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Thank you everyone for your feedback on my earlier query about Lessons Learned. I have collated and passed all of the comments onto the Major Projects Association member who asked me the question. I was delighted and even a little humbled at the depth and the breadth of what you shared.
It has encouraged me to ask for help with another, rather more bluesky project. We've been exploring the feasibility of creatng a 'Human Library'; something designed to be the social equivalent of the physical knowledge respository we have in the Major Projects Knowledge Hub (MPKH).
The premise is as follows:
- 90%(?) of knowledge is either tacit, so contextual or so ephemeral that a static knowledge respository is never going to work. The Human Library is designed to connect person to person for knowledge sharing
- We have an extraordinary network of individuals who are members of the Major Projects Association by default (since their organization are members) and whom MPKH is designed to serve
- Many of these individuals will gladly give a modest amount of their time in support of other members who need advice or help - this needs to be enabled on the basis of person to person so that there is no liability attaching to the knowledge sharing that might damage the reputation of the organizations who employ the various parties in the share
The outline concept (which is entirely open to change, depdning on whether and how we are able to make the whole thing work)
- a knowledge expert, let me take the example of someone who has been instrumental in helping us shape the idea: Karen who specializes in 'learning legacy' for major projects records a five minute video interview which has two objectives: 1. to frame the subject in whch she specializes and 2. to act as an introduction to Karen for anyone watching. For the purpose of the library, Karen's video is the audio visual equivalent of a book's cover blurb - the text on the back designed to give the reader a sense of what the book is about and whether it will be useful to them;
- once she has placed her book in the diary, Karen also sets up a diary entry for the book, which provides for one hour a month (at a specific date and time) when she, as the book may be consulted. The frequency of the available consultations is entirely down to the author of the book;
- a member of the Major Projects Association needs advice on an issue relating to learning legacy. Having viewed Karen's video, he sends her a request to book the hour's discussion for July with a short description of who he is and the nature of the information/advice he is looking for;
- Karen may choose to accept or refuse the request. In the case of acceptance, she arranges to talk with the borrower via phone, Zoom, Skype of other means at the time and day specified in the calendar
- Following the 60 minute conversation, both the book and the borrower write an independent review of their experience. It is up to Karen and the borrower whether they decide to continue the conversation at a later date. That is beyond the remit of the library
I think we can accommodate the library itself within the WordPress site on MPKH in a way that will enable viewing of the book videos and findability.
On that basis we need some means of facilitating the calendar such that individual books may specify when they are available for consultation and that allows 'booking' of the time (if agreed by both parties)
some means of rating the experience for both borrower and book and some way of connecting these to the book and to the profile of the borrower (I am thinking of AirBnB's website which does this for renters and property owners).
Any advice, offers of help or other feedback will be gratefully received.
Thanks
Jonathan
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Ray Sims
Hi Jonathan, A few quick thoughts: - Will members be willing to invest in creating a video? I do see that a video introduction is desirable relative to being more personal, and therefore more likely to facilitate the desired person-to-person connections, comparted to text-only; however, putting myself on the receiving end of that request, I fear I would feel self-conscious / video-shy and also not keen on the perceived extra work (over text-only with a photo) given that I would need to still think through or even write a “script”. Make the video “suggested” but optional?
- Metadata / tags / controlled vocabulary to facilitate search by topic?
- The one-hour a month at defined time feels limiting. A member may be looking for input on a time sensitive request, and the receiving member might be completely comfortable with carving out some time on short-notice, versus just limiting to defined “office hour”.
