Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on July 11, 1997 at 09:49:59:

In Reply to: Dialog & knowledge creation posted by Denham on July 11, 1997 at 00:06:16:

I share your emphasis on the 'soft issues' that seem essential for generating dialog even when it is facilitated by the latest gizmos. In the absence of willingness to share and to learn, even the latest tools such as CSCW (computer supported collaborative work), groupware, and intranets, may generate little knowledge sharing or knowledge creation.

What is essential for dialog is not only the existing knowledge at individual or group level, but the ability and the willingness to explore beyond what is currently accepted as 'given,' call it 'best practices,' 'benchmarks,' or 'dominant logic.' In that sense, what seems essential to dialog is maintaining a continuous mode of inquiry that considers the current state of knowledge - however, 'proven' it may be - as tentative. This seems necessary for facilitating an ongoing process of divergence and convergence. Here, divergence implies generation of alternative hypotheses, encompassing various perspectives of the 'problem,' as well as 'solutions,' that are multiple pathways or means for solving those problems considered within the specific organizational context. Similarly, convergence implies surfacing of the 'shared' perspectives on such problems and solutions.

However, the essence of the dialog is not the search of consensus, but facilitating a positive culture for surfacing dissension so that contradictory, as well as complementary, tacit assumptions and perspectives are made explicit and thus more understandable by the various participants. The end product is not a given 'problem' or a specific 'solution,' but a sharing of the various perspectives of the 'problem' and the possible 'solutions.' This process of knowledge sharing results in greater interpretive flexibility of the participants, thus yielding flexible schemas that can yield greater knowledge creation for a given data set or given information points. Consider it akin to using lenses of various color and cuts to view the same phenomena from different vantage points: what one views is not a given perspective, but a whole mutli-dimensionality of perspectives.

Technologies are effective in such processes to the extent they can facilitate the operationalization of the processes mentioned above.

"Imagination is more important than Knowledge."
-- Albert Einstein

"Solutions...are a temporary event, specific to a context, developed through the relationship of persons and circumstances."
-- Margaret J. Wheatley

---

Follow Ups:

• Re: How to Facilitate Dialog & Knowledge Creation? Sean ho 21:43:30 10/13/98 (0)
• Re: How to Facilitate Dialog & Knowledge Creation? Jeff 15:18:38 7/14/97 (2)
  • Re: How to Facilitate Dialog & Knowledge Creation?: Thoughts & References Yogesh Malhotra 18:47:22 7/14/97 (1)
    • Re: How to Facilitate Dialog & Knowledge Creation?: Thoughts & References Brad Katz 14:31:07 8/12/97 (0)
• Re: How to Facilitate Dialog & Knowledge Creation? Jeff 15:03:32 7/14/97 (1)
  • Middle Managers and "Middle-Up-Down" Knowledge Creation Yogesh Malhotra 23:38:21 7/19/97 (0)
• Quality questions Denham 11:04:03 7/11/97 (1)
  • Re: WebGrid; More on Grids & Theory / Philosophy Behind Grids Yogesh Malhotra 15:11:13 7/13/97 (0)

---

Click Here to Post Follow Up in New Forums

    Knowledge Management Think Tank (New)

  

 Subject: 

Message: