it
Knowing about power and how it works

Steve Banhegyi steve@storytelling.co.za
used with permission from the Trans4mation Blog

Fireside Chat

Why load Ubuntu Linux on your PC?

KMAadmin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:03:38 -0600

The Linux operating system is becoming increasingly popular and offers a stable desktop platform including the respectable Openoffice office suite for free. You can load Ubuntu Linux onto your windows computer and, on boot up, decide which operating system you want to use - Windows or Linux. In addition to cost, there are many advantages to taking a serious look at Linux including an awesome array of free software to support almost any field of human endeavour. And if you are still attached to your old windows programs, the Ubuntu Linux supports a Windows emulator called Wine that can run many (but not all) your windows programs. In addition, remind yourself that it is exploring and learning new things that keeps you young and interesting.

You can request a free copy of Ubuntu Linux by going to Official Ubuntu Website Shipment is free to any country.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

A glimpse into the mind of the world - realtime search

KMAadmin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:38:26 -0600

With the increase in users of microblogging sites such as Twitter.com, a profusion of services have emerged to support analysis and search of this live 'stream' of data. This Tweetgrid example provides an view of how seaching on particular hashtags (designated with a '#') can yield useful results and interesting connections. Importantly, it provides insight into how people in distant places are talking about your field of interest, what metaphors they are using, who they are recommending etc.. Obviously there is a lot of junk and so, as always, you need to exercise discernment. You can update the #hashtags on the tweetgrid and save your own personal glimpse into the mind of the collective. And if you are on twitter, please follow our updates on @KMAfrica by typing FOLLOW KMAFRICA and don't forget to update your Activity Stream with your twitter account details. Further information about #hashtags at Hashtags.org. If you want your message hashtagged, just add the hastags inside the message eg. if you want to twitter on the KMAfrica stream, include #KMAfrica to your message.

Useful #hashtags for search

#changemgt (change management)
#KM (knowledge management)
#KMAfrica
#quotes
#innovation
#science
#socialmedia
#UNDP
#swineflu (swineflu data, news & infections)
#haiku (poetry)
you can also try city names like #joburg #nairobi etc

Fireside Chat

Africa - fertile ground for KM innovations

storytelling — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:07:55 -0600

The uptake of mobile phones on the African continent continues with growth rates in excess of 100% over the past twelve months (Source MTN 'Yello corporate publication, 2008). This is happening while technologies that link people across space and time are becoming ubiquitous and mobile telephony is the preferred means of telecommunication. The result is a narrowing of the technological gap between the developed and developing world. Rates of ownership, even among the poorest, is surprisingly high and while estimates vary, there were already more than 100 million connected handsets in Africa in 2005.

All that is needed are bright, entrepreneurial minds to seize the space, to make the connection in what is potentially one of the biggest knowledge markets in the world. What is needed is to marry technology with great ideas. These ideas can come from looking at actual situations in which knowledge and technology have been applied to create successful, impactful change, work opportunities and sustainable systems. Could you use these ideas to stimulate new possibilities for yourself and your community?

Farmers are using mobile phones to ensure the best prices for their crops and use the information to decide which market to sell at, small-scale entrepreneurs are contacting potential clients, and grandparents are talking to their children and grandchildren hundreds of kilometres away. IDRC (2003a) and NGO Mobile
There are case studies from around the world that demonstrate the potential gains of ICT use for biodiversity and conservation at a practical, hands-on level in basic data collection, information, education and research; community-led conservation initiatives; conservation project management; tracking and monitoring. (Banks & Burge, 2004). In addition, National parks communicate details about dangerous animals, provide an early warning system to mitigate against human-wildlife conflict.
Mobile technology is being used in rural phone networks for telemedicine, small business development, market trading and farming, humanitarian aid and community services NGO Mobile
An Insurance company in the UK has stolen a lead over its competitors by offering same day claim evaluation and payment by using mobile wireless technology.
Some patients in Africa on antiretrovirals now receive text message (SMS) reminders to take their medicine, so they no longer waste time and money traveling to their nearest clinic to ensure compliance. NGO Mobile
eThekwini municipality in South Africa have developed a model to stimulate community participation by using library infrastructure and Opensource social networking software to record indigenous knowledge. Because indigenous knowledge is mostly stored in people’s minds and passed on through generations by word of mouth rather than in written form, it is vulnerable to rapid change (Sithole, 2006). Development processes like rural/urban migration and changes to population structure as a result of famine, epidemics, displacement or war may all contribute to loss of indigenous knowledge. Even in remote areas the powers that push global or just non-local content such as television and radio advertising are much stronger than those pushing local content (Nyumba, 2006). The result is a form of 'cultural imperialism' where the monolithic culture threatens to wipe out Indigenous knowledge unless it is properly documented and disseminated (World Bank, 1998)
Unemployed youths in Nairobi’s shanty towns receive texts alerting them to job opportunities in the city NGO Mobile
Fauna & Flora International have created a web-based portal which provides a wide variety of conservation news stories, discussion boards, field diaries, competitions, downloadable resources and image galleries using a shared database which also feeds directly into a micro-site on Vodafone’s live! platform. Users can access a wide range of these services, in addition to downloadable animal-sound ring tones, wildlife images and conservation-themed games. This is the first time that conservation based materials have been made available to mobile subscribers, giving them the opportunity to engage in conservation in a completely new way. (Banks & Burge, 2004)
The World Health Organisation in Kenya have implemented a shared Wiki which allows field workers to share area level knowledge with each other at electronic speed. Established to share learning and experiences, both positive and negative, a major benefit of the system is said to be a greater spirit of community among field workers who have been enabled and empowered to make the connections as they see fit on the ground. (KMAfrica2007, Nairobi)
The Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare have implemented a shared wiki to focus on organisational culture, values, branding and identity - the approach allows members of this diverse organisation to communicate about key issues. MOHSW website
Wet-Africa.org - a specialist water knowledge site that runs on the KMAfrica.com SIG platform includes a system that monitors and allows system members to report pollution incidents in waters and wetlands via twitter and SMS. wet-africa.org website

