Category: facilitation

Harvesting knowledge from text conversations

Km4Dev wiki screenshotThis is the second in my latest series of online facilitation method tips and mini-podcasts. John Smith asked me to write up the practice some of us have been nurturing on the KM4DevWiki to encourage summarizing and harvesting of learnings from key community conversations in our email list on to a wiki. The podcast can be found here.

There are often amazing threads on email lists and web based discussions. Often they get lost due to the tyranny of recency over relevancy. We remember what we last read. How many times have you heard people say “hey, we discussed that before… where IS that conversation?” Some tools make it easy to search within message, but then you have to reconstruct a thread. There may have had subject line changes, interruptions, etc. It is hard work. That’s why it is useful think about practices to pull out useful stuff so it can provide wider and easier benefit.

One practice of harvesting learnings from text based discussions (in email or web forums) started as a small FAQ (frequently asked questions) project a small group of use did a couple of years ago as part of the KM4Dev community. KM4Dev is a global community of practice interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing in international development.

We initially intended to create FAQ’s out of key discussions to answer what we thought were some of the “big questions” that often came up in the community. You can read about the project at the following links.

What we discovered was that often something wasn’t simply a response to a question, so the FAQ format started to limit us. We moved into harvesting what we called “Community Knowledge.” This is the basis of the technique I know use regularly.

Now, on the the technique. (Did I say these were going to be short? I guess I goofed on that!)

  1. Role model the harvesting behavior. Our initial FAQs gave people the chance to experience discussion summaries. But the next step was to role model it around current discussions. At first we would notice a “hot thread,” summarize it then post the wiki url back to the email list.
    • Templates can make it easier/more comfortable for people new to summarization and/or wikis.
    • Cross promote the wiki on the list to keep it in the community “line of sight.”
  2. Ask others to try the behavior. Next we started asking people to create and post their own summaries of discussion threads that they started.
    • asking in a private email is friendlier, but sometimes the public request can add some useful “pressure.”
  3. Time the request well. Usually we made the request for summarization after we saw a thread really get going — and hopefully near the end of the thread.
    • I have made the mistake of suggesting that the thread be summarized too soon and people took that as a “stop talking” signal.
  4. Expect resistance. (And I’m tempted to say “resistance is futile, but that’s not really true!) Initially people did not summarize. So I would set up a wiki page for them, send them the url and another small request. (I think I started signing my emails from “wikipest.”) Some people would then summarize and post to the wiki, and some would send me the summary to post. That was fine.
    • Reminders are often useful. I do wonder if I annoyed some times…
  5. Encourage those who adopt the practice. After about a year, others started recommending a summaries to starters of hot threads. So the initial part of the practice was being picked up by others. More people were creating pages, but it was still a very limited group.
    • Don’t expect miracles
    • Do thank those wonderful souls who will do this important community work.
  6. Make the value visible. Last year we had the need to review our technical platforms and lo and behold, the wiki was getting more page views that the community’s older, established content management based site. This validated that people were finding and in some way, interested in what we had harvested. I believe this external validation helped motivate and maintain the practice.
    • Share stories of use
    • Make pageview data available
    • If the wiki has been useful beyond the community, get the other users to send a thank you as well.
  7. Reduce barriers and support from the side. Some of us still have to go in and link pages to the index page.
    • We have had to require registration for the wiki due to wiki-spam, which creates some friction and overhead – it is not as easy as I wish it were.
    • The wiki still needs a lot of overall attention to make things easier to find. (That is on my to do list – and has been for a long time. )

All in all, the practice is valued. We are making our knowledge visible and available to the wider world and inviting them to help improve it. There are 76 entries. The entries on knowledge sharing tools and methods have been spread and reused by members’ parent organizations. Value has been amplified. I think it was worth it!

For more on harvesting:

Using “the clock” on telecons

Someone asked me the other day to remind them how to use the “clock” technique on telephone conference calls. So I dug out some old image examples and put this together and created a short (under 2 minutes) podcast. The lower images are based on a template one of the Online Facilitation alumni, Ray Guyot, made for us. Thanks again, Ray! Full pictures can be found on Flickr.

Teleconference Call Facilitation Tips

The Clock

“The clock” can be used on conference calls to help people get and keep a sense of place and participation in a disembodied conf call. It can be used with structured online chats as well. Ask every one to draw a circle on a piece of paper and mark the hours like a clock. Then, each person is assigned a spot on the “clock” as they join the group. So the first person is 1 o’clock, the second 2, etc. If there are more than twelve, start adding 1:30, 2:30 etc. Use this initially to create a speaking sequence for intros, and then use it to ensure everyone speaks. Participants can make notations by names and use it as a visual tool to match names/voices/input. If you are doing multiple rounds of “speaking” vary the “starting position” on the clock.

We want to use this in a workshop, so any feedback and suggestions for improvement are appreciated!

