Digital Habitats; stewarding technology for communities Review

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Digital Habitats; stewarding technology for communities ReviewI'm often the technology steward for communities of practice (CoP). I create the Ning spaces and configure `em, I setup the email lists, I work out whether we should have a wiki or a blog or a discussion forum or some other combination of communication technologies. As you can see I'm quite a geek: I really do love it.
And whenever I get stuck I'll contact my friends at CPSquare: Etienne, Nancy and John. And while I know they all have a deep understanding of CoPs I tend to ask Etienne the theory questions, Nancy the technology questions and John the group dynamics questions. Together they are a formidable team. Sadly I think their new book, Digital Habitats, will give them strong cause to suggest I should RTFM: Read The Flipping Manual.
Digital Habitats (DH) has a single goal: to help the reader understand the role of technology steward in cultivating a community of practice: what is it, why you would do it, are you are cut out for it, how to do it and where to find help. But it is not a shoppers guide nor a roadmap for technology selection.
There is a lovely photo of Etienne, Nancy and John in the preface and I feel that reading DH is like have a friendly conversation with them on a sunny balcony. They provide the context, a little theory, then lots of practical tips supported by real life stories to ground it and make it memorable.
For me there are three ideas in this book I have already put into practice with great effect.
Experience shows us that all know that communities of practice are different, and sometimes poles apart. DH introduces the idea of community orientations to help us understand where the emphasis might lie and therefore what technologies make most sense.
There are 9 orientations: meetings, open-ended conversations, projects, content, access to expertise, relationships, individual participation, community participation, serving a context. With my engineering communities, for example, I've asked the members where they see their current orientation and then ask them to identify where they would like to be. A community might start off very content focussed but realise that the real benefits will come from providing access to expertise. By understanding this orientation gap the technology steward can start introducing tools to facilitate the future orientation needs.
The second idea I find useful is how my friends (I was going to say `the authors' but it didn't feel right) describe the range of activities a community might be engaged in. The axis range from informal to formal and learning from to learning with. This diagram helps me ensure I'm thinking about the full range of possibilities when helping communities members design their CoP.
DH envisages three types of readers: deep divers, attentive practitioners and just do it-ers. The just do it-ers are directed to chapter 10 which contains an action notebook. It is a series of checklists to help you think about the role of the technology steward. What I love about chapter 10 is that I can jump in and start learning about the role by doing things and then come back to the descriptions contained in the rest of the book when it is more meaningful for me. DH makes the job of finding the relevant descriptions in the other chapters easy through a multitude of cross-links from chapter 10 to the relevant book section.
There are very few practical community of practice books available (I can think of 3 others) and Etienne has already had a hand in writing one of them. So Digital Habitats is a valuable addition to this exclusive club. It's highly readable and practical and will definitely help make a difference to the quality of your technology support for your community of practice.Digital Habitats; stewarding technology for communities Overview

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The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Review

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The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Review
According to Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert, "this book tells you how leading organizations achieve great results in knowledge management, or KM, and provides the strategic principles to help you do the same in your organization." Note the use of direct address in this, the second paragraph of the Preface. O'Dell and Hubert almost immediately establish a personal rapport with their reader and sustain it as they present their material throughout the book's lively and eloquent as well as substantial narrative.
Although O'Dell and Hubert have extensive experience with all manner of organizations because of their respective responsibilities with APQC (American Productivity and Quality Center), each is a world-renowned thought leader in her own right. It is to the reader's great advantage that they can - and do - bring their considerable talents to bear when examining a wealth of information, insights, caveats, and recommendations generated by hundreds of AQPC-sponsored initiatives that include research studies, special reports, conferences, workshops, seminars, and publications.
As its website correctly notes, "Since 1977, APQC has been focused on providing organizations around the world with the information they need to work smarter, faster, and with confidence. Every day we uncover the processes and practices that push organizations from good to great. As one of the world's leading proponents of process and performance improvement, we follow our mission to help organizations around the world improve productivity and quality by discovering effective methods of improvement, broadly disseminating findings, and connecting individuals with one another and with the knowledge they need to improve."
O'Dell and Hubert carefully organize their material within 11 chapters that (in effect) provide a sequence of stages by which to plan, launch, implement, and then strengthen a KM program to achieve objectives that include these:
o Establish the foundation that positions KM for the future
o Determine the value proposition
o Identify critical knowledge needs
o Identify critical knowledge now available
o Identify critical knowledge gaps to be filled
o Formulate a framework for KM strategy development
o Select and design KM approaches
o Activate social networking
o Determine governance principles, policies, and procedures
o Build a knowledge sharing culture
o Measure the impact of KM operations and initiatives
I especially appreciate O'Dell and Hubert's brilliant use of reader-friendly devices in each chapter such as "Resources" that contextualize and expand on material discussed in the chapter, boxed summaries of key points and suggested action steps, Figures and Tables (to illustrate alphanumeric relationships), and checklists that will facilitate, indeed expedite periodic review later of key passages.
There are hundreds of comments and phrases inserted throughout the book that strengthen the aforementioned rapport. For example, direct address ("you can assess where the flow of knowledge is breaking down" on Page 31) and invitation with use of a first-person plural pronoun ("Let's now examine how to gauge such impact" on Page 142). In other words, from beginning to end, O'Dell and Hubert take the reader under their proverbial wing of knowledge and wisdom and over time prepare their reader to provide the leadership and management that are required to convert the right information into the most effective action.
Near the end of the book, I can almost hear them say, "Now let's take a look at several companies that have gained the new edge in knowledge management. Let's see what we can learn from them that will help you in your own organization." The mini-case studies are of ConocoPhillips, Fluor, IBM, and MITRE. This material, all by itself, is worth far more than the cost of a copy of this book. Their greatest value, however, can only be derived if the material that precedes them is read (and preferably re-read) with appropriate care.
Vision alone is not enough. Thomas Edison once said that "vision without execution is hallucination."
Action alone is not enough. Peter Drucker once said that there is nothing "quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
And knowledge alone is not enough. Extensive research conducted by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton (among others) suggests that a significant percentage of C-level executives have a "knowing-doing gap."
I know of no other single source that offers more and better information, insights, and advice about knowledge management than does this one. I commend Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert on a brilliant achievement. Bravo!The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business Overview

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