{"id":1476,"date":"2015-06-04T09:45:49","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T08:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=1476"},"modified":"2016-10-19T08:19:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T07:19:04","slug":"why-i-spent-an-afternoon-walking-the-streets-with-street-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=1476","title":{"rendered":"the future workplace seen from the streets of London and the importance of conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Running a portfolio of activities is great. It has downsides though: The feeling of anxiety about what’s next; or guilt at taking a time out to do pro bono work when I could be responding to a request from a prospective client. And like every business marketing and relationship management has its cost.<\/p>\n

But yesterday I decided to take a time out to reflect and think about the closing session at KMUK <\/a>which I’ve been asked to lead. And this is how I ended up walking the streets.<\/p>\n

John Blackwell is someone I met many years back while he was an IBM’er.\u00a0 His ‘new’ organisation Quora<\/a> devotes much of their time to help organisations think about the future of work and workspace.\u00a0 Those who follow what I write will know working environments (space: virtual and physical) is a topic I feel neglected in Knowledge Management strategies and implementation plans.<\/p>\n

mobile knowledge cafe in the street?<\/h2>\n

When John invited me to attend an afternoon session run by Street Wisdom<\/a> at the Royal Society of Arts as part of his Smartworking Summit<\/a> I was intrigued as the concept has caught on around the globe and seemed to be a sort of Knowledge Cafe in the street. Here’s what happened:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Scene setting<\/strong>: David, Chris and Mel, explained what was about to happen over the next 3 hours.\u00a0 In a pre-session discussion I’d described my ‘doctrine’ of Orchestrated Serendipity and that was used to illustrate what might happen. This is what we did.<\/li>\n
  2. A\"IMG_3579<\/a>wareness<\/strong>: Having assembled in 3 groups of 6 outside of the RSA we were invited to go off on our own for 8 minutes and observe – our choice, what we see and record. I noticed this pile (and someone’s bed) not 100 yards from this lovely peaceful spot.\"IMG_3580<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Slow<\/strong>: Back at ‘base’ we were asked to go off again at a very slow pace to see whether what we noticed is different because we have slowed down. My immediate emotion was of being in a bubble as everyone around me hurried about their business. Certainly I was more attuned to ‘things’ and it felt like I do at airports where I often switch off and withdraw in as a way of coping with the vagaries of travel. My 8 minutes over I return to ‘base’.<\/li>\n
  4. Patterns<\/strong>: With my new ‘friend’ Mark from Sheffield I set off in search of patterns. This was interesting. As we walked we reflected on how we had already seen things we’d not normally see. We parted, me to Caffe Nero, he to the pub, both to watch.\u00a0 I noticed: in a cafe people give themselves permission to talk; no one seems to use a paper map anymore, they use their smartphones; buses do come along in threes.<\/li>\n
  5. \"IMG_3582<\/a>Beauty<\/strong>: If the 8 minutes searching for patterns seemed a bit frivolous, 8 minutes looking for beauty (definition: ‘in the eye of the beholder’) was revealing. Literally 400 years from the rubbish and garden, up a twitten<\/a> off The Stand I came across this magnificent abode which was being shown to a young Asian Student and his father. Amid the hustle and bustle of The Strand here was an oasis (at a price-1 bedroom starting at \u00a3895k!) which was aesthetically pleasing.<\/li>\n
  6. Burning question<\/strong>: Fired up and ready to go I returned for my last task assignment.\u00a0 I was to go off for 30 minutes to answer a burning question.\u00a0 In my case this was to think about how I was going to run the forthcoming closing session at KMUK.<\/li>\n
  7. Plenary<\/strong>: All valuable interventions end with a debrief \/ reflection session. Here we sat in a circle and shared what we’d seen and done. This was a precursor to a more expansive group conversation among two dozen people drawn from HR\/Change\/Facilities Management functions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    observations from plenary<\/h2>\n

    The plenary session was stimulating: some worked virtually, others from Academia did a combination of home and away.\u00a0 Here’s what emerged:<\/p>\n