I have just seen a link on MSN with the title above which collates new things that we didn’t know 7 days ago http://news.uk.msn.com/what-we-learned-this-week.aspx . This is such a simple idea and really highlights how much our store of knowledge is growing. It is also a great way of reflecting on what we have learnt as individuals over the last 7 days.

So, what have I learned this week?

- however technically knowledgeable you are, it is still intimidating to put up your first entries on a new wiki with strangers
- you can offer people too many options, sometimes it is better to limit the choice
- it’s better to put minutes first on the agenda of a meeting (I’m still not sure about this one - it can derail a meeting sometimes, but apparently that’s meeting good practice)
- you can create new calendars within Outlook 2000 for things such as personal diaries - but group calendars don’t exist in that version
- Gordon Brown twitters! http://twitter.com/DowningStreet
- When presenting, you should always establish your credentials up front (or get someone to do it for you) so that people are more inclined to listen and take you seriously
- Carey can be a girl’s name as well as a boy’s name (this mistake caused a lot of embarassment!)
- a new way of doing stomach exercises with legs in a frog position that really protects my back
- there is something called ’sentiment analysis technology’ which can track opinions in key areas http://www.jodange.com/

I think it would be fun to do this with a group of colleagues and see what our collective knowledge looks like. I strongly suspect that we would all learn something new.

Finally go round to upgrading the software for my blog. It seems to have worked, although I ended up having to do a lot of it manually due to limitations of upload time. I can understand that they don’t want to overload servers, but the result was that I spent all afternoon doing something that probably should only have taken half an hour max. Anyway, I think it’s worked and am just posting this placeholder to test it all out.

I notice that there is now the facility in the latest version of the software to upload media as well. I can feel a podcast coming on. I bought a really neat recorder for my i-pod that makes it a doddle to create podcasts. Just plug it in and off you go. I’ve also been made aware of a free media editing piece of software (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) which will make it even easier to play with this. Just need to find something worthwhile to say now.

A man walked into a petshop with a parrot in a cage. ‘This parrot is dead’ he said to the man behind the counter. The shop assistant looked at the parrot said ‘So it is, let me give you your money back’. Cue hysterical laughter from the audience watching the sketch.

Why is this funny? It is only funny if you know the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python (they had to use a thesaurus for the number of ways to describe ‘dead’) and realise that this cuts it off at the knees. I think this illustrates very well the importance of context when we talk about knowledge and information. There was a whole common understanding in the audience about what was supposed to happen next, when it didn’t, that made them laugh. Similarly the making of a decision in an organisation might be obvious to those involved and the output might be a single page letter. However, without the explanation surrounding it, it will not make sense to the audience and who may miss the punch line.

I think I might use this as an illustration for KM intros - but first I will check that everyone has heard of Monty Python!

I blame the Spanish playwright, Calderon de la Barca for my constant return to the idea of illusion and reality - born out of studying his play ‘La Vida es Sueno’ (Life is a Dream). This was an obsession of the 17th century where reality was thought to be the afterlife and this life only an illusion. I remember thinking that this was re-created vividly in the 20th century in the Matrix films - where the bulk of humanity did literally dream their lives away. Now we have 2nd Life - and I have conversations with baffled friends along the lines of ‘but it isn’t real! how can you make money out of it?’ and ‘but isn’t there a danger you forget how to socialise in reality’. In addition, I had a horrible moment the other night - having seen someone replace a grey sky with a blue one in a photograph - when I finally accepted that photography as a recording medium no longer really existed. It has now become largely illusion, art not fact. Perhaps we have got better at dealing with illusion and don’t worry too much if the boundaries blur - perhaps we create illusions that become our reality. In a sense, isn’t that what memory is, as it is seldom that 2 people remember things exactly the same and we put our own spin on it, whether we know it or not. I talk a lot about records and context creating history - but although a written record could be said to be reality, it is still open to misinterpretation. Memory of the circumstances can sometimes change the meaning of content. So perhaps real knowledge is only in the moment and reality is only what you believe.

