Background: We are running a satisfaction survey with a difference. We are using the Most Significant Change process (coupled with the Net Promoter Score) to assess our impact on the NSW KM community. The questionnaire can be completed in 10 mins. The provider of the most significant story will win a prize. Please visit the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=CI0ortGaYbH6BJKsSpntKg_3d_3d

Here are the some initial responses from the MSC exercise to get you thinkin’:

	Tell us about the most significant change that has resulted from your involvement with the NSW KM Forum.	Why is this change significant for you?
1	Having more knowledge about Social Network Analysis, which is an area that will be booming in a few years… l love that I know about this stuff as it’s coming to the fore.	Because I work with SharePoint and SP 2010 has a lot more social aspects to it, so doing SNA on SharePoint will be interesting in a few years
2	no more bullet points in my powerpoint presentations	radically changed the way I explained things. and made me a much better presenter and had a positive effect on my business
3	I try work my schedule around the meeting	Provides a regular event to work around
4	Mainly the opportunity to mix with other professionals. This has helped me understand where the rest of the industry is at, what the current thinking amongst professionals is, and whether or not other professionals are experiencing the same barriers/issues that I am.	It enables me to speak with some authority about the outside world when I engage in discussions with colleagues inside my company. It also allows me to bring some fresh thinking to my role. I always come away with something from any given KM Forum session.
5	The NSW KM Forum people and events inspired me to continue to understand how people really learn through collaboration. With these insights and role models I leverage this knowledge in my career as a tutor and learning program facilitator.	It provided me with a new exciting and rewarding career path.
6	My most memorable outcome of a forum meeting was at a time when I was searching to discover a more effective methodology for assessment in the workplace. During a presentation at the KM Forum from one of the authors of Learning to Fly the topic of assessment was covered, and the presentation and subsequent conversations helped me to crystallise and define the methodology that was needed.	It is a practical example of how collaboration can deliver resolution to challenging requirements. The Forum’s greatest value is in providing have environment for collaboration.
7	Inspiration, coming from finding a large group of people on the cutting edge of communication technologies and processes.	For inspiration to continue on the path I’m walking!
8	I just feel more informed with the KM industry in general. There has been no single significant event.	Keeping abreast of the industry as such is significant to me because I feel KM in a traditional scense is dying in Australia
9	I always get excited when a concept clicks, especially when I have been hesitant about a tool. The NSW KM Forum with Iggy Pintado on connections was on of those moments. After the Forum I set up a Twitter account and got Tweeting on what was happening in the organsiation. It was really great marketing tool that showcased much of the hidden work that I and my staff do.	Going to the NSW KM Forum has provided me with plenty of learning opportunities and food for thought, hower as my role carries a KM title, the proportion of work that is KM is less than half, therefore the opprotunties to enable KM initiativies aren’t always there. The concepts discussed in the “connected” NSW KM Forum workshop were easy to put into place and was a starting point to bring in other areas of the organisation, in particular marketing.
10	Not really any significant changes, as such, but it’s always good to meet/chat with other people about KM issues.	So I can pass on to the xxxx members that there are other KM interest groups out there if they’d like to connect further.

We are in the throes of planning 2010 for the NSW KM Forum – and we need your help!

1. We are looking for speakers. The format will be 30 mins total (including questions) to present to the forum on a relevant topic (if in doubt send an email to nswkmforum@gmail.com) using any method you see fit. Please send an email to nswkmforum@gmail.com with “Speaker” in the subject title.

2. We are looking for sponsors (but not megabucks). We have some small expenses that we want to cover in cash or kind (e.g. domain name hosting, presents for speakers). If you want to support our work with $ then please email nswkmforum@gmail.com with “Sponsor” in the subject title.

3. We are running a satisfaction survey with a difference. We are using the Most Significant Change process (coupled with the Net Promoter Score) to assess our impact on the NSW KM community. The questionnaire can be completed in 10 mins. The provider of the most significant story will win a prize. Please visit the survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=CI0ortGaYbH6BJKsSpntKg_3d_3d

4. We are sourcing our own line of wine from The Wine Point. We are holding a competition to design a label for the wine with a new NSW KM Forum logo. The design needs to be 100mm tall by 70mm wide and it needs to be an image created & owned by yourself (i.e. no sneaky copying off the web). The winner will get the first bottle of wine AND have their credits on all the bottles. Please send in your entry as a PDF or JPG file to nswkmforum@gmail.com with “Competition” in the title by Friday 29 January 2010.