Ray https://the12thchapter.com
From: jonathan.norman@... [sikmleaders]Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2019 7:04 AM To: sikmleaders@...Subject: [sikmleaders] Creating a Human Library Thank you everyone for your feedback on my earlier query about Lessons Learned. I have collated and passed all of the comments onto the Major Projects Association member who asked me the question. I was delighted and even a little humbled at the depth and the breadth of what you shared. It has encouraged me to ask for help with another, rather more bluesky project. We've been exploring the feasibility of creatng a 'Human Library'; something designed to be the social equivalent of the physical knowledge respository we have in the Major Projects Knowledge Hub (MPKH). The premise is as follows: - 90%(?) of knowledge is either tacit, so contextual or so ephemeral that a static knowledge respository is never going to work. The Human Library is designed to connect person to person for knowledge sharing
- We have an extraordinary network of individuals who are members of the Major Projects Association by default (since their organization are members) and whom MPKH is designed to serve
- Many of these individuals will gladly give a modest amount of their time in support of other members who need advice or help - this needs to be enabled on the basis of person to person so that there is no liability attaching to the knowledge sharing that might damage the reputation of the organizations who employ the various parties in the share
The outline concept (which is entirely open to change, depdning on whether and how we are able to make the whole thing work) - a knowledge expert, let me take the example of someone who has been instrumental in helping us shape the idea: Karen who specializes in 'learning legacy' for major projects records a five minute video interview which has two objectives: 1. to frame the subject in whch she specializes and 2. to act as an introduction to Karen for anyone watching. For the purpose of the library, Karen's video is the audio visual equivalent of a book's cover blurb - the text on the back designed to give the reader a sense of what the book is about and whether it will be useful to them;
- once she has placed her book in the diary, Karen also sets up a diary entry for the book, which provides for one hour a month (at a specific date and time) when she, as the book may be consulted. The frequency of the available consultations is entirely down to the author of the book;
- a member of the Major Projects Association needs advice on an issue relating to learning legacy. Having viewed Karen's video, he sends her a request to book the hour's discussion for July with a short description of who he is and the nature of the information/advice he is looking for;
- Karen may choose to accept or refuse the request. In the case of acceptance, she arranges to talk with the borrower via phone, Zoom, Skype of other means at the time and day specified in the calendar
- Following the 60 minute conversation, both the book and the borrower write an independent review of their experience. It is up to Karen and the borrower whether they decide to continue the conversation at a later date. That is beyond the remit of the library
I think we can accommodate the library itself within the WordPress site on MPKH in a way that will enable viewing of the book videos and findability. some means of facilitating the calendar such that individual books may specify when they are available for consultation and that allows 'booking' of the time (if agreed by both parties)
some means of rating the experience for both borrower and book and some way of connecting these to the book and to the profile of the borrower (I am thinking of AirBnB's website which does this for renters and property owners). Any advice, offers of help or other feedback will be gratefully received. 
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Maybe I’m not understanding your solution vision correctly, but it seems to me a challenge you’ll run into with your proposed approach is scalability. Cataloging five-minute videos for a dozen people could work fine. Do so for 1000 people will become problematic, if for no other reason than seekers will lose patience searching for their needle in the haystack.
As an alternative you might consider a solution based around what you just experienced on this forum, in which you posed a question to a specific challenge you have in a forum frequented by a group of SMEs. We all have our own sub-specialties within KM (mine is enterprise collaboration and knowledge strategy), and so those who had relevant input for you and an interest in helping did so.
I think of it as a “strange attractor” approach, in which the challenge is put in front of a wide variety of people. Each person who reads about the challenge considers what they might have to contribute to the solution and responds accordingly. This elegance of this approach is that it coalesces tacit knowledge, summoning it up in those who possess it - sometimes to their own surprise. We don’t know what we know until we know it!
Would a solution approach based on an something like that work for your use case?
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Thank you, Ray
- Good point about how comfortable people may be with video. I think we should be flexible and offer a ‘text only’ option too. Two provisos – I anticipated that
we will probably create the video for the contributors, which means they need to invest the time but will benefit from the support and coaching we can provide (and allow a certain consistency). The other advantage of video is that it introduces the personality
of the ‘human library book’ which I think is an important aspect in the process of learning.
- Yes, we will offer a metadata dictionary to facilitate searching – one that can grow with the library.
- The amount of time made available by individual human library books is entirely at their discretion and some people may have specific times of the year when
they have greater availability than others. On the other hand, the structure of the calendar is very deliberate to make the mechanics of the library as simple as possible. I don’t want to be too wedded to the analogy of the library but the idea is that, just
like a physical library, you can ‘take a book off the shelf’, assuming that it isn’t already out on loan. I am also aware that, given that this is unpaid activity, I need to provide human library contributors with an activity they can easily ring-fence and
control, so they are not sucked into over-committing themselves.
Of course, all of these elements are subject to change if either the users or the books express a preference for alternative ways of working!
Best regards
Jonathan
Jonathan Norman
Knowledge Manager
Major Projects Knowledge Hub
07387 268596
www.majorprojectsknowledgehub.net
www.majorprojects.org
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please reply to this email address. View our updated privacy policy by following
this link.
Major Projects Association is a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered Company Number: 2157656 (England & Wales)
Registered Address: 1 Abbey Park Lodge, Abbey Street, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, OX29 4FN
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: sikmleaders@... <sikmleaders@...>
Sent: 23 July 2019 13:15
To: sikmleaders@...
