Learning from the young people

Do our cultural orientations allow this?

Do adults know better?

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My 25+ years of working experience means that in my office I have team members who are in the age range of 21 years upwards. I am living in an era where many things have changed – for example the growth and use of technology, the diversity of people working in organisations and the generally different terrain of today’s work place.

A growing number of Africans are living and working in other African countries. People from varying religious backgrounds are working together in teams. People with different belief systems and experiences find themselves having to collaborate at work places. The workers are also becoming younger and younger in most organisations.

I am interested in how we can tap into this diversity for knowledge transfer, learning from each other, mentoring, coaching and promoting innovative ways of working.

I worked as a computer programmer in the 90s and early 2000s. I then became a manager of technical teams. I know that I have much to learn from the young people concerning the current tools and platforms that are being used for example by systems developers/programmers in this new age. I admit that young people know certain things that I do not know.

My experience of working in some countries in Africa is that the young people’s voices cannot be easily heard in organizations. The older people have the final say. The young people will not speak up and oppose the views of an adult. I find that this suffocates learning, collaboration and knowledge transfer.

How I learn from young people

1.  I established ‘Tuesday Meetings’ where the department meets to share. The golden rule is that everyone’s views matter.
2. We hold joint learning sessions. This is based on an agreed area of joint learning. Young people get the opportunity to research and present as a method of joint learning.
3. I assign young people to solve real organisational problems. This is of course done under supervision, but they lead the process.

Advantages of having young people in the work place

1. They have more energy and zeal
2. They are technology-savvy
3. They have new ideas. With guidance some of these ideas could benefit organisations
4. They quickly adapt to new environments

What the older people bring to the work place

1.  Older people bring valuable experience. Nothing beats experience. But experience must not come in the way of new thinking
2. They know people and have networks associated with their profession
3. Loyalty – the young could benefit from this
4. Have more organisational skills

We can benefit from understanding the value that young people and other diverse groups can bring to the organisations. If diverse teams are properly nurtured – this can result in organisations that easily ‘learn’, ‘adapt’ and anticipate new directions to take.

Thank you for reading my article. What has been your experience as a young person in an organisational setting? What has been your experience if you are an older person? Do our cultural orientations promote learning from the youth?

The evolution of Knowledge Management and where we are as the RUFORUM Network

Knowledge Management in the context of the RUFORUM Network (Part V)
From the table below it is evident that Knowledge Management has been taking place in the RUFORUM Network in many forms. What has been lacking is an intentional KM Strategy that could be periodically evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of KM in the RUFORUM Network. We have also been lacking a dedicated team to manage KM activities. We have done well in setting up ICT infrastructure. A great deal still needs to be done to improve content management. Capacity building in KM also needs to be strengthened. The culture of learning in the network could also be reinforced. There is an opportunity for the RUFORUM Network to leverage its collective knowledge by holding knowledge cafes during network meetings, convening strategic conversations that would result in new knowledge and using social networking to capture different views.

STAGES OF KM EVOLUTION	WHERE WE ARE AS A NETWORK
	Secretariat Level	Member Universities Level	Wider Agricultural Network Level
KM as ICT or Information Management	Technical infrastructure –  LAN: collaboration via email, intranet based systems & file servers; cloud based MIS: Website; Platforms for communities of practice: mailing lists, social media – blogs, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube,	ICT Situation Analysis to track Infrastructure development in member universities (2009): 86% had campus backbones 58% had ICT Policies in place 60% had central ICT units to manage and monitor ICT projects	ICT infrastructure in Africa getting better.  Beginning of 2012: 650 million mobile subscriptions; 68,000 km of submarine cable; 615,000 km of national backbone networks had been laid - increasing connectivity across Africa.
KM as Human Resource Development or Human Talent Development	Culture for learning & improving through staff training, work procedures, team work & performance management systems	Training agricultural professionals in MSc Agricultural Information & Communication Management; Supporting universities to adopt open access policies;	Partnering with strategic partners to facilitate training in Agricultural Knowledge Management;
KM as organizational approach	KM Unit to be established; Culture for learning & improving through staff meetings	Promoting collaborative research through the RUFORUM granting mechanism – encouraging learning together with academia, communities, private sector and other stakeholders	Facilitating networking for learning through conversations during the RUFORUM AGM, biennial conferences, national forums and various other network learning events
KM as an integral approach, optimizing knowledge ecosystems	Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning framework; Draft Communications Strategy; Knowledge repository; We-based Information Mngmt System; Vibrant Website and Social Media Platforms Documenting processes and sharing lessons learned Strengthened governance, management & leadership	Inspired member universities to establish knowledge repositories	Working with strategic partners to increase reach  and reduce duplication of efforts Communicating via – social media, website, knowledge repository, print media and other platforms - SciDev, university world news, etc.