Edit: March 17th – Ray Guyot has graciously agreed to share his clock template. Ray Guyot’s Telephone Clock Template (pdf) Thanks Ray

The technology understanding gap

2008 #51: Still Not Connected
Eugene Eric Kim has an excellent post on The Technology Understanding Gap which uses a story to articulate one of the key challenges of technology stewardship – the frequent gap of understanding, and practice with technology that happens between a steward and her/his community. (The same goes for advisers, consultants and that geek friend who really, really wants to help you.)

First a quote from Eugene (I realize as I write this and having just written about Brian Hsi, that these guys both are smart and have a very thoughtful way of expressing both their ideas, and how they formulated them. I love that about both of them!)

Technology is insidious. It has a way of dominating a problem the way nothing else can. If you understand technology, it’s hard not to see everything in that light. If you don’t understand technology, it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by what you don’t know.

Eugene tells the story of a group he was facilitating and how they were trying to figure out how to connect a network of practitioners across the country. Eugene, recently inspired by Clay Shirky and his three column model, decided to use the “Tasks/Tools/Promises” framework for thinking about the group’s challenge.

Eugene Kim's flipchart picture
Eugene continues:

What do you notice about this picture?

Obviously, the Tools column is completely empty. That’s a dead giveaway that I’m facilitating this discussion. (That and the horrific handwriting.) Figure out the basics first. Don’t let the question about technology drive the discussion.

During the discussion, one of the participants asked, “What tools can we use?”

I responded, “Let’s not worry about that now.” So we kept talking and talking, and I noticed the two non-technical participants in the group squirming like crazy.

So I stopped, noticed how gaping the Tools column looked, and said, “You’re uncomfortable about not having discussed the tools, aren’t you.”

She nodded.

“Don’t worry about it,” I responded. “The tools part will be easy, once we figure everything else out.”

“Easy for you, maybe,” she said. “You already know what goes there.”

That was not quite true, but I got her point, and the force of it struck me so hard, I had to stop for a moment. I looked at the gap, and I saw possibilities. She looked at the gap, and she saw a void. That was upsetting for her. It made it hard for her to think about the other aspects of the problem.

It made me realize how much I take my technology literacy for granted. But it also created an opportunity to discuss how easily we are sidetracked by technology. “Tool” does not have to mean software, and making that assumption prevents us from exploring other viable, possibly better solutions.

In his post, Eugene goes on to reflect that next time he does the exercise he is going to start WITHOUT the tools column. I can see that as a really useful option. But I think there is an additional perspective.

Tools are sometimes not just practical affordances to get a job done, but they offer a way to visualize an outcome. we conceptualize them quickly with “technology” and all its bells and whistles, but tools are something bigger than just the latest software. Yes, they can limit us, but sometimes they also open up possibilities. As much as I’m a deep believer in the Task and Promise columns, I am surprised and reminded that some people, even non technical people, have a conceptual framework that builds ON the IDEA of a tool. So taking away that column may actually INCREASE anxiety for some, rather than reduce it.

My final question to myself and you, is how do we USE the tool column in a way that does not lead us down the technocentric path, but still helps us keep the concept and usefulness of “tool” in our conversations? How do we most usefully have and facilitate, as needed, these conversations?

Photo credits:
Creative Commons License photo credit: Jeroen Latour and Eugene Kim

NEXUS U Offerings

Nexus U OfferingsNexus U OfferingsLast week I blogged about Nexus for Change II March 29 – April 1 in Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. The first two days are Nexus U, a chance to dive into particular methods and approaches to whole systems change. Gabriel Shirley, who is coordinating the “U” sent out a list of the “explorations” available on Saturday. He said this is pretty set, but there may always be a last minute change or two. (PDF of Nexus U)

You can pick two. Then on Sunday you put them to work. There are some cool people and this will be a chance to work with them in small groups.

Watching twice and realizing I’m listening

I’m fickle.

I forget most movies the day after I watch them. Same for most books. Rarely do I want to see or read something a second time. So Monday’s video comes courtesy of a movie I have now watched twice and am actually thinking about getting a copy of the sound track and DVD – Across the Universe . (Sorry, I did not embed it. Tech issue.)

I was wondering why I like to hear music over and over again – a different pattern from books or movies. Then I realized Across the Universe is, in fact, a musical. And the other movies I have watched more than once have most often been musicals.

What is is about musicals?

If I look at the golden age of musicals they are often racist and sexist. But they, like our society, have evolved to convey real issues.

And they have music.

The music carries two things for me. One is emotion. I think of songs as the soundtrack of my life,  and they bring both a deeper connection with the emotion of the text and they embed a memory deeper in my brain.

The other is the switch between dialog and music allows us to step outside of our daily concept of “reality.”

It is like when I’m on a plane, 30,000 miles above terra firma and I can reflect on the world in a way that is different on the ground. A step away that gives a step closer to clarity.

There is a connection here with my recent playing with visuals. The addition of a different type of aural experience changes how we perceive something. I wrote a while back about the impact of adding music as background to a focus chat.  Facilitators often prime a room by having music playing as people arrive for a gathering. My dance and yoga teachers set the tone with their choice of music.

Is a fully lived life a musical?