Following a successful spring Enterprise Search Summit event (see below for some links), the new Enterprise Search Summit Fall event in Washington DC, Nov 16-18 features discussions and conversations on many interesting topics.  Check out those topics on our Wordle cloud and join us at this exciting event.

Discussions of Enterprise Search Summit last spring in NYC:

From Bill Ives (who will be live blogging from KMWorld 2010 in Nov)

From Jed Cathorne’s EMC Stuff, day one and day two

Have a look at the topics to be discussed at KMWorld 2010 in Washington DC, Nov 15-18.  Join the conversation!

The detailed schedule for KMWorld 2010 is now online.  At the Renaissance Washington DC hotel from Monday November 15th through Thursday November 18th there are four major events making up KMWorld 2010 :

KMWorld, Nov 15-18, with workshops on the 15th and three tracks of programs Nov 16-18.

Taxonomy Boot Camp, Nov 15/16

Enterprise Search Summit Fall, November 16-18

SharePoint Symposium, Nov 17/18 (the newest addition to the KMWorld family of events)

By co-locating these events, KMWorld 2010 provides all the essential pieces of the information engine that powers today’s effective enterprise — including knowledge creation, publishing, sharing, finding, mining, reuse, and more.  Well managed and implemented, these activities work together to enable business problem-solving, innovation, and achievement — all those critical processes and practices for KnowHow: The Knowledge-Driven Enterprise (the theme of KMWorld 2010).

Stay tuned for more information about these events, guest blogs from speakers, and related material.  Register and maximize your organization’s technological investments through practical hands-on information, case studies and instructions, and build personal relationships with speakers and thought leaders at many conference networking events.

KMWorld 2010, Nov 15-18, Washington DC

Yes, KMWorld 2010 is moving to the east coast and will be at the Marriott Renaissance in Washington DC,  November 16-18.  It will be integrated with:

• Taxonomy Boot Camp, Nov 15-16
• Enterprise Search Summit Fall , Nov 16-18
• and the newest Information Today 2-day event, SharePoint Symposium, Nov 17-18

The call for speakers is available and we hope to hear from you and see you in November!

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Dave Snowden, the well-known if not iconic figure known to most everyone who attends KMWorld, finished off this year’s KMWorld conference with a three-hour session which introduced (or further familiarized) attendees with the Cynefin model and Cognitive Edge methodologies for addressing complexity.

Dave instructed participants to sit at round tables, in groups of approximately 6 people, evening things out.  He noted that there were several CE practitioners in the room as well, and asked us (I am one of them) to ensure that we were evenly distributed around the room so that we could help if and when any table ran into the need for additional clarification, etc. (though in my case, it’s just as likely that I would add more confusion than clarity to the group’s understanding of the issue or the methods).

Dave then asked each group to come up with:

• the three key learnings that they have taken away from this year’s KMWorld conference, and
• three key challenges to organizations that stem from those learnings
• a proposal for addressing those challenges that they would present to a fictitious senior management team

(I may not have those key tasks articulated quite correctly, as I am writing this post a day and a half after the session and I am relying on my memory).

After completing that first task, Dave asked a representative from each group to move to the next table and present the proposal to the fictitious management team sitting at that table, and then apply the Cognitive Edge method known as Ritual Dissent (the person presenting the idea sits with their back to the table whilst the group attacks the idea as savagely as possible, tearing it down from as many angles as possible).

The rest of the session was essentially several more rounds of this exercise, with brief theory bursts about corporate anthropology (ably supported by Beth Meriam, who has helped Dave on the Children of the World project) and use of the Cognitive Edge method interspersed between these rounds of the exercise.

The session was effective at demonstrating in a brief manner the key tenets of the Cynefin model and some of the core concepts of the Cognitive Edge methodology.

A good time was had by all.

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I posted earlier in the week on the first three posts covering my KM World session notes. here is the complete list of the seven sessions I covered. I start with the four new ones and then add the first three for completeness. I will be interested in your observations on these sessions. Remember that I did these near real tie so there my be a few typos.  Thanks.

KM World Sessions: Is Semantic Technology Real?

KM World Sessions: Evolve From a Tactical E-Discovery Approach to Search and E-Discovery

KM World Sessions: The Role of Social Techniques in Search & How It Impacts Your Organization

KM World Sessions: From Birth to Billions: The Life Story of Google Enterprise Search

KM World Sessions: Fundamentals of Enterprise Search

KM World Sessions: Enterprise Search Technologies

KM World Sessions: Resetting the Enterprise With 2.0 Collaborative Tools

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Here’s a recent Harvard Business Publishing blog post on its “How We Work” blog (Peter Bregsman) that’s attracted quite a few comments.  It obviously struck a nerve.

