Thanks to David Gurteen’s  May 2009 Knowledge Letter, I recently discovered Nancy Dixon, a knowledge management (KM) consultant who specializes in the personal/human aspects of KM. In a post on her blog, Conversation Matters, she described the value of conversation:

“The greatest benefit of conversation is that it produces five categories of responses [answers, meta knowledge, problem reformulation, validation and legitimization], not just the answer. We get so much more from conversation, e.g. an unexpected insight, a sense of affirmation that inspires us to new heights or, equally useful, having to confront a realization that we’ve been trying to avoid; deepening the relationship with a colleague or the introduction to a collaborator we would never have discovered on our own; and on and on. The multiplicity of benefits addresses the very real problem of not knowing what we don’t know. A problem that is so frequent when the issues we are addressing are ambiguous and complex.”

Suddenly a conversation with the right person is laden with possibilities. Could change-ability really be so simple? Let me know how conversation has increased your change-ability.

He also has a fascinating blog called Study Hacks: Demystifying College Success which offers some interesting techniques for all of us who have to incorporate new information in our daily work or study. I was particularly intrigued by this one: “The Story Telling Method.”

Newport writes: “The Story Telling Method has an important benefit: it takes the large volume of information you just received and organizes it within a coherent framework.” Makes a lot of sense to me and is a strategy that I’ve used for years without really thinking about it. If you’re battling information overload like most of us, check out this post and the rest of his blog for some practical tips.

I’m writing an in-depth article about the use of “story” in capturing knowledge from employees before they move on. If you’ve ever tried to write a “manual” to leave behind when you move to a new position, you are very familiar with the challenges of imparting ALL of what you know. Some say that knowledge is “social”… that we need to have conversations with others in order for it to come to the surface or to be transferred. We’ve all experienced the realization that we know much more that we thought we knew–that we can articulate knowledge in conversation that we could not have produced without the discussion.

While “story” may be an element of mentoring, coaching, and other approaches to knowledge exchange, I’m specifically interested in story as the primary technique. It may be used within a community of practice model, brown-bag lunch sessions, or exit interviews … or possibly many other scenarios. These are the types of situations I’m interested in hearing about.

A parallel interest is that features of organizational culture that encourage development and transfer of tacit knowledge (space and opportunity for conversation, valuing interpersonal communication and sharing of experiences, appreciation for individual experience and exploration) are also features that nurture creativity in the workplace. Is there recognition or acknowledgement of such a link within organizations nurturing tacit knowledge exchange? Is creativity recognized as a valuable by-product of “story as a tool for knowledge exchange”–or vice versa?

I’d be very interested in hearing from you if you have experience with this topic (on either side–as a leaving employee or as a facilitator) or if you know of organizations utilizing story for knowledge strategies with employees who are leaving.

Please contact me by email at shelley AT shourstonandassociates DOT com. Thanks for your help!