Conversations that Click...!

I had an intellectually stimulating conversation with a friend from the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) this morning. Such conversations don’t, however, come too often. Left me wondering “why not?”. Obviously, if you know me well, you might have guessed by now that I am likely to view such a topic through the “KM-glass” (knowledge management).

KM passionately advocates the sharing of knowledge. But the sharing of knowledge is definitely not a one-way process. It is about two-way interaction and conversations. It is not enough to just share what you know. You need to follow up to know if what you shared has reached the other person. You need to encourage questions, be open to the other person’s views and be ready to learn from her. You need to be totally engaged in the conversation in order to transfer and enhance the knowledge that you started with and create new knowledge. But, admittedly, things are not as easy as they seem. To document what you know may be with you the work of a moment but letting that evolve into something else via intense conversations is a challenge for many of us. More often than not, conversations are either abandoned, or result in no meaningful outcome, or are dominated by one of the parties, or involve two parties on two altogether different tracks that refuse to merge etc. On rare occasions, the conversations click and begin to make meaning. On unique occasions, such conversations further lead to a Eureka moment - what might be called an inspiring outcome that subsequently results in effective action or learning. So, what does it take to be involved in conversations that click? Or rather what does it take to create an environment that make conversations click? What does it imply for KM?

• A lot of us use the term “wavelength” pretty frequently when it comes to conversations and relationships. We supposedly get along well with people who “share the same wavelength”. I believe that this does not necessarily mean people who have a similar cultural or educational background. I think it goes beyond that and into a spiritual realm. There are some people that we can relate to irrespective of whether we share their views or not. We find it easy to listen to them and vice versa. We are able to have a strong argument without contemplating gifting a coffin at the back of our minds. Maybe it revolves around what we think are the intentions of the other person or the respect that we have for that person or something else on these lines. Which, by the way, is closely related to the topic of (natural and unconditional) trust.
• A lot depends on the frame of mind that we are in at the time of the conversation. What time of the day is it? What else is on your mind? Is something else bothering you and not letting you concentrate on the current conversation? Are you physically/mentally tired? Do you have the energy needed to be completely involved in a conversation? Are you in the “flow”?
• Obviously, your involvement and interest in the topic are major criteria. It not only decides the time you’re ready to invest in the conversation but also the ideas that you are capable of generating. Sometimes, it is the other person’s ability to draw your attention and inspire you into the conversation even if it isn’t a topic you understand too well. If the topic really excites you, you might even persist until the conversation clicks
• Another obvious factor that determines whether the conversation will click or not is based on the prior knowledge you have on the topic and more importantly your ability to understand your knowledge levels and accordingly dictate or listen to the other person

So, is there something that organizations can do to make conversations click or at least make them more tangible? Is it possible to get everyone on the same wavelength? That sounds ridiculous but not everything that sounds ridiculous is actually ridiculous, what? It may be quite possible to ‘find’ people who are tuned into the same thing and yet keep the population diverse enough for creative thinking. After all, this is the art and science of many start-ups.

One immediate thing that comes to my mind is the role of knowledge and social networking tools such as Linked In, Facebook, and Twitter. These can help people find others who share the same wavelength from anywhere in the world. Organizational equivalent of such tools can help find people from within the organization (especially when it is a large one). [Meanwhile, some people are lucky enough to bump into humans in the same wavelength zone in their own teams/neighborhood etc but that’s a rare thing]

Increasing the frequency of conversations is something that may help improve the opportunities to have conversations that click. This will have to be via conferences, workshops, mixed-audience training programs etc. Encouraging a culture that values and celebrates conversations would certainly have an impact. The management must not only promote such a culture but also allow employees to act upon what is invented/discovered amidst such conversations. It may influence employees to engage in serendipitous conversations and act upon their pet ideas. [Google is a universal example for such an atmosphere – 20% employee time on pet projects]

Any thoughts? Stories about stimulating conversations you have had with people? What do you think is required for conversations to click?

Networking the 80/20 Way?

Posted this at Patti's. Occurred to me that I could put it up here as well.....for some insights and responses from you. Especially if you're a good networker. PS: This has become an area that derives questions from me perpetually....the many conversations I've had on this topic don't seem to be really sealing things in my mind.

