Library clips

A recent workshop on an initiative for several government agencies to share knowledge was quite accepting by the attendees. The audience was a cross section of recent graduates to senior managers (we had a mix of baby boomers and netgen’s).

My presentation established the scene of working socially, all the benefits of social media, and an explanation of the tools. The grads were savvy with Facebook, wikis, del.icio.us and digg, and some of the boomers read blogs and wikipedia…it seems these tools are becoming known to the mainstream.

A further presentation would deal with knowledge sharing barriers, organisational culture, and collaboration, cooperation…but for the time being I think it was enough for people to absorb these new tools and the new way of working in a knowledge economy.

We did go over briefly the adoption methods and sustaining a community, such as rewards, incentives, champions (guides/harversters/moderators/senior role models).
- I mentioned that if a community reaches critical mass the the reward would be reputation

My presentation was followed by a demo on Sharepoint.

The main part was an open forum discussion on questions related to agencies sharing knowledge.

The questions were something like:

- What information are you prepared to share?
- What type of information would be beneficial?
- What tools would you like included in Sharepoint?
- What’s your knowledge sharing experience?

Everyone got into groups of 4 or 5 on 4 tables with a facilitator on each table
- each question was discussed for 15 minutes
- the facilitators moved to a different table for each question
- the top 2 answers were shared with everyone
- a graphic recorder documented it all, and kept all the sheets of paper to compile a list

I like the idea of a big piece of paper, but using a wiki did cross my mind.

I guess this was a type of knowledge cafe approach, but not really. In a knowledge cafe it seems each person at the table takes turns speaking without being interrupted, and they don’t write down any notes.
Then a discussion takes place as a whole group.

Another method I’d like to use next time is world cafe, and also speed networking as a starter. Also I like the idea of people writing a keyword on their name tags, whether it’s humour or an interest or a skill, it’s a great ice breaker.

The key point of group work was not just teasing out all the issues and points of view, but getting people to connect and start building relationships…this is why world cafe seems effective, as after each question most of the people on the table move to another table.

Some excellent advice from Nancy White (which I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing) is:

“If you can get away with it, I would NOT present on participation culture, I’d do some sort of activity that manifests that culture - that surfaces the power of what a group knows, then do a debrief and think of HOW we take advantage and really use that power.”

Results

The idea was to include tools in Sharepoint that people were interested in using, at this point you have to be careful not to feature creep people out.

The top requested tools were:
- Expert Locator
- Document Sharing
- Forum

People really wanted to browse profiles to look for experts
- I mentioned that not only do you find an expert, but you can read their contributions, get to know them
- I said it’s like today, not only are we wearing name tags online, but you don’t even have to be in the same room, and we have what we know drawn all over our sleeves…and you also know the people I know without me having to tell you
- Some said that this could be handy for capacity ie. sharing the talent of people who were between project and had idle time

Wikis were seen as handy for making your own websites (people nodded in agreement when I said you can make your own version of the intranet if you like, it’s an open slate).

But some mentioned that creating a lessons learned database whether it’s a wiki or a document repository is never used. No one could be bothered reading it and it may be outdated anyway.

I gave examples of using wikis in-the-flow eg. meeting agendas, lists…but I think this needs to be experienced, so people actually feel the benefits of working this way.

The grads mentioned blogs for personal growth, and the boomers didn’t really take to blogs as much.

I mentioned that blogs can be as informal, casual and disposable as email
- I’ve got to be careful not to use the term “publish”, as this has connotations of a formally edited piece read by your peers (like a journal article).

People mentioned sharing documents such as progress and close out
- I mentioned what about writing brief blog entries while this is happening, kind of like stuff your are learning or stuff that is interesting along the way
- I said then you can compare a close-out document with blog posts on the close-out
- I mentioned that you will know a lot more of what went on by reading the blog posts (more know-how, more the experience, rather than the end result, plus it’s documented as it happened)

A lot of people would like to share information about tendering but they couldn’t quite work out how because of its sensitive nature.
- I mentioned that blogs don’t have to be a personal soap box, they can be a group blog on a topic, like sharing insight on the tendering process (more an academic feel almost)

An attendee came up with a clever adoption idea of a blog carnival
- a themed week, where blog posts are shared about a topic or issue
- I thought this was an excellent kick starter to get used to the tools
- you don’t have to think what to share
- it doesn’t have to be personal
- a shared theme is almost like a forced meme
- you will get lots of comments (discussion) if people are blogging about the same topic
- this is a great condition to create conversations and get people connected (build relationships)

In the break a baby boomer mentioned that the netgen knew how to work in a socially productive way but they don’t really know anything yet, so there is a real need for them to connect with the baby boomers, like mentoring.
- I mentioned that mentoring doesn’t have to stop when you are not in the same physical space
- social tools can be used for perpetual mentoring

Along these lines I also mentioned that you don’t have to wait for the next meeting to connect and share like we are today, the online tools can make that perpetual…see more.

I tried to make clear that it’s not only about sharing knowledge, it’s also a way to do work
- I quite often mentioned that, next time you send an email, just think could this be a blog post, a forum topic, or maybe a wiki website/collaboration
- and an exercise for champions was to reject emails by replying and requesting the email be re-purposed using the correct tool
- people are in the routine of using email that they need to be disciplined, it’s no big deal, it’s something everybody is addicted to

Someone said that if they wanted to share or work on private information with only a couple of members from other agencies, that they would use email
- I mentioned they could set up a private room type of space so they can still benefit by using social tools to do work
- but this did bring to mind that people were starting to think of email as private and social tools as open (which is a good thing)

What I’ve read lately

I’ve read 3 posts recently that add to this discussion of working socially.

Steward Mader posted on the 90-9-1 rule, and how it differs in the enterprise. He poses a 60% frequent contributers, and 40% infrequent contributers, and that this 40% may be encouraged to participate by default. eg. if most of the team use a blog to share tips, and one guy is still doing it via email, the team will naturally say get with the program, we are using blogs now.

App Gap has an insightful post on social influence in the workplace. Now that we are more aware of what people are doing due to openness, visibility and transparency means we are more connected and influencing each other. They way we think and act is absorbed by others and may have a positive impact on the enterprise…basically we are perpetually learning off each other.

Rex Lee talks about the speed of trust is, well, more speedy. In a more open participation model we are able to connect with and subscribe to people. We read their informal experiences, their comments elsewhere, what projects they are on, etc… In essence we almost feel we know that person as they are visible both on and offline, I guess you could say ambient intimacy.
When you find an expert you may not need to speak to them as their contributions have an answer for you. If you do meet them you already have something to say as you know something about each other, actually you may know a lot if you interact online.

The other benefit is that you have already established your level of abstraction, ie. you already know what wavelengths you are both operating on. So when you meet up you don’t have to try and work out what level of understanding each other has, you can go straight into conversation, knowing the other person will be able to understand your level of intellect and your knowledge of tools, processes, etc…

We know trust is the most important factor for collaboration, and participating online creates more opportunity for conversation, connecting and building trust.