Conducting Effective Meetings

Meetings bring people together to discuss a predetermined topic. However, too many are poorly planned and managed, and therefore fail to satisfy objectives when they do not simply waste time. The operating expenses of time wasted include related meeting expenditures, salaries, and opportunity costs. (No. 36 | March 2009)

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Writing Weblogs

A weblog, in its various forms, is a web-based application on which dated entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video are posted. A weblog enables groups of people to discuss electronically areas of interest and to review different opinions and information surrounding a topic. (No. 35 | March 2009)

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Building Networks of Practice

Organizational boundaries have been stretched, morphed, and redesigned to a degree unimaginable 10 years ago. Networks of practice have come of age. The learning organization pays attention to their forms and functions, evolves principles of engagement, circumscribes and promotes success factors, and monitors and evaluates performance with knowledge performance metrics. (No. 34 | March 2009)

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Working in Teams

Cooperative work by a team can produce remarkable results. The challenge is to move from the realm of the possible to the realm of practice. (No. 33 | March 2009)

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Staff Profile Pages

Staff profile pages are dynamic, adaptive electronic directories that store information about the knowledge, skills, experience, and interests of people. They are a cornerstone of successful knowledge management and learning initiatives. (No. 32 | February 2009)

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The SCAMPER Technique

Ideas are not often plucked out of thin air. The SCAMPER brainstorming technique uses a set of directed questions to resolve a problem (or meet an opportunity). It can also turn a tired idea into something new and different. (No. 31 | February 2009)

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The Five Whys Technique

When confronted with a problem, have you ever stopped and asked “why” five times? If you do not ask the right question, you will not get the right answer. The Five Whys is a simple question-asking technique that explores the cause-and-effect relationships underlying problems. (No. 30 | February 2009)

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Assessing the Effectiveness of Assistance in Capacity Development

Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly being recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Assessments by executing agencies of the effectiveness of assistance in capacity development are prominent among these. (No. 29 | February 2009)

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Social Network Analysis

Power no longer resides exclusively (if at all) in states, institutions, or large corporations. It is located in the networks that structure society. Social network analysis seeks to understand networks and their participants and has two main focuses: the actors and the relationships between them in a specific social context. (No. 28 | February 2009)

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Conducting Effective Presentations

Simple planning and a little discipline can turn an ordinary presentation into a lively and engaging event. (No. 27 | February 2009)

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Monthly Progress Notes

Feedback is the dynamic process of presenting and disseminating information to improve performance. Feedback mechanisms are increasingly recognized as key elements of learning before, during, and after. Monthly progress notes on project administration, which document accomplishments as well as bottlenecks, are prominent among these. (No. 26 | January 2009)

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The Most Significant Change Technique

The Most Significant Change technique helps monitor and evaluate the performance of projects and programs. It involves the collection and systematic participatory interpretation of stories of significant change emanating from the field level—stories about who did what, when, and why, and the reasons why the event was important. It does not employ quantitative indicators. (No. 25 | January 2009)

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Picking Investments in Knowledge Management

What can be measured is not necessarily important and what is important cannot always be measured. When prioritizing investments in knowledge management, common traps lie waiting. They are delaying rewards for quick wins, using too many metrics, implementing metrics that are hard to control, and focusing on metrics that tear people away from business goals. (No. 24 | December 2008)

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Conducting Successful Retreats

A retreat is a meeting designed and organized to facilitate the ability of a group to step back from day-to-day activities for a period of concentrated discussion, dialogue, and strategic thinking about their organization’s future or specific issues. Organizations will reap full benefits if they follow basic rules. (No. 23 | December 2008)

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Culture Theory

Culture theory strengthens the expectation that markets work, not because they are comprised of autonomous individuals who are free of social sanctions but because they are powered by social beings and their distinctive ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge. It can contribute to understanding and promoting development where group relationships predominate and individualism is tempered. (No. 22 | December 2008)

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Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative inquiry is the process of facilitating positive change in organizations. Its basic assumption is uncomplicated: every organization has something that works well. Appreciative inquiry is therefore an exciting generative approach to organizational development. At a higher level, it is also a way of being and seeing. (No. 21 | December 2008)

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The Reframing Matrix

Everyone sees things differently—knowledge often lies in the eye of the beholder. The reframing matrix enables different perspectives to be generated and used in management processes. It expands the number of options for solving a problem. (No. 20 | November 2008)

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Action Learning

Action learning is a structured method that enables small groups to work regularly and collectively on complicated problems, take action, and learn as individuals and as a team while doing so. (No. 19 | November 2008)

