Making innovation systems work in practice... Published in KM4D Journal May 2011 7(1) 109-124 - Knowledge Management for Development2024-03-29T15:32:29Zhttp://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&x=1&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&feed=yes&xn_auth=noDear Melissa
It's great that…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-05-24:2672907:Comment:549472012-05-24T07:19:25.648ZSarahCummingshttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/SarahCummings
<p>Dear Melissa</p>
<p>It's great that you facilitated this discussion. Would you be willing to write it up as a Community Note to publish in the KM4D Journal? As you were planning to summarize for the wiki anyway, it might not be too much trouble to go this extra step...</p>
<p></p>
<p>Hoping all well with you.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Regards</p>
<p></p>
<p>Sarah</p>
<p></p>
<p><br></br> <br></br> <cite>Melissa Bator said:…</cite></p>
<p>Dear Melissa</p>
<p>It's great that you facilitated this discussion. Would you be willing to write it up as a Community Note to publish in the KM4D Journal? As you were planning to summarize for the wiki anyway, it might not be too much trouble to go this extra step...</p>
<p></p>
<p>Hoping all well with you.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Regards</p>
<p></p>
<p>Sarah</p>
<p></p>
<p><br/> <br/> <cite>Melissa Bator said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&page=3#2672907Comment54851"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>I just wanted to informally wrap this conversation up. Please feel free to continue to comment, but the moderated portion of this discussion is now over. I will summarize our thoughts and post them to the wiki soon. Thank you to everyone who participated by commenting or reading others' comments. If anyone else is interested in leading a discussion on a KM4D journal article, please post something to this group, email one of the KM4D editors, or myself and I am sure we can make this happen again.</p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote> I just wanted to informally w…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-05-18:2672907:Comment:548512012-05-18T21:53:58.952ZMelissa Batorhttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/MelissaBator
<p>I just wanted to informally wrap this conversation up. Please feel free to continue to comment, but the moderated portion of this discussion is now over. I will summarize our thoughts and post them to the wiki soon. Thank you to everyone who participated by commenting or reading others' comments. If anyone else is interested in leading a discussion on a KM4D journal article, please post something to this group, email one of the KM4D editors, or myself and I am sure we can make this happen…</p>
<p>I just wanted to informally wrap this conversation up. Please feel free to continue to comment, but the moderated portion of this discussion is now over. I will summarize our thoughts and post them to the wiki soon. Thank you to everyone who participated by commenting or reading others' comments. If anyone else is interested in leading a discussion on a KM4D journal article, please post something to this group, email one of the KM4D editors, or myself and I am sure we can make this happen again.</p>
<p></p> I really think the ability to…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-05-13:2672907:Comment:545192012-05-13T19:37:43.875ZRegi Adamshttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/RegiAdams
<p>I really think the ability to open space is of tremendous relevance to this conversation. I have enjoyed the reading the commentary made in reference to it. Nonaka's concept of <a href="http://home.business.utah.edu/actme/7410/Nonaka%201998.pdf" target="_blank">Ba</a> touches on the creation of space significantly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A facilitator must create an environment of intellectual stimulation and safety for ideas and tacit knowledge to be shared. Effective facilitation in my view…</p>
<p>I really think the ability to open space is of tremendous relevance to this conversation. I have enjoyed the reading the commentary made in reference to it. Nonaka's concept of <a href="http://home.business.utah.edu/actme/7410/Nonaka%201998.pdf" target="_blank">Ba</a> touches on the creation of space significantly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A facilitator must create an environment of intellectual stimulation and safety for ideas and tacit knowledge to be shared. Effective facilitation in my view would diagonose and address circumstances that detract from this end.</p>
<p><a href="http://home.business.utah.edu/actme/7410/Nonaka%201998.pdf">http://home.business.utah.edu/actme/7410/Nonaka%201998.pdf</a></p>
<p> </p> As a facilitator, I think und…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-05-09:2672907:Comment:546722012-05-09T15:33:05.911ZNancy Whitehttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/NancyWhite
<p>As a facilitator, I think understanding and working with power dynamics is very much part of the practice -- and the way facilitators practice this is very diverse. Facilitators themselves hold power and, in my opinion, should be very self-aware of how they hold it. </p>
<p></p>
<p>For example, in practicing Open Space, a facilitator does indeed "hold space" but there are elements to Open Space which implicitly recognize power. For example, "the law of two feet" is about an individual's…</p>
<p>As a facilitator, I think understanding and working with power dynamics is very much part of the practice -- and the way facilitators practice this is very diverse. Facilitators themselves hold power and, in my opinion, should be very self-aware of how they hold it. </p>
<p></p>
