Embedded Knowledge – Russian Style

I am looking for great examples of how knowledge might be embedded into a process to ensure it’s benefits are not missed. This is an essential part of any feedback loop in a successful knowledge ecosystem
I realised that this was precisely what G. S. Alshuler did when he analysed the patterns in the patents database all those years ago.

Alshuler called this resource and associated methods, TRIZ. Now if you have a problem, any problem, all you need do is work out the contradiction eg if I increase the strength it gets too heavy, and look it up on the TRIZ matrix. Or identify the benefits and or harms and resolve using TRIZ standard solutions. Better still, look at the TRIZ trends of evolution and invent the ‘emerging future’.

I often hear the misunderstanding that “yes, but TRIZ only works for engineering problems”. That view us do wrong, take the example above: if you have a project team that needs to be more effective (strength ) but then would have too many members (weight of moving object) look this contradiction up on the TRIZ matrix and among other potential solutions it suggests inventive principle 40 ‘composite materials’. In other words employ project members that are multi-skilled.

I still don’t understand why TRIZ is not taught in schools or at the very least at the start of every further education programme. Why would any organisation not want to be able to solve problems systematically and to trigger so many options. Once you understand the principles of TRIZ it is genuinely simple to apply, and as the project example above illustrates, is far from being technical, directive linear thinking.

First steps towards a Knowledge Ecosystem Model

I was playing around with two of the six surfaces of my ‘work in progress’ Combined Knowledge and Innovation ecosystem model. What is interesting as you bring several different perspectives and approaches together is whether the axes make any sense at all or in this case suggest a potentially new way of looking at an organisation.

The three coloured shapes with contours represent the Critical knowledge assets of an organisation. The height (no of contours) represents the amount of benefit each delivers. The cost (including harm) of maintaining that knowledge asset decreases as you move to the back. This is very much a Cognitive Edge sensemaker approach to mapping the narrative/knowledge landscape.

I then added the cynefin framework as a kind of windscreen in which you perceive the way forward. Ignore for now the Feynman-like diagrams in each domain and I will blog about them later. At this point I wondered whether the left being unordered and the right being ordered might have any bearing on the knowledge assets or any creative ideas we might have for a) increasing benefit or b) reducing costs & harms.

I realised that as new knowledge is created it will likely emerge on the left, then as it is probed, then analysed it will move to the right where it may be stored or at the very minimum shared. That seems quite standard cynefin (if there is such a thing). What struck me that might be new, is that if you were to plot a new idea on the landscape,

If it plots on the right (ordered) the Ecosystem should take account of the idea

If it plots on the left (unordered) the idea should take account of the Ecosystem.

Landscape scale ‘management’ of knowledge is then concerned with:

• amplifying the height of the peaks (to deliver greater benefits)
• moving the peaks ‘Northwards’ (to reduce costs and or harms)
• being aware of the tendency East or West for level of certainty in decision making

How you would then use TRIZ to access the ‘Worlds Knowledge’ to determine how to reduce costs or increase benefits comes next, after I sort out the geological layers and their metamorphic metaphors beneath this landscape, watch this space…

SAFE to FAIL – Knowledge Ecology Workshop offer

In circumstances of uncertainty you need to carry out many “safe to fail” interventions or experiments (see Dave Snowden & uses of the cynefin framework). As an accredited practitioner and  member of the Cognitive Edge community  I realised that we never seem to offer such “safe to fail” options ourselves so here is one you might be interested in:

Special Offer this Summer

Highly recommended, tried and tested

 “Safe to Fail”

 Knowledge Ecology

 Pop Up – Workshop

 

Professionally facilitated to:

•  nurture collaboration

•  encourage knowledge sharing

•  trigger creative ideas

 Your takeaways will include:

•  A more sustainable, knowledge embodied community

•  A portfolio of prioritised, value framed and complexity aware ideas

•  Memories of an enjoyable day

How it works:

• You provide the room, refreshments and up to 10 participants

• You determine the problem that needs to be resolved or area that needs to be improved

Fixed Price in advance

• Cost £1000 up front – with a total “SAFE TO FAIL” refund if the group fails to deliver at least £5,000 of added value (or cost saving) ideas

OR

 Share the Risk

•  Cost to be invoiced at the end of workshop

•  20% of the total value of ideas (or savings)

•  (as determined solely by the participants).

 whichever option you choose:

 GUARANTEES YOU A “SAFE TO FAIL” 400% RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT

Clients and locations outside the UK will need to pay additional travel & subsistence, but don’t worry I travel and board cheaply.

