| 8/05/08 | | Best website for learning |
We were advised this morning that LearnX Asia Pacific 2008 has announced that the winner in the category of 'Best Website for Learning' is ........Anecdote! We are really pleased that our efforts to make the website an interesting and valuable place have been recognised in this way.
Shawn and Robyn are presenting at the LearnX conference on 12-13 June on our work in using narrative-based approaches to improve induction and retention for indigenous staff. Should be fun.
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| 7/05/08 | | Global Storytelling - Pangea Day |
May 10 is Pangea Day. A great opportunity to get inspired!
Storytellers from all over the world will tell their stories about humanity to humanity. 24 short films have been selected (from the thousands submitted) based on their ability to inspire, transform, and help us see the world through another person's eyes. Check out this video about the event.
Tune in...
Date: May 10, 2008
Time: 18:00 to 22:00 GMT
Language: Full program subtitled in Arabic, English, French,
German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish.
How to watch: In person, online, on TV, on your mobile phone
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| 3/05/08 | | Storytelling event in Washington |
My friend Madelyn Blair is busily preparing for two great storytelling events in Washington that start on the 9 May. I believe there are 30 seats left now so you still register to attend
For Goldenfleece Day08 go to http://www.goldenfleececon.orgFor Smithsonian Event, May 9 go to http://residentassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=87387
I wish I could make it because I know there will be terrific conversations about storytelling in business context and I would get to meet many of the people I Skype such as Victoria Ward, Madelyn, and Steve Denning.
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| 28/04/08 | | Managing knowledge in not-for-profit organisations |
actKM is again participating in the annual Information Awareness Month. This year, actKM is hosting a world cafe-style event on the topic of: 'How can KM practices contribute to volunteer/community organisations?' The event is in Canberra next Tuesday (6th May) and all the details are on the actKM blog. Nerida Hart and I will be running the session and we look forward to seeing you there.
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| 28/04/08 | | Net Neutrality |
Some worrying developments which might limit the use of the Internet for the little guy.
via Dave Snowden
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| 22/04/08 | | Building a collaboration workplace |
Our white paper on collaboration is now available. It was a pleasure working with Mark and Nancy White on this one. We're hoping this document creates a new conversation within organisations where people responsible for fostering collaboration (line managers, business units leaders, CIOs, HR directors) not only realise that they must look beyond the technology implementation but consider ways to introduce and support collaborative practices. The need to effectively collaborate is only going increase because the world is becoming even more complex and we will need more people banding together to create solutions by bringing their different perspectives to bare. We also look at a new type of collaboration, which we've called network collaboration, where the rules of how we work together are being re-written.
Nancy, Mark and I would dearly love to hear your thoughts on what we've written and in particular what additional advice would you give to supplement our ideas?
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| 15/04/08 | | Conversations That Create—An International Thought Leadership Programme |
Here's an event you might like to attend. It's been organisation by Ralph Kerle from The Creative Leadership Forum.
Conversations That Create—An International Thought Leadership Programme
May 7 - 9, 2008
Venue: Centre for Leadership, Building 18, Chowder Bay Road, Mosman, Sydney NSW, Australia 2088
The Forum Challenge: "How can leaders in organisations lead generative conversations"
With International Thought Leaders
Shawn Callahan, Founder, Anecdote, Melbourne. Australia
Pavan Choudary, CEO, Vygon India, author and executive coach, Madras, India
Ralph Kerle, Chief Executive Officer, The Creative Leadership Forum, Sydney, Australia
Professor Kirpal Singh Ph.D, Singapore Management University, Dean of Economics, Arts, and Humanities, novelist, poet, Singapore.
and Session Leaders
Sandra Kay Lauffenburger (Laban), Dr Louise Mahler (Vocal and Choral)
A 2 1/2 day leadership programme designed to explore, develop and produce new thinking and learning around the way conversations occur to produce creative outcomes..
"Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so." Doris Lessing
The Forum Preamble
The hard assets of all organizations tend to constitute the primary value of the organization but they are useless if not for the human asset and specifically the resourcefulness of that human asset to organize and utilize the hard assets. And one of the essential elements of this human resourcefulness is that of imagination and creativity. But these two elements remain dormant without the generative contexts to draw them out and generative contexts are established and maintained only by the right kinds of conversations. If the output of a musician is music, the output of a playwright a script, the output of a sculptor a piece of visual art, then the output of a leader is creative conversation because it is the leader's job to organize and focus the energy of human resourcefulness. It is the job of the leader to create and maintain the conversational 'spaces' that trigger the imagination and apply that imagination to creative work. The majority of conversations that people have at work do not readily lend themselves to creative action. What is the case in your organization?
Conversations that Create will explore and develop how to create and maintain the necessary generative spaces and have the kinds of conversations needed to move individuals and teams into creative output. Participants will learn and practice practical ways of having conversations for possibility and opportunity, for engagement, commitment and creative action and for creating the necessary relationships for sustaining a generative space.
