TMA World Viewpoint 31: Knowledge and learning in the Borderless Workplace
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Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace: Beyond Nationality Terence Brake Head of Learning & Innovation, TMA World
description
In organizations, knowledge was – and sometimes still is - trapped in business and functional silos. That must change if companies are going to compete in a hyper-competitive, fast-changing and knowledge-based economy in which there is also an increasing shortage of knowledgeable and skilled talent. This TMA World presentation explores how knowledge can be shared in the borderless workplace, through technology, such as TMA World Learnspace. For more information, visit our website: http://www.tmaworld.com/training-solutions/digital-learning/learnspace/, or contact us directly: [email protected]
Transcript of TMA World Viewpoint 31: Knowledge and learning in the Borderless Workplace
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace: Beyond Nationality
Terence Brake
Head of Learning & Innovation, TMA World
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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The greatest revolution in my
lifetime – at least for me – is
finger-tip access to the world’s
knowledge and information.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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I grew up in a time when
knowledge was predominantly
in printed books, and the only
access point to those books was
a CARD CATALOGUE!
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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People were another source of
knowledge, but my networks
were limited to just a few
individuals. Now my networks
can be global.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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In organizations, knowledge
was – and sometimes still is
- trapped in business and
functional silos.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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That must change if companies
are going to compete in a
hyper-competitive, fast-
changing and knowledge-based
economy in which there is also
an increasing shortage of
knowledgeable and skilled
talent.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Collaboration is critical to
leverage what knowledge and
skills are available and to
continuously innovate and be
agile.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Unfortunately, there are many knowledge management systems that have not kept pace with the times.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Many people have become disenchanted with clunky repository-based knowledge management systems. There are many reasons for this: lack of integration of knowledge systems with organizational processes, systems designed without key stakeholder input, a lack of understanding of the barriers to knowledge transfer, difficulties in representing the knowledge assets in user-friendly ways, a lack of transparency on the part of contributors, difficulties in finding an appropriate level of specificity in the contributions so that users can determine usefulness (although tagging can help).
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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As well as making improvements to the above, we must also change how we perceive ‘knowledge’.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
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The traditional knowledge-management
approach tends to treat ‘knowledge’ as
something solid and static - an object, a
thing - something that can be captured in a
database and used time and time again.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
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Some knowledge can be used time and
again like the laws of physics – although
particle physics has presented classical
physics with some mind-numbing
conundrums in the past few decades.
Scientists will tell you that all knowledge is
tentative, something can happen tomorrow
that turns respected science on its head -
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
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You mean the earth isn’t the center of the solar system? Well, who would have guessed?
Knowledge is as much a verb as it is a noun.
” “
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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While the storage, retrieval and distribution
of ‘object’ knowledge is still important to
21st century business organizations, equally
important – if not more so in today’s
environment – is the development of
borderless systems and processes that
enable the dynamic creation, sharing, and
learning of knowledge (knowledge
embedded in individuals and communities
as well as documents and databases).
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Knowledge and learning and development systems need to be integrated into one. Think of a system that not only stores past and current knowledge, but enables knowledge creation processes and sharing to be developed dynamically in borderless collaborative relationships - an adaptive system that accommodates not only whole-enterprise knowledge sharing and capability development needs, but also the existing and emergent needs of different knowledge and practice communities within them.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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With these needs in mind, TMA World has developed a flexible online platform (Learnspace) enabling users to access formal knowledge/learning resources, as well as provide capabilities for collaborative knowledge creation and learning.
Users can not only access over 1000 TMA World
learning resources individually, they can also build
them into customizable Learning Paths.
Users can also interact with one another to share
knowledge, experience and skills.
They can also upload their own knowledge content
and learning resources and build/share learning
collections built from those provided by TMA World.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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With these needs in mind, TMA World has developed a flexible online platform (Learnspace) enabling users to access formal knowledge/learning resources, as well as provide capabilities for collaborative knowledge creation and learning.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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The TMA World content targets what we call the critical4
borderless work capabilities
Borderless Collaboration
Cultural Intelligence
Digital Fluency
Matrix Working
These critical4 capabilities are explored in my e-book:
The Borderless Workplace: The critical4 capabilities for the new world of work available for free on the TMA World website. You can also learn more about Learnspace at the site.
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Publications Written by Terence Brake, Director of Learning & Innovation at TMA World. Our new Borderless Working e-book series
About Us
Visit
www.tmaworld.com/insights
to discover the latest
thinking from our experts
on global, collaborative,
cross-cultural and virtual
working. There you’ll find
links to our:
Knowledge and learning in the borderless workplace
© Transnational Management Associates Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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Above all we’d like to hear from you directly, so please don’t hesitate to send any comments, questions or feedback
to us at:
Or visit our website:
www.tmaworld.com
About Us
Visit
www.tmaworld.com/insights
to discover the latest
thinking from our experts
on global, collaborative,
cross-cultural and virtual
working.