The premise of the post underlines and reinforces one of the key points that KMWorld speaker and teacher emeritus Dave Snowden keeps ramming home for everybody.  Real and honest stories (narratives) can make a big difference in how people see their work, the place they work, why they work, how to work, and so on.

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A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture

“I’d like to talk to you about a big project,” the woman told me on the phone. “We need to change our culture.”

She was a senior leader in a professional services firm, where people really are their most important asset. Only it turns out the people weren’t so happy. Theirs was a very successful firm with high revenues, great clients, and hard working employees. But employee satisfaction was abysmally low and turnover rates were staggeringly high. Employees were performing, they just weren’t staying.

This firm had developed a reputation for being a terrible place to work. When I met with the head of the firm, he illustrated the problem with a personal example. Just recently, he told me, a client meeting had been scheduled on the day one of his employees was getting married. “I told her she needed to be there. That the meeting was early enough and she could still get to her wedding on time.”

He paused and then continued, “I’m not proud of that story, but it’s how we’ve always operated the firm.” Then he looked at me, “So, Peter, how do you change the culture of a company?”

Such a simple question. I wanted to give him a simple answer.

But a culture is a complex system with a multitude of interrelated processes and mechanisms that keep it humming along.

Performance reviews and training programs define the firm’s expectations. Financial reward systems reinforce them. Memos and communications highlight what’s important. And senior leadership actions — promotions for people who toe the line and a dead end career for those who don’t — emphasize the firm’s priorities.

In most organizations these elements develop unconsciously and organically to create a system that, while not always ideal, works. To change the culture is awkward, self-conscious, and complex. It’s better to avoid it if possible.

“Why do you want to change the culture?” I asked him. “The firm seems successful. Highly profitable. The culture seems to be working to support those goals. Why not keep it?”

He had to think for a few moments. “It’s not sustainable. Eventually we’ll lose our best people. No one will want to work here.” And then he paused. “I won’t want to work here.”

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To find out how narrative and stories can make a difference, read the rest of this interesting and inspiring blog post here …

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Focus on relationships not technologies, e.g. Obama redefined political campaigns

Create learning organizations con necting internal and external; there are  new listening platforms to identify experts – Yammer (internal twitter-like tool, and Yammer CEO, David Sacks, speaking in KMW session A302 on Thurs) and also know the influence of these key people

Create new worksflows, hierarchies moving into more flexibile structures; social technologies disrupting traditional organizations

New announcement from SalesForce: integrating social updates into the enterprise

Openness requires accountability, social media & disclosure policies, e.g. Red Cross handbook

Fail fast, fail smart: identify top 5-10 worst case scenarios; develop migration & contingency plans; encourage risk taking and forgive failures

Social networks like air, everywhere

Social integrated into all aspects of search, information and orgs

Be ready to give up control

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;-)

If attendees at KMWorld 09 need any further convincing that working in interconnected environments where people operate in social networks is an important issue, here’s some brand new research out today from the Society for New Communications Research suggesting that C-level execs are increasingly taking this new set of conditions seriously!

Via ZDNet ..

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Wow! Top execs say they are influenced by social networks

This is a new research study from the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) is very important because it shows that company executives are influenced by their online networks.

And the trend is growing. The influence on business decisions by online communities is at its highest in three years.

The research was conducted by Don Bulmer from SAP and Vanessa DiMauro.

Here are some key findings from this survey of 365 business professionals:

- Professional decision-making is becoming more social – enter the era of Social Media Peer Groups (SMPG)

- Professional networks are emerging as decision-support tools

- Professionals trust online information almost as much as information gotten from in-person

- Reliance on web-based professional networks and online communities has increased significantly over the past 3 years

- Social Media use patterns are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation

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These are all very interesting findings. Especially the high level of trust that decision makers have in regards to their online communities. It’s good to have some real data to match the anecdotal stories and observations.

There is more survey data here on Don Bulmer’s blog: Everyday Influence: SNCR Research Reveals Social Media’s Impact on Business and Decision Making

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I have been blogging some of the excellent KM World sessions.  Here are links to three sessions I have covered so far.  I took notes at two more today but have not edited them yet. I will put up more tomorrow and provide links to those posts in another post here.

KM World Sessions: Fundamentals of Enterprise Search

KM World Sessions: Enterprise Search Technologies

KM World Sessions: Resetting the Enterprise With 2.0 Collaborative Tools