Click on www.thecreativeleadershipforum.com
Event Fees and Conditions
The cost to participate is $880 incl GST. All meals are included in the cost. Accommodation is excluded. Click here for full details of the venue situated on Sydney Harbour. The Forum is limited to 30 people. All presenters will be participants as well. This is not an academic conference, rather a peer to peer practice led information exchange with participants drawn from business, government, academia, the arts. Particular regard will be paid to the balance and mix of participants.
If you are interested please email Ralph Kerle on rk@thecreativeleadershipforum.com or call direct on 0412 559 603 in the first instance.
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| 8/04/08 | | Footprints in time |
Chandni and I have just returned from the official launch of Footprints in Time, a
longitudinal study of indigenous children designed to identify the things that contribute to indigenous children growing up to be strong and resilient. The project has been four years in the gestation, and it was launched by Jenny Macklin, Minister for FaHCSIA and Professor Mick Dodson who is the chair of the project steering committee. This project is an enormous undertaking and high hopes are held for its ability to make a difference to the future policy responses to issues around indigenous children.
The project has two main streams; a quantitative survey and a narrative-based qualitative component. Anecdote has been working with the project for the past year supporting the narrative component and implementing the SenseMaker software developed by Cognitive Edge. It was exciting to be part of the official launch and it is great to be a part of such an initiative.
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| 7/04/08 | | Storytelling for Business Leaders Workshop in Sydney |
We can all tell stories about our childhood quite easily.
What about our work, our workplace, our business? That seems far from easy. People tend to use PowerPoint over PowerPoint to convey their ideas.
At Anecdote, we're always finding ways to help people bring back stories to the workplace. Here's some areas of storytelling that we'll be discussing on April 16.
▪ How does one tell a story?
▪ How can you find stories to tell at work?
▪ What stories should one tell when one wants to communicate values?
▪ What stories can help you introduce yourself to an audience?
▪ How can you build trust by telling stories?
▪ How can you help people see 'the big picture' through stories?
▪ How can you use stories to make a difference?
Join us in Sydney for a workshop on Storytelling for Business Leaders. Download registration form
It'll be fun and you'll discover stories you can share about yourself and your work!
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| 6/04/08 | | Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice |
If you are interested in establishing and fostering communities of practice, and in particular are keen to understand the role social technologies such as blogs, wikis and social booking might play in their development, then you'll want to check out this new learning event from CPSquare:
Connected futures: New social strategies and tools for communities of practice
We have been designing this event (runs over 5 weeks) as a virtual field trip and experimental lab where you will engage your heads and your hands (and hopefully your hearts) and get a good feeling for these technologies and how they might support communities of practice.
You will be guided on this journey by the following practitioners:
Beth Kanter, Beverly Trayner, Bronwyn Stuckey, Etienne Wenger, John Smith, Nancy White, Nick Noakes, Shawn Callahan, Shirley Williams, and Susanne Nyrop.
I hope to see you there.
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| 21/03/08 | | Shawn has opened up his Twitter |
I've decided to open up my Twitter so anyone can follow my tiny tweets. Before I only let the Anecdote team follow alog but I started to realise that there was a much wider network that could help each other out. So feel free to check out my Twitter page and if you think I should follow you let me know why. I love following people who point me to eclectic bits of information and ideas.
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| 12/03/08 | | Being healthy in Canberra |
One of our dear friends, Amanda Horne, is on a mission to improve the well being of Canberra residents. As a Canberran now living in Melbourne I can appreciate what Amanda is endeavouring to do. There is much stress among federal public servants because Kevin 07 has morphed into Kevin 24/7 (translation for our OS readers: our new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd aka Kevin 07, is working the public service to the bone at the moment).
So here is the program Amanda has organised.
Bright-eyed and Bushy Tailed
(....in five easy steps)
You are invited to attend a half-day workshop that will help you to thrive and flourish. Facilitated by well-known naturopath Mim Beim, this workshop will provide you with information and tips on how you can boost your wellbeing. In her friendly, down-to-earth and approachable style, Mim will cover:
- building energy, wellbeing and resilience
- enhancing your immune system
- helping the body to minimise the effects of stress
- practical nutrition tips to boost energy and concentration
- rituals for relaxation and renewal
- attaining a healthy body weight
- tools to help you feel ‘full of beans’- Q&A (bring your questions)
Mim Beim has been a practising naturopath for over 20 years. She has written 7 books, hosted 2 TV series, features regularly on national radio and writes for ABC’s ‘Life’ magazine. Mim has a special interest in the way stress affects our health, and specialises in helping people to improve their wellbeing.
