The Future of Knowledge

Citation

Allee, V. (2004), "The Future of Knowledge", The Learning Organization, Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 94-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470410515751

We have been inundated with business articles, books and speeches lauding the new knowledge age. Both authors and practitioners highlight the value that knowledge is creating, and the need to manage knowledge for high performance and competitive advantage. Most of us accept these premises, and can understand the power and speed of knowledge creation, and the role of networks in these processes. But how do we advocate, gain acceptance for and utilise tacit knowledge and relationships to maximise performance? In a world driven by metrics and predominantly financial criteria, how do we reconcile and integrate qualitatively new phenomena and opportunities for the mutual benefit of organisations and the communities that they serve? For the very changes that have brought knowledge to the fore demand new criteria: criteria that not only satisfy the prevailing requirements for financial and economic success, but which also encompass organisational renewal and reinvention that enhances the organisation's relevance and longer term success.

The author seeks to meet these challenges by probing our definitions and understanding of organisations and organisational learning, by questioning our most basic assumptions about these issues, and by providing ideas, frameworks and tools that yield new insights.

Verna Allee uses a four‐part structure to guide and stimulate her reader through these complex issues. In Part I she considers the emergent business environment and how management thinking and behavior, organisational dynamics and business methods will have to evolve to meet the challenges of the future. In this section she begins to unveil the functions and power of networks and the new thinking and practices that are required to resolve the complexities that characterise our organisations and their environments. In Part II she deals with the opportunities provided by the Web and the processes and dynamics of knowledge creation, transfer and application. In Part III the author explores the ways in which knowledge emerges in and travels through conversations, networks and communities. Finally she opens up some pathways to the future and introduces some robust and practical tools that will enable the reader to make use of the insights that are offered.

The author outlines many examples of companies and consultants who have incorporated social network principles with real advantage. Some have institutionalised Senge's generative learning approach. Others have extended their repertoire of “sense making” techniques for strategy, performance and sustainability with new forms of large‐scale group processes that incorporate holistic whole‐system thinking. Group facilitators are warned! Dialogue and graphic meeting facilitation, “knowledge cafes”, and more active large conversation processes have been successfully employed to effect change, analyse business processes, maximise stakeholder relationships and drive the next waves of performance. A new generation of powerful process and tools have been developed to enable managers, specialists and consultants deal with these qualitatively new issues and challenges.

The author suggests that the old notions of systematising, documenting and process reengineering need to be replaced with marshalling community knowledge and expertise networks. Allee outlines deep shifts in both the focus of business and the developments in management thinking that help us to derive greater value from complex interdependent relationships.

Despite the complexities and abstract nature of many of the concepts and phenomena that are covered in this book Verna Allee's sentences are succinct, her paragraphs easy to read, her style is engaging. Yet the content is so power‐packed that the reader is invariably jolted into methodically reading many sentences slowly and returning to earlier sections to connect insights and embed new ways of thinking about central issues. She has also supported her chapters with sound research that flows in the narrative. Fortunately, the book is also well structured with useful figures and tables, practical case studies, a glossary of terms and numerous examples of new methodologies. Rather than being overwhelmed by the many new practices, she provokes in the reader a sense of responsibility to make the mindset shift to improve knowledge sharing and to regard intangibles more as assets, negotiable goods and deliverables.

This book is worthy of the close attention of both practitioners and academics who are grappling with the need to move from the present to the future. Its most tangible benefits lie in the ideas, frameworks and tools that are offered by the author. At a deeper level the reader will be provoked to challenge some of the most basic assumptions that we make about our organisations, about the roles and contributions of managers and leaders, and about the need to think differently about the interactions between our organisations and the communities in which they are embedded. By avoiding trite perspectives on and analyses of the nature, management and contribution of knowledge Verna Allee has moved this important topic forward in ways that few authors have conceived or achieved. The Future of Knowledge is a worthy read for managers, consultants and academics alike.

Karen van Druten

Mount Eliza Business School