Further information on some of the projects mentioned here can be found on:

Technology for conservation and development T4CD website
United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre website
NGO Mobile (ideas for using ICT in community animation) NGO Mobile website
Kiwanja.net is an organisation providing social messaging software to NGOs Kiwanja.net website

ICT as an enabler

It is important to understand that mobile phones and other ICTs are tools, and not a solution to problems. However, ICTs have an important role to play as a part of wider strategies and programmes. Areas in which ICTS have been successfully employed by a variety of organisations include disaster relief, poverty alleviation, healthcare, conservation, development, and job creation – all representing fertile ground for KM innovation and entrepreneurship.

research: Steve Banhegyi
steve@storytelling.co.za

Fireside Chat

Ideas for powerful networking

storytelling — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:33:26 -0600

The ability to network powerfully is an important skill and a key resource in your personal knowledge management strategy. In this discussion we'll look at ways of interacting with your network plus ideas for powerful networking. You could see your network as a series of circles that contain your immediate family, your friends, your professional networks, and the general public. While some of these overlap, others do not are and quite distinct. In addition to the face-to-face networks you engage in on a day-to-day basis, the vast majority of these networks are becoming available on-line and so these ideas are designed to provide know-how designed to help you get the best out of all of your networks:

Create a clear vision of success for yourself including an idea of what you want. Do not proceed until you have achieved this.
Cultivate a clear idea of the network, its' identity, why you want to be part of it and what you want from it.
Cultivate a clear idea of how you wish to be seen by the network and ensure that your behaviour is always consistent with the identity you desire to portray.
Are your personal value systems compromised in any way as a result of engaging with this network? If so, you should either a) seriously re-consider being part of the network and rather not engage it or b) re-evaluate your personal values.
Be deliberate about how you project your profile to the world and ensure it is consistent across all networks. You can check your KMAfrica.com profile on http://isivivane.com/kmafrica/?q=user
Have a carefully constructed 'Elevator Pitch' ready for delivery - when you make a connection, you'll need to describe who you are, what it is you do and why it is important in the form of a short story - practicing and having this story ready for delivery makes it more likely to be memorable and impactful.
You are going to need a well designed, aesthetically pleasing business card that includes your email address and other contact details. The way this card looks and feels tells volumes about you so make certain you give it the care and attention that it deserves.
In business and relationships, it is not always what you know or even how brilliant you are that makes the difference but rather who you know ... actively cultivate friendships and connections with people who will further your own vision of success.
Find out where the people you want to network with hang out … and then join them.
Practice a winning smile in the mirror and use it more often than you frown - even if no-one is watching.
Commit to provide prompt, intelligent and courteous feedback.
Honour commitments and deadlines - try not to save things to do for the last minute.
Listen actively and carefully but when afforded the opportunity to speak, contain yourself to asking well thought out knowledge creating questions.
Make careful notes of your meetings, activities and contacts and re-read these notes at least once a week.
Make a point of remembering the names of the people you make contact with
Commit to learning how technology and a well formed PKM strategy can help widen your circle of contacts.
Commit to learning more about personal branding and developing a unique, compelling and authentic style though which you project yourself.
Develop a personal networking code for yourself and ensure that you stick to it...
It is important that you take an interest in your networks and that you participate in them intelligently and regularly.

Do you have any more suggestions? Please comment below!

Fireside Chat

Permaculture as a metaphor for organisational change & sustainability

storytelling — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:46:01 -0600

Permaculture is a particularly useful metaphor in change management and KM and many organisations are using permaculture principles to teach design and sustainability. Permaculture concerns itself with the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing, appropriate technology, and community development.

"Companies are actually living organisms, not machines. We keep bringing in mechanics, when what we need are gardeners." Peter Senge

Permaculture is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting with the environment in mutually beneficial ways. It seeks to design sustainable human habitats by observing and following the patterns of nature. Permaculture encourages holistic thinking which means that we consider all aspects of a system (irrespective of how seemingly insignificant they are) and how they interrelate with each other. In addition, permaculture encourages use to think about the consequences of any intervention. In very broad summary, Permaculture teaches an appreciation for design that:

uses available materials and resources to ensure maximum productivity and the minimum amount of energy expenditure
teaches respect for nature and all living things
recognises the environment as a complex set of living relationships
emulate natural processes thus promoting sustainability
encourages diversity in plant and animal species
teaches planning by considering the consequences of actions by projecting into the future

Fireside Chat

A KM approach to guiding Change Management

storytelling — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:29:26 -0600

When engaged in Change Management project, we often use a KM framework to guide and share elements of the system's functionality with client. This simultaneously engages Systems Theory, Logical Framework Analysis (LFA), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Dialogic approaches in project work. The novelty of this approach is that is both analytical and analogical simultaneously and creates a multidisciplinary framework for engaging complex information. It has proved particularly helpful in working with African government and NGOs. The process is generally completed within 3 days as an organisational ritual and outputs form inputs to the change process. The enquiry framework asks the following key questions when we assess organisational culture and the nature of a system:

What are the roles and the relationships that make up the complex social system under investigation?
What official criteria are used to measure the success of these roles? What unofficial criteria are used to measure the success of these roles?
How does information flow between these roles and in these relationships?
What skills sets are represented in each role? What are the sources of these skills? Which skills and skills sets are capable of dealing with what challenges?
What values and beliefs inform the behaviours of each of the roles in the system?
What symbols, metaphors and stories inform the different roles with regards to their experience of the challenge? What is the source of these symbols, metaphors and stories? How are they currently succeeding in meeting the challenge?
What messages and stories that relate to this challenge are currently being produced and by whom?
What are the kinds of data that are already being collected with regards to the system? Who is collecting this data? With what intent? How is this data then represented? Who has access to it? In what form?
What feedback mechanisms are functioning in this system? What is the information that is being relayed through these feedback loops? What are these feedback loops capable of changing?
What does each role have the power to change? What is each role unable to change?
What are the natural processes of social and behavioural change in the system? Can these natural processes of change be harnessed in any way?
What are the unofficial and spontaneous forms of governance that arise in this system?