Website: www.beamingwithhealth.com.au
“One of the questions I ask my patients is: “On a scale of 1-10, where would you place your energy levels, if 10/10 is ‘jumping full of beans’?”. Quite often patients will respond with a 4 or 5, even when they appear to have plenty of energy, able to accomplish full-time work, family life and study. Many people push themselves to get through each day, sometimes for years on end. This can lead to illness, and it means it’s more difficult to enjoy life and to feel bright-eyed and bushy tailed.” (Mim Beim)
Workshop details Date: Either: Tuesday 1st April, 2008 or Tuesday 15th April, 2008 (*)
Time: 9am-12.30pm
Location: Forrest Inn, Forrest, Canberra
Cost: $121 per person (includes GST) (*)
The workshop can also be run as a half-day, in-house corporate sessionon the afternoon of 1 April or 15th April.
Contact If you would like to attend, or you are interested in an in-house workshop, please contact Amanda Horne for payment and booking details.
Phone: 02-6239 4566 or 0402 892 698
Email: amanda@amandahorne.com.au
This workshop is sponsored by Canberra-based executive coach, Amanda Horne, in the interests of helping the people of Canberra to flourish and thrive.
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| 12/03/08 | | KM Australia is coming |
This year I will be speaking at KM Australia in two capacities: running a workshop on knowledge strategy, and speaking with Greg Marsh from BAE Systems about the community of practice work we are doing together.
The conference is held in sunny Melbourne (well, it was sunny yesterday), 21-23 July.
The workshop is called Involving your Organisation in Strategising Knowledge. Here is the description:
You can request a brochure for KM Australia here. It will be great to see you there.Most times we know what to do. We know about the lack of communication across our organisational silos, we know we are constantly reinventing the wheel, we know that it’s hard to find expertise when we need it, and it’s even harder to find relevant information that’s buried in the labyrinth of file system hierarchies. What’s surprising is that we even know how to improve these issues, yet nothing changes. Consequently, we view the development of a knowledge strategy as a change project to help the organisation set a clear direction for change and develop a resolve among employees to take action.
This workshop will teach you how to tap into emotions and demonstrate why you need to broaden involvement when strategising how knowledge will be created, shared and used. This is not about creating a pristine document, but rather marshalling the energy in people to make a difference. You will learn about the Three Journeys process, how to use stories to communicate with impact, and find out what’s really happening in your organisation.
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| 7/03/08 | | Anecdotally is here |
Over the years we have built a good following for our monthly newsletter (over 2,000 readers and growing) and today we are re-launching it with the name, Anecdotally. Perhaps the biggest change is that we have decided not to publish Anecdotally on our site. It's only available to subscribers.
You can check out an example of Anecdotally here.
Visit here to sign up to receive monthly updates on techniques, book reviews, news, comments and advice for HR, KM, change management, business and communications people interested in the practical application of business narrative.
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| 6/03/08 | | Moving on |
Anecdote has been fortunate to have had Krista Schmeling as part of our team since mid-October last year. She has done lots of work supporting our communities of practice projects and has kept our workshop program running smoothly and added significantly to our cumulative artistic capabilities. Unfortunately, others have noticed her talents and she leaves Anecdote to take up a fantastic role managing humanitarian services for a large community services organisation. Her last day is 7 March and she has a whole weekend off before starting her new role.
Krista has been a great asset for Anecdote and we will miss her. We all join in wishing her every success in her new role.
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| 28/02/08 | | Meeting to talk about storytelling, narrative and complexity |
I run a meetup group in Melbourne call Emergence and we get together for drinks and dinner each month. Our next meeting is on the 13th March at 6pm. For full details and to RSVP go to here. It very informal and just a good way to catch up with new people and talk about things that interest us. Everyone is welcome.
| 18/02/08 | | Last days to register for our narrative courses in Canberra and Melbourne |
Join organisations like IBM, AstraZeneca, National Australia Bank, BHP Billiton, The Treasury and Thiess and register for our Narrative Techniques for Business workshop in Melbourne next Wednesday 27th. To find out more and register click here.
And next week (26th) in Canberra we will be running a workshop on how to tell better stories in a business context to improve communication. Check out Storytelling for Leaders to register.
Both workshops cost $495.
| 6/02/08 | | Business storytelling training in Australia |
Regular readers of our blog are well aware of the many storytelling, business narrative and community of practice workshop we run throughout the year. But if you have just found our site you can download our latest schedule of courses or visit our workshop page to see all the topics and dates.
This month we are offering two workshops:
Narrative Techniques for Business, Melbourne, 27th February
Storytelling for Business Leaders, Canberra, 26th February
Next month we will be visiting Perth to run the Narrative Techniques for Business workshop.