Subject: RE: [sikmleaders] Creating a Human Library
Hi Jonathan,
A few quick thoughts:
- Will members be willing to invest in creating a video? I do see that a video introduction is desirable relative to being more personal, and therefore more likely to facilitate the desired person-to-person
connections, comparted to text-only; however, putting myself on the receiving end of that request, I fear I would feel self-conscious / video-shy and also not keen on the perceived extra work (over text-only with a photo) given that I would need to still think
through or even write a “script”.. Make the video “suggested” but optional?
- Metadata / tags / controlled vocabulary to facilitate search by topic?
- The one-hour a month at defined time feels limiting. A member may be looking for input on a time sensitive request, and the receiving member might be completely comfortable with carving out some time
on short-notice, versus just limiting to defined “office hour”.
Ray
https://the12thchapter.com
Thank you everyone for your feedback on my earlier query about Lessons Learned. I have collated and passed all of the comments onto the Major Projects Association member who asked
me the question. I was delighted and even a little humbled at the depth and the breadth of what you shared.
It has encouraged me to ask for help with another, rather more bluesky project. We've been exploring the feasibility of creatng a 'Human Library'; something designed to be the social
equivalent of the physical knowledge respository we have in the Major Projects Knowledge Hub (MPKH).
The premise is as follows:
-
90%(?) of knowledge is either tacit, so contextual or so ephemeral that a static knowledge respository is never going to work. The Human Library is designed to connect person to person for knowledge sharing
-
We have an extraordinary network of individuals who are members of the Major Projects Association by default (since their organization are members) and whom MPKH is designed to serve
-
Many of these individuals will gladly give a modest amount of their time in support of other members who need advice or help - this needs to be enabled on the basis of person to person so that there is no liability attaching to the knowledge sharing that might
damage the reputation of the organizations who employ the various parties in the share
The outline concept (which is entirely open to change, depdning on whether and how we are able to make the whole thing work)
-
a knowledge expert, let me take the example of someone who has been instrumental in helping us shape the idea: Karen who specializes in 'learning legacy' for major projects records a five minute video interview which has two objectives: 1. to frame the subject
in whch she specializes and 2. to act as an introduction to Karen for anyone watching. For the purpose of the library, Karen's video is the audio visual equivalent of a book's cover blurb - the text on the back designed to give the reader a sense of what the
book is about and whether it will be useful to them;
-
once she has placed her book in the diary, Karen also sets up a diary entry for the book, which provides for one hour a month (at a specific date and time) when she, as the book may be consulted. The frequency of the available consultations is entirely down
to the author of the book;
-
a member of the Major Projects Association needs advice on an issue relating to learning legacy. Having viewed Karen's video, he sends her a request to book the hour's discussion for July with a short description of who he is and the nature of the information/advice
he is looking for;
-
Karen may choose to accept or refuse the request. In the case of acceptance, she arranges to talk with the borrower via phone, Zoom, Skype of other means at the time and day specified in the calendar
-
Following the 60 minute conversation, both the book and the borrower write an independent review of their experience. It is up to Karen and the borrower whether they decide to continue the conversation at a later date. That is beyond the remit of the library
I think we can accommodate the library itself within the WordPress site on MPKH in a way that will enable viewing of the book videos and findability.
some means of facilitating the calendar such that individual books may specify when they are available for consultation and that allows 'booking' of the time (if agreed by both
parties)
some means of rating the experience for both borrower and book and some way of connecting these to the book and to the profile of the borrower (I am thinking of AirBnB's website which does this for renters and property owners).
Any advice, offers of help or other feedback will be gratefully received.
|
|
|
Gosh, thank you for this feedback. You have very neatly spotted one of the big question marks behind the workability of the library.
We are (perhaps unnecessarily) trying to design a system that can:
- Replicate the ‘knowledge repository’ but in human form
- Complement but not replace other forums or communities of practice
We also envisage that:
- the videos themselves will provide value in their own right. In simple terms and referencing my original example of the Learning Legacy specialist, I can imagine a user who is asking themselves,
should we create a learning legacy? What might that involve? What questions do we need to ask ourselves?
- the human element plays on the value of a real-time conversation. The opportunity to ask and answer the questions that are specific to you or your organization.