The approach evaluates every value, belief and behaviour is by asking the following questions:

Who benefits from this value / belief / behaviour?
What feedback mechanisms sustain this value/belief/behaviour?
What alternative values, beliefs and behaviours can be imagined? Are these alternatives actualised or experimented with?
How do these values/beliefs/behaviours determine changes in the whole system?

Overview provided by Steve Banhegyi & Associates trans4mation blog

Fireside Chat

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) - social & political domination through text & talk

storytelling — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:16:40 -0600

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse, which views "language as a form of social practice" (Fairclough 1989: 20) and focuses on the ways social and political domination is reproduced by text and talk. CDA developed within several disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, such as 'critical linguistics'.

CDA is founded on the idea that there is unequal access to institutionally controlled linguistic and social resources. The patterns of access to discourse and communicative events is one essential element for CDA. Although CDA is sometimes mistaken to represent a 'method' of discourse analysis, it is generally agreed that any explicit method in discourse studies, the humanities and social sciences may be used in CDA research, as long as it is able to adequately and relevantly produce insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality, power abuse or domination. That is, CDA does not limit its analysis to specific structures of text or talk, but systematically relates these to structures of sociopolitical context.

Fireside Chat

Dialogic - endless redescriptions of the world

storytelling — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:52:56 -0600

The terms dialogic and dialogism often refer to the concept used by Mikhail Bakhtin in his work The Dialogic Imagination. The dialogic work carries on a continual dialogue with other works of literature and other authors. It does not merely answer, correct, silence, or extend a previous work, but informs and is continually informed by the previous work. Dialogic literature is in communication with multiple works. This is not merely a matter of influence, for the dialogue extends in both directions, and the previous work of literature is as altered by the dialogue as the present one is.
Bakhtin argues that all language (and all thought) appears dialogic. This means that: everything anybody ever says always exists in response to things that have been said before and in anticipation of things that will be said in response. We never, in other words, speak in a vacuum. As a result, all language (and the ideas which language contains and communicates) is dynamic, relational and engaged in a process of endless redescriptions of the world.

"Good morning, how are you? Very well thank you, and you? Fine thank you!" is a typical example of a dialogic pattern. What often -repeated, but meaningless dialogic patterns do you use in your thinking and conversation?

Fireside Chat

Anti-knowledge – the unknown as reservoir of the possible

storytelling — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:51:19 -0600

Anti-knowledge refers to the collective set of questions that form an antithetical structure to a subset or the sum of knowledge. Put more simply, Antiknowledge is whatever we don't know. Of course, we can't know what we don't know and so the only way to find out is to ask a question. Thankfully, the questions we can ask are the Who, What, Where, Why, How and When questions which operate on Anti-knowledge converting the questions into knowledge by structuring them. There are two fundamental types of questions:

Learning questions - questions about knowledge that exists
Knowledge Discovery Questions - questions that form knowledge when structured

Within the intellectual universe, there is a Yin-Yang relationship between the sum of knowledge and the sum of questions. In the Yin-Yang symbol pictured here, the black area represents Yin - the feminine - or the sum of questions (or Anti-Knowledge). The white area represents Yang - the masculine - or the sum of knowledge or the known. It is important to recognise that the Yin/Yang or Anti-knowledge/Knowledge are in continuous dynamic relationship with each other and knowledge is continuously being created (and forgotten) in the boundary between the two. The model provides us with the insight that it is possible to manage the realm of the unknown in much the same way that one manages the known.

Terms like genius, creativity, innovation, problem solving, and knowledge creation have been historically studied and represented as loosely related topics. When appropriately understood, all of these terms can be encapsulated into the following cycle of knowledge and anti-knowledge as follows:

Definition/Solution/Structure (Knowledge Context)
Question/Problem (What are the smartest questions can we ask?)
Logical Operation (connects/structures/defines)
Result: Advanced Definition/Solution/Structure
Return to Step 2

Anti-knowledge overview kindly provided by Bruce LaDuke - Hyperadvance Blog & Website

If you want to learn more, have a look at this short 51 slide overview on Anti-Knowledge

Fireside Chat

4 steps to exploring social media

KMAadmin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:09:05 -0600

If you are new to social media and are still exploring the area, here are 4 steps to help you get the best out of it:

Step 1: Explore - search & browse for content that interests you. Find out where your friends, colleagues and peers spend their time on the web. Particularly look for notable commentators and figures in the area in which you are interested, subscribe to their personal blogs and follow the comments and conversations.
Step 2: Understand the space. The social media space has its own set of informal rules often termed 'netiquette' (the etiquette of the 'net). The fundamental idea is to treat others in the way that you would like to be treated - be polite, firm, honour your commitments and be consistent across all the networks that you choose to belong to. Also, commit to prompt feedback-there is nothing stranger in an electronic world than people who takes weeks to respond to an email. Also remind yourself anything you do on the 'net that can be directly traced back to you will speak volumes about 'who you are'; this image will either attract of repel potential contacts.
Step 3: Ask intelligent knowledge creation questions and give prompt feedback - you can do this by voting on content and by adding your own comments or even feeding back on other comments thus further stimulating a conversation. Also, while you can explore ideas, never attack (or 'flame' in internet language) people or groups.
Step 4: Contribute - start creating, editing and enhancing the KMAfrica.com knowledgebase. All our content is fed to a variety of knowledge-related sites and newsfeeds and so it creates awareness and interest. Use your personal blog and the SIGS to highlight your projects and interests and get feedback from other members. Find ways to tell your own story in creative ways using diverse media.