And if you are a fellow blogger we are offering a blogging bonus. If someone mentions your blog when they register, we’ll pay you $50. One blog per registration, of course, but no limit on bonuses per blog, naturally.
| 29/01/08 | | Etienne Wenger's Online CoP Workshop |
Just to let you know that Etienne Wenger and his collaborators at CPSquare are running their 4 week online workshop shortly (starts the 28th of January so you had better hurry). If you are interested go to:
http://www.cpsquare.org/edu/foundations/index.htm
Let them know you found out about the course via the Anecdote blog and they will provide you with a discount.
| 21/01/08 | | The Anecdote Team |
In case you haven't seen the faces of Anecdote, here's our Christmas 07 photo. You can read our short bios or take a look at our updated company profile.
And here is what the Christmas party really looked like. Suggested captions are welcomed (what were Mark and Robyn illustrating?)
| 7/12/07 | | Knowlege Management Workshops in Australia |
We had a great day on Monday running our Narrative Techniques for Business workshop in Canberra. The venue overlooked Lake Burley Griffin and we had a fun group of people attend from within Canberra and interstate.
I started at Anecdote in mid-October and one of the things I have been working on is our 2008 workshop schedule. We’ve decided to focus on three of our most popular workshops: Storytelling for Business Leaders, Starting and Sustaining Communities of Practice, and Narrative Techniques for Business. We’ve just released our schedule for 2008, which can be found on the workshops page of our website. We also have a printable version of this calendar. For more information, or to register for a workshop, please follow the links, or e-mail us on info@anecdote.com.au for more information. We hope to see you at one of our workshops next year.
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| 26/10/07 | | Dealing with email overload |
Research company IDC says that 39.7 billion person to person emails buzz around the world each day. Hardly surprising given that I have worked in organisations where people used email to arrange meeting for lunch with someone two desks away. That's why I like what's happening at INTEL a lot. Three weeks ago 150 of their engineers participated in the first of what will be ongoing "Zero email Fridays". They haven't banned email entirely. It's a month long trial that's designed to encourage people to phone each other or meet up face to face. The idea behind this is, of course, that it will encourage more direct, free-flowing communication and and a better exchange of ideas. Getting up and walking across the corridor to talk to someone is a simple activity that contributes to building personal networks.
And if you feel that you have 39.7 billion emails or thereabouts sitting your inbox calling your name, you might be interested in the concept of email bankruptcy espoused by Lawrence Lessing on WIRED, where you can simply refuse to work through that truly frightening number of emails you are hoarding...most of which are awaiting action or a reply. Just hit the Delete button and start again with a clean slate. What's your take on it? Would there be significant consequences if you declared email bankruptcy today? Have we become too email dependent? Anyone like to join me in deleting the entire contents of their inbox?
| 27/09/07 | | Patrick Lambe in Melbourne - The Vices and Virtues of Knowledge Management |
Friends of Anecdote are invited to join our colleagues in the Knowledge Management Leadership Forum and the KM Round Table to an evening seminar with visiting guest speaker Patrick Lambe.
Patrick is President of the Information and Knowledge Management Society based in Singapore, and Founding Partner of Straits Knowledge, a research and consulting firm specialising in information and knowledge management.
One of Asia’s most respected knowledge management practitioners, originally trained in Library Science. Patrick arrived in KM via a second career in training and development, and has been based in Singapore for 16 years.
On the evening of October 25, Patrick will run an interactive forum on “the Vices and Virtues of Knowledge Management” which will be followed by an informal networking session with the who’s who in the field of knowledge management.
When: Thursday Oct 25, 6:00 – 8:00pm
Where: Treasury Theatre, Lower Plaza, 1 Macarthur St East Melbourne
Refreshments provided
RSVP to melbournekmlf@gmail.com by Friday Oct 12.
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| 31/08/07 | | “Yellow Pages” is a registered trademark of Telstra |
Just a warning to everyone out there who is using the term “Yellow Pages” to describe the people directories you might develop to implement knowledge management. Today I received this letter from Telstra's lawyers telling me that I have probably unintentionally infringed their trademark and I must remove the reference from one of our whitepapers. I will make the changes they request, as it is not a biggie, but you should be aware if you are using this terminology that you might have Telstra's lawyers knocking at your door.
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| 24/08/07 | | IBM software - social software for the enterprise |
I used to work with Jimmy Kwang at IBM. He was a terrific supporter of the Cynefin Centre and I must say a terrific host. We always had a great time when we visited Malaysia or Singapore.
Jimmy sent me an email yesterday to let me know that IBM is getting into the social software field and said we could get a look at some of the capabilities by visiting a new blog IBM Singapore set up. www.blog4biz.sg
I had a quick look and while the content is just starting to grow it was good to see the features you would expect in a social software environment.
Technorati Tags: social software, web 2.0
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| 23/08/07 | | Knowledge retention seminars |
We are running a series of breakfast seminars in the coming weeks, exploring the use of narrative techniques for knowledge retention. It will be a mini 'road-trip' for us that takes in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney, and we're all looking forward to sharing our experiences, good coffee and great conversations.
