EduGlu Sandbox

It's been one of those weeks this week when synchronicity (or maybe confluence) seems to have been in the air...

So for example, the week started with brief email exchange regarding knowledge management in the context of tracking and reviewing and getting feedback/opinion on new technology that might be interesting (one might almost say "OUseful";-) in an OU context. Here was my take on it:

Something I feel we need to explore is find a way of helping information "flow" around the university more, routing it to the right people as needed. A few of us do this anyway in an informal way anyway, either as a broadcast (eg public blog) or point-to-point communication "FYI emails"; thing's like the LTS media monthly newsletter also communicate news items to people who are likely to be interested in such things.

As far as soliciting the opinions of OU members about particular technologies, then we need: a) a way of routing these 'call for comments' to people who can comment quickly; b) getting comments back to the people who need them in an appropriate form.

Being lazy, I'd like to be able to do several things at once with any comments I make - eg: a) get the commentary back to who wants it; b) get a blog post out of it ;-) It'd also be nice to think that there was some way of actually seeing new ideas built on and rolled out across the university.

What's needed is to get a conversation going and give people the feeling that they are allowed to spend time indulging/participating in that conversation, which may be with internal people or it may be with the wider world e.g. through online networks. And requests for comments would just be dropped into that conversation somehow...

Then yesterday, John Tropea/Library Clips posted some thoughts on "There’s more than just supply-side KM", (a response to this article on Ideation and the Supply Side of Knowledge): "The article is about how much time and energy we devote to: Capturing and storing vs Knowledge flow...[I]n a learning organisation you are aware of solutions as they happen, even if you have no use for them at the time. You can connect to people involved in the solutions, and you are connected to people in general. The act of participating gives more chance of solutions coming to you more easily… you have more of a chance of shared context and the peripheral information around a solution."

The original article - by Raj Datta - also has this to say:

[T]hose who believe that "management" is about control and predictability often view KM as a way to bring about predictability, by documenting all best practices and lessons learnt and making them available to everyone.

Here, the supply side becomes focused on explicit knowledge, on identifying and generating quality content, and generally focused on learning from the past. The hidden assumption is that once the right answers are all available in the repository, everyone will come seeking it. Demand, it's assumed, is automatically created. This then produces a robust internal knowledge (content) market, complete with consumers and producers of knowledge (content).

Now where I thought this argument would go was along the lines of: even we do manage to curate information about new technologies effectively, that information is not necessarily going to be worked effectively if that information doesn't continue to circulate - or "flow" - around the organisation, as part of an ongoing conversation within the organisation, in particular the conversation between those people who can benefit from the information, work it further, or work it into conversations with other people who might benefit from it.

But it didn't, at least not in such crude terms... (Even so, the "flow" argument is still one of the take home messages I'll (mis)remember the article by! )

What the original article does go on to talk about is how organisations potentially miss out on creating new knowledge, because they are too busy mining the past:

But even if one were to subscribe to this viewpoint, it has at least one obvious shortcoming. By equating KM with content management, and by equating the purpose of KM with predictability and control, we may inadvertently de-emphasize new knowledge creation.
...[N]ew knowledge creation is about the future. It's about possibilities and alternatives. It's about doing things differently and unleashing creative energies. It's about innovating.

Companies that are serious about innovation have to create an organizational ecosystem that allows for creativity to be sourced, transformed into inventions and then into innovations. This forwardlooking view gives KM a new meaning and purpose. Companies that are able to foster new knowledge creation alongside the more traditional view of KM, are able to strike a balance between effectiveness and efficiency and between innovation and productivity. This is a necessary condition for longevity in a global knowledge economy.

Why ideation?

Ideation is the first step in the whole process of innovation. A good way to judge whether a company is serious about innovation is to see what happens to ideas in that company Some indicative questions are: Who is responsible for generating ideas? Once generated, how are ideas transformed to inventions?

If these questions have been explicitly considered in the organization, then chances are that the first step towards a generative view of KM strategy has been taken. This shows that the company values knowledge creation.

If these questions are implicit, or we have to search for the answers, then chances are that a strong enough focus doesn't exist yet in the organization. If the R&D department is viewed as the place where ideation happens and inventions take place, then we are again [li]miting the potential of tapping into the collective creative energies of the organization. R&D personnel are not the only ones with ideas and creative minds, and open processes should exist to tap into the collective capabilities of employees.

As well as creative minds that generate ideas, we also need minds that know how to transform wild ideas into feasible implementation projects and we need minds that are able to understand market potential and how to tap into it. In short, we need to transform ideas to inventions and then inventions to innovations, tapping into the collective insights and capabilities of complementary minds. Base skills, competences and strengths may differ across employees, and by themselves have limited use, but the power of tapping into their collaborative capability is tremendous.

