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knowledge
management
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The "Do"s and "don't"s of a successful fair |
The horizontal organizational ritual: the knowledge fair
| Knowledge sharing creates a different dynamic in traditional
hierarchical organizations, since it entails a shift from an organization
that has operated vertically and hierarchically to one that will operate
horizontally and collaboratively across organizational borders. For some,
this means deliverance. Those whose careers have flourished in mastering
the vertical hierarchical pathways have a different attitude to the shift.
And leaders who are orchestrating the shift are faced with the dilemma that all the existing rituals of the organization - the meeting, the personnel systems, the budget - are vertical in orientation. If the organization is to adopt and sustain horizontal modes of operating and co-operating then new rituals are needed to epitomize the new organizational dynamic. Rituals and ceremonies are thus not restricted to churches and religious organizations. They are the props by which an organization maintains itself. If the rituals are inappropriate for what the organization is trying to be or become, then there is little chance that it operate in that way. Not surprisingly, the knowledge fair has emerged as a horizontal ritual that is coming to epitomize the new horizontal mode of operating. Free-flowing, open, flexible, and non-hierarchical in its essence, the knowledge fair puts on display the knowledge activities and communities and makes them physically accessible to a section of the staff, and in some cases, partners and customers. People can see what is happening, can interact with each other, and can see what others are doing. It has the same characteristics as a medieval fair, mixing up all different levels and types of people in a pot-pourri of interaction. Some dos and don'ts for organizing a knowledge fair:
Stephen Denning, The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations, Butterworth Heinemann, Boston, London: 2000.
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