There's been an overwhelming response to these events with most being booked out well in advance. We do however, still have just a few places available for our Sydney breakfast, which will take place on Tuesday, 4th September 2007 from 07:00am to 09:00am at a convenient city location. There is no cost to attend, and breakfast is provided.
This seminar is an opportunity to explore how to best use narrative techniques to minimise the impact of knowledgeable people leaving your organisation. And because we know that learning is ineffective with someone just up front talking at you, we've designed the seminar to be a combination of some talking by us, and some talking in small groups by you. We will also feature a case study from Cadbury Schweppes' expert knowledge retention activity.
This will be an opportunity to hear some of our experiences; but more importantly you will leave the seminar with our rough guide to getting started on your first narrative-based knowledge retention project.
If you're interested in joining us, drop me a note! - daryl@anecdote.com.au.
| 23/07/07 | | Sydney Venue for Upcoming Workshop |
We are currently putting together a series of breakfast seminars on the topic of knowledge retention - more on that later. We are going to be holding them in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra in early September and I'm trying to find a suitable (professional, good food, nice space) venue for around 20 people in or around the Sydney CBD. Being from south of the border, I'm not too familiar with Sydney. Does anyone have any personal recommendations? If so, would you mind leaving a comment or sending an email to daryl@anecdote.com.au. Thanks.
| 14/07/07 | | The Melbournians |
It's always nice to put a face to a name. Here's Daryl, Robyn and me.
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| 13/07/07 | | Victoria Ward is blogging |
I can't say how excited I was to find Victoria Ward blogging. I noticed a link to her site over at Bev Trayner's blog (thanks Bev).
So who is Victoria Ward? Victoria founded Sparknow in 1997 and I discovered her work when I was in London last year. Her knowledge of narrative practice is impressive, which is evident from her Taste the Knowledge blog. I've never met Victoria but I hope our paths cross soon.
This insight is illustrative of Victoria's narrative knowledge.
I hold that it is the complexity, ambiguity, discomfort and unease in storytelling (contextualised appropriately through facts and evidence) that is the point. It should not speed up transmission. It should slow transmission, make things messier, harder to grasp, so that the listener/viewer must absorb layers of complexity and develop his or her own judgements about how to act in the light of the experience of receiving the story.
The mainstream business storytellers of course say the exact opposite and while both perspectives are true I think Victoria's slow narrative perspective is more conducive to sensemaking and better decision making. Fast narrative can taste good but we are rarely satisfied and often suffer the consequences in the future.
Technorati Tags: victoria ward
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| 29/06/07 | | Not so Newcomer |
Well, Daryl’s arrival on the scene at Anecdote has really put the pressure on me now he has published his maiden blog post. Here I’ve been for several months and nothing from me but a deafening silence. For people who have actually met me this is entirely out of character. I have opinions on everything and hardly hesitate to express them. At length. Just ask the two friends who walk with me at 6am in the morning.
So what’s been going on here? Some of it was the steep learning curve inherent in every new job. And you want me to write a blog post too? Sure, just wait until I have a better understanding of how things are done around here, and what exactly is the software I need to use? And how do I put them together? Um, maybe next week. And then a lot of the technical barriers were removed when I maintained a project blog for eight weeks early in the year. But still nothing from me on the Anecdote blog.
It was clear that there was a serious amount of personal effort going into all this blog avoidance. And after some thinking and reflecting about this uncharacteristic coyness I uncovered some deep-seated and entirely irrational beliefs. The first was my late Granny’s exhortation to never put anything in writing that might come back to haunt you. The dear old lady was referring to the quaint old habits of letter writing and journal keeping, where your well chosen and pithy words about Great Aunt Maud’s appalling behaviour at Christmas dinner might be deliberately read by someone only to happy to report them back to Great Aunt M for the sole reason of seeing you cut out of the will. My interpretation of this ancient family wisdom meant that the idea of putting my pronouncements on anything out to the great universe of the internet for comment – well, just don’t go there.
And the second reason was closely aligned with the first. I have spent the last several years in HR roles that have required me to endlessly repeat my Granny’s message in an organisational context. Email privacy is non-existent, even deleted messages can be found, don’t use client or employer provided access to the internet for researching your next car purchase or worse still, surfing inappropriate sites. Then, just as I had finished giving myself a good talking to about the silliness of this particular point of view and committed publicly (well, to Shawn and Daryl at least) that I would get something out there this very week, I found this.
| 21/06/07 | | Anecdote Team Grows |
Hello Everyone,
By way of introduction - my name is Daryl Cook; I'm the 'new kid' on the block here at Anecdote.
How did I end up here? ... well, I'm passionate about group facilitation and collaboration and it's my purpose to discover more human, more productive, and more creative ways for people to work together. Working as part of the team at Anecdote provides a vehicle for doing this and also an opportunity to do some great things.
