From the Idea Management Systems blog comes this post The 9 Signs of a Losing Organisation
- Fuzzy Vision
- Lack of Leadership Skills
- Discouraging Culture
- High Bureaucracy
- Lack of Initiative
- Poor Vertical Communication
- Poor Cross-functional Collaboration
- Poor Teamwork
- Idea and Knowledge Management
Do any of these jump out at you? One of the least obvious for education is number 9, Idea and Knowledge Management. Too many teachers are spending too much time in their rooms and not enough time sharing their ideas, knowledge, and wisdom. Too many principals and educational managers are not encouraging or putting in place systems for formal sharing of ideas and knowledge.
Technology allows teams to connect to islands of expertise located in any geographic location. Technology allows teams to archive their learning and share with others. Knowing what others know and sharing what you have learned is what I refer to as Wisdom Stewardship. Technology makes it easy for educators and schools to be good stewards of available wisdom and to know what others know. This is the where I see PLCs transitioning to Professional Networked Learning Collaboratives, designed with knowledge management in mind. The sum result is that technology allows the Professional Networked Learning Collaborative to “Know What Others Know” (K.W.O.K.).
No school staff knows how much they know until they know what each other knows. (Read it again!)
Catalytic Questions:
What places are you failing to look for ideas or answers to problems?
In what ways could you get curious about what your staff knows?
How might your assumptions about knowledge and ideas be getting in the way of learning from your staff?
What if you were able to know everything your staff knows. How might that change instruction at your school?
What might you have done in the past that could be applied to Idea and Knowledge Management at your school site?
What resources or solutions are available to you that you may have overlooked?