A Knowledge Curator? #roles #curation #archiving
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andregalitsky@...
In a recent issue of the New Yorker, there is an article about Hans Ulrich Obrist, a modern art curator at the Serpentine Gallery in London. He spends his days travelling around the world, connecting with artists, curators, and critics - looking for artists who are creating new and important pieces of artwork (and most of them are not paintings). Just wondering if the same concept applies to KM.. Is there a role for a Knowledge Curator at a large distributed organization - a person whose job it is to find important pieces of knowledge (and people who create it), analyze it, and add it to the KM gallery, so to speak? P.S. Here's the New Yorker article link: Hans Ulrich Obrist, the Curator Who Never Sleeps
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Gary Riccio
Yes! Probably in the same organizations that are considering open innovation, strategic sourcing, or otherwise venturing beyond familiar value networks.
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Murray Jennex
I agree with the below as while I think a knowledge curator is a great
idea, I can see where organizations won't support it because it will be
difficult to show the value in having such a position. To answer my
unspoken question on showing value I will say that organizations that rely of
intellectual property (such as a Qualcomm or the organizational types mentioned
below) probably have such a person but calls them something else and has
measures in place to judge how well they are doing. I think smaller
organizations would probably include internal knowledge curator duties as a part
of the job of CKO or KM leader or whatever they call the
position....murray
In a message dated 12/21/2014 5:43:07 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
sikmleaders@... writes:
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Halupka, Jacqueline (CA - Toronto) <jhalupka@...>
Deloitte US is piloting a Knowledge Curator program, in which the KMs work with leaders to designate a practitioner as a Knowledge Curator in a specific line of business. The Curators will be asked to spend a small proportion of their time working with
KM to collect and evaluate content and to create content where gaps exist. We realize that the program’s success will depend completely on leadership support. However we are feeling positive now, and hope to have good reports next year.
Jacqueline Halupka
Senior Manager | Global Knowledge Services | Consulting Strategy & Operations Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited 2 Queen Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 3G7 Tel/Direct 416-643-8071 | Mobile 416-525-9190
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John Hovell <jhovell@...>
Thanks for sharing, and asking. In the defense industry, BAE Systems is piloting a similar program, and Lockheed Martin has also been running a similar program for several years with success. I'm sure several other defense contractors are right there as well. In my own humble opinion, I think this knowledge curator type of role is everyone's role, as opposed to a traditional full time employee type of role. I'd like to think the curator designation is a nice step toward full time learning and collaborative organizations. Thanks, John On Dec 22, 2014, at 8:57 AM, 'Halupka, Jacqueline (CA - Toronto)' jhalupka@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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Cory Banks
Didn't we used to call these roles Librarians? :) On 23 December 2014 at 00:17, John Hovell jhovell@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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Albert Simard
And the difference between a knowledge curator and what a 21st century librarian should be is??? You might wish to check out:
http://www.slideshare.net/albertsimard/wherefore-libraries
I was trying to get librarians to reduce their budgetary hemorrhage by shifting from an abstract “cost center” to a core business service. Unfortunately most listeners couldn’t get past “managing collections.” In the Global Disaster Information Network, we referred to the functions of a global “knowledge facilitator.” Some people have also used the phrase “knowledge Broker.” Both of these terms suggest more than managing knowledge assets.
Great analogy, but it is somewhat narrow in terms of what KM should be.
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chuck georgo <chuck@...>
I am not enamored with the term “curator” – it sounds like someone that cares for stuff you aren’t allowed to hold, touch, or play with; however, I do like the term “Knowledge Coach” – someone who helps to develop the skills in individuals that Cory describes, to help provide oversight of the organization’s KM program that Jaqueline is piloting to ensure that it is actually achieving the real-world effects (outcomes) that the investment in KM practices intended to achieve.
Considering the rate of staff turnover and realignment within organizations, the changes in mission needs, products, and services, and the challenges in considering and implementing the wide-range of technology tools available to enhance human knowledge consumption and production, I think you can keep the Knowledge Coach busy full-time+… J
From: sikmleaders@... [mailto:sikmleaders@...]