A little about me ...
one-line infobytes:
1. proud father to two gorgeous daughters
2. interested in social media and open systems
3. armchair philosopher
4. aspiring genius and entrepreneur
5. 2nd dan blackbelt in taekwondo
6. commuter and recreational cyclist
7. passionate about personal and organisational development
extended bio:
My diverse career includes a mix of IT, business and HR roles for several companies. Academic achievements (for what it's worth) include a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts (Human Geography).
I look forward to learning, discovering and sharing with you all. And most importantly, having some fun along the way!
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| 15/06/07 | | Posts you might have missed from the archives |
We've been blogging at Anecdote now since 2004. And even before that I had two previous blogging attempts, one using Radio Lands and the other on Blogger. My first blog post was in September 2002. All this mean is that we have accumulated a heap of content and I thought it might be useful to re-post some of the blogs we're fond of and some of the popular posts. We would also like to hear if you have any particular favourites you would like to see back on the front page.
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| 15/06/07 | | Knowledge management jobs in Hong Kong |
Eric Tsui asked me to let you know he has a couple of jobs going in Hong Kong. Here are the details.
THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
Post Specification
Project Associate (two posts) (Ref. 95172) [Appointment period: eighteen months]
Duties
The appointees will assist the project leader in the project - “Learning and practicing knowledge harnessing and sharing techniques in the WebCT Vista environment”. Qualifications
For the first post, applicants should:
(a) have a master’s degree in a related discipline;
(b) have prior experience in working with E-learning or Knowledge Management projects;
(c) have an excellent command of both written and spoken English; (d) be a good technical writer; and
(e) be able to work independently as well as in a team.
For the second post, applicants should:
(a) have a master’s degree in Information Technology, Information Systems, Knowledge Management or Multimedia Design;
(b) have knowledge and passion in working with E-Learning and Knowledge Management projects;
(c) have technical skills in evaluating, developing, configuring and deploying simulation, scenario planning or gaming software in an online learning environment;
(d) have good communication skills; and
(e) be able to work independently as well as in a team.
Applicants are invited to contact Prof. Eric Tsui at tel no. 2766 6609, fax no. 2774 9308 or email eric.tsui@polyu.edu.hk for further information.
Remuneration
Salary offered will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application.
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| 15/06/07 | | Demonstration of Zahmoo and Sensemaker |
For those of you who will be coming to our workshop in Sydney, we will be demonstrating our new Web 2.0 service called Zahmoo as well as Cognitive Edge's Sensemaker.
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| 6/06/07 | | Narrative Techniques for Business Workshop in Sydney - 26 July |
It's been over a year since we presented this workshop in Australia, so we are pleased to say we are running our narrative techniques for business workshop in Sydney next month. This workshop has been a tremendous success and we have recently revamped the workshop handbook.
Here is a full description of the workshop.
Here are a couple of screenshots from the manual.
The cost of the workshop is $350 if you register before the end of June and $475 after that.
Please pass on this message to anyone who you think might find this workshop useful and interesting. We have found people in organisational development, learning, human resources, communications, knowledge management and change management get most value from this day.
Technorati Tags: workshop
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| 4/06/07 | | Anecdote is Enterprise 2.0 |
Luke Naismith sent me the link to this presentation. And after a quick look it's immediately recognisable; it's how we work at Anecdote. If you are interested in working here too, check out this.
Technorati Tags: enterprise 2.0
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| 1/06/07 | | Ross Dawson's Web 2.0 Framework |
It's important for businesses to keep an eye on what's happening on the web as so many new business models are emerging every day. Ross Dawson has done some excellent work pulling together a framework for thinking about web 2.0 and also categorised a bunch of existing services. I hope he will include Zahmoo when it makes it debut.
Technorati Tags: ross dawson, web 2.0
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| 30/05/07 | | The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation's Story Guide in now online |
Great news. The Story Guide: Building Bridges Using Narrative Techniques is now available online. Our reader, Jon Revelos, just posted the link today as a comment to this post. Thanks John.
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| 22/05/07 | | How Gehry designs—the full story |
On the recommendation of Johnnie Moore, I read A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman. I was really looking forward to this book because it held the promise of providing an interesting view of issues dear to my heart: chaos, complexity and messiness (I also hoped it might give me good reasons for maintaining my messy desk). Sadly I was disappointed with the book because the authors spent too much time trying to categorise mess and messy people (The archaeologist, the order prig, the mess distractor), relying on a single source for major arguments (see Corporation's Big Plan and their use of Starbuck's 1992 journal article), and relying heavily on newspaper sources (more that a 1/3 of the 50 sources).
Despite all these flaws I found one story about the renowned architect Frank Gehry and his firm which got me excited, but again I was let down.
