I am available for keynotes at public and in-house conferences
My practice with presentations is to talk for a short while and then pose a question to the audience to discuss in small groups, giving them the time to connect what I’ve been talking about to their own knowledge. I then continue the presentation, adding a few more ideas and again provide a question. The average attention span for an adult is 20 minutes. Anything a presenter says after that is lost to memory unless the presenter provides an opportunity for listeners to process the information. Using the talk-then-discuss format, members of the audience retain what they’ve heard because they’ve had the opportunity to put it into their own words in the discussion segments. (See We Learn When We Talk) They also share their own knowledge with others in the audience in a way that coffee breaks just can match. A typical talk with the discussion sections takes about an hour and a half.
Examples of presentations topics:
• KM: Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going There is a way that most organizations start up their KM efforts and then a next step they usually take, and so on. This presentation lays out that trajectory but most importantly looks at how leading edge organizations are thinking about knowledge management – “where we are going.” I first made this presentation at the Army KM Conference and then revised it for KM Asia and then again for other smaller venues. It's a helpful way for an organization to think about where they currently are and what next steps they want to take. To get an overview of the presentation read these three blog posts:Part 1 Part 2 Part 3• How to Learn From Failure – It’s Possible A number of industries have found the secrets of learning from failure, but it takes a great deal more than building a lessons learned database. One of those secrets is to focus on learning from small failures to prevent large catastrophes. That however requires a systematic way to identify small failures. I provide organizational examples for each of the three critical elements. To preview the other elements read Learning from Failure.
• Five Actions Organizations Can Take to Increase Knowledge Sharing This presentation focuses on different ways for enterprises to address knowledge sharing, including building relationships, designing spaces (physical and virtual) that encourage conversation, developing and practicing conversation skills, building knowledge sharing into the workflow, and leadership support of the knowledge sharing message. I first made this presentation at a KM World conference, and it has become my most asked for presentation. You can see some of the ideas at Five Actions Organizations Can Take to Increase Knowledge Sharing.
I assist conference planners to making conferences and retreats more interactive.
It is something of a paradox that most conferences put on to promote knowledge management in an organization provide little opportunity for participants to share or exchange their own knowledge.Common Knowledge Associates designs meetings, retreats and conferences that facilitate knowledge sharing. I draw on techniques from large group processes including, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space Technology, Knowledge Café, and Future Search to tailor a design to purpose. Learn more about how I think about assisting conference planners Download Conference planning