This offer will be set up on Eventbrite shortly for direct booking or get in touch for further details.

 

The string of pearls

every story can therefore be seen as a journey into the woods to find the secret that lies outside the self

So goes the quote from John Yorke and his Book on storytelling  ‘into the woods’ from a recent Guardian article.

So on Bank Holiday Monday, setting off early before the butterflies were warmed up and fluttering about, David, Tim and I set off for our annual search for colonies of the threatened Grizzled Skipper butterfly. Our search for the Grizzled Skipper conjures a complex of thoughts and we entered the woods hopeful but taken aback by how light and under-grown was the habitat this year after our long cold Spring.

As we walked along the sun drenched path with David identifying every bird call with knowing accuracy I came across this string of pearls and announced in mock horror, “David is this a pearl snake?”. “Its just costume jewellery” was the terse response but I pocketed it all the same, why?, because that’s what I do.

Tim had never seen the plaque in the place we call “Glenn Miller’s wood” that commemorates his final Aircraft Hanger performance back in Oct 1944 just months before he died. So we headed over there for our annual picture. For no reason other than to intrigue my friend Conrad, I posted a picture of the plaque up on facebook.

So there we have it. Two completely unconnected events, secondary to our hunt for endangered butterflies, until…

Conrad posts his response:

Intriguing, spooky and entangled. Until today I didn’t even know that iconic classic tune by Glen Miller was even called “String of Pearls”. So what is the secret that lies “outside the self”? Coincidence, mind reading, proof that time isn’t linear or was Glenn Miller back in those woods again, playing a literal joke with three old men in a wood, and one Glenn Miller fan somewhere in London?

A footnote: We did eventually find three individual Grizzled Skippers in two of their regular locations, but they were off like a shot as I approached with my camera. So no photographs just a little light music…

 

 

Standing on the Patterns of Giants

Ron Young (of Knowledge Associates) has discovered a pattern over the last 15 years, working all over the world, that in order to deliver Extraordinary Knowledge Management an organisation must improve its Communication, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation.

Genrich Altschuller the great Russian engineer and inventor studied patents and uncovered patterns in how problems were solved and new products invented in a methodology he called TRIZ. Karen (and Lilly) Gadd of Oxford Creativity learned from the patterns of success and failure of how to apply and teach TRIZ by working with Major Engineering companies across the world, and then wrote the definitive TRIZ book “TRIZ for Engineers – Enabling Inventive Problem Solving”.

Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge made sense of the patterns of how, when dealing with uncertainty and complexity, we require a very different approach and has developed unrivalled capability in using narrative based methods and technologies. Tony Quinlan of Narrate has built an enviable career around making sense of the patterns in signified narrative fragments using SenseMaker and supportive Cognitive Edge methods.

Alan Drummond of Argenta Europ learned from the patterns of experience, with predominantly Aerospace companies, in how best to solve problems, realise creative ideas and boost innovation capability.

Nancy Duarte of Duarte.com noticed a pattern in the most powerful speeches ever delivered. She built this into her spark-line template for crafting stories and communications that resonate.

Have you noticed a pattern yet. From years of experiments, experience and interactions, patterns emerge, expertise is developed which when tamed can be applied back into that same industry (or practice) as a super-feedback loop or perhaps most excitingly, exapted across into other industries.

I have been lucky to work with or learn from all the above ‘giants’ and I value and treasure their knowledge immensely.

Every workshop or event that I now deliver, as an associate to the above, or solo, draws on the knowledge that I have learned from all of these ‘giants’. Each is designed to amplify Communication, Collaboration, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation. The methods included are by implication, and without exception, world class.

As I step up to introduce myself I become a complex facilitator and narrative plays a key part in revealing the context, perspectives and underlying problems. I conduct and observe progress through at least three converging and diverging diamonds. Problems and ideas are expanded in time and scale. Ideas are prioritised against benefits and diagnosed against predictability of outcome. Ideas are turned into action plans that self-communicate ‘as is’ and ‘as could be’. Space is always made for learning.

