And what is expertise these days?

And what is 'expertise' really these days in a dynamic business environment where change is the norm?

Probably many of us still believe that expertise is something revolving around concrete knowledge that is linearly acquired with years on the job. Maybe something represented by a knowledge pyramid where learning is a step by step process that adds knowledge rungs to the expertise hierarchy.

I really like this quote by futurist Alvin Toffler, a notion which I think is a critical dimension of 'expertise' for today's knowledge worker:

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Is that more what expertise looks like today - an aptitude for iterative learning and agile relearning to meet emerging challenges? Taking a few familiar ingredients and combining something new, adding a catalyst to reformulate strategies and solutions - distilling something new, something fresh.

Occasionally it may even be necessary to explore revolutionary change that risks throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Previously I've discussed Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) and in particular highlighted a Seek - Sense - Share approach.

I think an individual's capacity for PKM really is the foundation of what we refer to as 'expertise'. Without PKM it's difficult to maintain currency of expertise.

Harold Jarche views the fast-paced dynamic environment that most of us now work within, as being characterised by perpetual beta. That is, the process of change tends to be the norm and we now operate within a state of flux where knowledge is continually shifting. The expertise to meet the challenge of perpetual beta largely depends on PKM and perhaps the notion of learn-unlearn-relearn.  

Maybe the process of developing expertise these days is something like the journey to becoming a chess master. Sure, you need to learn the fundamentals - but over time you need to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and ultimately you need to become unpredictable to stay ahead of your competitors - you perhaps need to unlearn classic patterns and relearn strategies to create novel moves.

learn - unlearn - relearn.......................innovate

Personal knowledge management & the chemistry of self-belief

Harold Jarche defines personal knowledge management (PKM) "as a set of processes, individually constructed, to help us make sense of our world and work more effectively".

In a nutshell, PKM enables us to pull our learning to match the specific knowledge demands encountered at work. PKM can be viewed as a 3 stage process where we seek out relevant information, we make sense of it in the context required and share it with our network to test it, refine it and then apply this as knowledge on the job.

Harold Jarche has made a significant contribution to the application of PKM and you may like to explore the resources available at http://www.jarche.com/category/pkm/.

I've previously discussed the value of PKM in the context of agile learning for the workplace. In this post I'd like to consider PKM as a vehicle for attaining professional confidence.

Self-belief or Self-Efficacy was defined by Albert Bandura as the belief in one's capabilities to organise and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.

Does personal knowledge management (PKM) enable us to walk the fine line between self-belief and self-doubt? Is PKM the key to growing into our jobs - excelling and developing expertise - but also a sense of mobility and confidence to create a fulfilling career?

When I say 'expertise' I'm talking about bringing your existing knowledge to new situations and having the capacity to adapt this to match the specific circumstances. How successful you are in meeting the challenges helps you expand your knowledge and provides a platform to take on new projects and different jobs. This to some extent is a product of learning experiences that enhance your sense of self-belief.

This ability to solve problems and create solutions also relates to Dan Pink's notion of what drives motivation - autonomy, purpose and mastery. I think motivation also has a synergy with an individual's sense of self-belief or professional confidence and how comfortable they become with a degree of autonomy.

Returning to personal knowledge management, Harold Jarche's Seek-Sense-Share model contains an element of critical thinking and personal self-directed learning, supported now by an array of web-based tools.

However, it's the ability to share and engage in dialogue that provides the link to practice. In other words, connection with others across networks is the real key to contextualising your knowledge and facilitating innovation.

I've touched on aspects of PKM that build and support our sense of self-belief, our self-efficacy. Firstly, the PKM framework provides us with a relatively systematic approach for addressing new challenges or performance improvement. Secondly, by making connections and expanding your networks there's a means of getting a 'best-fit' solution. Further, the corroboration of others brings peace of mind and confidence that you're getting it right. Ultimately of course this also needs to be reflected in the business metrics!

"People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided." - Albert Bandura

Supporting the new starter journey towards competency

It’s always a challenge to get a new starter up and running – and to work out how to best facilitate their learning.

A key principle to guide our thinking about how to support a new starter, is to think more about facilitating “learning” - rather than “training” through the delivery of copious amounts of content.

In other words, what learning experiences can be created for the new starter to largely learn by doing? Avoid delivering masses of information out of context and hoping this morphs into performance on the job!

The traditional training approach in many organisations is predominantly based on ‘just-in-case’ content delivery. We commonly overwhelm new starters by presenting them with every bit of information they may ever require to cover off every possible eventuality.