This line of thinking resonates strongly with me. After almost 10 years here, I still don't understand how the OU manages to take internally produced "inventions" and work them up to a state where they can be delivered as institutional innovations... Although maybe that's about to change?

OU Job Ad: Change Manager, Developments Manager, Two Senior Project Managers, Learning Innovation Office (LIO), Strategy Unit. Based in Milton Keynes.

Fascinated by the use of new technologies to enhance the learning experience in higher education? A Learning Innovation Office is being set up within the Open University's Strategy Unit to coordinate the development of elearning and innovative teaching and learning. Building on the University's new virtual learning environment (VLE), the Office will commission and oversee further development work, coordinate elearning strategy and policy, and monitor and disseminate learning innovations at the OU and elsewhere. The Director of Learning Innovation has been appointed and a number of staff are being recruited to work with him.

Excellent organisational, interpersonal and communication skills, flexibility and initiative will be needed by all of the role holders to liaise with a wide range of academic, technical and administrative colleagues. You should have considerable experience of elearning development and implementation.

Change Manager
You will work under the leadership of the Director of Learning Innovation to plan and initiate a range of strategic change initiatives, aimed at promoting elearning and embedding the OU's new VLE across the University. You will need exceptional communication, presentation and project management skills and will have significant experience of coordinating change initiatives in higher education. You will be supported by two Senior Project Managers.

Developments Manager
You will work under the leadership of the Director of Learning Innovation to manage the operational activities of the Learning Innovation Office, and to plan and oversee a number of projects to develop additional functionality for the OU's new VLE. These projects will be managed by two Senior Project Managers who will report to you. You will need exceptional project management skills to provide effective management of these initiatives, significant experience in administration related to systems development, and will liaise with colleagues in other units who will be providing the technical and operational management of the VLE.

Two Senior Project Managers
The Senior Project Managers will work under the direction of the Developments Manager and Change Manager, Learning Innovation Office, to plan and manage a number of activities aimed at promoting elearning and usage of the VLE, and to manage projects to develop additional functionality. You will report to the Developments Manager in the Learning Innovation office and you will need excellent project management and communication skills and significant experience in administration or systems development to provide effective management of these initiatives.

As well as those posts, there is also this rather wonderful sounding post:

Director of Multi-Platform Broadcasting, Strategy Unit
Europe's largest and most innovative university is seeking an outstanding individual for the new post of Director of Multi-Platform Broadcasting, which has been created following a major review of our broadcasting strategy.

You will have extensive experience at a senior level in the broadcasting and/or internet sectors and will have the strategic vision, management capability and technical understanding to enable the University to realise the potential of all broadcast media to support its global teaching and learning, research and public engagement missions. You will work closely with the University's Open Broadcasting Unit, with a wide range of areas of the University, and with the BBC and other key partners.

You will be responsible to the Pro Vice Chancellor (Strategy, Planning and External Affairs) for the achievement of the University's ambitious broadcasting objectives.

I'm not sure whether this post in marketing will report in any way to that post, though?

Marketing Manager, Marketing and Sales
In this new role has been created to focus on developing marketing plans covering BBC programming, Widening Participation & Openings and other marketing projects. You will work with marketing colleagues in the OU and BBC to scope and identify education and training opportunities for the Widening participation sector, opportunities to promote the BBC and marketing our Openings courses. You will also develop and manage fulfilment of a marketing plan to these markets and identify appropriate channels to market.

Business innovation is also in the air:

Senior Project Manager, Europe. Futures Office, Strategy Unit
We wish to appoint an outstanding individual to the Futures Office, to manage the implementation of the OU's strategy for Europe. You will liaise with key stakeholders across the OU and externally to evaluate and identify the optimum business model for the OU's operations in central Europe, shaping the OU's strategic priorities for international growth.

Communications Program Manager (Business to Business), Marketing and Sales
Reporting to the Head of Customer Communications, as part of the sub unit management team, you will lead the planning, development and execution of marketing programs for the business to business segment; targeted to increase OU awareness and to generate enquiries from employers resulting in sponsored students, CPLD (Centre for Professional Learning and Development) revenues, etc.

Senior Manager (Administration), Validation Services
Open University Validation Services is responsible for providing Open University validation for external academic programmes; and vocational awards through the OU Awarding Body. More than 33,000 students are currently registered for validated and vocational awards in more than 50 partner organisations. The University is currently investing in a restructure of OUVS and an expansion of our team. As part of our expansion we are seeking a Senior Manager (Administration) to manage central support services including management of registrations, certification and aftercare services.

Disclaimer: none... ;-) Except maybe the OUVS post... I have an idea for an OUVS webservice that's being considered in part under the SocialLearn banner...

Needless to say, I have nothing to do with appointments to any of those posts, at the dizzying heights such as they are (I'm way down the food chain, and on the academic side of the fence too...). That said, I'll probably heckle whoever does get in and try to grab a coffee with them every so often!

Tags: recruitment, innovation