'KWorx Roving Reporter' live from Melbourne, Australia

From a very chilly Melbourne (!), David Simmonds writes:

"The inaugural conference of the Australian Centre for research in Employment and Work (ACREW) was launched in great style by a thought-provoking keynote address by Prof. Scott Snell from Cornell University.
His talk ranged across vast horizons including strategic HRM, the development of HR strategy, and HR configurations. Of particular interest to those of us working in KM, however, were his views on Organisational Learning (OL). He developed the argument that we can no longer focus simply on managing talent by exploring the human capital architecture of knowledge pools. Nor can we even restrict our attention to an examination of relational exchanges and the social capital archetypes of knowledge flows. Increasingly, we must concentrate on OL as seen in know;edge integration terms.

Scott Snell went on to juxtapose two different views of learning prevalent today. Firstly, there is the exploitative model of continuous improvement, which depends on creativity, combinations, links, and generalised trust. On the other hand, the second entrepreneurial model is built on notions of exploration and innovation, with foundations in absorption, spaces and specific trust. Too much exploration, he said, kills efficiency, and too much exploitation kills adaptation.

Afterwards, I [David] was able to discuss these models with Scott Snell further, and to explore with him the essentially cyclical nature of them both. Whereas the one view tends to favour OL, I suggested, the other reflects a preference towards the Learning Organisation (LO). He then proposed a new model, combining both of these and I suggested to Scott that an organic, dynamic, moving integration of both of these cycles might look like a - double helix!"

Could this be the DNA of the organisation of the future? We at KWorx certainly think so....

An evening of networking and sharing

Tonight KnowledgeWorx joined David Gurteen at the University of Greenwich, London, along with a swarm of familiar faces [and some not so familiar] to participate in the dying embers of a Thursday evening Knowledge Barbeque. The event was organised by Gurteen himself as part of his Knowledge Cafe series and as the drink flowed so did the opportunity to share knowledge and enhance communication amongst a diverse group of individuals.

There was, alongside the delicious food and drink, the expectation that we would all mingle and make new connections and renew old ones, and as such KnowledgeWorx once again met Lesley, Jonathan, Clive, Shane, Linda, Mary, Hedley, Kanas, Martyn, Denis, Marc, Ian, Fifi, Harry - at least those are the names that that can be remembered at this particular time of 23.45hrs, but there were plenty more..

Matthew from Lambeth very kindly let me loose with his camera and so the obligatory incriminating shots were obtained click on this link via flickr to see the full slide show.

Business cards were exchanged, promises of contact were made and new connections were formed, with the plan that we would come to the next Gurteen Knowledge Cafe to meet again.

The value of such meetings? Considerable

The range of connections? Unlimited

The desire to repeat the process? Definitely

Maybe C U at the next one? Especially once you have viewed the photographic evidence and decided that this is a great unstructured way to do what we humans can do [but sometimes forget to do] best - use our linguistic and other interpersonal skills to meet and share our knowlege with others.

Józefa [bleary-eyed] Fawcett [pictured with Gurteen above]

It is so nice to be appreciated!

Having just received some wonderful and unsolicited feedback from David's recent conference in Thessaloniki, I felt it needed to be published in full here.

In a previous posting, one comment came from David St Lawrence, who really liked our blog and could see how much we enjoy our work, but wanted us to be clearer about why, so for you David and others, this is the reason..

"Dear Mr David Simmonds,

It was a real pleasure having the chance to meet you at the conference recently. For me, your presentation made the difference to the whole conference. It elevated the subject to more expanded and valuable meanings. Also I consider meeting people from the same "family of thought" as a gift from life, everytime it happens. I hope that more and more people will share similar characteristics of decency, modesty, insight, friendliness and good intention.

Lastly, I would like to return your invitation, and let you know that it will be my greatest pleasure to provide hospitality for you in Athens whenever your road leads you to our sunny country.

With warm regards,

Maria Eleni Arabatzi
Management & Organisational Development,
Kraft Foods, Greece."

Way to go David!

'KWorx Roving Reporter' live from Thessaloniki, Greece - Day 2

David writes:

Day 2 of the conference at Thessaloniki continued to stimulate emotions and arouse interest in a wonderfully diverse range of areas of EI / EQ. Konstantinos Kafetsios and his team of research collaborators presented several sessions outlining the preliminary findings from their analysis of the rich data source collated through their project in 6 countries looking at 'Innovative methods for the assessment and training of career starters' interpersonal transferable skills', which is a Leonardo Da Vinci initiative.

In addition, Elena Antonacopoulou of the University of Liverpool, provided a most compelling account of her widely-published and highly-renowned work at the boundaries between emotion, learning and knowledge management. Amongst many memorable quotes she made during her talk, these are some of the most pertinent and relevant to our central themes we have been developing at KnowledgeWorx:

"Knowledge (and leadership) is a practice, not a product (or a role or function). We must be engaged in research. We must be willing to be surprised. CoPs are those groups that give non-judgemental support to encourage others to learn through mistakes. We need to incorporate discontinuity in the non-linear journey of lifelong learning, which is more like whitewater rafting than paddling your own canoe. Learning is SPACE! we must become thirsty for the unknown. A story is a collective enterprise. Leadership is a window to inner learning."

Elena ended by echoing the words of Sophocles:

"One must learn by doing the thing: for though you think you know it, you have no cetainty until you try it"

In my own session on "Introducing interpersonal skills in higher education" I outlined my initial thoughts that IQ, EQ, mQ and SQ must be combined to form OQ - organisational / organic intelligence.

These last few days have offered a wonderfully stimulating and valuable learning experience for all of us speakers and participants alike. Once home, KnowledgeWorx will be continuing this exciting and thought-provoking range of discussions with its own CoP on OQ - hopefully some of you reading this blog might want to join us!

For business information and conference speaking requests for KnowledgeWorx contact us on info@kworx.com

'KWorx Roving Reporter' live from Thessaloniki, Greece - Day 1

From a very busy conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, David Simmonds, our regular KWorx 'roving reporter' sends his most up to date reflections from Day 1 of this conference:

Over 100 people today witnessed renowned Emotional Intelligence (EQ) experts locked in debate. Richard Boyatzis, of the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western University, argued that we must be engaged in catching our dreams and engaging our passions. Using research from the field of neurpsychology, he asserted that power-stress causes a simultaneous arousal of both the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and also the para-sympthatetic nervous system (PSNS).

SNS gives rise to positive reactions, whereas PSNS produces negative responses. In our brains, the first section to be affected is that part relating to our emotions; only after that can rational thought become involved! Boyatzis drew heavily on his collaborative ventures with Daniel Goleman and other researchers at Hay-McBer to develop his model of Intentional Change. Battling in the opposite corner, Moshe Zeidner, of the University of Haifa, referred to his own work with Matthews in asserting that EQ is "Personality in action". He also preferred the early work of Salovey & Mayer who held strongly to the opinion that 'despite the flourishing research programs and broad popular interest, scientific evidence for a clearly identified construct of EQ is sparse. The science of EQ', he went on, 'is in its infancy, and many questions remain unanswered.' He concluded that 'it is unclear how EQ may best be measured'.

As you can imagine, audience participation is high! And other speakers added further to the debate by highlighting the apparent paradox between those who hold to the view that EQ is essentially intrapersonal in nature - to do with self-awareness - and those who insist EQ has an interpersonal perspective - all about managing relationships!

Watch this space! The gloves are off!

I am sending this back to the UK for inclusion in our Blog, so why not add your comments and let's continue the debate?

For business information and conference speaking requests for KnowledgeWorx contact us on info@kworx.com