Gehry Partners were engaged to design and build the new business school at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Gehry is renowned for using models to convey how the building will look and feel. As told in A Perfect Mess, Gehry is mindful of how difficult it is to translate the emotion impact of the building when you collapse the model into a two-dimensional blueprint. Abrahamson and Freedman write:
“The school approved the design and brought in a small army of contractors to build it. The contractors duly admired, in a shocked and fretful way, the model of the God-awfully complex structure they were about to undertake, and then asked for the blueprints, to which Gehry's team replied that there weren't any. The contractors thought the group was joking, but Gehry and his associates assured the contractors they were serious. ... Gehry's group maintained that the contractors could derive the measurements they needed by studying the model of the building ...” pp. 87-88
The story continues and the contractors work together with Gehry Partners to co-create the building. The building in delivered on time, on budget and everyone is thrilled with the result. Furthermore, the contractors develop a multitude of new skills and techniques such as new ways to bend steel beams, survey sites, affix unconventional materials. Wow! I was impressed. This was very similar to our three journey approach. The first journey was Gehry and Partners creating the scale models, the second journey was involving the contractors in co-designing the building, and the third journey was its construction.
But something bugged me about the story, so I started surfing the web to see if I could find the source referred to in the book's end notes. I learnt that as the building was designed and constructed the academics from the Case Western Reserve Business School, lead by Professor Richard Boland, were studying the process. There were a number of papers written as a result and I read this one called Design Matters for Management. The first thing I was struck by was how Gehry Partners makes extensive use of computer models in their work. Hmmm, don't you need measurements to make computer models?
So I emailed Richard Boland and he seemed as surprised as I was. It turns out that Gehry does use models in lieu of blueprints a long time before a blueprint is created. The firm works with speciality contractors who are crucial to the success of the project early in the design phase and works with them to create the design. Gehry avoids the traditional approach of drawing something up and saying “here is the blueprint, go build it.”
I think Abrahamson and Freedman failed the plausibility test because that's what we listen for when we hear a story; is it plausible? You can see from the picture I included just how complex (and I think this is complex and not merely complicated) his building are. To think they were built without blueprints seem implausible.
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| 11/05/07 | | Learning about Cynefin and Cognitive Edge tools in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra (Australia) |
Many of you might not know that I got my start in business narrative working with Dave Snowden in IBM's Cynefin Centre in. It was an exhilarating experience. We spent four years creating a range of new tools and techniques for helping companies thrive in complexity, and story-based techniques were at the core of our approach.
Dave and I left IBM about the same time and Dave set up Cognitive Edge to create software tools to support sensemaking techniques. We are proud to say that Anecdote is a partner of Cognitive Edge and offers the Cognitive Edge software and related services to our clients.
Technorati Tags: cognitive edge, dave snowden, sensemaker
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| 4/05/07 | | New blogging environment |
I have now migrated over to a Mac and this is my first post as a bit of a test. I'm using Ecto as my blogging client, which seems to have all the functionality I was used to in BlogJet.
Technorati Tags: ecto, blogjet
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| 21/04/07 | | Computer problems |
Both Mark and I are having a world of problems with our PCs. So if you have been emailing us and not getting a reply can we ask you try again. Hey Dave, looks like we will need to move to Apple :-)
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| 3/04/07 | | Boston business narrative techniques workshop a success |
I’m sitting in the LA airport getting ready to fly home to Melbourne. It’s given me time to reflect on our workshop in Boston. Thanks John for helping me organise this event. It was great to meet face to face. And thanks to all our workshop participants. You were a fun group.
We’ve made some tremendous advances in our workshop since we ran it for the first time in 2004. We’ll run in Australia again this year. Just send me an email if you are interested in attending.
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| 25/03/07 | | Join Anecdote and make a difference |
Things are continuing to grow here at Anecdote and we are again looking for someone to join our little crew.
We would love to work with
- someone passionate about people; you love working with people, you’re interested in how people work in organisations; and you share our desire to restore humanity to the forefront of organising and organisations.
- a person with 5 or more years working experience; it would be good if you had a degree in a people-related discipline (for example, organisational psychology, anthropology, KM, HR);
- someone who has sound consulting experience and can work with clients to understand their needs and deliver against them;
- someone who will enthusiastically embrace the Anecdote operating principles of: do good things; look after each other; and have a go.
- a person with a great attitude to work, to life: this is far more important than skills.
What we will do for you
- We will train you in all our techniques such as narrative collection, sensemaking, intervention design, storytelling, social network analysis, communities of practice development, and fostering knowledge transfer.
- Provide a diversity of project types and activities that will stretch you and help you learn at a cracking pace.
- Good coffee, great conversations and meeting and working with interesting people.
What you will be doing at Anecdote
- Helping to develop and refine our sensemaking approaches based on our work in organisations, big and small, public and private sector.
- Project activities including interviewing, focus group facilitation, research, presentations, and logistics.
- Meeting and working with outstanding people who form part of the Anecdote global network of collaborators.
Is this you? Are you interested?
