{"id":60,"date":"2012-03-30T05:09:30","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T04:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/knowledgeetal.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/30\/it-can-be-quite-lonely-at-times-i-postcards-from"},"modified":"2016-10-26T13:30:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T12:30:51","slug":"it-can-be-quite-lonely-at-times-i-postcards-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;&#8230;it can be quite lonely at times&#8217; I reflections from Henley KM&#8217;ers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post_title\"><em>\u2018Dear John, I never imagined 10 years ago the true impact of knowledge. The bureaucracies of the paper world are gone and communities are what deliver value at a local and a global level.\u00a0 All my knowledge of technology was of only passing value. The networking skills are what are helping me thrive.\u2019<\/em><\/div>\n<p>Just one of the many postcards sent back from the future (2020) to today by the delegates at Henley Business School\u2019s 12th meeting of their KM Forum. Putting learning at the heart of the organisation was the theme of the annual two day retreat and I was there running a Sparknow timeline exhibit that featured highlights of the evolving role of the \u2018knowledge manager\u2019 research we\u2019ve carried out.\u00a0 More of that in a future post.<\/p>\n<p>This post is about the exhibit and how postcards were used as a technique to develop a delegate view on the changing environment and role of a \u2018knowledge manager\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><strong>why a postcard?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In many ways the postcard serves a powerful metaphoric role for key dimensions of knowledge management and of time:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is personal\/private but at the same time both shareable and publishable via a noticeboard.<\/li>\n<li>It maintains its quality of having been individually authored, so the link to the originator stays explicit.<\/li>\n<li>It is light, compact, and highly portable.<\/li>\n<li>It is asynchronous, but interactive and annotatable<\/li>\n<li>It is an ideal vehicle for messaging<\/li>\n<li>It is time saving for the author.<\/li>\n<li>It is an early form of multimedia, allowing an almost infinite range of attached images<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sparknow\u2019s research into the use of postcards goes back over a decade. Victoria Ward and Professor Clive Holtham of Cass Business School and others from Sparknow wrote about the uses of the postcard in re-forming organisational time, place and meaning\u201d for the \u2018In search of time\u2019 conference, held in Palermo in 2003. A copy of that paper and one presented in 2010 on slow knowledge can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sparknow.net\/pacepubs.html\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>why a timeline?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our experience suggests people respond best when they are asked to situate comments against a time and place (and often an object or event) as a backdrop.<\/p>\n<p><strong>postcards and time lines as a combination<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The visual impact of a series of postcards on a timeline is visually compelling.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"toggle_inline_image inline_image\" src=\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_m0s296k2sO1qcsgne.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>materials for the timeline<\/em><\/p>\n<p>By putting up background material for the three focus points on the timeline (2002 &gt; 2012 &gt; 2020) we were able to provide context for the postcards people were writing; to get them thinking back from 2020 to today and then from today to 2002. We were particularly grateful to Andrew Curry and The Futures Company for letting us reference their work. <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.thefuturescompany.com\/2011\/03\/14\/the-world-in-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\">Andrew wrote an interesting and thought provoking blog to accompany The World in 2020 publication we drew on to design the exhibit.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"toggle_inline_image inline_image\" src=\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_m0s1horA0D1qcsgne.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>looking back from 2020<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>the questions posed were:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imagine you are writing back to someone in 2012 from 2020 (or to 2002 from 2012). Tell them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>about your daily life<\/li>\n<li>what\u2019s changed about your job as a \u2018knowledge manager\u2019 and the environment in which you work<\/li>\n<li>what kit and tools are different now from then.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"toggle_inline_image inline_image\" src=\"http:\/\/media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_m0s1l8LzEv1qcsgne.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>looking back to 2002<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>and the outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 25% of the delegates completed a postcard.\u00a0 Each revealed something about the writer and their vision of the world.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of revealing postcards from today back to 2002<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You\u2019re still in KM.\u00a0 And for a while it\u2019s even in your job title.\u00a0 You do a lot of technology.\u00a0 You spend a lot of time in \u201cprogrammes\u201d and service development, development in general, is project-based rather than continuous.\u00a0 The KIM profession is government recognised, but frequently struggles to find direction and leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Hello, we\u2019ve almost forgotten how to pick up the phone or walk over to speak to people.\u00a0 We spend a lot of time sending \u201ctexts\u201d from our phones and reading about our friends\u2019 activities from their \u201celectronic\u201d Facebook page.\u00a0 It can be quite lonely at times.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Many felt strongly that being networked will be one of the key differentiators in 2020; that technological advances will continue to enhance our ability to work wherever and whenever we want to but that time savings (to enjoy more leisure) is a forlorn aspiration.<\/p>\n<p>Few saw the \u2018knowledge manager\u2019 title as being around in 2020, it being best illustrated by this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Knowledge Manager is extinct. Culture and behaviors of the knowledge manager are embedded into all employees as the modus operandi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>though another said in 2020:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I am working as an advisor, consultant, advocate, counselor, co-creator. I work to Board level leadership but I roam The Organization, working to improve colleagues\u2019 personal and group knowledge management.<\/p>\n<p>Technology has simply become the channel, its just the \u2018thing\u2019.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>a great piece of advice:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Try to write letters as much as possible because otherwise your handwriting will get even worse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>what would I do differently next time?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actually not too much though I\u2019d probably have more people versed in the material, able to explain the significance of the dates to \u2018visitors\u2019 to the exhibit. And I\u2019d make sure I had enough people around to help put up an 18 foot poster when I arrived at the venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Dear John, I never imagined 10 years ago the true impact of knowledge. The bureaucracies of the paper world are gone and communities are what deliver value at a local and a global level.\u00a0 All my knowledge of technology was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/?p=60\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[595,599,600],"tags":[5,28,49,52,93,94,103,105,110,117,119,122],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-masterclasses-observations-reports","category-knowledge-techniques-technologies","category-knowledge-workers-roles-skills","tag-andrew-curry","tag-cass-business-school","tag-henley-km-forum","tag-jane-mckenzie","tag-postcards","tag-professor-clive-holtham","tag-scenarios","tag-sparknow","tag-storytelling","tag-the-futures-company","tag-timeline","tag-victoria-ward"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2143,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knowledgeetal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}