I think it’s better to use a ‘just-in-time’ approach where you structure the learning to match the needs on the job. Limit the information flow by ‘pulling’ the learning as required. Assist the new starter to know where to retrieve relevant information as required. Knowing where to go looking for key resources encourages self-directed learning.

The other dimension to consider is assisting the new learner to establish a broad ‘learning network’ of subject matter ‘experts’ within and beyond the immediate team. As the new starter gets settled in, start to shift away from having a single ‘coach/buddy’ and expand the network of people that can provide informed discussions about issues/challenges on the job.

So the guiding principles for the new starters L&D program should gradually have more of a focus on:

• Learning experiences on real work  
• Just-in-time learning
• Pulling the learning as required to meet the context on-the-job
• Opportunities to practice, get feedback, reflect, improve
• Establishing a learning network of SMEs
• Promoting conversations/collaboration
• Gradually increasing the complexity of work as knowledge/skill develops 

The best learning is from work that stretches people towards the edge of their capacity. The art is to allocate work to the new starter that provides challenge without overwhelming them, in a supported environment.

Rebranding social learning through the art of collaboration

I've been talking a lot to people about the value of collaboration, as a vehicle for social learning and  creating solutions for complex issues. However, the practical application of 'true collaboration' is limited and remains a nebulous concept for many. Further, the notion that informal learning can occur through conversation, is perhaps seen as haphazard and disorganised, particularly in organisations that restrict the autonomy of its people and equate control with the illusion of order.

Jane Hart suggests that it may be wise to support social learning under the banner of Workplace Collaboration. I like this idea of 'rebranding' social learning, in a covert way, to embed learning in the workflow. In the end it's about performance on the job and what we call this informal learning path to achieve this is incidental.

Interestingly, a group of colleagues took this idea of using collaboration as a vehicle for informal learning and created a structured opportunity for people to come together, share ideas and engage in a dialogue. This established a forum for discussion and a relevant, specific context for learning.

A collaborative structure was introduced into a human services case management environment and was branded as 'Summarise / Analyse / Strategise' (SAS).  SAS rapidly became a colloquialism and the meaning inherent in 'Summarise / Analyse / Strategise' went a long way to marketing the new learning opportunity.

Another term introduced to rebrand and demystify collaboration was 'case conversations'. This label is now used more broadly to also include unstructured, spontaneous discussions about cases in a timely way that essentially provides an avenue for 'pulling' the learning 'just-in-time'.

The case conversations are gradually becoming a habitual work practice for many case managers and demonstrate Jay Cross's observation that conversations are the stem cells of learning, and social networks are the carriers of conversation.

This collaborative structure has been a considerable success both in terms of facilitating case management outcomes and supporting informal learning. Key ingredients of this process have included:

• Access to subject matter experts and other experienced senior colleagues
• Providing a formal framework to support the summarise/analyse/strategise process
• Creating a non-threatening, respectful environment with a spirit of collaboration
• Generating tangible learning and performance outcomes for case managers
• Highlighting the value of sharing and narrating your work
• Creating a sense of empowerment and a degree of autonomy

Another feature of the SAS approach has been the trickle-down influence on the work practices of case managers outside the formal structure. The organisation has also provided low budget enhancements to the physical workspace, with the acquisition of round-tables to support spontaneous case conversations.

This shift to a more connected, collaborative culture has energised the workspace, increased capability, enabled innovative solutions and enriched the experience of work for many case managers. Will it also flow on to improving engagement and retention in a high turnover industry? Perhaps! 

Blogging to reclaim your mojo

I somehow fell into blogging a few months ago in an effort to rekindle my intellectual verve. This was following a sustained period of working within a largely unstimulating environment with little sense of professional growth.

It was quite a step to enter the public space where you're ideas are potentially exposed - taken that someone actually stumbles across your blog, let alone reads it!

I think my initial motivation to blog was more around challenging myself intellectually, to distill my ideas into a narrative, rather than engage with a social network. The process of blogging quickly energised my thinking in a way I hadn't experienced for some time. 

Blogging isn't for everyone, though I think it's a tremendous medium for making sense of the information you're digesting and for narrating your work to others as a stimulus for dialogue and further learning. I've recently embraced Harold Jarche's approach to Personal Knowledge Management (PKM)   and I see blogging as an integral part of this process for me. I'm now trying to share my blog posts and hopefully engage with others on Twitter.

Blogging brings many challenges, including developing your online voice, which should sit more in an engaging conversational style rather than the academic realm where many of us have our roots. Another challenge is making a regular commitment to blogging, which ideally should become a habit. When you're juggling the competing demands of work and family, it's not easy to find the time or headspace to maintain continuity.

