At Common Knowledge Associates, conversation is our core technology. Because we work with organizations that deal with complex issues where much of the critical knowledge is tacit and hard to get at, we primarily use conversation based processes and techniques to leverage organizational knowledge. We design, teach, and facilitate processes that:
- Create new knowledge,
- Transfer existing knowledge, and
- Produce actionable lessons learned.
Organizational Knowledge Sharing Strategy
We help organizations build integrated knowledge transfer systems that include:
- Clearly specifying the relationship between the strategic goals of the organization and the knowledge to be transferred
- Characteristics of the target population
- The type of knowledge involved
- The intrinsic rewards of the target population
- Appropriate outcome and process metrics for monitoring the transfer system
- Processes for senior leadership to monitor and review the metrics
- Roles and responsibilities of critical players
We treat knowledge transfer as a means to address specific organizational goals, and not as an end in itself.
After Action Reviews
Our AAR process is a disciplined way for teams to translate the experiences they've had into knowledge they can use. Our simple format effectively draws out the lessons learned from a project or change effort. It speeds up a team's learning curve to gain results faster.
We have extensive experience in assisting teams to debrief their work projects and safety incidents. We help your organization:
- Facilitate the debrief of large strategic projects, e.g. product development or acquisitions
- Harvest lessons learned from failures
- Train in-house facilitators to garner lessons learned from projects
» AAR Guidelines
Peer Assists
Our peer assist process provides a systematic way for a team, just starting a new process or phase of their work, to benefit from the previous experience of other teams. It is a reciprocal exchange in which all learn and all teach. Peer Assist is one of the most effective processes to leverage organizational knowledge.
We have conducted numerous peer assists in government, healthcare and industry settings. We design the process, facilitate the meetings and teach in-house facilitators the critical skills.
» Peer Assist Guidelines
On-line Exchanges
We enable moderators of on-line discussion to make a difference by showing them what questions to ask and how to effectively probe responses. Theses skilled moderators can then set the tone and build the community.
Working with in-house moderators we improve the quality of on-line conversations
See Chapter 9, "Making the Most of On-line Conversations" in CompanyCommand: Unleashing the Power of the Army Profession.
Communities of Practice
We help communities of practice (COPs), or professional forums as the U.S. Army refers to them, establish rich formal and informal conversations. We specialize in building the community and creating the environment for knowledge exchange that makes COPs work.
We help organizations get new communities started and breathe new life into existing communities.
CompanyCommand: Unleashing the Power of the Army Profession is a case study of one of the most powerful communities around.
Sensemaking
Through sensemaking, we tap the very human ability to retrospectively find patterns in the continual flow of events that individuals experience daily and hourly in order to give those events meaning. We use a sensemaking group process we developed primarily for healthcare settings to assist disparate groups create joint meaning from an event or data set.
Teleconference Meetings
We all know that teleconferences can be deadly dull. But they can also be lively exchanges where important issues are resolved. The difference is in the design and facilitation. For this reason, we assure that the format of teleconferences match their purpose, whether their intent is to convey information, dialogue with an expert, problem solving, or brainstorm new ideas.
We facilitate teleconference meetings and work with in-house facilitators to build the needed skills.
» Teleconference Guidelines
Conferences Designed to Exchange Knowledge
We help design in-house conferences that are conversation based; thereby increasing the exchange of knowledge ten times greater than typical PowerPoint based conferences. When we design conferences we take into consideration 1) drawing out the knowledge that is in the room, 2) building in activities that result in interaction among the participants, 3) making the physical space conducive to conversing rather than passive listening, and 4) continually building the sense of community among the members.
We work with conference organizers to
- Design conference activities that promote knowledge exchange and
- Serve as facilitators for large group meetings.
» Conference Planning Guidelines