I am looking at something that mashes together elements of knowledge forum, peer assist session, knowledge repository and library … oh, and randomised coffee trial, in the sense that this is a catalyst
for a conversation between people from two different member organizations that would not have happened otherwise and the serendipity of that connection may result in specific knowledge transfer as originally intended by both parties and/or other knowledge
exchange that neither party had anticipated.
I need to text the value of the concept so, if we do work out the raw mechanics, we will be looking to prototype and improve before we consider the implications of scale.
Jonathan
Jonathan Norman
Knowledge Manager
Major Projects Knowledge Hub
07387 268596
www.majorprojectsknowledgehub.net
www.majorprojects.org
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please reply to this email address. View our updated privacy policy by following
this link.
Major Projects Association is a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered Company Number: 2157656 (England & Wales)
Registered Address: 1 Abbey Park Lodge, Abbey Street, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, OX29 4FN
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: sikmleaders@... <sikmleaders@...>
Sent: 23 July 2019 15:06
To: sikmleaders@...
Subject: [sikmleaders] Re: Creating a Human Library
Maybe I’m not understanding your solution vision correctly, but it seems to me a challenge you’ll run into with your proposed approach is scalability. Cataloging five-minute videos for a dozen people could work fine. Do so for 1000 people will become problematic,
if for no other reason than seekers will lose patience searching for their needle in the haystack.
As an alternative you might consider a solution based around what you just experienced on this forum, in which you posed a question to a specific challenge you have in a forum frequented by a group of SMEs. We all have our own sub-specialties within KM (mine
is enterprise collaboration and knowledge strategy), and so those who had relevant input for you and an interest in helping did so.
I think of it as a “strange attractor” approach, in which the challenge is put in front of a wide variety of people. Each person who reads about the challenge considers what they might have to contribute to the solution and responds accordingly. This elegance
of this approach is that it coalesces tacit knowledge, summoning it up in those who possess it - sometimes to their own surprise. We don’t know what we know until we know it!
Would a solution approach based on an something like that work for your use case?
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Love the idea Jonathan.
It’s an experiment in skills exchange and timebanking in the NHS. Not quite what you are aiming at, but might be some learning for you.
Early signs are promising.
Cheers,
On 24 Jul 2019, at 12:43, Jonathan Norman jonathan.norman@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
Gosh, thank you for this feedback. You have very neatly spotted one of the big question marks behind the workability of the library.
We are (perhaps unnecessarily) trying to design a system that can:
- Replicate the ‘knowledge repository’ but in human form
- Complement but not replace other forums or communities of practice
We also envisage that:
- the videos themselves will provide value in their own right. In simple terms and referencing my original example of the Learning Legacy specialist, I can imagine a user who is asking themselves, should we create a learning legacy?
What might that involve? What questions do we need to ask ourselves?
- the human element plays on the value of a real-time conversation. The opportunity to ask and answer the questions that are specific to you or your organization.
I am looking at something that mashes together elements of knowledge forum, peer assist session, knowledge repository and library … oh, and randomised coffee trial, in the sense that this is a catalyst for a conversation between people
from two different member organizations that would not have happened otherwise and the serendipity of that connection may result in specific knowledge transfer as originally intended by both parties and/or other knowledge exchange that neither party had anticipated.
I need to text the value of the concept so, if we do work out the raw mechanics, we will be looking to prototype and improve before we consider the implications of scale.
Jonathan
Jonathan Norman
Knowledge Manager
Major Projects Knowledge Hub
07387 268596
www.majorprojectsknowledgehub.net
www.majorprojects.org
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please reply to this email address. View our updated privacy policy by following
this link.
<image003.jpg>
Major Projects Association is a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered Company Number: 2157656 (England & Wales)
Registered Address: 1 Abbey Park Lodge, Abbey Street, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, OX29 4FN
From: sikmleaders@... <sikmleaders@...>
Sent: 23 July 2019 15:06
To: sikmleaders@...
Subject: [sikmleaders] Re: Creating a Human Library
Maybe I’m not understanding your solution vision correctly, but it seems to me a challenge you’ll run into with your proposed approach is scalability. Cataloging five-minute videos for a dozen people could work fine. Do so for 1000 people will become problematic,
if for no other reason than seekers will lose patience searching for their needle in the haystack.
As an alternative you might consider a solution based around what you just experienced on this forum, in which you posed a question to a specific challenge you have in a forum frequented by a group of SMEs. We all have our own sub-specialties within KM (mine
is enterprise collaboration and knowledge strategy), and so those who had relevant input for you and an interest in helping did so.