<p>For example, in practicing Open Space, a facilitator does indeed "hold space" but there are elements to Open Space which implicitly recognize power. For example, "the law of two feet" is about an individual's ability to leave experiences that aren't working for them, and the responsibility to make sure something happens that is of value for themselves. At times, facilitators in Open Space have to work with this dynamic as it relates to preexisting power dynamics in the room. </p>
<p></p>
<p>By breaking people into small groups vs plenary, you are working with power (i.e. the power of a few to dominate plenary sessions, and the practice of many to stay silent). By capturing key statements, we have a choice to attribute and create accountability or visibility for the speaker, or to weave in comments to create shared visibility of the idea vs the speaker. All of these are acts that recognize power. </p>
<p></p>
<p>There is quite a body of literature about power in facilitation. </p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Hi Peter- I didn't mean to ov…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-17:2672907:Comment:539992012-04-17T18:02:09.416ZMelissa Batorhttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/MelissaBator
<p>Hi Peter- I didn't mean to over whelm anyone, I just wanted to make sure anyone who wanted to might have a point in my question that could respond to. Glad you brought the authors on board. <br></br> <br></br> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:…</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&page=2#2672907Comment53736"></blockquote>
<p>Hi Peter- I didn't mean to over whelm anyone, I just wanted to make sure anyone who wanted to might have a point in my question that could respond to. Glad you brought the authors on board. <br/> <br/> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&page=2#2672907Comment53736"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Gosh Melissa you raise an immense load of issues. All valid surely. Also reading Lawrence these immediate thoughts come up:</p>
<p></p>
<ol>
<li>A good facilitator is at most a space opener, a mediator (with care), one that can make people look out of the box. Unless a highly politically motivated facilitator, it is not primarily someone focussed on changes in powerrelations. At most the aim is to open up the space for new potentials.</li>
<li>It would be very interesting to get both authors on board! Juergen Hagmann is close to KM4Dev (if not member); <span>Hlamalani Ngwenya I'm not sure about.</span></li>
<li><span>Finally I am a person that goes for integration and holistic perception, but can we try to stick to rather short contributions (maybe with links to more, where relevant). I'm just afraid that otherwise we loose the quick readers (that although reading quickly, may still have potentially highly relevant thoughts) ;-)</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote> Claudia- great insights. I ha…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-17:2672907:Comment:541552012-04-17T17:59:56.704ZMelissa Batorhttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/MelissaBator
<p>Claudia- great insights. I had not thought about language on all of the levels that you bring up.<br></br> <br></br> <cite>Claudia Michel said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&page=2#2672907Comment53784"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Thanks for your questions Melissa. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Power is…</p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Claudia- great insights. I had not thought about language on all of the levels that you bring up.<br/> <br/> <cite>Claudia Michel said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&groupId=2672907%3AGroup%3A17381&id=2672907%3ATopic%3A52795&page=2#2672907Comment53784"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Thanks for your questions Melissa. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Power is indeed relational in terms of relations between people, but it is also a question of language. E.g. the language of international development often characterizes local farmers as “end-user”. They are expected to be receivers of help, but not creators of solutions. An important role of the facilitator is to question such expectations and give space for another language and for alternative views. I belive that the Hlami and Juergen assumed this role.</p>
<p>Talking about local people as creators of solutions, I consider research on resilience to be inspiring. This approach focuses on analyzing the ability of people to positively adjust to change, risk and adversity. See for example the work of my colleagues: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.socialresilience.ch" target="_blank">http://www.socialresilience.ch</a>/</p>
<p>Finally, I think you are right, Melissa, that facilitation is often an issue of dealing with subtle and sometimes explicit forms of power. But the capacity of a good facilitator to open space, to make people look out of the box, to leverage potential as Peter nicely said, all this requires other competencies as well. How should we call them? Maybe somebody out there has the language for this?</p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote> Great! Thanks so much for joi…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-16:2672907:Comment:538882012-04-16T09:04:21.738ZPeter J. Buryhttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/PeterJBury
<p>Great! Thanks so much for joining us, and thanks for your article obviously, Peter<br></br> <br></br> <cite>Hlamalani (Hlami) Ngwenya said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&commentId=2672907%3AComment%3A53951&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum#2672907Comment53783"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Dear Peter,</p>
