Knowledge Matters™

You sweat blood for years to get a new idea/concept such as complex adaptive systems established. Then it becomes popular at which point intellectually inadequate opportunists seize on the language and images without understanding or comprehension, to re-brand any... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Waking up at 0330 to drive to Manchester for an early flight to Singapore is no fun. Before you ask I was wait listed on all flights out of Heathrow yesterday and today but none came through. It only took... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Daniele Quercia at UCL is looking for assistance in his PhD, principally to get access to data. Details here and if you can help then email him directly.... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

An excellent post from Neuroanthropology showing the way in which stereotypes with poor researchand even poorer reporting can get things badly wrong. The issue in question is the suggestion that violent behaviour in adolescents can be attributed to hormones. His... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Still conference blogging. Now an early morning session with Michael Lissak who has changed his original talk to a complexity approach to the current financial crisis. Michael is never knowingly un-opinionated, one of the major whistle blowers on Wall... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Now relating Morgan's metaphor of a man asking Picasso to paint a picture of his wife, the man does like the abstract representation so he shows Picasso a picture from his wallet and Picasso says Oh, I didn't realise she was so small . ... Now a verbatim transcription Complexity is in the eye of the beholder there is no such thing as complexity in the real world . and (again verbatim) Too complex is how a controller calls a system for which it does not have the requisite variety . Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

One of the many aspects of a modern management culture that I have never really understood, although I have learnt to live with, is the Elevator Pitch. You start to discuss a complex issue or problem with a group of... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I am writing a monthly column for KM world which is interesting, the 700-1000 word format is a good one. As a part of that I recently wrote a brief article outlining a way to use multiple parallel blogging... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I was driving home from Swindon this evening, having parked the car there to take the train to Cardiff. Just as I was approaching the village the phone rings and I have a tearful daughter who has just being involved... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I have had a long term concern, which if anything has strengthened over time, over some of the ethical issues in organisational story telling. There seems to be an increasing attempt to sell Executives on story telling as a panacea... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I'll be running another leadership master class for the Ark group on 4th December. It will basically pick up on HBR article I wrote with Mary Boone last November. Aside from the Cynefin framework the class will also look at... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Credit where credit is due, but this proposal (if it is real) to focus on a TGV network rather than a third runway is the sort of new thinking we need in the UK. Mind you, I notice that Wales,... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I have always wondered why academics involved in counter-terrorism publish papers describing how (to take one example) they calculate interconnectivity in terrorist networks. Its not too hard to see that someone might study said papers and then adjust behaviour to... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I arrived home early afternoon today to unpack and prepare to fly out tomorrow midday to Derry for a couple of days. The flight is on Ryan Air from Bristol (fight for a seat) which will be a bit of... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

A week in San Jose gave a contrasting picture with recent changes on Great Western Railways in the UK. I arrive late Saturday picked up the free shuttle to the Light Rail. $1.75 took me to the hotel in San... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I really enjoyed giving the keynote at KM World today. Some old ideas and some new applied to project management and system design. The podcast is available and for real gluttons for punishment you can find 2007 here. I've being... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Coming in late to the keynote this morning and one I have been looking forward to on the linke between search and knowledge.  Peter Morville is the speaker.  I'm late in part due to some editing duties on WIkipedia (trying... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Here we go another keynote on innovation, excuse me for being cynical but yesterday was about economic comparison not innovation and the write up for this session is not promising.  I suspect we will get the normal list of retrospectively... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com