I was really chuffed when someone said to me recently that they had changed their mind about knowledge management and now understood that it didn’t just mean filing stuff, but was to do with sharing what you know. Since this has been somewhat of a mantra of mine, I felt that progress had been made. I mentioned it to some colleagues who laughed and said that the person concerned might say this, but that they didn’t practice it. My bubble was pricked but didn’t completely burst. It struck me that, although maybe the sharing wasn’t happening, the words had been said and could be fed back as truth to the person concerned to encourage them to turn them into action. There are many sayings “talk is cheap”, “put your money where your mouth is”, “actions speak louder than words” which seem to devalue the power of words. I think that words are powerful in their own right, and can lead to action, they just need to be used in the right context. So, next time I need to ask our non-sharing friend to share something, I can refer them back to their own words - how can they refuse??

At a local camera club lecture, we were shown some photos to illustrate the points and I was suddenly struck by the dangers of paying too much attention to something. The photos were perfectly fine but the hyper critical presenter (also the photographer) would constantly point out some small detail that spoiled them. It made me think that maybe this is something to be careful of - it is important to notice when people are doing things well, badly or not at all - and feed back on this. But if you take it too far, could it be de-motivating? Too much praise can sometimes lose its value as too much criticism can make people wonder why they should bother. It is important to maintain a balance.

Encouraging sometimes to meet old friends. I had lunch with a friend from university days and we realised, after we had chatted for a while, that we were actually having a similar conversation to those we had when we were setting out on our careers, even though now much nearer retirement than student age. We are both looking to the future as full of possibilities - and are slightly stunned that, at the age we are, we are still excited about what we might achieve. If you had told us that this was going to be the case back when we were starting out, I think we wouldn’t have believed it. Life is still an adventure….

There is a great new Photography series on BBC4 on Thursdays - which isn’t a phrase you hear every day! What I particularly liked about the first programme was the way in which it took you from the technicalities of the first cameras/pictures and then showed the impact that the invention of the box brownie and the amateur photographer had on the genre. Thinking about it, it made me realise that digital photography is already transforming it again. It used to be a case of taking the photograph and then having to develop it to see what you had done. You could manipulate it in the dark room, but it was a long process. Now you can take a photo - see immediately if it works - and your dark room is your PC and printer. I have just started a course to understand more about digital cameras and am excited by the possibilities. What is also interesting is that the fact that I can see the results of experiments immediately on a camera screen means that I am learning much more quickly than I did 10 years ago. I’m not sure whether it is because experience in other areas has helped me or whether it is purely that the visual stimulae supports my learning style - but it works.

I am wondering whether there is anyway of applying in a work context - a sort of ‘tell and show’. Maybe around the topic of handovers. For high profile leavers, for example, making their handovers highly visible to as many people as possible so that they can immediately see a result that means something to them. Might work. Might even throw in a few photos…

I’ve realised this week that sometimes change isn’t something big and obvious - sometimes it is evidenced by small things. You only notice it when you stop for a moment and take stock. It isn’t about everyone in the organisation suddenly doing the right thing (although that would be nice - and will happen eventually). It is when you realise that people are beginning to not only use the language of knowledge sharing, but that they know what it means. It is when you get an unsolicited request for help in an area of knowledge sharing which previously nobody worried much about. It is when, as you walk around the office, people want to talk to you about km. And, best of all, it is when someone you have never personally spoken to about km, challenges a poor knowledge sharing behaviour because of their involvement in a km event you have organised. Little things, but they add up and as more little things take place a critical mass may well push your company into being an excellent knowledge sharing organisation.

I had to go with my mother to a hospital appointment this week because she was worried that she wouldn’t understand what was said to her - largely because she has had to deal with a lot of people with strong accents at hospitals and her poor hearing causes her problems.  We needn’t have worried.  She really hit it off with her new consultant who explained things clearly and succintly, didn’t talk down to her and actually did something on the spot that helped her.  The proof of his success is that she is quite happy to go and see him on her own next time.

The follow up was even better - she got a copy of his resultant letter to the GP (sent the following day - a great improvement on previous 2 week (or never) delays from other consultants).  The letter started “Thank you for referring this delightful 84 year old lady to me…”   I think my mother is now in love!

It takes very little to get better results:

• -treat people like adults
• -respond immediately to issues
• -follow up quickly
• -a little bit of sugar goes a long way…..

I would think this applies to all types of business but to see the relief that my mother feels because she is being dealt with in this much more professional manner, really brings it home.