spikkinspeerin and a fly piece

Lesley ThomsonKnowledge Management OfficerScottish Centre for Regeneration

fit wi dein?

fowk

gittin the gither

spikkin

…we a quine fae Huntly

(communities)

(collaboration)

(conversation)

(me)

’Representations within the brain’…and the knowledge ‘this is how you do that’ is twice removed from the audience: First by the ability of the knower to map what he does into his own brain, and then by his ability to cast it in a language common with the audience.

Joel Mokyr

For all our knowledge, we have no idea what we're talking about. We don't understand what's going on in our business, our market, and our world.

KM shouldn’t be about helping us to know more. It should be about helping us to understand.

So, how do we understand things? It's through stories that we understand how the world works.

David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto

Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits.

When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new

trains of thought.

Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards.

Theodore Zeldin, Conversation

Business is a conversation…and…‘knowledge workers' are simply those people whose job consists of having interesting

conversations.

David WeinbergerThe Cluetrain Manifesto

What do we get from conversation that we can't get any other way?

Cross, R. and Sproull, L.

Cross and Sproull interviewed project managers to explore what they learned through the conversations they chose to have. They had access to first-rate company repositories of best practices, case examples, reusable work products, methodologies and tools, discussion forums and expertise databases. Overwhelmingly they preferred to take the issue they were wrestling with to a colleague.

Imagine how much knowledge we would gain if we did enter every conversation anticipating that we would gain ‘more than an answer.’

Cross, R. and Sproull, L.

Answers

Meta-knowledge

Problem reformation

Validation

Legitmizing

debate or dialogue?

“A mechanistic and unproductive exchange

between people seeking to defend their own views against one another”

“A frank exchange of ideas or views on a

specific issue in an effort to attain mutual understanding”

UKGovCamp is the movement of self-organised unconferences for government types with an interest in how the public sector uses technology.

how does it work in the groups?

• there’s no leader or chairperson• everyone should be equal and fully engaged in

the conversation• anyone can make their own notes if they want

to• people share their perspectives with the group

only if they wish to• you don’t have to stay!

your role

• see people with different views not as adversaries but as resources to learn from

• enter into open conversation• listen more than speak• welcome differences• withhold judgment• avoid position taking

The kind of conversation I’m interested

in is one in which you start with a

willingness to emerge a

slightly different person.

Theodore Zeldin

Photo: Nicola Osborne

what do you get in return?

• assumes we have within ourselves a greater level of insight than we are conscious of

• helps tease this out• you hear yourself say things that you didn’t know

you knew • crystallises your knowledge

– new ideas are sparked– fresh perspectives emerge

• with increased observation and reflection comes understanding…this paves the way for change

Social constructivism extends constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.

An information literacy stance takes a critical perspective on knowledge and information with a focus more on questions and process than on ready answers. This… perspective entails identifying assumptions implicit in problems, questioning the given or even asking ‘what if not’ questions, working collaboratively, and with an awareness of the ethical and social dimensions of information.

Ellusive Literacies blog

speerins

• is conversation important within – and between – organisations? (or am I just havering?)

• do you have interesting conversations?

• if not, why not?