Part VI will discuss selected Knowledge Management Models.

Knowledge Management Evolution

Knowledge Management in the context of the RUFORUM Network (Part IV)

I came across three ways that the evolution of Knowledge Management has been mapped out by different authors / organizations / communities. 

The KMWorld website describes 3 stages of KM evolution:

1. First Stage of KM was about Information Technology. There was excitement in the opportunities provided by the internet and possibilities of sharing information and knowledge. Emphasis was on establishing communication and sharing infrastructure - intranets, emails
2. Second Stage of KM was about Human Resources and Corporate Culture. This stage recognized that KM was not just about information technology - but the people and the organizational culture mattered. This stage also marked the beginning of communities of practice. 
3. Third Stage of KM elevated the importance of Taxonomy and Content Management. There was recognition that content management and its accessibility and find-ability were important – including the structure of that content.

 In her Blog Nancy Dixon considers the three eras of KM to be:

1. Leveraging Explicit Knowledge – and focusing on documentation of information and knowledge in accessible databases. This phase emphasized capturing of best practices and lessons learned, building repositories and databases. KM was viewed as a “library or a warehouse with inputs and outputs”. 
2. Leveraging Experiential Knowledge – through supporting communities of practice. Methods suc as Q&A were used by workers to share their tacit knowledge. Processes such as After Action Reviews were institutionalized to support “continuous learning in teams and projects so that what was being learned in the field could be continually updated”. Expertise Locator systems supported the location of experts and “knowledge harvesting”. 
3. Leveraging Collective Knowledge – has been done by “a few leading edge organizations that have developed new practices for making use of their organization’s collective knowledge”.  This phase is characterized by Knowledge Café’s, organizing conversations that produce new knowledge, strategic use of Web 2.0 social media - Wiki’s, blogs, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Nancy reckons that most organizations are still focused in leveraging experiential knowledge. She also alludes to the fact that organizations that are lagging behind in KM are “still struggling with getting good content management in place”.

CTA & Co-Capacity outlined the evolution of KM as below:

1. KM as ICT or Information Management – this phase is similar to the first stage of KM described by KMWorld. Knowledge was perceived to be written or digitised content. KM was about ICT tools such as online databases, online libraries, information management (IM).
2. KM as Human Resource Development or Human Talent Development – this phase saw the shift towards the personal side of knowledge. It had been realized that knowledge was not contained in ICT systems, but was personal and subjective: “knowledge is in people”. This phase placed emphasis on technical, management and personal trainings, appraisal talks and formulating personal goals.
3. KM as an organizational approach – This phase emphasized a focus on people interacting in an environment, such as within a company, a network or a community. This phase involved introduction of concepts such as ‘knowledge-intensive environments’, ‘knowledge-workers’, capacity building of stakeholders - strengthening organizations and partners in their capacity to effectively apply knowledge and use information.
4. KM as an integral approach, optimising knowledge ecosystems – this phase aims to develop improved ‘knowledge environments’ in which individuals, organisations and networks/communities are prepared to create added and sustainable value for their partners, clients and members. This is based on the principles of systems thinking and is also related to organisational learning and innovation systems. Integral KM develops and balances out five important dimensions of knowledge intensive environments: 

•  Root aspects - strategy, values & culture, structures & governance, management & leadership, and skills & staff
• Knowledge processes - knowledge creation, storage and use
• Enablers - communication, systems & technologies, learning and M&E, and internal innovation
• External factors - stakeholders participation, external influences and external resources
• Brokering, adoption and monitoring & evaluation of knowledge products & services

Part V will discuss Knowledge Management Evolution and where we are as the RUFORUM Network.