Expertise development, communities and connectivism...

I spent yesteday at Henley Management College in a research workshop facilitated by Richard McDermott.  We were exploring a number of research topics relating to the development, transfer and retention of expertise.  We tabled a number of topics, including mentoring,  aging workforce, knowledge harvesting and salvage, lifelong learning and communities...  we're going to have to focus! Then I came across this recent post on Connectivism from Helen Nicol, who has talent for spotting good stuff in this arena. 

Helen's thesis is that "any community of of practice must have a mix of novices, experts and all those in between, which in itself has implications for the moderation or management of communities to gain the best result for organisations."

...which is consistent with Wenger's definition:

“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”

I wonder, though whether there are some limiting thresholds which illustrate Helen's idea - a community with large gaps in the continuum of expertise can generate frustration, elitism, "dumb questions and smart flaming"; whilst a communtiy with access to a great diversity of expertise can remain untapped if not well facilitated.

With apologies to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, here's an attempt to illustrate this...

Music to collaborate to...

I got back yesterday from the second meeting in a “Learning consortium” series of four events that I am co-facilitating with Elizabeth Lank, supported by TFPL.

We’re working with a group of Public Sector organisations who want to improve their capability in the fields of Communities and Collaboration by meeting, sharing, storytelling and developing new approaches.  Naturally, working with such a group requires that we invest time in building trust levels – and also in having some fun together.

Tuesday evening’s lighthearted community-building exercise involved our participants each recommending a music track which linked in some way (some of them tenuously!) to the Collaboration/Communities theme of our consortium.  Thanks to John Quinn at the Learning & Skills Council for stimulating the idea.

With the magic of iTunes, a colour printer and CD-writer, we were able to present each delegate with their own copy of “Music to Collaborate by…” at breakfast the next day. This compilation will now become the soundtrack for use our next two meetings.    Finding a way to co-create a tangible, unique and enjoyable product is an important milestone for this particular community.

Here is a selection of the tracks…

Pulp – Common People Sham 69 – if the kids are united Bill Withers – Lean on me Primal Scream – Come Together Al Green – Let’s stay together U2 – Somehow you keep me hanging on Better together – Jack Johnson The Beatles - I’ll get by with a little help from my friends

I must also take the opportunity to thank Rowan Purdy from CSIP, who gave us one the most engaging and clearest presentations on social computing that I have experienced.  Thanks Rowan – Inspirational stuff!

Shutting the stable door...

I ran a couple of training sessions last week, and in both of them the group ended up in a discussion about the relative merits of “knowledge harvesting”. I have always held however detailed the learning/exit interview with someone leaving a position or an organisation, both parties usually end up disappointed. However, as a salvage operation, particularly one involving a workgroup or community, it is certainly better than nothing, and can reduce some of the short-term risks. I’d like to think that there are less reactive and more creative contractual ways of retaining access to expertise through phased retirement and voluntary alumni approaches…

Schlumberger have the right idea in the way they manage communities and special interest groups as an integral part of the development of professionals. In order to reach the upper echelons of Schlumberger’s technical professionals - the top rung of the technical ladder - you have to have spent time leading a community of practice. If you have never led a community, then you never become a “fellow”.

In order to lead a community of practice, you have to be voted in, during their annual “community election season” (sounds a little strange, but they manage it very well). Needless to say, in order to be voted in as a community leader, you have to have demonstrated the right behaviours, and been an active, knowledge-sharing member - in addition to having the requisite facilitation skills.

If the community is active and the “expert” is engaged, then there shouldn’t be too much left for the hasty harvest when the time comes for pastures new…

Far better perhaps, to consider your whole career as a 40-year exit interview!

Community views...

I ran a training programme last week on "Building communities of Practice" up at TFPL in London. Early on, I used a number of photos to encourage the participants to discuss the business challenge that communities help them to overcome.  Flickr was a great source of shots of islands, silos, jigsaw puzzle pieces...  but it was this one of vineyards in Geria, Lanzarote which prompted the most discussion - so I thought I'd share it here.  Anyone got a better one?

Lonely Hearts...

I wrote 50 Valentine cards today.  Actually that's  a lie - 51 in total, if you include the one for my wife.

In a moment of madness I offered to follow-up on an "offers and requests" process at a recent meeting of the Henley KM Forum looking at the topic of Collaboration.  The participants had just finished a post-it note exercise, identifying their needs and offerings on a set of flipcharts. It's hard to keep the momentum going, even with a good network like this one, once people have left the room. 

So... I spent today matching up people "who have something to share" with people who have "something to learn". Seeing as tomorrow is a day for matchmaking, we're sending each of the potential "knowledge dates" a personalised electronic Valentine card like this mock-up - but with their photos.  (With apologies to Cilla Black and Leonardo!).

There's a lot of KM and networking insights to be drawn from Dating agencies...