Creating the Social Enterprise – January New England KM Cluster

The next New England KM Cluster will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 21, 2005. It will be hosted by IBM at One Rogers Street. The theme is ‘Creating the Social Enterprise: Getting Connected from the Inside Out.’ Peter Gloor (MIT Sloan), Kate Ehrlich (IBM Research) and I have had fun putting this together and hope to see you there. Here is a summary of the theme and participants.

There is a growing interest in the power of social networks and our ability to analyze them. Managers who look at their organization through the lens of a social network diagram, will see where barriers such as those between countries or organizations might block the smooth flow of information; where important expertise stuck at the edges of the network is not being effectively utilized to generate new ideas; where decision-makers are holding up processes by not distributing decision-making authority.

But what does the network look like when viewed from the inside out, from the perspective of the person within the network? How does an individual use the resources around them - whether people, technology, information, knowledge, - to make the right personal connections and get the best information they can in the shortest amount of time?

The session looks at key elements: the technology, emotion, time and space as some of the elements that make the organization more or less "usable". Can technology really foster new connections between people? Is our work regulated by personal relationships or do the demands of professional obligations transcend personal emotion? How does space - both physical and virtual – and time impact our ability and willingness to collaborate?

Tom Davenport will kick off the meeting by looking at the rise of high performance knowledge workers who use technology, as well as their network, to get and manage information. He will explore our theme in the broader perspective of personal knowledge management. Tom will also examine the social role of idea practitioners in spreading innovation.

For the remainder of the day we have convened three panels to consider how different levels of a network – people, teams and enterprise structures – impact the individual in the network. Mark Bonchek, Managing Director of Tapestry Networks will moderate the panels and lead us through a discussion of the challenges and opportunities to bring a network perspective - from the inside out - to creating the social enterprise of the future. Eileen Clegg of Visual Insight will record the proceedings using Visual Journalism.

Panel One: Personal Networks: Is there a role for technology? Social software tools are designed to help individuals expand their network of contacts for business and social pursuits. Can technology really speed the referral process or does something get lost in translation? Panelists: Judith Meskill (Social Software Weblog), Dave Newbold (IBM Emerging Technology), Paul Trevithick (Social Physics)

Panel Two: Team Dynamics: Building synergy out of diversity. People are often selected for membership on a team based on their skills, competencies, and past performance. But emotional factors such as energy, liking, and trust influence individual behavior with potentially profound consequences for the team. Panelists: Patti Anklam (Hutchinson Associates), Tizanna Casciaro (Harvard Business School), Kate Ehrlich (IBM Research)

Panel Three: Structural Enhancements and Barriers: Creating spaces for connection and collaboration. Work takes place in a context that is both physical and virtual, as well as temporal. What characteristics of the environment help or hinder collaborative behaviors. Panelists: Peter Gloor (MIT Sloan), Bill Ives (Portals and KM) and (an expert in the use of physical space TBD)

By highlighting these three levels within networks we hope to not only illuminate the role and experience of the individual but to also shed light for managers on some of the important dimensions to create and maintain a productive, effective networked organization. John Maloney will lead a summary discussion at the end.

Comments

[Gautam Ghosh]

Sounds great, Bill!

I wish there can be some similar conferences in India.

Can you share some material/thoughts after the cluster gets over?

regards
Gautam