<p>Thanks for the invitation. I am very much interested in the on-going…</p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Great! Thanks so much for joining us, and thanks for your article obviously, Peter<br/> <br/> <cite>Hlamalani (Hlami) Ngwenya said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&commentId=2672907%3AComment%3A53951&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum#2672907Comment53783"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>Dear Peter,</p>
<p>Thanks for the invitation. I am very much interested in the on-going discussions. I find it very enriching. I can see that you have and other have raised some questions. I will make some time over the coming weekend to go through it and respond. I will also make my contributions to enrich the discussions.</p>
<p>Best regards</p>
<p>Hlami</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote> Thanks for your questions Mel…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-13:2672907:Comment:537842012-04-13T10:19:43.924ZClaudia Michelhttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/ClaudiaMichel
<p>Thanks for your questions Melissa. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Power is indeed relational in terms of relations between people, but it is also a question of language. E.g. the language of international development often characterizes local farmers as “end-user”. They are expected to be receivers of help, but not creators of solutions. An important role of the facilitator is to question such expectations and give space for another language and for alternative views. I belive that the Hlami…</p>
<p>Thanks for your questions Melissa. Here are my thoughts:</p>
<p>Power is indeed relational in terms of relations between people, but it is also a question of language. E.g. the language of international development often characterizes local farmers as “end-user”. They are expected to be receivers of help, but not creators of solutions. An important role of the facilitator is to question such expectations and give space for another language and for alternative views. I belive that the Hlami and Juergen assumed this role.</p>
<p>Talking about local people as creators of solutions, I consider research on resilience to be inspiring. This approach focuses on analyzing the ability of people to positively adjust to change, risk and adversity. See for example the work of my colleagues: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.socialresilience.ch" target="_blank">http://www.socialresilience.ch</a>/</p>
<p>Finally, I think you are right, Melissa, that facilitation is often an issue of dealing with subtle and sometimes explicit forms of power. But the capacity of a good facilitator to open space, to make people look out of the box, to leverage potential as Peter nicely said, all this requires other competencies as well. How should we call them? Maybe somebody out there has the language for this?</p> Dear Peter,
Thanks for the in…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-13:2672907:Comment:537832012-04-13T07:29:57.136ZHlamalani (Hlami) Ngwenyahttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/HlamalaniHlamiNgwenya
<p>Dear Peter,</p>
<p>Thanks for the invitation. I am very much interested in the on-going discussions. I find it very enriching. I can see that you have and other have raised some questions. I will make some time over the coming weekend to go through it and respond. I will also make my contributions to enrich the discussions.</p>
<p>Best regards</p>
<p>Hlami</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Dear Peter,</p>
<p>Thanks for the invitation. I am very much interested in the on-going discussions. I find it very enriching. I can see that you have and other have raised some questions. I will make some time over the coming weekend to go through it and respond. I will also make my contributions to enrich the discussions.</p>
<p>Best regards</p>
<p>Hlami</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Peter J. Bury said:
I just…tag:www.km4dev.org,2012-04-13:2672907:Comment:539512012-04-13T07:26:33.531ZHlamalani (Hlami) Ngwenyahttp://www.km4dev.org/profile/HlamalaniHlamiNgwenya
<p><br></br> <br></br> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&commentId=2672907%3AComment%3A53551&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum#2672907Comment53737"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>I just found and invited <span>Hlamalani Ngwenya and Jürgen Hagmann ! Lets see if they feel like joining in!</span><br></br> <br></br> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:…</cite></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><br/> <br/> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/forum/topics/making-innovation-systems-work-in-practice-published-in-km4d?groupUrl=km4djournal&commentId=2672907%3AComment%3A53551&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum#2672907Comment53737"><div><div class="xg_user_generated"><p>I just found and invited <span>Hlamalani Ngwenya and Jürgen Hagmann ! Lets see if they feel like joining in!</span><br/> <br/> <cite>Peter J. Bury said:</cite></p>
<blockquote cite="http://www.km4dev.org/group/km4djournal/forum/comment/show?id=2672907%3AComment%3A53736&xn_out=json&firstPage=0&lastPage=1&xg_token=948082760f9ea933e083190627706bca&_=1334127813600#2672907Comment53736"><p>Gosh Melissa you raise an immense load of issues. All valid surely. Also reading Lawrence these immediate thoughts come up:</p>
<ol>
<li>It would be very interesting to get both authors on board! Juergen Hagmann is close to KM4Dev (if not member); <span>Hlamalani Ngwenya I'm not sure about.</span></li>
</ol>
<p></p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>