Then …
Send a 3 page pdf that conveys your outstanding attributes and why you should be part of the Anecdote team to jobs@anecdote.com.au
We will close the call for submissions on 27 April 2007.
You will need to live in either Canberra, Melbourne or Sydney for this job.
As you would expect, Anecdote provides a collegiate working environment. We’re a small, close-knit team that collaborates without ego or arrogance. Have a browse through our website and get a feel for the company you will be joining. Our perspectives, priorities and thoughts are published here and we think they provide insight into Anecdote’s philosophy.
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| 6/03/07 | | Meeting you in the US of A |
Towards the end of this month I will be in Seattle, Boston and Las Vegas. If you are in or near any of these cities and would like to meet, send me an email and hopefully we can organise a time to catch up.
- Seattle: 26th March
- Boston: 28th or 30th March
- Las Vegas: 2nd April
In case you hadn’t seen the news, but I will running some narrative technique workshops while I’m there.
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| 1/03/07 | | Over a 1,000 downloads of the ultimate guide to anecdote circles |
I just noticed that we have reached the milestone of over 1,000 downloads of our guide on how to run anecdote circles. Just click on this graphic to download your free copy.
If you would like to receive training in how to run anecdote circles, check out our half day course.
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| 28/02/07 | | Andrew moves on from Anecdote |
Andrew and I met about two years ago at a meme and complexity workshop organised by the CSIRO. I was immediately struck by Andrew’s intelligence and curiosity and thought, “maybe we could work on a project together.” In the following six months we hit it off and Andrew joined Mark and I at Anecdote.
Over the last 18 months we’ve learned a lot from each other. Andrew’s love of facilitation, trying out the very latest and ground breaking ideas helped us stretch our minds. We pushed and prodded each other and worked out how to collaborate with one another. I was the tight string that loosened, Andrew started loose then tightened.
Mark remembers first meeting Andrew and thinking ‘Man, his hair is curlier even than mine!’ We soon learned that beneath that mop of curls was a highly ethical, first-rate brain that was always able to provide a perspective that opened new opportunities and ways of approaching issues. His love of Yum Cha is legendary and we look forward to our continuing education in this discipline.
So you will probably be surprised to learn that Andrew will be leaving Anecdote today and heading out to pursue his interests in facilitation. We wish him all the very best and thank him for his efforts at Anecdote. Andrew will remain a kindred spirit in the field of business narrative and I’m sure there are still many coffees (or herbal teas) to be had.
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| 20/02/07 | | Putting stories to work |
Over the last few months we’ve talked about the importance of having a short phrase or mantra to help everyone in an organisation implement the company’s strategy (here and here). At Anecdote we’ve had a few catch phrases over our relatively short life and we’ve never been totally happy with any of them. Here’s the chronology:
- complexity – narrative – knowledge
- narrative – narrative – narrative
- insight and empowerment
- learning and change
After reading Made to Stick we realised the problem. Each attempt was abstract and passive and the phrases didn’t really give us any indication about how to act nor tell our clients what we were all about. So here is our new tag line: Putting stories to work
Let us know what you think.
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| 19/02/07 | | Business narrative workshops in Seattle and Boston |
Just a reminder that the early bird rate for these workshops closes in 1 week. Here is a description of the workshop. The full description and registration details can be found here.
- What's really going on in your organisation?
- What are the touch points where small changes can transform behaviour and morale?
- How can you access and transfer the wisdom of your workforce to future employees?
Surveys and metrics can uncover trouble in an organisation, but they usually don't help you identify the reasons for dysfunctions, let alone point the way toward remedies for the problems. Instead, learn to use stories as listening posts. From time immemorial, stories have contained collective lessons in condensed form. When gathered and examined, stories that are told in your organisation reveal important themes and patterns that in turn indicate effective solutions.
This one-day workshop, led by Australia's leading expert in story listening, teaches you to gather and analyse stories so as to see revealing patterns and use them to gain traction on solving messy organisational problems or reaching complicated goals.
After a full day of instruction, practice and feedback, you will have the confidence and knowledge to apply these powerful techniques within your organisation.
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| 19/02/07 | | Using stories to retain and keep alive retiring employees' knowledge |
I should have mentioned this earlier but this Friday (23rd February) I will be presenting a workshop in Sydney on how to use stories to retain and keep alive retiring employees’ knowledge. It will be a practical session where the participants will have fun crafting questions to elicit stories, conduct interviews, facilitate anecdote circles and then use a couple techniques to help make sense of the stories. Communities of practice will feature.
The two key messages I’m hoping to convey in the workshop are:
- communities keep stories alive
- lessons from a few stories collected once are fun and interesting; lessons from many stories reviewed widely and regularly nurtures wisdom
This workshop is a post-conference event for Extracting and Sharing Knowledge from an Ageing Workforce conference. To receive a full copy of the brochure fo