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Notions of Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and helping them (with incentives) to apply it in ways that strive to improve organizational performance. (No. 18 | November 2008)

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Outcome Mapping

Development is about people—it is about how they relate to one another and their environment, and how they learn in doing so. Outcome mapping puts people and learning first and accepts unexpected change as a source of innovation. It shifts the focus from changes in state, viz. reduced poverty, to changes in behaviors, relationships, actions, and activities. (No. 17 | November 2008)

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Focusing on Project Metrics

The need to ensure that scarce funding is applied to effective projects is a goal shared by all. Focusing on common parameters of project performance is a means to that end. (No. 16 | November 2008)

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The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach

The sustainable livelihoods approach improves understanding of the livelihoods of the poor. It organizes the factors that constrain or enhance livelihood opportunities, and shows how they relate. It can help plan development activities and assess the contribution that existing activities have made to sustaining livelihoods. (No. 15 | November 2008)

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Identifying and Sharing Good Practices

Good practice is a process or methodology that has been shown to be effective in one part of the organization and might be effective in another too. (No. 14 | November 2008)

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Auditing Knowledge

Knowledge audits help organizations identify their knowledge-based assets and develop strategies to manage them. (No. 13 | October 2008)

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Managing Knowledge Workers

A knowledge worker is someone who is employed because of his or her knowledge of a subject matter, rather than ability to perform manual labor. They perform best when empowered to make the most of their deepest skills. (No. 12 | October 2008) Read the paper [ PDF: 273kb | 3 pages ]

Reading the Future

Scenario-building enables managers to invent and then consider in depth several varied stories of equally plausible futures. They can then make strategic decisions that will be sound for all plausible futures. No matter what future takes place, one is more likely to be ready for and influential in it if one has thought seriously about scenarios. Scenario planning challenges mental models about the world and lifts the blinders that limit our creativity and resourcefulness. (No. 11 | October 2008)

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Storytelling

Storytelling is the use of stories or narratives as a communication tool to value, share, and capitalize on the knowledge of individuals. (No. 10 | October 2008)

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Creating and Running Partnerships

Partnerships have a crucial role to play in the development agenda. To reach the critical mass required to reduce poverty, there must be more concerted effort, greater collaboration, alignment of inputs, and a leveraging of resources and effort. Understanding the drivers of success and the drivers of failure helps efforts to create and run them. (No. 9 | October 2008)

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Posting Research Online

Dissemination is an indispensable means of maximizing the impact of research. It is an intrinsic element of all good research practice that promotes the profile of research institutions and strengthens their capacities. The challenge is to ensure the physical availability of research material and to make it intelligible to those who access it. (No. 8 | October 2008)

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Linking Research to Practice

The volume of research greatly exceeds its application in practice. Researchers must pay greater attention to the production of their research findings in a flexible range of formats in recognition of the varied needs of consumers. (No. 7 | October 2008)

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Output Accomplishment and the Design and Monitoring Framework

The design and monitoring framework is a logic model for objectives oriented planning that structures the main elements in a project, highlighting linkages between intended inputs, planned activities, and expected results.(No. 6 | October 2008)

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Using Plain English

Many people write too much, bureaucratically, and obscurely. Using plain English will save time in writing, make writing far easier, and improve understanding. (No. 5 | October 2008)

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Building Communities of Practice

Communities of practice are groups of like-minded, interacting people who filter, analyze, invest and provide, convene, build, and learn and facilitate to ensure more effective creation and sharing of knowledge in their domain. (No. 4 | October 2008)

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Conducting After-Action Reviews and Retrospects

Organizational learning calls for nonstop assessment of performance—its successes and failures. This makes sure that learning takes place and supports continuous improvement. After-action reviews and retrospects are a tool that facilitates assessments; they enable this by bringing together a team to discuss an activity or project openly and honestly. (No. 3 | October 2008)

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Conducting Exit Interviews

Exit interviews provide feedback on why employees leave, what they liked about their job, and where the organization needs improvement. They are most effective when data is compiled and tracked over time. The concept has been revisited as a tool to capture knowledge from leavers. Exit interviews can be a win-win situation: the organization retains a portion of the leaver’s knowledge and shares it; the departing employee articulates unique contributions and leaves a mark. (No. 2 | October 2008)

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Conducting Peer Assists

Peer assists are events that bring individuals together to share their experiences, insights, and knowledge on an identified challenge or problem. They also promote collective learning and develop networks among those invited. (No. 1 | October 2008)

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