KnowledgeBoard Special Newswire - London Contactivity Gathering

Friday 28 April 06

http://www.knowledgeboard.com - Your Global KM Community

 

Dear all,

Two weeks have already passed since the second KnowledgeBoard Contactivity

gathering in London. It certainly was thrilling, a very practical hands-on

event bringing together 64 Knowledge Management (KM) practitioners,

academics and consultants from all over Europe.

This special wire gives an overview on all the exciting Contactivity

sessions. The detailed report (including minutes from the different

sessions and pictures) is available on KB here:

http://www.knowledgeboard.com/item/2700

 

Liza Wohlfart

Editor, Special Newswires

 

 

*Day one*

 

EKG Simulation

---

Facilitators: European Knowledge Group including Martyn Laycock, Graham

Fernee, John Curran

Day one started with an organisational simulation from Celemi ('Preparing

people for the challenges of project work'). The related discussion in

small work groups was a first means to bring people together and to warm

them up for the challenges of Knowledge Management.

 

The Doctor's Power Networking

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Facilitators: Dr Patricia Wolf and Dr Peter Troxler

The second event was dedicated to the power of networking. Dr. Troxler's

and Dr. Wolf's 'Power Networking' asked people to identify suitable

discussion partners (one the basis of short profiles) for another

Contactivity participant they had just met or whose profile they had seen

on the boards where all the profiles (which were gathered in advance on the

wiki) were presented. The different connections the exercise made were then

illustrated on a big picture; the exciting conversations it started are

still ongoing.

 

Launch of the KBoard eBook

---

Facilitators: Sami Kazi, Patricia Wolf

Another highlight of day one was the launch of the KnowledgeBoard eBook

'Real-Life Knowledge Management: Lessons from the Field' that presents

various KM case studies from KBoard members. The two editors Sami Kazi and

Patricia Wolf proudly gave an overview on the book's contents. Afterwards

people had the opportunity to meet some of the authors.

 

You: the editor

---

Facilitators: Martyn Laycock, Ed Mitchell

With so many great journals out there on the market, what could still

attract people's attention? The last event of day one was dedicated to

brainstorming on potential new journal ideas. Attendees were asked to

categorise themselves as 'academics, consultants or practitioners'. This

was to encourage a mix of experiences and skills around each team. The

results were fascintating: How about 'KM disasters – cartoons on the mis-

management of knowledge' or 'Overcoming resistance to KM change - using

judo techniques and story-telling to counter-resist culture change'?

 

*Day two*

 

Future Backwards

---

Facilitators: including Martyn Laycock, Graham Fernee, John Curran

Day two presented three different workshop techniques under the common

topic 'Challenges and opportunities for Knowledge Management', which were

then discussed and compared at the end of the day. The first method 'Future

Backwords', presented by Martyn Laycock, focused on the impact of past

events on how we live today. Taking today's status of Knowledge Management

as a starting point, people (in small work groups) worked back to essential

events that have paved the way to what KM is today, such as the rise of the

Internet or the Lisbon Agenda. This then lead to a discussion of 'Doomsday'

and 'Golden Age': what if the rise of the Internet had never happened? What

kind of better/worse future could this have initiated?

 

Open Space

---

Facilitator: Martin Leith

The second session of the day was presented by Martin Leith. 'Open space'

is a technique for enabling self-organised workshops. The session started

with Martin explaining the procedure for the following event: Two time

slots and different rooms (each labelled with a city name) had been

reserved for the session. People wanting to start workshops could now write

the topic they wanted to discuss on a white paper, add a room and time, and

announce their workshop to the others. When all workshops had been

announced, everyone could sign up for one (or more) of them.

Martin then explained the general Open Space rules (here not word for word!):

- The people participating are just the ones you need

- Whenever it starts is the right time to start

- Whenever it stops is the right time to stop

- Wherever it evolves to is where it is supposed to evolve to

- The law of two feet

So people started their workshops when they thought it was a good time to

start them and stopped them when it seemed to be a good time to end. They

did not try to force the discussion into a specific direction and were not

waiting for other or more people to join. Many people anyway changed

between workshops, following another rule, the 'Rule of the Two Feet':

Whenever you feel you are not contributing to the workshop or getting

something out of it, move to another session. Don't be polite.

The Open Space terminology calls this kind of movers 'bumblebees'. Another

bloomy term names those unsure which session to attend: 'butterflies' find

themselves an own space and try to start their own discussion.

 

Knowledge Cafe

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Facilitator: David Gurteen

David Gurteen presented the last event of the day: Knowledge Cafe. People

deliberately gathered in small chair circles to have a free discussion on

the overall topic of the day, 'Challenges and opportunities for Knowledge

Management'. The themes that emerged where then discussed with the whole

group, so that all shared some of the main common insights and ideas.

Contactivity on the whole was a big and exciting experiment; the two days

were really packed with activity and conversations. No PowerPoint

presentations, no detailed agendas - and yet everyone went home with

millions of new ideas, new friends and future opportunities.

 

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