The networks in our community contain large reservoirs of information, experiences, knowledge and wisdom. In them, new perspectives are constantly being added to and insights are regularly being drawn from the collective membership of the community. In these networks, these sharing activities generate a higher propensity for individuals to see new connections that others cannot and with this ability, more breakthrough ideas could be produced.
No two networks are the same and not all kinds of network are capable of achieving this outcome. Networks, which members are highly mobile and possess good social interaction skills, tend to feel more empowered to share authentically in these social structures. They are also more capable of producing the outcomes described in the previous paragraph. Such dynamics do not happen overnight or by chance.
Conversation, verbal or written, is the start of all relationships, formal or otherwise. There are two pre-requisites for a good conversation - relationship and trust. When opportunities for prolonged conversations are missing, pairs, groups or teams of individuals cannot evolve from their formative-acquaintance form of relationship to reach a certain degree of normalcy where deeper forms of relationship and trust could be developed and built upon. When these are missing, the conversation stops and the network become dull and unsustainable. Since sharing takes place in conversations, the importance of engaging in good conversations becomes obvious.
In our society and organisation, we have what it takes to enable sharing. Much effort has been spent acquiring various technologies for sharing. These electronic-mechanical technologies include the whole array of input, distribution, storage, search, access and output devices where data, information and knowledge is collected, kept and shared.
In addition to these is another array of people-participation processes that could be used to bring people from different parts of the community or organisation to a single physical or digital location to create new data, information and knowledge. There are many such processes in the market and many go by their trade names of Knowledge Café, World Café, and Open Space Technology. However, these processes could be traced to the mother of all such people-participation processes of Consensus Workshop Methods and Focused Discussion Methods. These are collectively called Technology of Participation. For years, organisations have purchased and used these processes and the tools they offer in their value-creation operations.
However, organisations continue to report limited success in sharing and creating new knowledge even after amassing this amount of hardware and process-ware to enable sharing. Why is this so? The problem lays on the lack of a kind of software that enables authentic share; sharing that is built on relationship and trust. Communities and organisations need people-interaction software. The two key ingredients in this software are the art of inquiry and the language of sharing.
In the Art of Inquiry, participants in the sharing session are triggered to think, reflect and respond to a line of questions from different genres. This line of questions could be delivered in succession or presented together. The objective is to focus the participants to commit their thinking capability and capacity to a common space so that enough of thoughts could be generate for sharing later. In the Language of sharing, we recognise that honest sharing only becomes possible when participants are warmed up to each other and trust is present in the session. This language seeks to build what is necessary to strengthen, clarify and authentic the thoughts of an on-going conversation so that they are accurately communicated and understood by all parties.
No two networks are the same and not all kinds of network are capable of achieving this outcome. Networks, which members are highly mobile and possess good social interaction skills, tend to feel more empowered to share authentically in these social structures. They are also more capable of producing the outcomes described in the previous paragraph. Such dynamics do not happen overnight or by chance.
Conversation, verbal or written, is the start of all relationships, formal or otherwise. There are two pre-requisites for a good conversation - relationship and trust. When opportunities for prolonged conversations are missing, pairs, groups or teams of individuals cannot evolve from their formative-acquaintance form of relationship to reach a certain degree of normalcy where deeper forms of relationship and trust could be developed and built upon. When these are missing, the conversation stops and the network become dull and unsustainable. Since sharing takes place in conversations, the importance of engaging in good conversations becomes obvious.
In our society and organisation, we have what it takes to enable sharing. Much effort has been spent acquiring various technologies for sharing. These electronic-mechanical technologies include the whole array of input, distribution, storage, search, access and output devices where data, information and knowledge is collected, kept and shared.
In addition to these is another array of people-participation processes that could be used to bring people from different parts of the community or organisation to a single physical or digital location to create new data, information and knowledge. There are many such processes in the market and many go by their trade names of Knowledge Café, World Café, and Open Space Technology. However, these processes could be traced to the mother of all such people-participation processes of Consensus Workshop Methods and Focused Discussion Methods. These are collectively called Technology of Participation. For years, organisations have purchased and used these processes and the tools they offer in their value-creation operations.
However, organisations continue to report limited success in sharing and creating new knowledge even after amassing this amount of hardware and process-ware to enable sharing. Why is this so? The problem lays on the lack of a kind of software that enables authentic share; sharing that is built on relationship and trust. Communities and organisations need people-interaction software. The two key ingredients in this software are the art of inquiry and the language of sharing.
In the Art of Inquiry, participants in the sharing session are triggered to think, reflect and respond to a line of questions from different genres. This line of questions could be delivered in succession or presented together. The objective is to focus the participants to commit their thinking capability and capacity to a common space so that enough of thoughts could be generate for sharing later. In the Language of sharing, we recognise that honest sharing only becomes possible when participants are warmed up to each other and trust is present in the session. This language seeks to build what is necessary to strengthen, clarify and authentic the thoughts of an on-going conversation so that they are accurately communicated and understood by all parties.
Here is a video that talks about innovation and networks:
The organisation that has pieced together these electronic-mechanical hardware, people-participation processes and people-interaction software seamlessly, possesses the system for honest sharing and this is a competitive advantage of an innovative organisation in the market.
This article was 1st written on 24 Mar 2009 and updated on 7 Jul 2010.
Copyright 2009 & 2010. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.
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