If you would like to learn more or perhaps expose and explore your own patterns from which we can take giant inspired innovative steps, then please get in touch.

The award, the snake and the firefly

I had a great day last Wednesday giving a talk at the Practitioners Insights – Wisdom from Experiences Speakers’ Series at MA Global Management at Regent’s College London. What I did not expect was to be awarded the golden microphone award (see above in our trophy room) for donating my time to such a good cause. I am therefore dedicating this (my first ever) award to Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge who got me into all this complexity, narrative, conference speaking malarky in the first place and is currently tweeting that he does not get enough recognition for his efforts, so this one’s for you Dave.

I was in extremely good company, Ania Lichota shared her experiences of climbing the highest peak on every continent, culminating in Everest and using each as a metaphor for personal development and each rung on the management ladder. I was particularly taken by her admittance that she had left her ego on one of the summits. She has a book called “Why the hell bother” aimed at helping others realize their full potential.

In between our talks was legal eagle Enrique Sibauste Arosemena MD of Experta and member of the Panama Bar. He tried valiantly to have a conversation with the students but they were not in the mood to chat, then suddenly he told a folktale about the Snake and the Firefly that caught everyone’s attention and I don’t know why but I can’t get it out of my head.

There was once a firefly who liked to fly among the trees in a jungle.

One day, a snake came along and looked at the firefly flying around, working, eating, and shining with its great green light.

The snake didn’t have much to do, though, so he decided to chase the firefly around to eat him…

First just keeping a watchful eye, then slithering softly along and lastly chasing rapidly around.

The firefly flew, and flew, and flew as fast as those little wings could take him, but eventually grew tired and fell to the ground, where the snake was awaiting.

Before the snake could eat him, he pleaded to ask a few questions, to which the snake replied: “Hmm… I don’t usually give this privilege to my food, but go ahead”.

The firefly then asked “Am I in your food chain?”, and the snake answered “No…”.

“Are you hungry?” mumbled the defenceless little firefly. “Not really, no” said the vicious snake.

“Then why do you want to eat me?” whispered the firefly, to which the snake stated clearly

“Because I just can’t stand to see you shine!”

Rock the Business – CRF 2012

I have just bought Peter Cook’s highly acclaimed book on The Music of Business (buy it here now)

I swear I have not yet opened the cover but realised that I wrote the following piece (but never published it) about innovation occurring at last years Cambridge Rock Festival and thought I would publish it before I get accused of stealing ideas from Peter. So here goes…

It was a Friday night at the Cambridge Rock Festival back in July 2012. Mick and I sat having a welcome cup of coffee, surveying the site. So many of our rock heroes were playing over the four days, mostly with new younger musicians that still wanted to tour and had yet to get so annoyed at the ‘rock gods’ that they would vow never to play with them again. The day before we had seen excellent copycat bands You Too, Ultimate Eagles, ZZ Tops and today Mick had his first experience of John Otway. I still had a twitch list of Del Bromham, Mick Ralphs, Vernon Allan, Thijs Van Leer, ex members of UFO and a number of newly formed prog bands. So we surveyed the site and realised that we had so far been pretty devoid of innovation and change which is such a strong driving force in my ‘working’ life.

So we wondered ‘what goes on in the Acoustic tent?’. A passing friend said that ‘Fred’s House’ were just about to take the stage (which was quiet enough for only 20 minutes between changeover of bands on Stage 2). So we peered in and a youthful crowd with an even younger band drew us in. Four or five songs later we were hooked. A terrific show, all self written songs, all with a charm and enthusiasm that we could see this was a band really going places. No one left during the performance. Mick had to queue to buy their latest and only EP. We thought ‘things can’t get better than this’, an unexpected highlight of the festival so far.

We wandered out, our spirits lifted, so this is where the innovation and new growth takes place, in a small tent, where the big bands and most of the thousands present are not aware of the soon to rise S-curve.

We dipped into the other stages but we had tasted new found riches and so quickly got back in the Acoustic Tent for the final act, Velvet Handled Revolver. We watched the band set up in amusement as we joked about travelling through a time vortex back to the sixties. And why the deckchairs? At 10pm as the sound from outside died down they took to the stage. Sitting down they began a mesmerising acoustic rhythm reminiscent of Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The keyboard came in and it was the jangly sounds of the Doors. Then the singer, Lee Vernon, looking like a smart young Lee Brilleaux grabbed the mike and sang in the most gravelly and luscious tones that made Chris Rea and Rod Stewart sound like choir boys.