-----------------------------------------------------

Hello Patti! :-)

My comment isn't quite relevant to this particular post but a generic one on social networks. I'd love to know your views on what I am about to share with you - I've been reading the book, "Living the 80/20 Way" by Richard Koch. Koch says that we're good at creating strong relationships only with a finite number of people (which maybe something like 10 or so for most of us) and that we ought to focus on spending more time with these top 20% of our friends and relatives for a happier and more fulfilling life. I tend to agree with this view. To be honest with you, I must admit that I am not a natural networker and I tend to keep in touch only with really close people or people who've had a significant impact on me. I find it somewhat draining and tiring to spread my arms and get to know more and more people and then keep in touch with them. Random connections and exchange of ideas are OK at times. (Because) For me, it is not sufficient to just know people - if I really want to keep that connection going, I need to keep in constant touch with them...else the relationship is not a relationship at all. And this is not possible if my network is too large. But I very well understand the importance of networking and knowing more people....for purposes of learning, getting things done etc. Do you think technology can really come to the rescue to help people like me? I do believe that once you become popular and famous, you don't really have to network. People then follow you wherever you go....your network follows you and keeps in touch with you without you having to put in a lot of effort.

Basically, I am thinking aloud and don't even know if I've made myself clear....nevertheless, if you can see through my rambling and share your thoughts and suggestions on this confusing question of mine, I'd be thrilled.

:-) Nimmy

------------------------------------------------------

I'll come back and post Patti's response to my 'question' if she decides to take it. :-) Meanwhile, let me know what you think.

Networking

Gautam has a nice post on networking - "Networking is not about you". Here are some tidbits from the post.

He quotes Penelope Trunk - "So you can be good at networking by caring about other people. And you can’t fake being interested — it’s almost impossible. That means you have to genuinely care about other people." and goes on to end the post by saying "Yes, it's a paradox, while networking is not about you, how you do it says a lot about who you are"

It's a pity that many people seem to network just to "use" people when the "need" arises. When it ceases to be about yourself and is more about the other person, then I'd prefer to call that friendship rather than networking.

PS: Maybe I am prejudiced by what I've seen so far, so I'll think it over again. :)

The Craft of Connection!

During the recent break I took, an idea that sprang to my mind is an unconventional method that may be used to promote and make serendipitous networking happen within the organization. I’ve built on the idea a bit and proposed it to the concerned people. As I wait eagerly to find out whether the idea will be considered worthy of implementation and whether it will then see the light of the day, there is this article on social networking that I just came across. It talks about networking initiatives in general and their benefits. Life is full of coincidences. If you’re active on the blogosphere and exploratory on the World Wide Web, you must already be aware of the article. I am referring to “The Craft of Connection”. It has been authored by two people one of which is Rob Cross, the author of the book - The Hidden Power of Social Networks. It is a good article if you’re looking to know more about the applications of SNA. Very useful if you’re a beginner in SNA and want to know how your company could benefit from it.

Coming back to my idea, it may sound bizarre and wacky to some. But one particular case that this article refers to is way ahead of what I thought of in terms of use of technology! So, for those to whom my idea sounds bizarre, this one would be bizarre and expensive. :-)

Here is the extract of the case from the article. It left me smiling. And I personally think the idea is a breeze.

Recently, a large consumer products company held a global meeting of its researcher community. Each participant’s name badge contained a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip, coded with data about that person and his or her work: some personal background, some areas of expertise, and current research interests. As the attendees mingled during the cocktail hour, their name tags glowed whenever two people with common or complementary interests passed. As people responded to the lights and made introductions, a computer tracked the connections and continuously updated a sociogram of the participants on a large projection screen. Although a natural extrovert may find such a technique gimmicky, it resonated well with the generally introverted and technology-enamored scientists and researchers. By the end of the evening, a poorly connected network had evolved into a richly linked community of practice.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Indeed. Being an introvert, this idea appeals to me as it would make networking so much easier. The glow of the RFID tag, to me, would seem like a smile. It would give me (and the other person) an obvious reason to connect without either of us having to wonder what to start with or start an ambiguous conversation.

Meanwhile, I believe in learning from totally unrelated fields (this case only talks about connecting similar or complementary areas of expertise) as well. In fact, radical innovations spring from many of such conversations if only we let our imagination go wild. But that is a different kind of networking and ought to be a different post altogether. :-)

The Human Network-Post #2

As promised, here's the detailed post on The Human Network...

