KMWorld Conference 2015 engages, enlightens

Mentoring sessions

On the final morning of KMWorld 2015 in November, conference attendees were offered an opportunity to join a series of interactive roundtable discussions in which a mentor guided a discussion of real-world issues in ?knowledge management. This Knowledge Café was a new and well-received event at the conference. Participants had time to join three groups, which covered a dozen topics ranging from the digital workplace to social business ?transformation and ROI.

Art Murray, CEO of Applied Knowledge Sciences, engaged his group in a mind-?expanding session called Collaboration Strategies and Tools, which provided approaches to understanding and ?improving collaboration. The group used a deep learning technique called “descriptive enumeration,” which entailed writing a short phrase that described collaboration and then another phrase that also described it in a completely ?different way. That process was repeated until each member of the group had identified numerous dimensions of collaboration.

The ensuing discussion revealed the commonality of perceptions as well as divergent ones. The group ?identified challenges to effective collaboration, such as security, geography, silos of information and generational gaps. Some strategies for enhancing collaboration included ensuring constant engagement, promoting transparency and establishing clear ground rules for interactions. The value of celebrating successes was also affirmed, even if the advances appear to be minor.

Participants welcomed the opportunity to interact in a structured yet flexible environment and to exchange ideas candidly. The process of expanding the understanding of collaboration by describing its many characteristics takes people off a narrow track into new territory. It can also be applied to other knowledge management issues and more broadly to other business issues.