Growing Virtual Communities within Your Organization to Reach the Future FIRST

khuffman

Knowledge management professionals see ourselves as part of the solution in keeping our organization ahead of the curve. With the explosion of virtual communities since the advent of Web 2.0 social networking models in the consumer sector, how have these same types of collaborative communities played out within organizations? Corporate intranets can play a core role within an organization, enabling an organization to reach the future FIRST. Have you employed virtual spaces internally for your company to foster a more transparent culture of communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing? Do you believe internal communities allow organizations to grow and evolve to gain a competitive advantage? This micro-conversation will center around our stories and on how we view the contribution of online communities to the overall mission and goals of an organization. We will also explore key requirements that must exist within any organization for communities to flourish, influencing factors, community dynamics, and methodologies employed for growing and managing virtual communities.

Resources:

Selection of cards and ideas based on Patrick Lambe's KM Method Cards www.straitsknowledge.com.

Communities: 1) Community of Interest (Type: Approaches / Card #06); 2) Learning Culture (Type: Approaches / Card #18); 3) World Cafe (Type: Methods / Card #37); 4) Open Space Technology (Type: Methods / Card #38); 5) Story Listening (Type: Methods / Card #51).

Models: 1) Email Detox (Type: Approaches / Card #08); 2) Graphic Facilitation (Type: Methods / Card #57); 3) Information Neighborhood (Type: Methods / Card #58); 4) Rewards and Recognition (Type: Approaches / Card #19).

This idea of "Future First" is from "Are you as sick of Sustainability as I am?" by Nathan Shedroff from Design is the Problem (URL: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/sustainable-design/blog/are_you_as_s...). In the blog post about the book Shedroff says, "Sustainability offers those leading companies the opportunity to get to the future first and learn how to keep their differentiation (in products, in brand, and in customer satisfaction) when the rest of their competitors finally find their way to the same spot. If the 'right thing to do' isn't enough, then competitive market differentiation, cost reduction, and risk mitigation should be."

• What types of communities has your organization built and what methodologies for sustaining them worked best? Does your senior management staff participate in online communities? Explain.
• Do you grow your virtual community around information neighborhoods, an arrangement of key information resources for a particular target audience?
• Have you been able to reduce the over-dependency on email and its inefficiencies by introducing more effective channels for collaboration and information sharing? What motivates people to participate?
• When dealing with the "human factor" in KM - are you able to get past the WIIFM (= what's in it for me) attitude to engage staff and encourage them to share their knowledge?
• Have you incorporated a rewards and recognition system?
• Are rewards and recognition based on the contribution of an individual or a group?