The Human Network is undoubtedly something very intriguing. Cisco is on to something for sure. It’s an admirable endeavour on their part to say the least. Ages ago people spoke about the world coming together. People spoke about the global village. The internet certainly has what it takes to create a global village and it is doing so in many ways. People are finding each other, helping each other, sharing with each other, working together….all through the internet. The Human Network and many other such initiatives are undoubtedly some things that will influence the future of the world. It therefore merits some retrospective reflection and analysis. I am no expert in the history of the collaborative online world. But I’ve attempted to randomly recall relevant developments and jot down what could have been the precursors and trend-setters of the collaborative online world.

Linus Torvalds created a revolution by getting passionate people across the globe to work together and share their work with a growing community. CKP in his book – The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers - spoke about a completely connected world in the context of commercial as well as the non-commercial ventures. Then came Blogs resulting in a situation that meant uninhibited self-expression that had the potential to influence the world. It also meant that one could keep in touch with thought-leaders and ordinary professionals alike and learn from and share with them as easily as speaking to one’s best friend – on almost a daily basis. Wikis went one step forward and allowed people to create something together. Wikipedia became an excellent knowledge repository that had answers to almost everything. Skype allowed people to get in touch through text and voice……for free. Regular Instant Messengers like yahoo, msn etc made it possible to chat with and leave messages for people in the opposite corner of the world. Google entered the arena of email, instant messaging, blogs, social networking et al and when Google enters something everybody looks up and the circle of influence undoubtedly widens. Flickr made it easy to collaborate on photographs. Social tools like LinkedIn, MySpace, Orkut attracted more users. Web 2.0 players like Delicious, Digg It, YouTube etc made it possible to share articles, posts, comments, and videos. There was almost nothing else that could not be shared on the World Wide Web.

Earlier attempts by a handful of companies to tap into collective intelligence to solve problems while adopting an innovative revenue-sharing mechanism evolved into Prediction Markets. Now, there is talk of social lending, collaborative books, social network analysis in organizations to enable effective collaboration etc.

Is all of this a clear case of United we stand, Divided we fall? Or is it the harbinger of absolute Mayhem on the World Wide Web? Who will organize everything? Is it ‘organize’able in the first place? If organizations don’t already have their own Internet Consultants, will there now be a new team of internet consultants in every organization, helping the latter to make sense of this absolutely amazing but chaotic World Wide Web?

What are the overall implications?

For organizations? I recently learned about the Second life initiative from a friend and colleague. So, will this be a perfect platform for finding a dream audience resulting in enviable revenue growth? The other implications related to employee-finding etc are obvious and can already be seen.

For politicians? Is it no longer going to be easy to fool the populace or take it for granted? CKP says “We are seeing the emergence of an economy of the people, by the people, for the people.” Now, is this the real democracy that we dream about?

For the media/news industry? Will they have to be really creative, quick, smart to be heard amongst the millions of genuine and closer-to-reality voices?

For People Technologies? There already is and will continue to be mind-blogging growth in day-to-day electronics that leverages on the internet. Such technologies are popular and will be increasingly ubiquitous and easy to own.

But I’d like to end with a googly. Will all this pull people apart as much as they try to bring them together? You don’t have to think hard to relate to what I said. How do you communicate with your friends, family and colleagues whom you can probably meet personally on a daily basis if you want to? Is it more on phone and emails, even if the person is sitting right next to your desk? How often have you seen people give incoming calls on the Mobile a higher priority over the person he/she is talking to in person….?

Related articles/References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_network?pcontent=hn_us&cat=Learn&pagename=Wikipedia

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938601.htm

http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,38772,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/books/search

http://www.howwesee.com/ (Cisco’s website…)

http://www.thelivinglink.net/ - a collection of various resources

PS: Food for thought. All this inspires me to say that it certainly may take one person to start something…..but it becomes reality only when everyone joins in.

The Tsunami Lessons (KM)

This is the second article that I wrote for the Global Knowledge Review published by David Gurteen in 2005.... (I reproduced the first one called Learning to Love to Learn on this blog a few days ago)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the tsunami lessons

Networks, blogs and experts – Difference between life and death?