The joint event with Sydney Facilitators Network and Nancy White was a blast. Check out some photos by Jeanne Walker and have a peak at Nancy’s background materials here and here.

Michael Sampson is a collaboration strategist and independent industry analyst based in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is author of Seamless Teamwork, which seeks to help people in collaborative teams envision how to accomplish their work using Microsoft SharePoint; and SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration, which focuses on the business and human sides of managing a SharePoint implementation, rather than the technology.

Michael will be discussing some of his latest thinking about collaboration, including a sneak peak of his next book -which will cover collaboration but not Sharepoint. All participants need to register here: http://nswkmdec09.eventbrite.com/

1. Michael Sampson’s Masterclass in SharePoint Collaboration and Governance
Sydney 1st December
http://www.sharepointroadmap.com/sydney.html
The masterclass will focus on the business, technology and people of SharePoint for collaboration: Collaboration for Business; Roadmap to Success; Evaluating the Technology; All About Governance; Engaging the Business; User Adoption Strategies; Getting Started

2. Appreciative Inquiry – David Cooperrider
http://www.appreciativeinquiry.net.au/aidev/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=102:2009-workshop-with-david-cooperrider&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=104
THE STRENGTHS REVOLUTION IN LEADERSHIP (today is last day for early bird)
1. Executive Breakfast with David Cooperrider – 27 November 2009 07:00 – 09.00 am
Where: Macquarie Graduate School of Management Campus, 99 Talavera Road, North Ryde NSW 2109
In this interactive session David makes the “three circles of the strengths revolution”
come alive by focusing of powerful tools at
Program Time Table
Price $88.00
2. Workshop with David Cooperrider – 26 November 2009
Where: UTS City Campus, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW
* A Time to Rethink Human Organization and Change
* The Science of Human Strengths and Role of the Positive
* Appreciative Intelligence + Macro-Enterprise= Constellation Leadership
* Introduction to the Positive Change Method of Appreciative Inquiry
* The Unintended Consequences of Deficit-based Change: Why are Our Organizations and Our Brains So Easily Focused on the Negative? * AI’s “4-D” Cycle
* The Art of the Question
* One Large Group Planning Method that Changes Everything and Consistently Brings Out the Best in Organizations and Stakeholder Communities
* How Does “Whole System in the Room” Magnify the Universe of Strengths, Opportunities, Assets, and Results (S.O.A.R)?
* The Design of Positive Institutions: Discovering How Sustainability= Innovation in Business
Price $495.00 for early birds.
After 11/11/09 $595.00
Members of Associations and Co Sponsor groups will receive a 15% discount after 11/11/09 = $505.75

3. Leading Complex Projects – Delivering outcomes in ambiguous and uncertain environments
Tuesday, 24 November, 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm, Sydney Mechanics School of Art, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney City
Workshop Facilitators: Dr Kaye Remington
http://www.solaustralia.org/eventsdetail.php?eventid=79
Much of our practice in project management today is the legacy of control systems working in economic environments that no longer apply. Projects have become more complex, business partnering to deliver outcomes is now BAU, risk management and financing have become more innovative and complicated, and finding the right people is still difficult in the ‘new normal’. Leading complex projects/programs requires leaders to understanding the varying nature of complexity, and the decision-making and tools that may be required in these differing and messy, ill-defined environments.
Dr. Kaye Remington work focuses on understanding and leading complex projects, programs and initiatives. She has experience in delivering those impossible projects, and is able to apply current thinking in the complexity field to the very practical requirements of project management. She has written “Tools for complex projects”, (see review http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/remington.htm) and is currently writing another book “Leading Complex Projects” with another internationally recognised expert in leadership and projects.