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2014 9:34 AM To: sikmleaders@... Subject: Re: [sikmleaders] A Knowledge Curator?
Didn't we used to call these roles Librarians?
:) Thanks
On 23 December 2014 at 00:17, John Hovell jhovell@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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tman9999@...
In my opinion, the idea of having a single, designated knowledge curator could make sense for a focused community that has an agreed taxonomy, a large trove of content, and a fairly high velocity of new content to manage. Formal curator roles include managing existing content according to a document lifecycle policy that calls out things like aging, archiving, and tagging/categorizing. It may also include access rights management. This, to me, is "old school." That doesn't mean it's no longer useful, or valid. But neither is it the only form of curation available to enterprises in an era of the enterprise social intranet.
I prefer to think of curation as "everyone's job." Let's say you're surfing the web and you an article or site that you think might be of interest to a colleague, what do you do with it? a) send it to them - assuming you know who they are b) ignore it - because you have a suspicion *someone* would probably find it useful, but you have no idea who c) tag it or otherwise make it available to a known community on your social intranet where the people who would likely find it of interest tend to hang out. If your intranet isn't capable of supporting choice (c) then you may be left with no option other than the formal curation approach. On the other hand, if you have a true social intranet then putting the item out there for others to consume, whether you know who they are or not, is an option worth pursuing. Tom Short Social Strategy Consultant Jive Software |
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Murray Jennex
I agree it is everyone's job and in a case study I did with a nuclear
engineering organization the most common reason for adding something to the
knowledge base was "I think it is a good idea" That said there are a
couple of problems with having everyone do it:
the first is that is isn't the engineer's job (or anyone's) to look for
knowledge. in the case study knowledge was found and added in the course
of doing the regular job. Most managers/supervisors do not want their
people to just look for knowledge unless it happens in the course of doing
regular work. On the plus side the knowledge that is found does relate
specifically to work done in the organization.
the second is that most employees are not privy to or aware of the long
term strategy of the organization or what the total organization does or
needs. This is the value of having someone, perhaps as a function of a
strategic planning group, to identify and capture knowledge for the organization
that will be needed in that future.
the danger is that this look a head for knowledge is usually not considered
critical unless you are in an organization that derives its income from managing
and licensing knowledge or through innovation in new products and services.
These people can be the first to be cut in times of economic difficulty, hence
my previous focus on showing value.
This actually goes back to the older discussion of how an organization
manages innovation and new technology, do they let the worker level people do it
or do they focus it in a special group?
Ultimately I think a knowledge and learning organization will have both
roles, the individual workers finding and adding knowledge that relates to their
specific job areas (tactical level knowledge) and a person or small group
doing the look a head knowledge identification and capture for strategic
initiatives (strategic level knowledge) and yes, for many organizations I think
both levels of knowledge exists.....murray jennex
In a message dated 12/22/2014 11:31:40 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
sikmleaders@... writes:
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Maria Brindlmayer
In my previous company (professional services), knowledge broker roles existed. However, they were not full-time. They identified knew key "knowledge". Their main role was still to serve clients but they were given a certain % of time (5-10%) with a KM charge code. The benefit of this role was that these brokers were involved every day in the latest client service activities and had their finger on the pulse of new trends. And since it was only a small percent of their time, it was financially feasible to have more of them throughout the organization. There can be downsides, e.g., it is sometimes difficult to carve out the time for KM activities when the pressure to provide client service is very high. There were also full-time KM managers who had a more formalized role to manage the knowledge "inventory" (e.g., editing or archiving). I agree with earlier postings that it is everyone's job to do knowledge sharing (e.g., sharing articles or an interesting finding on a project), but I believe that a dedicated role is key for certain types of knowledge to make sure that the information can be relied on by everyone (e.g., interpretation of a certain tax code). Thus, I think that the best models use a combination of different roles (including communities of practice) for different types of knowledge, and make it easy for everyone to share knowledge. Best, Maria On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 3:11 PM, murphjen@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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Maria Brindlmayer
cell: 202-365-2440 |
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Mark Zoeckler
At BCG, we believe strongly in this concept, but not necessarily with a knowledge curator as an individual, more typically as topic teams collaborating with supporting knowledge shared services. On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 10:54 AM, andregalitsky@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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andregalitsky@...
