Day 1 (afternoon) at Henley KM conference

Chris Collison (@chris_collison) led a session on engaging leaders in KM - capturing knowledge through stories using anecdote circles. Four stories of KM development were delivered and key points highlighted by individuals, with these summarised by the group into the key learning points - a shareable knowledge product. See my mind map on Chris's twitter feed ...

Members of the Henley Business School Leadership faculty (Jane McKenzie, Bernd Vogel and Claire Collins) presented research findings on accelerating organisational learning. This work proposed a 2x2 grid to map relationships in informal learning situations, based on two axes - one-way knowledge sharing (push) vs two-way knowledge co-creation and peer-to-peer learning vs a relationship with a separation in formal authority. The research (perhaps unsurprisingly) highlighted that learning in these situations is generally focused down the organisation - where there is a difference in formal authority, learning tends to be focused solely on the subordinate (unless the subordinate is highly specialised or the pair have had a long term relationship). The research proposed methods to break this barrier and accelerate organisational learning (in both directions):
- the leader generating trust more quickly
- making the leader more available and
- encouraging (supporting) the subordinate to challenge upwards.
These behaviours can move the organisation from first order learning (problem solving) to second order (challenging the current thinking, questioning the rules, living with the discomfort of uncertainty).

David Archer finished the day talking about collaborative leadership - delivering results across boundaries. Humans seem to have evolved the skills to collaborate (inside the tribe/organisation) but compete (outside). The increasingly interconnected world now requires the skill to collaborate outside the organisation,, and negotiate the boundaries of "inside" and "outside", paying particular attention to the risk at boundaries. With examples from rail, oil and gas, he highlighted the need to manage the culture and behaviours within the relationships ... not just the policies and contracts. A model of collaborative leadership was based on the pillars of governance (least), operations and behaviours (most).