Presentation on 10 April at Seabury Institute as a part of their ongoing series on collaboration (specifically weblogs). Jim McGee as NWU adjunt-Professor. Maintains a weblog at http://www.mcgeesmusings.com/. Ex-Andersen, founder in Diamond Technology Partners, currently with Huron group.
These are very rough notes, a springboard to some intended thinkings they've brought about in my mind (and I note that these topics are also on Chris' mind and Brian's as well.
Talk entitled Thinking in Public - Weblogs in Corporations. Outlined at his weblog in four precursor thinkings (1, 2, 3, 4). AKMA has also logged the talk.
Basic outline:
- When is thinking important in orgs
- Who needs to be thinking
- why do it in public
- where do weblogs fit
McGee posits the question of 'permission to think' in organizations. Does one have to ask ermission to think, is one deprecated for thinking, or thinking outloud?
Conceptually the education system is designed for industry, where the top thinks and plans but the mass of workers need not.
Anecdote of an earlier discussion, wherein the organization model is that of 1-5% ship leaders, and the remainder of employees are busy pulling on the oars. But then what happpens when someone comes up with the sail (aka the question of innovation). Retooling itself is a cost that cannot easily be done by the oarsmen, or at sea.
Knowledge sharing - the interaction between invention and time balance for implementation. Drucker citation that the wealth of the 20th Century was made in maximizing the effort of workers; the contemporary and future economy is one to improve the productivity of knowledge workers.
Position that the goal of the current economy should be the invention of new ideas, not ekeing out the last bit of effort from workers with the old ideas.
what is real thinking vs illusion of thinking (political debate, talk show, etc)
[personal aside: Is thinking the process of discovery rather than the iteration of position?]
[ musing: KM is an imposition of answers, largely, rather than an empowerment of knowledge workers (and what makes knowledge work (pun intended))]
illusion (based on Desk Set clip):
km is about getting precise answers in very little time. but what about trying to find what the questions are?
Advantages of weblogs:
The structure chronologically (I worked on that back in July...)
Aggregation with other knowledge (I work on many things, in a mass)
discrete knowledge chunks (THIS is what I worked on at this instant)
Thought of three realms of shared knowledge for organizations
- private (individual for self)
- internal (w/in wall)
- public (as public statement, organizational credibility)