The songs progressed, the rhythms were amazing, the sound and experience was much greater than the sum of its parts. More and more punters were welcomed into the tent. After 20 minutes we were worried that the noise of cheering might be a problem for the other stages. Then the singer revealed that they had a plan, to be heard over the noise. He announced that they were about to go electric. I was so in ‘sixties mode’ that I shouted ‘Judas’, triggering much laughter and several anecdotes from Lee about heckling that covered the transformation that was about to take place.

Kicking away the deckchairs they launched into a string of songs that just got better and better. Tight intricate rhythms punctuated by full on Doors style keyboards this was something new and fresh but bringing together elements already proven to be successful. Exaptation at its most sublime. They really rocked and the sound was loud but crystal clear from an amazing Bose sound system. As we sailed past the 10:25 scheduled finish we were visited by the great Dave Roberts (festival organiser) who coordinates and keeps CRF going. Apparently we can go on till midnight and he wants us on the main stage next year. A cheer went up, whether this was true or a great joke, who cares, we were watching a band at the peak of their creativity, working their socks off.

Another sixties moment occurred part way through but this time in reverse. This really reminded me of ‘Blow up’ the 1966 film about a be-suited David Bailey who photographed young ladies:

It was an amazing set, timed at one hour and forty minutes. Songs were being repeated, the audience were cheering and whistling. Four times a steward from the Second Stage came to ask us to turn down the sound and each time our sound engineer mimed a turning down motion at his console. This set was worth the entire festival ticket fee itself. I bought their new album and acoustic EP and can’t stop listening to them in the car.

So my thoughts about innovation:

• Its often about bringing together already existing ideas in new ways
• It happens where you least expect it
• The existing big players may be totally unaware of it until too late.
• When people are focussed and encouraged they can deliver much more than the sum of their parts.
• We sometimes have to go back and start from a stage in the past as opposed to progressing what we have now.
• An atmosphere of deprivation helps (this was the only way they could get on the bill)
• Time restriction – blow us away in 20 minutes
• Bringing together a group of different individuals and nurturing and protecting them until they build enough material, their own style/sound

NB: Don’t get me wrong the rest of the festival was fantastic but this was the story and the performance that will stick with me for a very long time.

POSTSCRIPT [Limited number of tickets remaining for launch of next album at Bedford - get yours at www.pearlhandledrevolver.com ]

 

 

What does a knowledge ecologist do?

Just a bit nerked, sorry narked

Three steps to Heaven

I spent all yesterday morning producing this single slide for a three minute slot on an NERC bid launch event next week only to be told that they have too many people wanting to share the benefits they can supply so there will not be a slot for me. So rather than waste my efforts, here it is. The S-curve shape and ‘magic of three’ structure as a Duarte Sparkline/message map are all intentional.

So if you have a bid, project or new community that needs to move quickly from ‘As is’ to ‘as could be’ , feel free to get in touch.

Horses for main courses

The Uffington Horse

I see that the food minister says that we should not throw away horse contaminated food as there is no health issue...

By strange coincidence, yesterday, I picked up and bought this intriguing book from a Charity Shop, ‘The Pattern under the plough’ by George Ewart Evans and in it he explores why he thinks that we do not eat horse in this country:

From the early domestication of the horse, it has been suggested, there grew up so strong a link between horse and man that the horse became sacrosanct: his flesh became taboo and acquired a sacred or exalted character.

Certain animals in early times became totems … The clan developed a direct symbiotic relation with its totem and each member identified himself with it. Each clan or totem group was responsible for the fecundity and plentifulness of the animal or plant that it stood for.

As a result hobby horses appear in many countryside ceremonies and ritual dances.

The Celts, as befitted a nomadic people, prized the horse highly: theirs was essentially a horse culture.

Look also at the horse monuments carved into the chalk downs of southern England

It seems therefore that our aversion to horse may be one of the very aspects of our life that make us British, and just because it is safe to eat doesn’t make it right or we would eat cats, dogs, rats, badgers and perhaps our overweight siblings. So Owen Paterson, if the horse lasagne and burgers are safe to eat why don’t we all deliver them to Westminster and you can live on them for the next few years.