4.  Bringing Order to a Poorly Structured Knowledge Base
http://www.iim.org.au/minigen/default.asp?action=showContent&contentID=119&fdid=805
Date: Tuesday 24th November 2009 Time 6:00pm
Location L29, 580 George St, Sydney
Cost Gold coin contribution at door
RSVP By 11th Nov, please RSVP by email to iim@iim.org.au
The November meeting of IIM NSW will be on the subject of Knowledge and Content Management strategies. Michael Beckett from ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) will describe his organisation’s situation before the strategy, the objectives and vision identified in the strategy, the plan to implement it, and the progress and lessons learnt to date. This meeting will be run as a collaborative workshop, with Michael setting the scene and then the audience driving the agenda by delving into areas of interest to them. This will allow us to gain some insights from Michael into how he has addressed common problems in our industry and he will also give his perspective on your ideas/challenges.

5. Paper-mess to Paper-less
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has emerged as a powerful way to capture, anage, store and access the vital information contained in documents, spreadsheets, presentations, correspondence, email messages and other electronic media. KnowledgeLake Document Imaging Suite gives you the freedom to scan, index, store, retrieve and view large volumes of documents in a variety of ways by extending the native capabilities of SharePoint. Clayko Group – KnowledgeLake’s Australian and New ZealandPartner, offers you the opportunity to join us at a Breakfast Brief to discover the benefits a complete ECM solution offers. You will see how KnowledgeLake addresses:
· Tracking, storing and managing your email, Word, Excel or other electronic documents
· Scanning your paper documents into the same SharePoint document repository
· Reducing the time and effort taken to find and retrieve valuable business information
· Providing a cost-effective, scalable solution for document management for your business

This event will be followed by a light stand-up breakfast and a chance for informal questions and answers.
Tuesday 17th November, 2009 7:30am – 9:00am
Thursday 19th November, 2009 7:30am – 9:00am

Venue:Microsoft Head Office, Exchange, 1 Epping Road, NORTH RYDE NSW 2113, Australia
Email cameron.elliott@clayko.com.au to RSVP

WHAT

Is there more to visual facilitation than the occasional use of a flipchart? Can we listen with our eyes and fingers as well as our ears? This session explores how images and drawing can help with the facilitation process. Whether you are an artist or not (especially if you think you aren’t), we will painting, drawing, smudging and crayoning. We will be getting our hands dirty please do not dress in our nice work clothes (or at least bring a big shirt to cover up).

WHO

Nancy White has worked with organisations as diverse as the World Health Organization, IBM, IEEE & the International Labor Organization. She is the co-author of “Digital Habitats” with Etienne Wenger & John
Smith. Her graphic facilitation gigs have involved the Dalai Lama. More details on her Australian visit here:http://nancywhiteoz.wordpress.com/

WHERE & WHEN

5.30 pm Start, Monday 9 November

UTS Building 10 – map available.
Jones St Ultimo
Level 5, Room 5.580

No RSVP this time!

The NSW KM Forum meets Sydney Sharepoint Users Group session on Tuesday 20 October was a joy to participate in. The “world cafe” style format covered five topics:

• Document Management
• Team Collaboration
• Search
• User Adoption
• Customisation

The notes are available below (but probably won’t make much sense if you weren’t there). Many thanks to Ivan Wilson for assistance in organising the event and Michael Sampson for the donation of 2 copies of Sharepoint Roadmap for Collaboration as raffle prizes.

WHAT

Microsoft’s Sharepoint has become a major platform for document management and team collaboration within organisations. Many knowledge managers have to know this tool to deliver their services within organisations and so there is a critical need to work effectively with Sharepoint developers and administrators. This event brings together
the Sydney Sharepoint User Group and the NSW Knowledge Management Forum for an evening of discussion and debate.

HOW

The event will follow a ‘cafe’ format – with participants sharing their experiences around topics of mutual interest. Each table will focus on a topic and participants will have the opportunity to rotate between tables (& topics) during the course of the event. This format is inspired by approaches such as the World Cafe  and Open Space:

Some potential topics include: Document management, team collaboration, search, publishing & intranets, understanding user requirements, encouraging adoption, administering technology environments, customisation and the world of plug-ins. To help us with preparation, when you RSVP (see below) we’d like you to tell us the three broad topics you would like to see covered.

