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So much to do, so little time
Welcome to the December/January issue of KIM Legal magazine. As we enter the festive period – no doubt at varying stages of preparation – I think that it is safe to assume that you have 1001 things to do in a very short amount of time, so I won’t keep you too long with this foreword.
This issue has a somewhat relaxed feel to it, despite the fact that everyone seems to be running about frantically trying to organise the last few processes and close everything that needs to finalised before we head off for a well-earned break.
Partly, this has to do with the theme of the issue, that of knowledge cafés.
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Feature
In this first instalment of the ‘Challenging preconceptions’ series, Sam Dimond, director of knowledge systems at Clifford Chance, makes the case for knowledge management (KM) professionals shunning traditional gatekeeper roles in favour of more dynamic positions as knowledge brokers and community facilitators by exploiting social media technologies, especially wikis. This account of the firm’s experiences in introducing wikis to grow and capture knowledge, is an honest and illuminating account of the practical pitfalls and benefits encountered by Clifford Chance along the way.
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Feature
Rosemary Gray, group head of knowledge management at Ogier, tells Caroline Poynton why effective communication is so important for successful KM in a cost-conscious environment.
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Feature
Before the arrival of the internet, IT was firmly in control of the technology used within the business. Rik Ferguson speaks to Kate Clifton about the shift to ‘technology democracy’, which has been brought about by the introduction of social tools and personal devices.
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Feature
Urinals: do you spend much time looking at them? This is just a guess, but for half of you I’m assuming that the answer is ‘no’. The other half of you are probably wondering where I’m going with this line of enquiry.
If you have had the pleasure of using the urinals at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, you will have noticed that each one is embellished with a lifelike image of a fly, under the glaze, just near the drain.
Initially, I dismissed this as merely an example of quirky humour from a Dutch sanitary ware manufacturer; but I was too hasty. Apparently, since incorporating the fly into their urinals, airports and other public places have noticed a decrease in the amount of cleaning required. Some of these have improved to the extent that they have saved money by reducing the number of cleaning shifts. If you haven’t figured out the link between the fly and the cost reduction, ask any small boy.
All of this got me thinking about how ‘on target’ we are in the way we exchange knowledge, good or worst practices and stories. Despite our best efforts, do people sometimes miss the mark when it comes to knowledge exchange?
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Feature
In the previous article, I recounted my understanding (sense) of what Dave Snowden of Cognitive Intelligence told members of the International Society of Knowledge Organisation in May 2009. For me, his term, ‘self-signifying’, pointed not just towards the kinds of intelligence-analysis techniques that I have used for years, but it also began to bring into focus what had hitherto been a rather inchoate sense of something emerging in the world of Web 2.0, social networking and collaborative intelligence.
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Feature
As organisations have responded to the tough times imposed by the global recession it would not be unrealistic to suggest that conversation has been firmly at the bottom of the business agenda. Times of financial instability, where management seeks to streamline operating processes and tighten purse strings, do not create the optimal atmosphere for a quick chin wag at the water cooler, or some relaxed yet insightful discussion at a colleague’s desk. The onus is very much on getting things done as efficiently as possible and now, more than ever, is not the time for ‘fluffy bunny’ approaches to knowledge sharing and collaboration.
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Regular
The foreword of the latest offering from Learning to Fly authors Geoff Parcell and Chris Collison, No More Consultants, begins with a reference to cult classic film The Matrix, with an excerpt of dialogue between Morpheus and Neo: “… You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland. And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes”. It then suggests that the book itself is the “perfect red pill… showing you all the secrets of consulting’s wonderland and rabbit holes, with no bad side-effects.” I have high expectations.
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Regular
I am often asked what is a knowledge café, or what is a Gurteen knowledge café, and how does a knowledge café differ from a world café? Let me explain.
The term knowledge café is a general term that is applied to many different processes and applications. Some people call their blogs or websites ‘knowledge cafes’; others hold online or virtual knowledge cafés and many workshops are dubbed knowledge cafés. The term has no standard meaning.
But, predominantly, most people understand a knowledge café to be about bringing people together face-to-face to have a group conversation of some description. It is a ‘conversational process’ that focuses on dialogue and ‘conversational café’ or ‘café’ are often used as generic terms to refer to any format of café.
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