Difference between revisions of "Talk:CTLab:CoP Orientation"

Latest revision as of 10:42, 20 July 2012

James 2012/06/21

I’ve had a go at the Spidergram for a typical Community in our set. It shows we are heavily biased toward producing knowledge products and making tacit knowledge explicit more than developing or exploring relationships. Also that we are strongly inward looking. Perhaps the largely virtual nature of our groups lends itself toward the manufacture of technical knowledge as an area of common ground.

Nancy 2012/07/03

James, I was curious that you aspired to 10 on 8 of the 9 areas (Target value). Can you say more about that? I think that would require a TON of activity from your members. The spidergram seeks to identify what is most valuable for a community at any one time. Thoughts?

Thanks for doing this!

James 2012/07/03

Hi, Nancy.

These are certainly aspirational goals for our Communities and reflect that I would like to see them positioned as a natural, everyday way of life for our people. Within Alcoa, we have a value for excellence which talks to a relentless pursuit of outstanding results. Setting high goals and working toward them is a normal part of working here. So while we are a very long way from reaching these lofty ambitions, they do represent where we wish to get to.

Nancy 2012/07/03

Thanks, James. This is interesting.

Are all those orientations worth all that attention?

The thing that is really worrying me these days is people are trying to do too much. The technological implications is we add, add, add things (features, options etc). When are we usefully creating options and when are we diluting attention and effort?

These things are keeping me awake lately.

I have no answers. Just questions for now!

Jaap 2012/07/03

Hi Nancy, Your story makes me think about a week workshop without an agenda. This will buy the participants time, and space for new reflection. As expected, participants were confused at first, and after finishing mail etc, started to talk on what next :-) So technology is haunting us :-) Die Qual der Wahl Best, Jaap

James 2012/07/04

Hi, Nancy.

And very good questions, too!

If I took the review of orientation from the perspective of “What is key to our progress right now?”, I would refine the list to place emphasis on projects, content, meetings and access to expertise. The other items remain important, but as you quite rightly point out, we can’t do everything at once and do it well.

Peter 2012/07/05

Nancy I wonder is it the add-ons or is it rather that the "community" keeps growing rapidly and hence becomes more heterogeneous, and is allowed to be by the corers (which is fine to me).

Nancy 2012/07/05

Peter, I think we start getting into important distinctions of what "community" is, etc. Is the intent cooperation (which seems to scale quite well) or collaboration, which doesn't seem to scale so well.

I suspect we all have definitions in our heads that are not shared and make these sorts of conversations challenging.

Peter 2012/07/12

True Nancy, true! Ah that's where chocolate and face-to-face cigars, cognac and italian coffee come in!

Adrian 2012/07/09

I’m really interested in the spidergram tool, but am struggling to understand both the example you shared and how to use this approach for considering (and evaluating?) online communities. I’d be grateful if you could provide more info:

• There versions from several dates – what is the significance of these and have you been able to account for any trends?
• Did you base the shape of the spidergram on (survey) data you collected from community members?
• Are there situations where you selectively choose to take on-board what the data is telling you (i.e. what is significant, practicable etc)?

Many thanks for sharing any further details on this

Nancy 2012/07/12

Adrian, as one of the three troublemakers who originated the spidergram (with Etienne Wenger-Trayner and John D. Smith) I started to reply in text and realized I could much better answer your questions with context from your own situation. How about a Skype call that we can record and share with the rest of the group?