WHAT NEXT?

Using the PwC venue requires that we clear visitors with the venue provider. If you plan to attend please RSVP before noon Monday Sept 21 by e-mail to: sydney@sharepointusers.org.au – remember to tell us about your topics!

WHERE

PricewaterhouseCoopers
Darling Park
201 Sussex Street

Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall.
Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through
the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a
security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to
main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW
KM Forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Tuesday 20 October

[Nicky was the winner of the free pass to KM Australia 2009. She has kindly written up her experiences for the rest of the Forum]

KM Australia : From Diverse Perspectives

5-6 August 2009, Sydney

 Conference review by Nicky Hayward-Wright

The areas that knowledge or information practitioners work across are varied, as are their background and skill set. The KM Australia conference aimed to delve into this diversity of practice and thinking.

The opening keynote address by Dave Snowden provided a well structured time line of the profession / industry; where it has come from (functional structure embedded in scientific management) where it is now (systems thinking focusing on process, structure and control, mass tailoring and customisation) and where it could go (mass collaboration which is based on an evolving complex landscape of relationships). An important comment from Dave was the notion that one does not have to discard the past, but recognise the significance of context of a particular system, take parts which are relevant and apply them to the current context. To paraphrase an old saying: don’t reinvent the wheel, rather make it better – or fit for purpose. Dave’s presentation set the tone (for me) for the rest of the conference, that is, to continually challenge oneself to think outside the square, look at various ways of engaging with clients in their environment, be open to the unknown, be adaptable, and work within and outside the system. The analogy used by Stephen Bound (Knowledge Manager, Insolvency and Trustee Services Australia) is worth considering in the context of Dave’s presentation; the KM worker is very much like a gardener, someone who tends a continually growing and evolving organism (organisation) in its own environment.

Stephen’s presentation provided practical suggestions for ‘getting down and dirty’ through a 7 step KM strategic framework which covers background, objectives, principles, strategies, responsibilities and goals; all of which are linked to the organisation’s business goal. Stephen emphasised the importance of planning and acting locally within the short term, in order to gain trust and quick wins, which will provide the foundation for what has been planned for the long term within a global context. This theme, as well of one to reframe jargon into terms that are relevant for a person or situation, was recurrent through several presentations.

KM should also have an element of fun. The next session was an interactive session using Method Cards and Organisational Culture Cards. Method Cards cover KM approaches (e.g. KM awareness, learning culture, CoPs), methods (e.g. knowledge mapping, knowledge cafes, value network analysis), and tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, Intranets). See Method Cards: Guide to Contents. The contents of the Organisational Culture Cards represent 52 atypical patterns of organisational behaviour. The cards are illustrated with an archetype on the front and on the back, with a description of behaviour. The table that I was playing on was fortunate to have Arthur Shelley author of the Organizational Zoo and wandering game judge, provided some insight into organisational behaviour and advice on our team’s creative attempts at a new game. Unfortunately this advice didn’t win us the best new game; that went to the table that created ‘Bullshit’. (Hopefully ‘Bullshit’ and some of the games that were created at the conference might end up on the Method Cards wiki.) On reflection, playing card games is fun, encourages team work and support from others who are ‘playing’, and is a non threatening way to gaining a better understanding of knowledge management tools and find solutions to organisational behavioural issues.

Felicity McNish, Global Knowledge Manager, Woods Bagot drew our focus to the requirements of change and transformation when undertaking KM projects. Felicity’s presentation highlighted the benefits of blending a KM and change management framework which covers analysis, strategy, implementation and continual assessment. Practical advice on change tools for each of the four stages was highlighted. In addition to the change tools that Felicity discussed, the Method Cards and Organisational Culture Cards would be useful reference tools. A key message from Felicity’s presentation is that your KM project will involve change and ‘change is about people’; therefore communicate, network, build relationships, develop organisational culture, and provide opportunities.

A highly enthusiastic presentation on the Board of Studies NSW website was given by Lendon Sharp, Manager Information Service (AKA ‘data guru’). The gem of this presentation was identify patterns of usage of a website (or intranet) and being able to use this data to better plan for ‘the known’ (e.g. high usage for the 22 days before start of HSC exams requires higher bandwidth) and improve decision making capacity.

