Draft workshop notes

The W's - Who, What, Why, How, By Whom, For Whom

Why	There are commonly confronted challenges in our organisations/networks (refer to KE themes) To create learning alliances around particular challenges and sharing experiences What is the value-added? To support joint research across the KM4Dev community on challenges that continue to plague development workers using an inquiry driven process
What	A group of people who are the 'owners' of the challenge and ways to address it Produce guides/manuals on how particular challenges can be confronted Compelling stories, archetypes, the stories that illustrate success in confronting a theme (2 or 3 stories)
How	Iterative active and collective learning alliances Stories are a vehicle or a digestible form of the research results Groups come together to reflect on different themes/types of situations. Identify lines of inquiry. Exchange tools, stories, resources and their uses and benefits. Compile documentation (using variety of media and formats such as guides, blogs, stories). Its about meeting and reflecting what we know already and packaging it in a way that is useful for others (including linkages to appropriate people) Test the products and groups' knowledge in real situations; feedback into the products Make resources, tools, questions, introductory information accessible to people to confront these challenges We need to accept that we need endurance, that there will be chaos and not knowing/lack of knowledge along the way, that our issues/challenges may not be solved straight away – a desert that has to be crossed, on the search of the journey – but that there is a possibility to come out with a solution/an answer/an exploration at the end. '"One thing I learned here at the KM4Dev is that confusion is good" - Munya Saruchera, KM4Dev participant
By Whom	The KM4Dev Community People struggling with these challenges
For Whom	The KM4Dev Community People not physically and virtually on journey with us struggling with these challenges

Vision for the Knowledge Expedition (INSERT Flower Diagram)

In a visioning exercise of the KE, the group was inspired by the following quote shared by Ernst Bolliger attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

"You don't have to teach people how to sail, you have to instill a desire within them to aspire to new horizons."

The original quote was found after the workshop:

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

A poem written by Sarah Berry also provided some inspiration:

Learning Our Language
You need to learn the meanings
of my metaphors,
I need to learn the framework
of your practice.

In the metaphors and the practice
the meeting takes place,
in the time of meeting
the transfer finds space.

In learning our language
this relationship gets name,
you are my metaphor, and
I, your practice framed.

The KE Themes and Approach

The KM4Dev Brighton workshop held in 2006 allowed for validation of the following eight themes:

• Fire in the Field
• Glue
• Wisdom
• Healing
• Memory
• Voices
• Growth
• Vision

The Knowledge Expeditions initiative sets out to provide KM4Dev Community and/or outsiders with more knowledge of these themes by bringing together small groups who are interested in reflecting on each of these themes in depth and detail based on their own experiences and those of their colleagues. As demonstrated in the vision diagram, there are obvious overlaps and linkages among the themes that would need to be discussed at the start of any expedition.

Inquiry questions will guide the exploration. A shared journey provides individuals the opportunity to collectively deepen their practice in one or more of the themes. The process is intended to equip them with the knowledge and tools needed to work more effectively beyond the KM4Dev community within their organisation and with their partners.

Across all journeys, focus will be put towards the following:

• Learning
• Community knowledge
• Generating of knowledge products
• The process/methodology

Knowledge Products

Through their shared journey, explorers will identify, gather or develop, where needed:

• tools
• websites
• courses
• guides
• stories
• experiences
• other

• A process for capturing How to Guides: Package for a given theme – to allow people to see challenges theme relates to.
• Guide (not manual or even lessons learnt) – how to approach the development of a vision, and important elements of that process – short description of process elements. And access to specific tools and methodologies (their strengths and weaknesses), case studies that look at specific challenges with contextualised description, and/or stories (via various media, videos, voice, etc.)
• Questions: A Short list of questions that can answer with tag words, that leads you to best possible of sources. Helpful questions that could lead to tag words. With obstacles, I might want to find stories with vision or another theme.
• Resources: What are the best resources? Filter out the best resources, the best tools – so that other people can shorten their journey to implement.
• Stories
• Information, how to be collected and made available – how it's packaged
• Community who delve into specific themes, to confront challenges.

