Opening Thoughts-The Sequel (AOK Star Series)

This essay concludes a three week "Star Series" dialogue featuring Dave Snowden and myself on the Association of Knowledgework's Yahoo discussion group. Since the conversation is sure to continue, it would be silly to think of these as closing thoughts, so by way of letting go, let me just make a new opening statement about egocentrism, distributed leadership, ba and where we go from here...

Egocentrism is not Egotism

One thing that really bothers me when people debate the individual versus the collective is an assumption that individualism has to be about personal gain at the expense of others. The what’s-in-it-for-me (WIIFM) argument is extremely narrow-minded. It assumes that what people want for themselves will be at the expense of others.

Nobody is born that way. Often, what they want is to do is to make a contribution, to make a difference, to do their jobs better and to leave the world a better place than they found it.

Research is constantly demonstrating the evolution of cooperative and altruistic survival mechanisms in society as in nature. To be a little more specific, for example, KM programs have consistently found peer recognition to be far greater motivation than material rewards or performance evaluations when it comes to getting people to share what they know.

I have been trying to change the focus of the PKM discussion from the WIIFM orientation to how I, myself, can serve the community. Both are an “egocentric” approach to knowledge ecologies. This is not about either selfish or selfless behavior. I think it’s fine to talk about networks and communities in theoretical terms. But in practice, no one can really hover above and expect to understand social dynamics with objective omniscience. To say that I can only perceive the network from the POV of my node is just a fact of life.

So PKM is about asking what social KM looks like and means for an individual knowledge worker. Assuming one believes in the power of organizational intelligence, what should that person do about it today?

When another forum debated PKM in 2001, Jason Coward said: “Personal knowledge management is the key to KM, successful CoP's, and successful cultures in general.” I think he’s right.

Distributed Leadership & Socialized Cognition

Alice, I've been saving (and savoring) some of your righteous comments, especially about the vital role of self-awareness.

You make me realize that my earlier comments about leadership and citizenship were incomplete thoughts. I agree absolutely that distributed leadership is the next evolution and that's where I think it starts to look very much like responsible citizenship—if you agree that citizenship is as much about responsibilities as it is about rights.

Knowledge work is changing the structures and processes of organizational behavior. We are evolving from hierarchical thinking to shared and distributed models of sense-making, decision-making, vision and leadership. But there are two kinds of distributed decision-making. Those in which everybody makes their own decisions and those in which everybody decides together. Both have a place in organizational intelligence, but if we lose sight of the distinctions, we can get into a lot of trouble using one kind when we need to use the other.

The kind of distributed cognition we should be looking for is very different from groupthink. And this difference has everything to do with whether the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts.

UC Berkeley psychology professor Charlan Nemeth studies the important role of "outsiders" and the value of dissenting viewpoints. Her theory is that even progressive, nurturing, successful companies can become so cohesive that they basically take on all the characteristics of a cult, enforcing internal consensus and shunning external stimulation. So the first disruptive technology or business model to come along would wipe you out.

“Creativity and innovation may require a ‘culture’ that is very different and, in a sense, diametrically opposed to that which encourages cohesion, loyalty, and clear norms of appropriate attitudes and behavior,” she writes in “Managing Innovation: When Less Is More” (California Management Review, Fall 1997)

Where do we go from here?

Joe’s latest question back to me (“Supporting Emergence”) gets right to the heart of it. “Emergence is something that happens when many individuals make decisions and interact…not one state, but something that is happening anew all the time.” So how do I, desiring nothing less than to be part of something greater than myself, contribute to unfolding situations which I cannot anticipate, control or even understand? I don’t have an answer for that, except that I am sure it has to do with how well we can balance our self-awareness with our system-awareness. Oh--and this:

life
is full
of surprises
always
be ready
with a few of your own

Complexity theory suggests that adaptive systems emerge from the interactions of discrete objects or organisms at lower levels of organization. These agents don’t have to know what’s going on. They don’t even have to be alive. Yet Steven Johnson, in Emergence: The Secret Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, predicts the Internet will give humanity room enough and speed to collaborate on unprecedented scale. What will we do with that?

If stupid components can self-organize into smart systems, shouldn’t smart agents be able to do something greater than that? Shouldn’t they at least try?

How does this get back to the topic at hand? Again, citizenship. In a free society—or a knowledge ecology—you don’t just have a right to have an opinion, you have a responsibility to think for yourself. PKM is simply about how you meet your responsibilities to the people and processes that are counting on you—no more no less.

Ba Bye

So finally, let me appreciate this place that Jerry has cultivated with contributions from everyone present. I’ve been involved with knowledge management for just about six years now. To be honest, a lot of KM bores me to tears. But I’ve never been part of more welcoming, worthwhile community. I can’t tell you how much I have learned from all of you, AOK members and beyond. Thank you.

Earlier in this series, I was accused of promoting “thinking alone” through personal huddles, self-elicitation and introspection in my cube. As part of my very defensive reaction, I thought about how many instantiations of the KM communities I have been part of, not just on line, but on the phone, through email, and especially at the end of a lot of very long plane rides.

Fade in on a little cinematic montage here. …An evening stroll along San Antonio’s River Walk with Dave and Chris after an APQC conference…Gawking at the ersatz splendor of Venice (Las Vegas) with Melissie and Sue… Desperately improvising with Brenda, Fern, and the rest of Alice’s KM class in Victoria… Climbing a medieval watchtower in Ostuni with Pierpaolo, Bill, Urooj… Tasting wine in Union Square with Shuli, Verna, Dinesh, Madan, Robin… Feeling especially smart in the library at the Harvard faculty club with Hubert, Kent, Pete, Mike, Kate, RS, Mimi, Rick, David, Daniel… Feeling especially stupid over fiberglass trays in the commissary at Parc… Trying to keep up with Ariane and Meinolf in the Tiergarten… Floating in the warm salty water of the Caribbean with Olimpia, Karl, Nancy, Leslie, Steve, Eleodoro, Cindy, Xavier, buoyed by the brilliance of a conversation that outshines the tropical sun…

This isn’t name-dropping, it’s “ba-dropping.” From Havana to Halifax, Bangkok to Berlin, I have been seriously blessed by the company of true friends with whom I have learned and innovated (precisely because smart people taught me to be unafraid to think for myself or to think with anyone else). I cherish the time I spend with you whether face to face or in virtual communion.

Now add …Typing until dawn to resonate and reflect on posts pinging my inbox from Michael, Mark, Chris, Jerry, Joe, John, Jim, Jennifer, Paul, Piers, Bruce, Brenda, Dermot, Debra, Denham, David…

The Japanese, who invented the term ba, which rhymes with wa, have a saying used to complement the pregnant possibilities of time and place and participation: “ii tokoro desu.”

Here. Now. This is a good place.

Be happy,

Steve