Fireside Chat

The Game of Knowledge Management

KMAadmin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:48:37 -0600

While there are a number of models available for practitioners of KM to help implement KM projects, few models have tried to deconstruct KM itself and how it works. Understanding a complex dynamic is often best done by adopting a metaphor; a good metaphor can go a long way and serve you well in understanding a complex system.

A reminder about metaphors

Metaphor is the use of one thing to represent something else because of some perceived common characteristic. For example: “the Boss has a razor tongue”. The metaphor allows for comparison of two things which are quite different in order to express an emotion, an idea, or a concept that cannot be described by literal language alone. In this comparison, the two ‘things’ compared exchange properties to create a whole new range of meaning. For example, in the phrase ‘he has a razor tongue’, words gain the sharpness, the danger, the precision of an instrument that can cause pain and even death – and all this from the conjunction of the two words. Metaphors lie to us. Tongues aren’t really razors. Therefore, well designed and delivered metaphors have the capacity to capture the imagination and are used to good effect in public speaking.

KM as a game?

A game is defined as “a socially constructed sequence of actions consisting of rituals, rules, roles, values and goals" We have extended the model to include and resources, language and Style (the unique way in which you are seen to play the game). Using this model, we can use it to understand and demystify any complex dyanamic in which human beings engage from parenting through business to psychiatry, war and even KM. The model described here has been used in a variety of environments ranging from KM through Change Management and even forecasting and simulation.

The model here uses the cardinal and ordinal points of the compass to highlight energies/archetypes that probably already exist in the system under examination. By identifying them, we turn up the volume on these key values, attitudes and behaviours. The way in which these key factors influence and inform each other creates the dynamic of the game or the living system.

Goals (East) – Every game has a goal, even if the goal is to simply continue playing the game in a sustainable manner or to win. While soccer, rugby and cricket matches come to an end with winners and losers, the game continues – season after season. Typical goals of business games might include sustainable profits, the creation of wealth and having rewarding interpersonal relationships. For organisations, goals are normally articulated in a Vision/Mission statements and in strategic plans. On a personal level, your narrative or 'story' articulates your goals as experienced through your identity. What are your personal goals? What are the goals of the games that you are playing? Do they contradict each other? Are the goals worth the effort? How have you reached clarity and agreement with your fellow players about what the goals and nature of the game are?
Language / Stories (South East) – each game has its own language which allows participants to talk about (and even create?) common experience. The game of Law, for example, requires that many years be spent at university and doing articles. During this period, the budding lawyer will come to know a language that not only allows the experience of law, but it also acts as an effective ‘barrier to entry’ to non-lawyers. But lawyers are not the only ones with a unique language – every field of human endeavour has its language, set of symbols, metaphors and figures of speech that are continuously repeated. What language do you engage in? Is it the language of creativity, opportunity, teamwork and success? Could you appropriate language from other areas to expand your experience and describe your world?
Resources (South) – it is likely that 'money' springs to mind when you hear this word but resources also means emotional support, know-how and process knowledge, equipment, networks, access to information, support systems and 'people you know'. The question of resources asks you to make clear what is it you actually need to make the game work. You may also wish to see a well designed vision or goal as a resource.
Style (South West) – Style is the way you play the game. Style embodies your behaviours, thoughts and words. Irrespective of what you are playing, you bring your unique personal style to the game. Style is learned and developed over time and is strongly influenced by role models, self perception and particularly by feedback. Much as sportsmen view videos of their performance in order to improve themselves, feedback allows you to see which behaviours provide the desirable outcomes. Where do you get your feedback from and is it helping you to achieve the desired results? Are you flexible enough to question your own style, open enough to ask for feedback and creative enough to experiment with new styles? Are you aware that much of your style is influenced by your early childhood experiences and from observing how others respond to situations?
Values (West) – Values are are standards or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable. They are abstract ideas about what an organisation/ society/ community believes to be good, right, and desirable. They represent your deeply held beliefs demonstrated through day-to-day behaviours and are the fundamental principles that guide community-driven processes. Values provide a basis for action and communicate expectations for participation and make a public pronouncement about how the organisation expects everyone to behave. Values should endure over the long-term and provide a constant source of strength for the individual or organisation that holds them.
It has been suggested by a number of writers that values create conditions that make certain beliefs and behaviours more likely. It is important to understand that whilst these values are influenced by the culture from which you come, you are ultimately responsible for constructing your personal values. So spending time on your values is an important exercise which becomes more useful as you read over and update them from time to time. What values do you need to support in order to play a particular game? Are these values reinforced and expressed in both your language and behaviour? Is there a discrepancy between expressed values and behaviour? How do you come to know what values are required to successfully play the games you are engaged in?
Rules (North West) – In order to play a game well, you need to be clear about what the rules are – both written and unwritten – and work with them stretching the boundaries where possible. Rules stipulate what can and cannot be done and not playing by the rules means you risk penalty or even exclusion from the game. Can the rules be bent or questioned? Are the rules applied consistently? Are the rules of the game stifling innovation and creativity? Is everyone clear about what the rules are?
Roles (North) – Every human being plays a number of different roles in day-to-day life. In addition to the kinship roles (you are someone’s child, lover, brother/sister, father/mother etc..) you probably play many different roles in the workplace as well. Think of the roles of friend, confidante, coach, mentor, boss, subordinate or even petty tyrant that you play within the context of your job title. Are the roles clear for you? Are there better ways to perform these roles? Are you expending the appropriate amount of energy in these roles? How would you know if you were performing your role exceptionally well or badly? Who gives you feedback? Some organisational theorists have suggested that organisational job titles are the same as roles performed by actors on the stage. The difference is that you interpret, direct, script and perform the role yourself. The challenge then is to perform the role as best as you can without attachment to it - be open to new experience by changing and evolving your performance.
Rituals (North East) – A ritual refers to Speech, action, singing, and other activities which often contain a symbolic meaning, performed in a specific order. In organisations, audits, year-end functions, teambuilding and weekly meetings are examples of typical rituals. A characteristic of ritual is that it has the quality of 'collapsing time' – a 5 minute presentation by the MD can encompass many years of the organisations' history. Another characteristics of ritual is that they can be performed so regularly that they start to lose their meaning and many people ‘go through the motions’ without quite understanding what they are really doing and why. Be clear about the rituals you engage in and their outcomes. Are they really necessary? Could they be changed, simplified or even removed? What relationships exist between rituals and outcomes?