J. Roberto Evaristo Manager, Knowledge Management Program Office 3M, walked us through his concept of Strategic Knowledge Mapping (SKM) which focuses on knowledge supply and demand; i.e. the right knowledge and the right mix to address business needs. After identify various knowledge components a visual knowledge map is created, which can be scalable from a single site k-map, to a map which includes multiple locations, depth of knowledge, relationships (internal and external), gaps, vulnerabilities and opportunities. The output of Strategic Knowledge Mapping is seen at the operational level, such as targeted staff training or identified staff to undertake a task.

A key barrier for KM in an organisation can be not aligning your KM project with your organisations business strategy. Justin Harness, Associate Director Business Services, Macquarie Group, discussed building bridges between, and alliances with information management and business management to produce strategically aligned business outcomes. Justin reminded us of the opportunities that KM can be involved in, such as supporting culture and values through virtual spaces and cross team collaboration, business optimisation through improved reporting via an intranet, and innovation, in particular at the bespoke and packaged level (Richard Susskind 2005). (See webcast with Richard Susskind http://mediazone.brighttalk.com/comm/INCLegalWeek/eaf5452c3c-12813-2676-13047)

Shawn Voss’s (Information Manager, FKP Property Group) presentation focused on a problem that many of us can relate to: finding ‘the single source of truth’ across multiple platforms (email, electronic documents, hardcopy, people). The case study on the implementation of Objective 7.2 Enterprise Content Management System incorporating Wintalk and Outreach was sympathetically presented by Richard Shepard from Objective in Shawn’s absence. Similar to Felicity McNish, Shawn’s presentation highlighted the requirement for a project change framework; however Shawn’s framework was bases on the 3 Cs: Collaboration (with key business owners), Communication (manage user expectations, be honest, use plan language, have a communication plan) and Competence (identify key staff and subject matter experts, provide training).

Day One finished with a World Knowledge Café where participants debated, discussed and pondered the question of “How can KM be used to assist organisations and individuals to survive in our current economic climate?” Dr Helen Page who facilitated this session, has a video about World Knowledge Cafés on her website.

Day Two opened with a presentation on KM at NASA by Manson Yew, Project Manager for NASA’s Engineering Network which is part of the NASA Knowledge Management Team. Key NASA KM initiatives, which are based on the NASA KM Road Map include: engaging the public, which has been achieved (though continually evolving) through the NASA public portal; developing a learning organisation through the establishment of an internal learning portal to share lessons learnt; facilitation of communities of collaboration; and pushing of relevant information across the distributed portals / sites, e.g. lessons learnt; creation and maintenance of expertise locator and individual social / expert network maps; employee and partner spaces for collaboration and access to secure information (Inside NASA); and Emergency Operation Support which provides critical information before, during and after a crisis, such as a hurricane.

The energy and excitement shown by Manson in delivering his presentation instils one with a sense of an organisation who is practicing their organisational values: ‘collaborate, communication, innovate, motivate’. I’m sure that the journey for the KM Team does have challenges, however the above ‘products’ show an organisation leveraging knowledge, engaging with its clients and continually pushing the boundaries of technology. The later being shown through the trialling of ‘Semantic Seek’ which uses semantic query to dynamically integrate distributed content and context; ‘Explorer Island’ which is a Second-Life environment for collaboration, simulation modelling, training, and public outreach (e.g. being a virtual astronaut, viewing a launch); creating a YouTube media channel on the Public Portal; and the use social tools such as FaceBook and Twitter. Finally, Manson reminds us that KM is not only about capturing knowledge, but also about connecting people by sharing, transferring and generating knowledge and importantly, building trust so that people will engage.

The culture shift to social media and Enterprise 2.0 was further discussed by Cuney Uysal, Product Manager, Web Solutions Group, Open Text. A key focus of this presentation was on ‘people first, content second’ and a bottom up approach to user engagement.

