Straits
Knowledge Bulletin
August 2010 - focus on storytelling and narrative
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| Greetings! |
Singapore is a place that never seems to tire of getting busier -
to the Formula 1 Night Race this year we have added this year the
inaugural Youth Olympics and the opening of two casinos.
In the supposedly more sheltered waters of KM we are also warming
up on the events front: at the beginning of September we are
helping to organise the inaugural Origins: Asia Pacific Business Narrative
Conference, a week later there is KM Singapore with its annual
KM Excellence Awards, then the last run of our knowledge sharing
techniques workshop for this year, and a daisy chain of KM-related
conferences taking us to December. Check the events sidebar for
more.
Our focus for this issue of the newsletter is on the uses of
storytelling and narrative - how it can help to humanise and
socialise the workplace, how it can help us navigate culture and
change, and how it can assist in knowledge transfer and
learning.
We have developed a new set of KM Diagnostic Cards, and not to
put it to shame we have a spanking new web store with an expanded range
of products from trusted partners. To celebrate, we are offering
all our subscribers a limited term 20% discount on our Straits
Knowledge products and bundles. The coupon is below. Pass it
on!
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Focus: Storytelling and
Narrative
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With
Shawn Callahan of Anecdote I have been helping to organise the
inaugural Origins Asia Pacific Business Narrative
Conference as part of the Singapore International Storytelling
Festival.
We've also made this an experiment in conference design, with only
one presentation style portion (the opening keynote, from Victoria
Ward, on "Experience, Vividness and Energy: Stories in
Organisations") - the rest will be case discussions, techniques
sharing, a "story slam" competition, and a dialogue on the themes
of the day.
We have a stunning array of case studies, from Singapore,
Thailand, Philippines, Australia, USA and South Africa, covering
branding, development and aid, government, organisational change,
influencing culture, values alignment, marketing, employee
engagement, non-profits, leadership development, team-building,
community health, and coaching.
The second day will be half day workshops covering storytelling in
managing change, influencing culture and coaching, the use of voice
techniques, and performance techniques in storytelling.
If you are working in branding, marketing, senior leadership,
organisation development, facilitation, teaching or instructional
design, knowledge management, change management, project
management, strategic planning, corporate communications or sales,
this conference cannot be missed. Visit the conference blog here, and you can download the brochure here. Tell your friends about
this!
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Resources
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If
you are interested in a very practical guide to the use of
narrative and storytelling in organisations, the Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation has produced an excellent Story Guide: Building Bridges Using
Narrative Techniques (co-authored by our Origins keynote
Victoria Ward). It sets a very clear and balanced background, and
offers a range of practical techniques you can use - the examples
are taken from a development context, but the techniques will work
equally well in an internal organisational context.
Olivier Serrat of the Asian Development Bank (also speaking at
Origins) has written a series of very accessible mini-guides to
different ways of using narrative including Storytelling, Most Significant Change, Showcasing Knowledge, Critical Incident Technique,
Drawing Learning Charters, Embracing Failure, Seeding Knowledge Solutions.
If you like these, check out the ADB's Knowledge Solutions Library,
where there are many more KM resources!
My co-organiser Shawn Callahan and his colleague Mark Schenk have
an excellent series of white papers on the application of narrative in
organisational contexts, including the design of strategy and
change, building a collaborative workplace, harnessing tacit
knowledge, and sizing up complex situations.
Victoria Ward's company Sparknow has a very rich resources
section, including story gathering questions, tips for storytellers, tools and techniques, and resources from their projects, many of them
illustrating innovative approaches to KM needs.
The Anecdote and Sparknow blogs are well worth subscribing to,
and if you want to connect more deeply to a community of
practitioners involved in ogranisational story work, try joining
the World Wide Story Work community.
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New KM Web Store
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We are continuing to develop products out of our consulting
experience. We are delighted to launch our latest product, our new
KM Diagnostic Cards,
which are designed be used as part of a systematic KM audit to find
the most consistent and pervasive knowledge management needs in an
organisation; they can also be used to spread KM awareness among
operational managers. The
cards represent 75 signals of knowledge or information management
needs, and when used in an audit help build up a picture of the
areas where KM effort should be focused. The results can be used in
conjunction with our KM Method Cards to design
appropriate interventions.
We have also revamped and expanded our web store, and are now
pleased to include other knowledge management related resources
that are difficult to get through other channels. We now sell the
Change Management Cards
from our partners at the Change Management Toolbox, and a range of
books from the Information and Knowledge Management Society
including KM Competencies: A Framework for
Knowledge Managers, and their annual series on KM in
Singapore, Knowledge Management: Singapore
Perspectives.
To celebrate the dual launch, we're offering our newsletter
subscribers and previous purchasers of our products, a 20% discount
on all the products and bundles published by Straits Knowledge -
this is valid until the end of the month. Use the coupon below to
take advantage of this offer, and feel free to pass it on to people
you feel might benefit.
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Everything
we do in KM is intended to be practical, useful and well-founded.
That's why we combine our consulting with research, professional
networking, product development and training. If you have ideas
about how we can make this bulletin more useful to you, please drop
us a line and let us know.
Warm
good wishes from the Straits Knowledge team
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Patrick
Lambe
Straits Knowledge
web: www.straitsknowledge.com
blog: www.greenchameleon.com
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| Save
20% |
This coupon will give you 20% off the
list price for all Straits Knowledge products and bundles offered
via the online store. It does not apply to products and
publications from other sources.
To apply the discount visit our
online store at http://store.straitsknowledge.com and enter the coupon code
SK2010-20 when you get to the
payment page.
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| Offer
Expires: August 30 2010 |
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