Ideas & Experiments

Try and see KM as a game using this model.
How could the games you play become more interesting, rewarding and FUN?
Try to name the games around you – these could 'big games' like the economy, science, love, poverty, culture, politics, medicine, parenting and war.
Remember the root of the words Delusion (Deludo – Latin for 'Outside of the game') and Illusion (Inludo – Latin for 'In the game'). Are there some games you want to enter? Are there some you wish to leave? What do you have to sacrifice in order to play? Can you be flexible enough to play in different ways? Who is inviting you to play?
What are you perceiving? How do others see it? Remember that 'seeing' a particular game is a product of your perception and creative ability. Your leadership ability is about seeing a new, empowering game and somehow influencing others to see and experience it in the same way you do.
Try deconstructing your key relationships in terms of a game. What are the Rules, Roles, Resources, Goals, Rituals, Language, Values and Styles required to play the game really well? How confident are you about your gameplaying? How many games are you involved in right now?
Where do you get feedback from that tells you how well (or badly) you are perceived to be playing the game? How open are you to feedback – particularly negative feedback? What adjustments can you make to ensure that you become even more proficient?
Engage the language and metaphor of play and experimentation in whatever you do. Some languages engage this concept in interesting ways - in high forms of Japanese, for example, every verb is preceded by saying ‘played at’. For example, I play at being the MD, I play at being an artist, I play at being a coach and I play at being a father and even my father is playing at being dead. Somehow the word play is a reminder that you are still learning, experimenting and growing in a light-hearted, open way. Remember, it isn’t just life and death, it is a game. Enjoy it!
Be clear about what games you are engaged in, how much energy you expend in playing, what results you expect and why you are doing it.

Fireside Chat

Obstacles to knowledge sharing & KM

KMAadmin — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:31:04 -0600

Knowledge results from humans interacting with their environment and upon each other. As human interaction is the source of knowledge, it is necessary to ask what factors may impede the effective generation of knowledge and the sharing of know-how. Knowledge sharing / creation can only occur in the context of a 'safe space' but unfortunately many organisations find it difficult to maintain those conditions of culture and lived values that make for a safe space. This represents a paradox and a challenge to all key role players in such institutions who profess to support KM to take an honest, objective look at themselves. There are a number of behavioural factors related to power politics which are known to impede KM activities. These behaviours are particularly important because they are emulated in a cultural context (Katz and Kahn). Behaviours that negatively impact knowledge sharing and the practice of KM include:

Uninvolved, disinterested leadership
Status seeking and social climbing
Highly politicised environments
Professional jealousy
Corruption
Power games
Inconsistent behaviours
Lack of follow-through / not keeping promises
A history of organisational violence, punishment and reward (violence in organisational terms often means passive aggression, public humiliation, shooting down or ignoring ideas and suggestions etc.)
Ineffectual participation or communication by those concerned within knowledge networks
Lack of feedback or poor feedback
Stalling, late payment of invoices, not returning emails or phone calls
Poor support and reward of creators and holders of knowledge
Role players who don't take ownership or responsibility
The 'Invented in Africa' syndrome (one KMAfrica2007 conference paper suggested that while there was a useful model developed in Lesotho, it was rejected by role players simply because it came from Africa - some role players felt that models that come from the UK and America are 'better'.)

There are a number of writers (Walsh & Ungson (1991), Collison & Parcell (1998), Nonake & Takeuchi (1995)) who have emphasised the vital role cultural factors play in the creation and sharing of knowledge. The conclusion is that one of the main impediments to knowledge work are interpersonal behaviours and attitudes among organisational role players. This creates a challenge for any organisation which supports KM activities to demonstrate how they 'walk the talk' and how organisational values are lived on the ground. It also suggests that Knowledge Professionals need accept organisational politics as a reality of their work and should be prepared to keep themselves motivated with an own vision in mind.

Fireside Chat

Homological Transfer

storytelling — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:49:11 -0600

A particle physicist who knows about Brownian Motion (the random movement of particles in a solution) provides useful know-how and input into solving problems of traffic traffic control or the management of disease transmission. Anthroplogists used to studying pre-industrial cultures can provide insights into how social and community systems could be better designed. Film producers and directors have a wealth of experience in project management that has proven to be useful in helping design approaches to service delivery for government.

Seeing the similarity between processes, appropriating metaphors and language from one area of endeavour and applying them in another is probably something we all do - and now there is a word for it - Homological Transfer. Homological Transfer literally means to transfer logic of similar kind between areas of expertise. It engages the study of know-how, metaphors and stories and their systematic re-utilisation in different contexts. Homological Transfer is a knowledge creation process that takes principles and know-how from a field of study and applies them in a completely different context - and so is probably more in use than many would admit, especially given that we often end up doing that for which we were not formally trained.

Questions: What principles, stories and ideas have you found useful in getting things done, and from where did you learn them?
Clearly, transfer of know-how does not always have a positive impact and there are many examples of this too. Can you think of some?

Steve Banhegyi
steve@storytelling.co.za

Fireside Chat

Of cultures and operating systems

storytelling — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:42:57 -0600

Without an operating system, computer hardware is inanimate and about as capable as a brick. In the early days, the operating system was considered to be an integral part of the computer until a brilliant move by Bill Gates when the hardware was separated from the operating system with MS.DOS Version 1.0. From this point, the operating system became glamorous, glitzy and branded as a consumer product - and had to be paid for separately to the hardware.