Web 2.0 / social media tools such as wikis and blogs; tagging and rating; communities; action-based employee profiles; dashboards and customised employee profiles; ideas management modules; video and podcasting; and social search powered by recommendations allows for user engagement, which as Cuney states, will ‘lower the centre of gravity for decision making’. Two keys to getting to this point of user interaction are accessibility and adoption. When designing and implementing knowledge and information tools, it is necessary to provide easy access or connectivity points. Some statistics that Cuney quotes (source IDC) provide an insight into access barriers to a tool such as the intranet: content is not relevant to job (35.1%), don’t have enough time (32.2%), too many passwords (20.2%) and would rather use Google (62%). As for adoption of Enterprise 2.0, cultivating support (identify and nurture your gardeners and champions), and developing corporate culture and communication channels are key.

Staying on the Enterprise 2.0 theme, Leanne Fry walks us through the implementation of Web / Enterprise 2.0 tools at AMP to address knowledge management issues. Leanne’s presentation challenges management to shift their thinking from analysing a problem and putting up barriers (e.g. blocking use of FaceBook) to supporting behaviours that make tools work (e.g. self moderation of internal off-topic blogs). Another mindset shift for management is to embrace within the work environment, the patterns of connectivity that people have established and use outside of work, for example, replacing email with Twitter or Yammer. Importantly for Enterprise 2.0 to be successful, management need to foster a culture which encourages participation, contribution, sharing, connecting and being an individual; however, Enterprise 2.0 can also be the catalyst for a cultural change. Leanne’s presentation Enterprise 2.0 – Breathing new life into KM is available from the e8 Consulting website. Also of interest is a follow up article on the topic of KM guiding principles, which Leanne covered in her presentation.

A brave person was Dale Chatwin, Director ABS Knowledge Management Initiative, ABS, who presented a case study on the implementation of an ABS collaborative workspace initiative, Professional Practice Initiative (PPI), which had minimal impact. The main reasons Dale cited for the negative outcome are: the initiative being mandated from above rather than establishing what the need was from the end users; KRAs / KPIs did not encourage right behaviour, rather they focused on rules and tools; agreed processes were not followed, which resulted in for example, proliferation of repositories rather than increased collaboration; and end users had difficulty with usability of, and accessibility to PPI. On a positive note, showcasing through an online conference how the PPI was useful had a positive impact on usage rates. Dale demonstrated the resilience needed by those involved in implementation of KM initiatives.

Communication was the focus of the next presentation by Frank Connolly, Victorian Public Service Improvement Network Coordinator, Victoria Police. Frank reminded us that even if you have all the right tools, you still need good conversations, the quality of which determines the success of the community / activity. We also explored the use of different types of thinking (parallel and lateral) “which allows people to use their collective intelligence to approach an issue from multiple perspectives and allows the collective analysis of information, benefits, risks, & underlying potential of a concept or idea”. This framework also identifies the behaviours (e.g. non judgemental, right intention), environment (e.g. safe) and tools (e.g. storytelling, metaphors) which allow for progressive conversations that transform ideas and concepts into value added solutions. Two key points from this presentation are: harness the knowledge of the people who do the work and stand structures (organisational) on their head to better understand where true power of engagement lies.

A truly diverse perspective of KM was presented by Dr Olympia Salas, founder and director of Prospecita, who discussed how knowledge management and innovation in the Latin American and Caribbean region has helped large organisations to improve productivity. While the cases studies of science and technology parks, and multinational corporations were interesting, I found more compelling the projects which viewed ‘knowledge sharing as a cultural issue’. For Olympia who is passionate about her region and the people, the power and value of KM is in improving poverty and the well-being of the people by working at the coalface to empower the people with knowledge to bring about a sustainable change in their community. Olympia also touched on the theme of knowledge transfer by describing an e-learning project which used storytelling, videoconferencing and info-culture / cyber cafes to engage with the community and transfer knowledge. For ongoing and systemic change to occur in the community, government and multinational / multilateral organisations need to be more ethically and socially responsible; provide capital for infrastructure (human and IT) to support knowledge sharing initiatives in the community; learn from other sectors and regions; and transfer into the community knowledge gained in internal centres of excellence (university, business and technology parks).

