One of the strongest KM
practices happens when a group or community engages in a joint inquiry.
Sharing thoughts from the past:
This is where knowledge is created & discovered, where boundaries are
clarified, where collaboration reaches a peak, where knowledge sharing happens.
Communal inquiry seeks new information:
- objective -- to collect,
compile, synthesize and apply the BEST information with the LEAST
expenditure of energy and effort.
- assumes: participants are
self-selected; motivation is intrinsic; learning is secondary to delivery;
some measure of trust is present; and the participants are secure and
independent in their identities.
- principles: the fastest way
to gather information is to identify and ask experts [specifically
acknowledged experts]; agreement on the ontology and boundaries
.... sometimes the term describes an overall activity and sometimes the term
describes the mode [or technique] in which some other activity is being conducted
... An example of inquiry as descriptive of an overall activity: "We are conducting
an inquiry into the causes of the latest power outage". An example of
inquiry as a technique: "We always work hard to strike a proper balance
between advocacy and inquiry during staff meetings".
Craig 10Dec98
Scanning as inquiry: the team must agree on what to look for, develop domain
expertise, cultivate relationships, select the best, most cost effective medium
and tools, mostly this is either a purchased clipping service, a newsfeed or
specific database subscriptions. they need to construct an information needs
profile for their customers and determine how they will share general info....
drivers are a little different here as speed and uniqueness are critical.
Inquiry as reflection:
An inquiry may be conducted without any external inputs. In this case the
objective is to dredge the individual or corporate memory, discover what is
known or available or existing but forgotten. Many of the basic techniques
apply here as well. Clear definitions, understandings and clarity on the goals,
exploration of all the sources [people, repositories, stories, experiences],
selection and evaluation of the material and presentation. An important
component of a reflective inquiry is to place the findings in useful context,
structure and organize the information in a way that addresses the problem or
the original questions.
Perhaps inquiry is the process of deciding what the questions are and how to
recogniae the answers. Action then is fact-finding, followed by more inquiry
related to the relevance of the facts found, and how to apply them, followed by
action to apply the solution. Inquiry is thus very related to coming to an
agreement -- within one's own mind, or within a group.
Duncan
11Dec98
.... learning, trust and different perspectives suggest that even when we
are engaged in an non-inquiry project, the use of small-scale inquiry technique
does serve a larger, longer-term purpose. Namely it is a major contributor to
trust building and learning about each other's perspectives. This results in
knowledge about how we can work most effectively with each other and thus can
improve our collaborative performance going forward.
Craig 11Dec98
Communal search as inquiry:
The power of inquiry coming from the ability of a group to share the
information seeking tasks, from their sharing of news and effective monitoring
of new developments and from their ability to access new people because of a
larger combined access to weak ties in their combined personal networks.
...We need groups ... to be the scouts and scanners and amassers of
incredible knowledge wealth who then come back and throw their riches into big
piles that other groups can sort and refine and filter with their unique perspectives
and the techniques and churn out ever more interesting applications, solutions
and also an unending supply of new questions for the scanners and scouts to
bring back possible answers for.
Duncan
13Dec98
Where does inquiry leverage come from?
- access to new ideas?
- from reflections and dwelling
in the questions?
- from the dialog and more
questions?
- from linking your models to
alternative interpretations?
When do you search for new ideas, and when do you reflect,
mull, synthesize, categorize, revise, alter old models, incorporate new ideas?
How is that switch best implemented?
· What are the critical signs that it is time to orchestrate a switch?
· What are the signs that we are stuck in the hollow?
· What is the best way to raise the entropy level?
· When does high entropy become dysfunctional?
Coherence -- integration -- entropy -- how are these phenomena really related?
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