I use 3 operating systems - MS.Windows XPPro , Ubuntu 9,04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and Windows Mobile 6.0 on my HTC palmtop. I first started using Linux about 4 years ago. Up 'till then I used Microsoft exclusively apart from my experiences with some of the more exotic operating systems of the early 1980s which included the Commodore PET (with 16Kb RAM!), the Sinclair ZX-81, an o/s for designing integrated circuits called Gaelic and even an O/S called Gerbil.

In using different operating systems, I've noticed that each operating system causes me to interact quite differently with the hardware - an altogether different user experience. On Windows, there are particular rituals that are missing on Linux; I have to do defrags and chkdsks, run virus checker updates (I pay for virus checkers and anti-spyware) and and fiddle with swap files from time to time. I spend much more time on ubuntu now day-to-day and it has always been exceptionally reliable and stable. There are also thousands of software titles available for instant installation and download from Astronomy all the way to Managing a Zoo (I live in a house with teenagers!)

The point is that an operating system has many interesting parallels to culture - a culture inhibits certain behavours whilst stimulating others and in the same way certain programs can run within a particular operating system whilst others cannot. Your apple or Linux software won't run on Windows. A culture can also put you into certain patterns of being and behaving of which you can become completely unconscious - where things can become so commonplace and everyday that they become 'the way we do things around here' - they have become a paradigm.

Fireside Chat

Create your personal Vision Statement

storytelling — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:17:10 -0600

A compelling, powerful vision can help you succeed, become more satisfied with your life, and get the most out of your personal & working relationships. Many experts on leadership emphasize how vital it is for you to craft your own personal vision. Warren Bennis, Stephen Covey, Peter Senge, and others point out that a powerful vision can help you succeed. It can also propel and inspire those around you to reach their own dreams. And remember, if you don't create your own vision, others will plan and direct your life for you.

Peter Senge defines vision as what you want to create of yourself and the world around you. What does your vision include? Making a vital change in some area? Raising happy, well-adjusted children? Writing a book? Owning your own business? Living at the coast? Being fit, healthy and strong? Traveling the world? Facilitating others? What are you good at? What do you love doing? What aren't you good at now, but you'd like to be? All of these important questions are part of identifying your personal vision.

Use the following questions to think about and start to develop your personal vision. It's adapted from many sources and should prompt you to THINK. Find a place without distractions. Answer as many of the questions as possible. It might be useful to discuss your responses with someone you trust.

Things I really enjoy doing
What are my most important values?
Issues and causes that I care deeply about?
Things I do very well indeed?
What I'd like to stop doing or do as little as possible?
What brings me happiness /joy?
The two best experiences of the Past Week?
What would I do if I won the Lottery?

It's now time to pull together your research and write a Personal Vision Statement. Your vision must be unique and appropriate for you. For example:

I am becoming more physically fit every day. I am almost finished studying a BComm part-time through UNISA. I am actively involved in my close personal relationships. I have fun every day at work and play and am doing the work that I love and loving the work I do...

steve@storytelling.co.za

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Update your Activity Stream

storytelling — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:45:13 -0600

As a registered KMAfrica.com user, you can now integrate some of your other social networking activities into KMAfrica.com. This will enable other KMAfrica.com users to catch up with your projects, interests and web activities. To integrate the Activty Stream in your profile, follow the following instructions:

Click on 'My Account' on the left hand side of this screen -( the url is http://isivivane.com/kmafrica/?q=user )
click on the tab marked [Activity Stream]
provide your twitter username, DIGG username, Delicious username as appropriate
provide your various feed urls (NOTE: this is not necessary for your KMAfrica.com Blog) with one feed per line
Click submit

KMAfrica.com will automatically download new content according to your preferences in the Activity Stream as they become available.

steve banhegyi
steve@storytelling.co.za

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Do you have a PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) Strategy?

storytelling — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:39:58 -0600

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Models and Modeling

KMAadmin — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:21:29 -0600

A model is a formal, abstract, hypothetical description of a complex entity, system or process. Any system can be represented through a number of different models, depending on the level of abstraction required and the intention behind how the model is to be used. Examples of everyday models include climatic models as expressed in weather forecasts, models of ecosystems, economies, stock market simulations and other complex systems. While you can expect to study many different models during your career, it is important to understand the following principles about all models:

A model is an attempt to explain the dynamics of "what is going on". It can never really explain what is really "going on".
A Useful Model that is shared, openly discussed and deconstructed leads to a common understanding and insight.
The most powerful and meaningful models are metaphorical and are commonly used in everyday speech – they describe a complex system in terms of analogy eg. Our company is like a busy beehive / a Roman slave galley / a Circus / a well oiled machine etc..
Models should be evaluated for usefulness rather than truth. What is useful is not necessarily true and what is true is not necessarily useful.
Models change over time – old models fall into disuse and new models are continuously being developed. You can expect to see many different management models and fads during your career. Remember, these will come and go.
Every model has its own unique terminology and language. As such, models can be said to be "semantic models" in that they convey meaning.
If a model becomes popular and sufficient numbers of people start to use it as a way of seeing the world, it will tend to impose its "truth" upon the world. Any competitive advantages conveyed by the model become eroded as more organisations adopt it.
It is particularly useful to look at models from a number of different fields of study and to create your own models in order to help you understand.

Characteristics of good models include:

Keep it simple - simple notation, representation of the system with few rules and symbols, no new skills should be necessary for the user to understand the model.
Ensure the number of variables or elements in the model does not exceed 9 – Having more than 9 variables or factors in the model will tend to make it too complex and difficult to understand and convey.
Reliability – can the model be applied on a number of different occasions and reliably reflect the behaviour of the system under investigation? In addition, can the model stand up to "shock testing" which involves improbable/borderline situations being presented to it?
Validity – does the model reflects/measure the dynamics which it is supposed to reflect/measure? Are there other dynamics of which you might be unaware?