Tragedies leave an unforgettable scar in the lives of the affected people, but they also give us an opportunity to learn some things that are equally unforgettable. The tsunami, preceded by the earthquake, that struck parts of Asia on the 26^th of December, 2004 also struck terror in the hearts of millions of people. Since then, there have been a series of earthquakes across Asia indicating that similar tragedies could reoccur. The agonizing scenes and distressing stories that I encountered made me think very hard about the possible lessons. I found myself recalling the adage “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson” and made the, difficult, effort to see light amidst the appalling situation.

Apart from the philosophical implications of the tragedy that came through gradually, I discovered a very intriguing KM pattern emerge from the gloomy situation. Three of the situational aspects struck me as ‘KM’ish. It was clear that some of the consequences of the tsunami could have been pre-empted and some events alleviated in the post-tsunami scenario, had we taken refuge under three practices - networking, blogging (communication & expression) and seeking experts’ advice.

Networking: The concept of people connecting with others who have the wherewithal for conversation on a common topic can make a lot of difference. This unassuming act results in miracles like early indications of what’s to come as well as solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems. India and Sri Lanka may have received early warnings of the signs of a tsunami if only they had been members of appropriate networks. Japan’s disaster warning networks is an example. A positive sign with regard to this is the organization of world-wide conferences to discuss the combating of natural disasters. One only hopes that the lessons learned are implemented!

Communication & Expression: Blogging has the ability to lend itself as an effective self-publishing and networking tool. It has turned out to be a great way to spread news, locate people, gather support, build communities, and communicate the ‘raw’ truth. The tsunami turned out to be something that elicited these very qualities of blogs and blog networks. There were blogs that spread news from the tsunami affected sites, gathered financial and physical support from across the globe, identified people and connected them to their roots, and provided credible information - sometimes more than what Television Channels did.

Expert’s Advice: From the tsunami perspective, this is perhaps the most important of the three concepts discussed. A Japanese earthquake survivor says (on the BBC News website): "We have great faith in the JMA (Japan Meteorological Society), they do a good job in saving people's lives, if some of these countries like Sri Lanka had a system like ours perhaps we could have saved lots of lives." I couldn’t agree more! A proactive attempt to learn from the Japanese who are tsunami-prone would have helped us be better prepared for the calamity. Their methods include early warning systems, tsunami walls, tsunami and earth-quake resistant shelters, floodgates, specialized society (JMA), and use of technology (telecommunications, television, and internet). For Japan, these measures cost US $20 million a year but life is certainly worth much more than that. Tsuneo Katayama, International Center for Disaster-Mitigation Engineering, in a presentation made on the occasion of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction in 1993 had this to say. “I tried to explain how Japan itself has come through difficult years to achieve the level we have today. Learning from Japan is the wisest thing that other countries can do. It is important to identify areas and practices, where the time tested successful experience of one country can be applied in another country with similar conditions. Exchange of information, experience and practices evolved in developed countries would be useful in developing countries…” Thus, proactive approaches rather than reactive learning would have helped prevent loss of lives.

The three practices mentioned need not be labeled as KM. It would suffice to understand that the practice of connecting with experts, networking and expressing oneself to relate to the society at large can change the picture from desolate to thriving. KM, or whatever one wants to label it as, helps improve organizational performance. And…it could also help save lives!

The Human Network

If you've not been away from blogs, discussions and news for the past few months unlike me....you may already be in the know - I am talking about The Human Network!

Hold on to see an exhaustive post on this in Aa-ha! [Thinking Inside The Blog]....

Networking for the Introverts

I have this word document on my desktop where I make quick notes on some topics that interest me enough to be blogged. Long long ago...when Cindrella...oops...Snow White actually...(I guess you'll forgive me in case Cindrella and Snow White were contemporaries ;)) and the seven dwarfs were having their adventure, I made a note (see picture on the left) of the fact that networking for women...and networking for introverts were topics that needed some 'thinking inside the blog'... :). But I never got to progress on this one. I've not been able to maintain my blog-reading habits for a few months now. But I stole some time off from regular work and browsed through Gautam's blog for he is one guy who is a storehouse of information and was not dissapointed. I found that someone has already thought and written about networking for introverts. I jumped into the article and found it to be neat! :) If you're an introvert and want to network, do give this a dekko. As mentioned in the article, don’t waste time fighting the inevitable :)

Sign of the times!

It is indeed a sign of the times! Amazing!
The birthday wishes one gets from unknown people is more than those that one gets from friends and acquaintances! Can you believe it? Reasons: Availability of information on intranets/www and email technology! :o