Practical Group discussions – How do we put the KE into practice?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1066/589405961_fa68d092bb_m.jpg
click for larger image on flickr

What does an Exploration look like?

• Metaphor of mountain top/plateau, representing and expedition - visualisation of mountain, birds and people as mentors, sun as energy.
• Climbers bring artefacts, possible frameworks, stories, experiences, existing tools, literary reviews, etc.
• Climbers meet at base camp, to reconvene, they meet on the wiki (which already has KE site), to provide insights into community, re-plan and reflect, think of a format to try and capture.
• They are keeping a journal along the way, which is the blog.
• Climbers run into other people along the mountain, and they bring into it different passions. Getting down the mountain can often be as hard as going up.
• The clouds on the top of the mountain, there really isn't a top of the mountain – it's the journey which is more important than actually arriving to the top.

Draft roadmap

• Create a wiki page for the theme
• Pull together existing material
• Collect stories/perceptions on the theme
• Build on Bev's modules
• Document our expedition
• Find a format – tool – framework for our expedition
• Literary review, existing tools, stories, fit with Bev's approach, learning approach within our organisation

Next Steps

1. Find a way of committing to one or two expeditions, identify other people not in KM4Dev, to go ahead with one or two expeditions. What are the concrete activities?
2. Work towards a concept note – for development of a proposal to generate resources, to put KE initiative into a project mode. Funding for core group as a mechanism.
3. Need to identify the why, what's the reason for doing it, and for who? Who are the intended beneficiaries, and what is it?

Sign Up: Who is interested in what?

• Fire of the Field: Ronald Lutalo, Amanuel Assefa, Simone Staiger, Taline Haytayan
• Voices: Bram Langen, Taline
• Glue:
• Wisdom: Claire Bure, Dorine Ruter
• Growth: Sarah Barry, Moraan Gilad, Claire, Taline, Dorine
• Memory: Bram, Ronald, Dorine
• Vision:
• Healing:
• Innovation: Amanuel, Simone, Ronald, Moraan

General Discussion Points - Raw Notes

Facilitation vs. Finding solutions

Many of us jump right away to the problem with a solving mode, and put in tools to solve problems. We are guided by the sponsor/donor to bring an answer to the questions – they want an answer/a solution. Example of two communities, one works and one doesn't work, and the solution is to bring them together to find a solution – it's for them to find the solution. Another example of a tribe in exctinction – so bring in another tribe to share learnings. The role of the facilitator is to facilitate and ask the right questions, and make the group decide for themselves. Need is in helping the right questions to be asked – it's an inquiry process more than a giving advice process.

'I lose contracts because I don't give the answer. I don't give the tools. I have to learn a language to talk with funders which prepares them in preparating for it.' Bev

How central should storytelling be to a KE expedition?

It's should be a piece of it, but not the whole of it. Distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge – tacit is a tricky thing. Capturing tacit knowledge is seen to come from stories. Focus is more on tacit knowledge in story telling. CoPs are another way tacit knoweldge is generated. Stories are one, and communities are another. Stories are part of it, but not all of it.

Two elements

Two key elements, learning alliance aspect, solve particular problems or challenges, resource development element to it, people can access things easy to digest resources, and use them within the context they want to use them. Identify key strengths of KE is, learning iteratively together and resources used to take on similar journeys. Leverage set of activities so that other people take more benefit from resources, learning and tools. Another element is to try and articulate set of common challenges in the community, into a taxonomy, that can then be approached in their own individuality as an expedition. (Allison's note: need to clarify this with Riff who articulated the elements)

Other points

• Organisational Learning and Knowledge for Action as additional themes
• Identify one or two themes people want to be working on. These topics could be adapted to one's own organisation? A number of different topics would be developed over time. Taxonomy of over-arching topic that can be digestible.