“The range of what we think and do / is limited by what we fail to notice / and because we fail to notice / that we fail to notice / there is little we can do / to change / until we notice / how failing to notice / shapes our thoughts and deeds” (R.D. Laing)

From: Art and Science of Change - A Resource for Management and Leadership - (ISBN-978-0-9802550-3-4) Ubuhibi Media Catalogue

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Update your KMAfrica.com profile

KMAadmin — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:05:09 -0600

When you created an account at KMAfrica.com, you were asked various details about your profile. To make sure that the information here is correct (because it is regularly searched and indexed by various search services), click on http://isivivane.com/kmafrica/?q=user and then the personal information tab. Upload a picture of yourself that is appropriate to the site and change any details then click save at the bottom of the page. Your profile will now have been updated.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Managing what the world knows about you

storytelling — Sat, 09 May 2009 03:13:32 -0600

In this age, if you are doing business with anyone, it is more than likely that they will be finding out about you by searching for your profile on the Internet. There are a huge variety of networking, special interest groups, mailing lists and sites that tell a lot about you if you are associated with them. And the reason you need to be aware of this is that these linkages can work to your benefit or detriment if they are not properly and actively managed. There are stories of people who have been hired and fired based on what is found out about them on the internet.

This PKM group discussion is about strategies to help you manage your reputation, internet profile and what the world and prospective business partners know about you. It is about managing your story and making certain that the story is consistent and congruent with your own personal vision, mission and values. This is especially important because everything that is captured about you on the internet is likely to be around and available to anyone for as long as the internet is around.

So, do a search on your name using each of the search engines and see what you come up with. Remember to enter your name in quotation marks eg. "Sipho Shabangu" and see what comes up for you. Do these linkages and rankings adequately and appropriately describe you and your relationships?

The appropriate questions are:

At which crucial social networking sites should you maintain your own personal profile?
What is the best way to showcase yourself professionally?
What is the best way to showcase yourself personally and why would you want to?
What are some example internet reputation management strategies?

Steve Banhegyi
www.storytelling.co.za

Personal Knowledge Management Project

The Skills of personal knowledge management

storytelling — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:52:13 -0600

The following are some of the skills and the taxonomy associated with personal knowledge management (PKM)

Reflection Related to continuous improvement on how you operate - using your outputs and experiences as learning inputs.
Managing your own learning Manage how and when you learn and the ability to create and manage your own personal learning environments.
Information literacy Understanding what information is important, understanding what information is unimportant (exformation) and how to find unknown information. Also consider Neo-Literacy and ability to engage diverse media - physical and computer-based.
Organizational skills Personal librarianship? Indexing. Backup. Personal categorization and taxonomies. Ability to recover from disaster
Networking with others Know your 'elevator pitch' and be clear about what you are offering. Knowing what your network of people knows. Knowing who might have additional knowledge and resources to help you. Also includes Collaboration skills eg. co-ordination, synchronization, experimentation, co-operation, and design.
Researching including active listening, canvassing, paying attention, interviewing and observational - these are the 'participant observation' skills of cultural anthropology.
Communication skills Perception, feedback, intuition, expression, storytelling, visualization, and interpretation
Creative skills Imagination, pattern recognition, appreciation, innovation, inference. Understanding of complex adaptive systems.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Mind Mapping

KMAadmin — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:57:16 -0600

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories.

By presenting ideas in a radial, graphical, non-linear manner, mind maps encourage a brainstorming approach to planning and organizational tasks. Though the branches of a mindmap represent hierarchical tree structures, their radial arrangement disrupts the prioritizing of concepts typically associated with hierarchies presented with more linear visual cues. This orientation towards brainstorming encourages users to enumerate and connect concepts without a tendency to begin within a particular conceptual framework.

The mind map can be contrasted with the similar idea of concept mapping. The former is based on radial hierarchies and tree structures denoting relationships with a central governing concept, whereas concept maps are based on connections between concepts in more diverse patterns.

And while there is some controversy as to whether a mind map is better done by hand rather than on a computer, maybe a solution that embodies both approaches is rather elegant.

The mind mapping software that we recommend is a FOSS program called FreeMind. It is available for download at no charge from Freemind on Sourceforge.net You can get a freemind manual as a .pdf file under this message.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Browser Software

KMAadmin — Mon, 04 May 2009 09:04:33 -0600

If you aren't using firefox as a browser, you should have a look at this opensource program. It works on Windows, Linux and a host of other operating systems. And if you thought that browsers were all the same, you'll think differently when you see how you can customise Firefox precisely to your requirements.The download from http://www.firefox.com is a few megabytes in size and so takes just a few minutes. When you have installed Firefox, you are going to need to customise it by means of applying add-ons - programs to make your browser much more capable and personal... The url is https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fashionyourfirefox/

Here are some of our recommended Firefox updates:

Babelfish Translation - translate any web page or document file into another language!
Noscript - Stops malicious attacks on your browser by untrusted / unknown sites
Google toolbar for Firefox - enables quick interconnectivity with google services including your on-line bookmarks, email, documents etc.
Downthemall! - quick and easy download manager integrated with Firefox
Stumbleupon - similar to delicious - social networking and community-ranked search pages
Delicious Bookmarks - similar to stumbleupon - social networking and community-ranked search pages

You can download firefox from the official firefox website
More details on customising firefox are available on the firefox addons page

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Office Software

KMAadmin — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:34:30 -0600

An office suite is a basic essential piece of software for the Knowledge Worker. For those of us who have spent many years on computers, there is now a free and OpenSource (FOSS) program called OpenOffice version 3.0 which does everything that Microsoft Office does including Spreadhseets, Word Processing, Drawing and Presentations. OpenOffice is compatible with a great many file formats including Excel, Word (including the latest .docx formats), Powerpoint which means that you will be able to carry on working on your existing files without interruption. If you have worked on Microsoft software before, you will find the interface in OpenOffice easy and intuitive although it is not as glitzy as the Microsoft product.

Have a look at the OpenOffice Website for further details and to download the suite.

