Session F5 - Knowledge in the 21st Century...You Should Know Better (J Cross)

What knowledge really is is different than what it used to be...

Brent called Jay two months ago, and let Jay know he was going to present: Knowledge. Jay responded with a WTF, which means 'Welcome to Facebook' *wink*. But what is knowledge? Is it the tree of knowledge, is it knowledge from books, is it a powertrip that postures one over another, is it academia?

The dictionary tells that Knowledge is an acquaintance of facts...nope.

Verna Allee writes, in The Future of Knowledge, that Now it is important for managers to work deliberately to improce the quality of knowledge and learning as it is to improve the quality of products and services. Getting there...

Knowledge is not the stuff that's in our heads. Ten years ago, people would have said that knowledge is this magic stuff that you pick up and transfer somehow, and it goes to your head. What's really important, though, is our Shared Concentral Intelligence...THAT's what knowledge really is.

According to Jay, Knowledge is the precursor to action. It's sort of like, in physics, where an object is at rest, and I expend some energy to move it, now it has potential energy. Knowledge is potential action. If the knowledge doesn't lead to action, either it wasn't knowledge or I don't really give a damn about it anyway.

The way change affects things, knowledge obsoletes itself rapidly. During the time we've been in Vegas, more knowledge has been generated than from the dawn of man to 2003. Insane...

What kind of knowledge creation is appropriate for this new world? First, we all MUST be leaders. Everyone must run the ship, because the ship's in rough waters these days. People need to link arms and think 'groups/teams' rather than just one learner. It occurred to Jay that he was crossing over into something he'd already been working on - Unmanagement.

Unmanagement
Last century management practices include One to One email, Information hoarding, budgets, deadlines, plans, rules, training, individual producer, annual reviews, job descriptions/job, and carrot on a stick motivation.


Unmanagement = BLT - Business, Leader, Team

Business
Delight customers, Rapid cycles, Embrace change, Make mistakes, Reflect

Leader
Take stock, Take charge, Coach, Conduct, De-stress

Team
Sprint, Decide, Net-work, Motivate/happy, Converse

(Cue the United Airlines Breaks Guitars video...CLASSIC.)


Happiness
You would think that money would make people happy. You would be wrong.

And happiness is, ultimately, a driver behind performance. A recent study ranked activities from Happiest to Least Happy as the following:

Having sex
Conversation/Work
Music
walking
Eating
Meditating
Cooking
Shopping
Taking Care of the Children
Going to Work
Work

(Look at how far up Conversation/Work appears...that conversation AS PART OF work is EXTREMELY important!)


Summary
Management practices have more than certainly become antiquated, and we need new lines of thinking to motivate people. The thought that money motivates is WAY outdated, and the fact that workplace conversation is as valuable as it is...that's telling. Jay is, for sure, one of the most innovative human beings I've ever gotten to listen to...definitely time well spent (not that there was any doubt).


(SIDE NOTE - Yammer is Twitter, but allows you to filter users by corporate email...useful.)