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the conga line that Olympia got going – perhaps symbolic of how something which starts small can gain moment and enthusiasm; all you need is a catalyst and the will of a few to engage and encourage others!

A short break where people could taste the wines of Pepper Tree, was followed by a one on one debate with Dave Snowden and Ross Dawnson on “How to build organisations that succeed in a world of infinite information”. While I didn’t have any wine, this session was divergent and my notes are vague – something about paradigm shift from levels of mediation (to ??); crystal ball gazing into the future where biotechnologies can play a role assisted thinking (I found this interesting a I work for Alzheimer’s Australia) and moral compass (I presume to apply to the use of technologies).

Brining the conference back to the present was the final presentation; an interactive session on thinking, problem solving and decision making using the d⁶ methodology, which was presented and facilitated by Cory Banks, Knowledge Manager of Parsons Brinckerhoff Australia Pacific and his trusty helpers in yellow hard hats and bright orange safety vests, including Sarah Crealy, PB Knowledge Coordinator. Creating enthusiasm at the end of a two day conference isn’t easy, however Cory and the team managed to engage and assist participants through their first experience of d⁶, a PB in house tool, which is a blend of different methodologies such as Eight Disciplines (8D) problem solving, divergent and convergent thinking and Cynefin. d⁶ incorporates the use of tools which have been chosen according to the level of complexity of a problem to decide > discover > define > develop > deduce > deliver. See Cory Banks on Slideshare.

Apart from presentations, case studies and interactive sessions, the conference provided networking opportunities in particular at the World Knowledge Café on day one and throughout the conference at the KM Arena which was an informal area for people with the same interests to meet and chat. To help people network, a network map of delegates’ interests was generated by Optimice and displayed in the KM Arena, with alerts of who was in the KM Arena being flashed on screens in the main dining area. I found the network map a useful tool to get to meet other delegates and also identify acquaintances that you could catch up with.

My take away quote to reflect upon is from Mason Yew:

“Even if you provide the right information, to the right place at the right time, how do we [knowledge workers] make sure people access information and have power to action information?”

 My fun action point: next run of business cards will have title of ‘Knowledge Gardner’

Finally, thanks to NSW KM Forum and KM Australia for sponsoring my attendance at this conference – I gained new knowledge on a diverse range of topics and engaged in diverse conversations with people from diverse backgrounds.

WHAT

Most people have a pile of business cards on their desks – or in their coat packets – that they hope to do something with at some point in time. We passively or actively network with each other either online or offline for social and business purposes but the big question is how do we do it effectively? This session is about how to better manage contacts and turn them into manageable connections.

WHO

Iggy Pintado is an accomplished and experienced business leader, executive, coach, speaker and author. He is an internationally recognised connection technology expert and a dedicated observer of societal and business models and patterns.Over the last 22 years, he has held professional, management and executive positions in marketing, sales, channels, operations and online management at both IBM and Telstra. At IBM, he was Director of Marketing, Australia and New Zealand from 2000-2004. In 2008, he co-founded a business networking consulting, marketing, coaching and speaking business based in Sydney called ConnectGen, where he is CEO and CNO (Chief Networking Officer). As a “super-connected” networker on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, he has earned his place in the Top 25 list of the most connected business networkers in Australia.

In April 2009, Iggy released his first book, Connection Generation, a fascinating study of how connectedness affects our place in society and business, and the challenges and opportunities this compelling development presents.

WHAT NEXT? If you plan to attend please RSVP before noon Monday Sept 21 by e-mail to: nswkmforum<at>gmail.com (hint: replace the <at>with a normal @ to complete the email address and please include the date and/or title of the event in the subject line).

WHERE

PricewaterhouseCoop ers
Darling Park
201 Sussex Street

Enter from Druitt Street, go up the escalators and up the hall. Continue through the foyer until you see the PwC security desk through the doors on your left hand side. Please note: You will need to get a security pass from the security desk in the PwC Foyer, then proceed to main reception on Level 10 and tell reception you are here for the NSW KM forum.

WHEN: 5.30pm for 6pm, Tuesday 22 September.

HOW MUCH: Gold coin donation.