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Thinking Skills

storytelling — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:38:10 -0600

We oftentimes tend to focus on the latest technologies and Gizmos but all too often the person behind the technology - you - is overlooked. It seems that while the education system is reasonably good at telling you about the world around you, it is not terribly effective about teaching you about yourself and what happens in your brain/mind/body/nervous system. Therefore, I believe that a study of thinking skills should form part of each PKM practitioner's personal growth plan.

I have taught thinking skills to a variety of audiences over the years ranging from school children to engineers and boards of directors in listed companies through our thoughtformz thinking skills project - the course outline includes:

Module 1: Perception What’s really going on? Insights from biology and the nature of its relationship to information. What do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt? Can it survive analysis? How to evaluate the data:story ratio in your knowledge. Differences between analytical and analogical thinking.
Module 2: Language, Reality and Culture Words, meaning, personal narratives, metaphors and mythologies. Power relationships and culture. Leadership as storytelling. Narrative Medicine.
Module 3: The biology of thought Analogical & Analytical thinking and your nervous system. How thinking processes and consciousness are impacted by foodstuffs and substances. Smart, conscious nutrition.
Module 4: Learning, Forgetting and Change New insights into memory, learning and change. Management of change. Holding on and letting go. Rituals and rites of passage and transformation.
Module 5: Your thinking skills toolbox Useful metaphors, thinking skills, uncommon awareness, models, tools, narratives and software necessary to navigate the future. Ideas you can take and immediately implement in your own context.

One of the exercises that we provide is to get participants to become deliberate about writing their own lifestories according to the lifeline exercise attached. Storytelling or the oral tradition is very much associated with Africa and here we adopt the view that a human being is the creation of his or her own story. Reminding people of their own authority is empowering to people. See what happens when you become deliberate about your story. The attached exercise has been created specially for teachers from the Gauteng Department of Education as part of a lifeskills programme we have developed.

KM & Communications

Personal Knowledge Management - Definitions

storytelling — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:20:30 -0600

Personal knowledge management (PKM) refers to a collection of processes that an individual needs to carry out in order to gather, classify, store, search, and retrieve knowledge in his/her daily activities (Grundspenkis 2007). One of its focus is about how individual workers apply knowledge processes to support their day-to-day work activities (Wright 2005)

Personal knowledge management (PKM) integrates personal information management (PIM), focused on individual skills, with knowledge management (KM). Many people undertaking this task have taken an organizational perspective. From this perspective, understanding of the field has developed in light of expanding knowledge about human cognitive capabilities and the permeability of organizational boundaries. The other approach for PKM is metacognitive - it compares various modalities within human cognition as to their competence and efficacy (Sheridan, 2008).

Connections to Organizations and Groups

PKM has recently been linked to social bookmarking, blogging or knowledge logs (K-logs). The idea is individuals use their blogs to capture ideas, opinions or thoughts and this 'voicing' will encourage cognitive diversity, promote free exchanges away from a centralized policed knowledge repository that is additional to ordinary work.Some organizations are now introducing PKM 'systems' with some or all of four components:

Just-in-time Canvassing - templates and e-mail canvassing lists that enable people looking for experts or expertise to identify and connect with the appropriate people quickly and effectively
Knowledge Harvesting - software tools that automatically collect appropriate knowledge residing on subject matter experts' hard drives rather than waiting for it to be contributed to central repositories
Personal Content Management - taxonomy processes and desktop search tools that enable employees to organize, subscribe to, publish and find information that resides on their own desktops
Personal Productivity Improvement - knowledge fairs and one-on-one training sessions to help each employee make more effective personal use of the knowledge, learning and technology resources available to them, in the context of their own work

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Knowledge Warrior (PKM) Objectives

KMAadmin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:37:48 -0600

The following initial objectives have been set for the KMAfrica.com Knowledge Warrior Project:

To clearly understand and be able to communicate what PKM is
To be able to develop and apply a personal PKM strategy which can then be used to create useful models of PKM
To create a personal income stream and sustain wealth in the knowledge economy by using knowledge
To use PKM to stop re-inventing the wheel, stop making the same mistakes
To avoid ‘information overload’ and save energy, time and effort, by organising and being able to access your information and knowledge effectively
To develop and hone your own knowledge skills and competencies
To use your brain/mind/nervous system more effectively to provide you with the opportunities you need to succeed
To successfully participate in global knowledge communities
To develop kno-how of what software best facilitates your PKM activities
To develop a knowledge based livelihood that contributes to a more sustainable and ecologically friendly planet in significant ways

Steve Banhegyi, Johannesburg

Personal Knowledge Management Project

Bloom's Taxonomy for Knowledge, Critical and Creative Thinking

KMAadmin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:02:33 -0700

Benjamin Bloom (1956) developed a classification of levels that might be seen in intellectual behavior in learning. This taxonomy contained three overlapping domains: the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Within the cognitive domain, he identified six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These domains and levels are still useful today as you develop your critical thinking skills

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, patterning, webbing, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, forecasting, planning, hyphothesizing, and critquing.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinking involves creating something new or original. It involves the skills of flexibility, originality, fluency, elaboration, brainstorming, modification, imagery, associative thinking, attribute listing, metaphorical thinking, forced relationships. The aim of creative thinking is to stimulate curiosity and promote divergence.

While critical thinking can be thought of as more left-hemisphere and creative thinking more right hemisphere, they both involve "thinking." When we talk about HOTS "higher-order thinking skills" we're concentrating on the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge

Examples: dates, events, places, vocabulary, key ideas, parts of diagram, 5Ws

Comprehension

Examples: find meaning, transfer, interpret facts, infer cause & consequence, examples

Application

Examples: use information in new situations, solve problems

Analysis

Examples: recognize and explain patterns and meaning, see parts and wholes

Synthesis

Examples: discuss "what if" situations, create new ideas, predict and draw conclusions

Evaluation

Examples: make recommendations, assess value and make choices, critique ideas

Affective Domain

Domain Attributes include interpersonal relations, emotions, attitudes, appreciation and identification with values

Fireside Chat