Thank you all for your thoughtful and wide-ranging replies - there's a lot to think about here... I appreciate your feedback and comments - this is very insightful!
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Stuart French <sjfrenc@...>
Sounds like the ultimate job to me. I did a little bit of it in my last role and loved it, but to find value through cross-pollination and collaboration through an organisation, full time with exec sponsorship would be awesome. Kind Regards,
Stuart French Knowledge Strategy Consultant Ph : +61 (0) 411 797-781 On 22 Dec 2014, at 5:54 am, andregalitsky@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
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Hi Andre and forum members,
I apologise or answering this late, but I hope the comment adds a little more to an already interesting thread. In some ways Stan has been the voluntary “Knowledge Curator” by hosting and leading this forum for about 15 years. This volunteer network connects people across organisations with each other and with ideas/options/content/concepts/contexts… you get the idea…
The difficulty with doing this within a business is one has to “justify your existence”, which is fine, however has challenges some do not comprehend or appreciate. As connectors (knowledge curators) of people and concepts the value we stimulate is usually through the application of (either newly created or adapted) knowledge that arises and is reapplied as a result of connections made and insights gained. This means that the value creation of a curator’s efforts happens in someone else’s budget area, making KM a cost centre (I prefer investment) rather than a revenue generation centre. When the economy gets tight, the cost centres get cut in favour of revenue generation, thereby making knowledge development activities discontinuous, making long term sustainable difficult to highlight. Those doing the cutting are not aware of the catalyst impacts of the connectors as they are primarily observing tangible aspects for a distance without knowing what caused them t occur. Without catalysing relationships, less ideas get shared and reapplied (both through social relationships and other sharing processes or tools), which ultimately reduces competitive advantage, innovation and overall performance.
The concept of a knowledge catalyst worked very well during my involvement in a large international organisation. We (semi) jokingly referred to ourselves as the “corporate dating service”. There were many very significant projects that generated a LOT of measurable value across the organisation. These would never have occurred without knowledge curators catalysing connections and relationships. Our very presence changed the dynamics, mindsets, focus and flow of the organisation. Imagine making a cake by just throwing the ingredients in and cooking without “informed mixing…” When Grandma makes it from experience it is magnificent. Yet when the inexperienced recipe cook makes it following the formula, it can be rather ordinary.
Knowledge curators matter! Not because they know or have a lot of “stuff”, but because they shift mindsets and connect people in ways that content, tools and processes simply can’t. Just consider how much value you have received over the years from the interactions in this forum (or others like it such as KM4 Dev or ActKM and the various local KM communities you interact with). Now imagine how much more difficult and less rewarding your role would be if Stan and others did not invest time and effort “curating and catalysing”. I believe that organisations that have this (formally or informally) benefit enormously - whether they measure it or not. In my experience, leaders that leverage this generate more sustainable performance (and these do exist if you look around at the top performers in some industries). A
Regards Arthur Shelley Intelligent Answers Founder: The Organizational Zoo Ambassadors Network Author: The Organizational Zoo & Being a Successful Knowledge Leader Mb. +61 413 047 408 Skype: Arthur.Shelley Twitter: @Metaphorage LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=4229168 Free behavioural profiles: www.organizationalzoo.com
From: sikmleaders@... [mailto:sikmleaders@...]
Sent: Saturday, 3 January 2015 12:41 PM To: sikmleaders@... Subject: [sikmleaders] Re: A Knowledge Curator?
Thank you all for your thoughtful and wide-ranging replies - there's a lot to think about here... I appreciate your feedback and comments - this is very insightful! |
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