Knowledge Management 2.0
I'm often left quite frustrated by the amount of mismanagement going on in supposedly creative workplaces. Everywhere managers are holding on to control and trying to microcontrol their knowledge workers. This is really sad, because this kind management creates an environment where it's actually really difficult to create anything worthwhile.
Here's 3 serious signs, that you're doing something wrong
- People are holding on to their knowledge - In Stephen Collins' words... knowledge can't be conscripted, only volunteered. If your knowledge workers aren't sharing their knowledge freely, they won't synergize and create outstanding work. This has to be looked into.
- You have eloborate and detailed processes for how to do Knowledge Work. These involve lot's of paperwork. Such managements are mind-numbing. It's the worst kind "brains in the centre, nuts in the field" management. Stop treating your employees like children, that needs to be guided every step of the way. Creatives need to solve tasks in different ways to stay creative. Instead you have to impose a loose framework focusing on the essential information needed to collaborate.
- You're not taking any risks! - This is a really bad one. Great Knowledge Workers rely mainly on intrinsic motivation. Doing great and interesting work is a key component on their motivational score-board. But doing great and interesting work mostly involves taking risks.
- Jens Poder
Tame the traps of innovation
Do you often find that concepts turn out less innovative, than what you wished for? Well perhaps it has fallen into one the 7 deadly traps of innovative thinking.
In this great online presentation, Mind of the Innovator, by Matthew E. May you will learn to recognize these traps! They are:
- Shortcutting - Jumping to conclusions on intuituion instead of working with the problem
- Blindspots - Making assumptions based on previous experience
- Not Invented Here
- Satisficing - Instead of satisfying, you do the thing that will suffice
- Downgrading - Rewriting the succes criteria, instead of succeeding
- Complicating
- Stifling - Not letting people around you get good ideas
It's really cool. 16 pages. Well worth reading. Makes you reconsider your role in innovation. Found on Guy Kawasaki's blog.
- Jens Poder
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Creative Tools en masse!
I am basically more creative, when everything is different and new. This means, that I have given up on finding the one and only process for creativity.
Every proces tends to become less fertile, as it gradually degrades into a boring everyday habit. When the mind is bored, it becomes less creative.
So if you facilitate creative processes the trick is to keep the process fresh, but still focused enough to give the participants a feeling of confidence.
And now the link:
http://creatingminds.org/tools/tools.htm
- Jens Poder
Using a Briefcase to sync Nokia E61i files with a PC
I wondered for a long time how to keep files on my PC and Mobile synced. This would let me use a lot of software on my Nokia E61i phone, that I hadn't used before.
I have been using my Nokia E61i for a couple of months, and it's truly a great phone. Great blackberry-capabilities, wonderful webbrowser, a great inbuilt memo-recorder. But that's just the tip of the iceberg of what this machine offers. Unfortunately the rest of the functions on the phone are not exactly plug and play. Most of them are really confusing. I think symbian 60 has a huge cognitive friction hurdle for new users to overcome.
The tools I wanted to start using was:
- Quickoffice - A lightweight Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I wanted to have documents I was currently working on synced between my PC and my Mobile, so I could edit them everywhere.
- Music Player - for music and podcasts. I have an Ipod, but I wanted to have a couple of podcasts with me on the phone and only have music on my Ipod.
The Nokia PC Suite program, that handles the connection between your phone and PC only offers an explorer-like filebrowser that lets you drag and drop files from file folders on the phone and the PC. This is tedious work, especially since the interface is really laggy due to slow response from the phone.
I wanted to be able to change a file, and have it altered automatically on the other device. If I deleted a file on the phone, say a podcast I had listened, I wanted it to disappear from my PC as well.
The spark that got me started was reading this blogpost by a Swedish S60 blogger. In the article he explains how to make your phone work as a USB-drive and autocopy files with a simple bat-file. You just have to choose "data transfer" instead of "PC Suite" when you plug your USB-cable into your phone. This makes the memory-card in your phone accessible to your computer, typically as the E: drive.
And then it hit me! If I could read my mobile phone like a normal drive, I could just use the simple "My Briefcase" in windows to keep my files updatet.
By right-clicking on the desktop on your PC, you can make a new briefcase. Then drag and drop the filefolders from your Nokia memory card (visible in your explorer as E:).
For my Quickoffice I chose the "Documents" folder and dragged it into the briefcase. For the musicplayer I dragged the sounds folder into it (the musicfiles are in a subfolder called digital)
So now when the phone is connected in data transfer mode, and I open my briefcase on the desktop, I can sync the two devices. Files start zooming back and forth, and then boom: I have the latest versions of all files on both devices.
I'm really happy with solution. It doesn't require extra software. And it works.
Now I can just dump ebooks, podcasts and todo-lists in the briefcase, and sync the devices.
Hope you'll find this useful. Comments are welcome.
- Jens Poder