I have tried to engage some of my colleagues in my blog to stimulate some sort of intellectual exchange. However, my colleagues don't really get blogging as a point for engaging with each other, in what seems to them - beyond the (mechanistic) context of work.

 

Although I'm still a neophyte, I've found blogging to be transformational and see it as a valuable learning tool for organisational storytelling and informal knowledge management.

I'll leave you with something powerful from blogging advocate, Euan Semple.
Starting the Social Media Journey

Yamming the new starter

A few months ago I was searching for a tool that might shift our business towards a more collaborative culture and to support the informal-formal learning continuum. I then introduced Yammer by stealth and have been watching it spread virally across a considerable sector of our organisation.

Currently the business is recruiting for a 'trainee program' and I'm now exploring the versatility of this enterprise social media platform in the context of onboarding. My vision for an extended onboarding program includes:

• Building relationships across the new starter group, L&D & HR prior to commencement
• Introducing the training program & transition-to-job process during pre-commencement period
• Augmenting the formal training program, including reflective discussion
• Exploring collaborative activities, particularly with transition-to-job
• Establishing & supporting a broad learning network on-the-job
• Supporting learning in the workflow, to sustain a ‘work is learning – learning is work’ culture

When I revisited Yammer to drill down into functionality, it confirmed my thinking around versatility on a single platform. When I began listing the features of Yammer it became apparent that they’re too numerous to discuss comprehensively in this space. However, I’ll concisely outline a few features of Yammer that meet my requirements.

1. Provides an internally secure social media tool

2. Simplicity of use compatible with Facebook

3. Enables special interest groups such as a new starter / on boarding

4. External groups can be formed which would enable relationship building prior to start date

5. Provides for Posting Polls & Praising individuals which may be useful in formal learning & beyond

6. Easy to add links & share documents

7. Useful toolbar gadgets such as ’Yam it’ for sharing internet content

8. iPhone & Android mobile apps available for on-the-go learning

9. Search engine for locating threads of interest or subject matter experts from profile tags

10. Search for expertise across organisation to support collaboration, pull learning & learning networks

11. Pages function to provide a group document space for collaborative work in formal learning

12. Provides a sense of connection for new starters seeking to become accepted into a community

13. Freeware provides more than adequate functionality

For these reasons I see Yammer as my preferred enterprise social media platform.

Yammer seems to have now gathered a critical mass, including some of the key players in the business and has even reached the CEO this week! As serendipity has it, I’ve now fallen into an ‘unofficial’ working party, which has seen a flurry of activity over the last week. The challenge is now to get senior management endorsement for broad implementation and preferably to see them on the site as users.

I’m quietly optimistic that I may be reporting back in the coming months about the implementation and application of Yammer across the workplace learning continuum.

Personal Knowledge Management

Harold Jarche highlights the potential acceleration of learning with emerging social media tools. Network learning provides an unprecedented platform for personal knowledge management (PKM) through a continuous process of seeking, sensing and sharing.

Certainly for knowledge workers (and really we're all knowledge workers to some extent regardless of occupation), the skills of PKM are a critical success factor. We hear every day about the knowledge economy and the demise of organisations that fail to adapt to a rapidly changing business climate.

For instance, this week in Australia we saw the substantial downsizing of Fairfax Media and perhaps the beginning of the end for print media. Many commentators are reporting that Fairfax has responded too late to the digital era.

There can be ramifications for both organisations who neglect knowledge management, framed within the contemporary digital landscape, and for individuals within those organisations who don't adapt their skills to bring high value work practices.

Organisations should be facilitating a culture of PKM and promoting its value to its people as a significant strategy for capacity building, continuous improvement, innovation, renewal, reconstruction and engagement.

PKM feeds the intellectual capital of an organisation.

So what does PKM mean for the individual focused on professional growth and adaptability within today's dynamic business environment?

Seek / Sense /Share is magnified by Web 2.0

Seek out information, make sense of it & share your thinking to test it & provide context

Narrating your work helps you synthesise your thinking into a context that enables application

Finding & growing your online voice extends your reach & enhances your PKM

Narration is the essential ingredient for engaging & sharing, as a pathway to higher order learning

Connection with people across a network is the fabric that facilitates PKM

Networks should go beyond colleagues to also include looser external connections

Diversity has a multiplying effect on the value of networks & increases serendipitous opportunities

PKM is a lifelong journey – a lifestyle!