From the keyboard of Jay Cross …

Dave Snowden kicked off KM World & Intranets in San Jose this evening with a exercise based on learning from KM’s failures.

We wrote PostIts describing the state of KM today. Then we built a time line of the things that got us there, going backward step-by-step. Telling a story backwards forces you to tell the truth. (Trying to tell a lie backwards produces cognitive overload.) With the backward logic chain in place, we went to work describing two alternative futures: KM heaven and KM hell, and assessing their antecedents in our time line.

Dave finds this sort of process superior to scenario planning, which limits your options, thereby increasing the risk of missing the future.

KM … Hmmmm 

Narrative assessments of the battlefield are 40%-60% richer than analytical assessments.

Stories of failures can be used to generate “worst case scenarios.” People learn more from avoiding failure than from affirming success. This is why Dave does not go along with Appreciative Inquiry: it’s all uppers.

Dave recounted a teaching story about creating an atmosphere for accidents at an oil company. The message: “Coffee kills.” Floor coffee safety officers patrolled the halls. People were forced to carry their coffee on two-handled trays. Ridiculous? Yes. But the rate of accidents from liquid nitrogen spills was cut in half.

Getting it wrong can be quite instructive. That’s why Dave detests “Sick Sigma.” All hail failure!

This was a great kick-off for the conference. Dave is a fantastic storyteller and wit. We left the room scratching our heads about the future.