Knowledge Worker 2.0Power to the people

by Stephen Collins acidlabs

Who am I?

‣Knowledge Worker?

‣KM realities

‣Knowledge Worker and Knowledge Management 1.0

‣The alternative

‣Culture shift

‣Knowledge Management 2.0

‣Knowledge Worker 2.0

What are we talking about?

Knowledge Worker?

“... works primarily with information or... develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.”

Peter Drucker, Landmarks of Tomorrow, 1959

‣ idealised

‣ true in theory

‣ true in reality (but only from the self-labelled KWs POV)

‣ unrealistic in reality (organisations don’t recognise KWs and their work in every instance)

So what’s the problem?

So what is the reality?

Knowledge Management (and therefore Knowledge Work) is largely stuck in the

past, with a focus on...

process...

... and tools.

‣ management layers (hierarchies)

‣ paperwork, reports & reviews

‣ overplanning

‣ competition

‣ favoring the go-getters

‣ risk aversion

‣ skewing to high-level thinking

‣ valuing deadlines over doing it right

‣ demanding consensus

Old skool kills innovation

adapted (a little) from Un-Managing: Unleashing the Creative Beast in your Team Tara Hunt, GOVIS 2007

widgets

understanding of what constitutes knowledge work is narrow

http://flickr.com/photos/pinkmoose/314519606/

What does this mean for

Knowledge Workers and Knowledge Management?

KM and KWs are often limited to...

here...http://flickr.com/photos/laracee/59170361/

... and here

BigCorp Pty Ltd

But not here. Or here. Or here. Or here. Or here.Where they should be.

This creates an environment where good KM is impossible

http://flickr.com/photos/zoomzoom/304135268/

a closed culture

information is owned and held selfishly

trapped within feifdoms holding that information

limited in scope and location

custodian of information

knowledge as process

use rigid ways of organising information

Knowledge workers areforced to look like this

So?

KWs are demotivated and restricted

Zzzzzzz...

Say goodbye to allyour tacit knowledge

There is an alternative

“...the focus is pretty much around the subject of people... And, like we all know, a successful KM strategy is one that combines into a perfect balance a focus on the people, on the tools and on the processes.”

Luis Suarez, KM Consultant, IBMdefines “Knowledge Management 2.0”

http://www.elsua.net/2007/05/07/apqc-km-innovation-1007-the-disconnect-between-km-10-and-km-20/

the long tail of people

Day of the Long TailPeter Hirshberg, Chairman, Technorati

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAA71Ssids

The three forces of the long tail

‣ Democratise the tools of production

‣ Democratise the tools of distribution

‣ Connect supply and demand

Chris AndersonThe Long Tail - How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand

better tools

The Machine is Us/ing UsDr Michael Wesch

Digital Ethnography Working Group, KSUhttp://mediatedcultures.net/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

introduce social software inside the wall to engage with your organisation

and through the wall to engage with yourclients, peers and communities

easy to use

web-basedbottom up, not top down

less feature bloat

more GTD

from Meet Charlie: What is Enterprise 2.0?Scott Gavin

blogs

wikis

podcasts

social networking

online collaboration

taggingsocial bookmarking

from Meet Charlie: What is Enterprise 2.0?Scott Gavin

Four quick take aways

70% of Folksonomy tag terms not in TaxonomyJennifer Trant on Steve.museum project

86% of workers use an unsupported tool at work to boost productivityZen and the Art of Rogue Employee Management, Yankee Group, July 2007

Four quick take aways

65% of workers in big (>1000 employees) companies rely on each other, not management, to solve problems… 37% ignore company

rules because they have a better way to get things doneThe Informal Organisation, Katzenbach Partners, July 2007

Four quick take aways

SAP has nearly 900000 people involved in its community helping each other develop solutions and solve problems around SAP products

In any month, over 10 per cent actively participate by postingMike Prosceno, Vice President, Global Communications, SAP

Social Media Today Podcast, 18 April 2007

Four quick take aways

Social computing can bea powerful force for collaboration

good process

focussed on people

David GurteenGurteen Knowledge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buEMIYNIYVY

bring people togetherlet them share

encourage collaborationbreak down barriers

This isn’t your father’s KM

‣ Knowledge will only ever be volunteered it can not be conscripted

‣ We only know what we know when we need to know it

‣ We always know more than we can tell and we will always tell more than we can write down

Three basic rules of KM

David SnowdenComplex Acts of Knowing - Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness

http://www.cognitive-edge.com/articledetails.php?articleid=13%3Cbr%20/%3E

Case Study: US Intel CommunityIntellipedia

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:CIA_New_HQ_Entrance.jpg

What’s needed is a...

Culture shift

“You can’t manage knowledge – nobody can. What you can do is to manage the environment in which knowledge can be created, discovered, captured, shared, distilled, validated, transferred, adopted, adapted and applied.”

Chris Collison and Geoff ParcellLearning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management

from Leading and Learning Organizations

the gates to information are open

knowledge isshared freely

“...where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.”

Peter SengeThe Fifth Discipline

Case Study: IBMInnovative communities

http://www.wirednewyork.com/images/ibm_building_sculpture_3feb02.jpg

Knowledge Management 2.0

‣ anyone can say anything - there are no “lesser” voices

‣move from owned to communal - information openly available

‣multiple perspectives

‣ experiment with new tools - wikis, blogs, tagging, RSS

‣ celebrate risk-taking - fail gloriously (and often)

‣ transparent and open - everyone contributes

‣ change of environment - knowledge work is everywhere

‣ fun, laughter and enjoyment of activity

‣ lots of encouragement

adapted (a little) from Un-Managing: Unleashing the Creative Beast in your Team Tara Hunt, GOVIS 2007

Conditions for KM and KW creativity

Knowledge Worker 2.0

‣all over the organisation

‣ understands “the way wedo things around here”

‣ shares and distributesinformation freely

‣ uses information systemsfocussed on people

‣centralised control isan option

‣ uses taxonomies,folk taxonomiesand folksonomies

Now, knowledge workerslook like this

Get the shirt!

http://cafepress.com/kwtwo

Imagine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midnight_trucker/376653652/

Licensing

http://www.slideshare.net/trib

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Like the cool pictures?

Mostly from iStockphoto.com and Flickr.Others as noted on slides.

Extra credit‣ Un-Managing: Unleashing the Creative

Beast in your TeamTara Hunt @ GOVIS 2007http://www.govis.org.nz/conference2007/, http://www.blip.tv/file/244008/, http://www.slideshare.net/missrogue/unmanaging-unleashing-the-creative-beast/

‣ Government 2.0: Architecting for CollaborationTara Hunt @ GOVIS 2007 (Day 2 Keynote)http://www.blip.tv/file/242668/, http://www.horsepigcow.com/2007/05/25/government-20-butterfly-wing-storm/

‣ The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of MoreChris Andersonhttp://longtail.com/

‣ Meet Charlie: What is Enterprise 2.0?by Scott Gavin @ Enterprise 2.0 Evangelisthttp://scottgavin.info/?page_id=11

‣ steve: the art museum social tagging projecthttp://steve.museum/

‣ The Informal OrganizationKatzenbach Partnershttp://www.katzenbach.com/Work/Publications/PublicationInstance/tabid/73/Default.aspx?Entity_ID=550

‣ Zen and the Art of Rogue Employee ManagementYankee Grouphttp://www.yankeegroup.com/ResearchDocument.do?id=16465

Stephen Collins

trib@acidlabs.orgskype: trib22 twitter: trib

+61 410 680722

www.acidlabs.org

strategies, tools and processes to empower knowledge workers