On the ties that don’t bind

This article from the Australian Financial Review(subscription required) discusses a recent book by human resource management academic, Lynda Gratton, on the power of weak ties in the network. Having read Gratton’s Living strategy, I was intrigued to learn more about the new book, Hot spots, albeit written for a more mass market audience.
Weak ties are people who [...]

On conversation

One of the questions I am often asked is why people in knowledge management are so preoccupied with conversations. Why does conversation need to be facilitated, is another question.
Let me answer with the following points:
1) Sometimes conversations inside organisation need permission since there is still the belief that conversation is just idle chatter. Knowledge managers like [...]

On ODL

I was at a party last Saturday evening when I struck up a conversation with a chap who worked for a pharmaceutical company in organizational development and learning (ODL).
As he talked about his job, I was struck by the similarities to the work undertaken in the knowledge management arena. We discussed the importance of intellectual capital and innovation. We [...]

On what’s all this fuss about?

Some friends of mine have been encouraging me to open up a Facebook account. I understand the mechanics of Facebook, especially it’s college mentality origins. Intellectually I can see why Facebook has become popular, but personally I am not so enamoured. But then again, I don’t watch much televison (especially useful at this time in [...]

On Facebook security loophole

There is a newspaper article today about a Facebook security loophole warning. Well, I read the article and it was all very lame, unless of course you don’t have any common sense.
The “loophole” is nothing more than opening your profile up (or having a friend in your personal network open up the profile) to the [...]

On actKM Conference 2007

Yesterday I attended day two of the actKM conference in Canberra. The day was full of thoughtful speakers and enjoyable conversation. The venue was in an unpretentious room located in the lovely grounds of University House at the Australian National University.
David Gurteen opened the morning session with an overview of a range of social networking tools and technologies. David emphasised [...]

On the personal elevator (lift) pitch

Dave Pollard has an interesting blog post about the personal elevator (lift) pitch, “a one-minute summary that conveys the most important information about you”. Quite rightly, such an ice-breaker is a useful skill for those first-time meetings, whether in the lift, at a conference, or at that networking event.
Dave provides a nine point framework based on questions in [...]