I think of it as a “strange attractor” approach, in which the challenge is put in front of a wide variety of people. Each person who reads about the challenge considers what they might have to contribute to the solution and responds accordingly. This elegance
of this approach is that it coalesces tacit knowledge, summoning it up in those who possess it - sometimes to their own surprise. We don’t know what we know until we know it!
Would a solution approach based on an something like that work for your use case?
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Thanks so much, Chris
The Hexitime example has many of the features that we’re looking for (scheduling, booking a conversation and so on) and I have considered time-banking as one model for the library. One challenge
is that I anticipate that it is not actually a community of equals – on other words, there may be human library books who want to rad other books but many of the users may be coming to take a book out without having a reciprocal offer to trade.
I’ll let you know how we get on – it will be a slow-burn, I suspect.
Best regards
Jonathan
Jonathan Norman
Knowledge Manager
Major Projects Knowledge Hub
07387 268596
www.majorprojectsknowledgehub.net
www.majorprojects.org
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please reply to this email address. View our updated privacy policy by following
this link.
Major Projects Association is a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered Company Number: 2157656 (England & Wales)
Registered Address: 1 Abbey Park Lodge, Abbey Street, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, OX29 4FN
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
From: sikmleaders@... <sikmleaders@...>
Sent: 24 July 2019 16:20
To: Jonathan Norman jonathan.norman@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...>
Subject: Re: [sikmleaders] Re: Creating a Human Library
Love the idea Jonathan.
It’s an experiment in skills exchange and timebanking in the NHS. Not quite what you are aiming at, but might be some learning for you.
Early signs are promising.
Chris
On 24 Jul 2019, at 12:43, Jonathan Norman jonathan.norman@... [sikmleaders] <sikmleaders@...> wrote:
Gosh, thank you for this feedback. You have very neatly spotted one of the big question marks behind the workability of the library.
We are (perhaps unnecessarily) trying to design a system that can:
- Replicate the ‘knowledge repository’ but in human form
- Complement but not replace other forums or communities of practice
We also envisage that:
- the videos themselves will provide value in their own right. In simple terms and referencing my original example of the Learning Legacy specialist, I can imagine a user who is
asking themselves, should we create a learning legacy? What might that involve? What questions do we need to ask ourselves?
- the human element plays on the value of a real-time conversation. The opportunity to ask and answer the questions that are specific to you or your organization.
I am looking at something that mashes together elements of knowledge forum, peer assist session, knowledge repository and library … oh, and randomised coffee trial, in the sense
that this is a catalyst for a conversation between people from two different member organizations that would not have happened otherwise and the serendipity of that connection may result in specific knowledge transfer as originally intended by both parties
and/or other knowledge exchange that neither party had anticipated.
I need to text the value of the concept so, if we do work out the raw mechanics, we will be looking to prototype and improve before we consider the implications of scale.
Jonathan
Jonathan Norman
Knowledge Manager
Major Projects Knowledge Hub
07387 268596
www.majorprojectsknowledgehub.net
www.majorprojects.org
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please reply to this email address. View our updated privacy policy by following
this link.
Major Projects Association is a Company Limited by Guarantee
Registered Company Number: 2157656 (England & Wales)
Registered Address: 1 Abbey Park Lodge, Abbey Street, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, OX29 4FN
From: sikmleaders@... <sikmleaders@...>
Sent: 23 July 2019 15:06
To: sikmleaders@...
Subject: [sikmleaders] Re: Creating a Human Library
Maybe I’m not understanding your solution vision correctly, but it seems to me a challenge you’ll run into with your proposed approach is scalability. Cataloging five-minute videos for a dozen people could work fine. Do so for 1000 people will become problematic,
if for no other reason than seekers will lose patience searching for their needle in the haystack.
As an alternative you might consider a solution based around what you just experienced on this forum, in which you posed a question to a specific challenge you have in a forum frequented by a group of SMEs. We all have our own sub-specialties within KM (mine
is enterprise collaboration and knowledge strategy), and so those who had relevant input for you and an interest in helping did so.
I think of it as a “strange attractor” approach, in which the challenge is put in front of a wide variety of people. Each person who reads about the challenge considers what they might have to contribute to the solution and responds accordingly. This elegance
of this approach is that it coalesces tacit knowledge, summoning it up in those who possess it - sometimes to their own surprise. We don’t know what we know until we know it!
Would a solution approach based on an something like that work for your use case?
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