As such, knowledge services is the acknowledged framework for strategic knowledge management, leading to excellence in knowledge sharing and ultimately shaping the community as a knowledge culture.

As the series editor for Knowledge Services at Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH (de Gruyter Saur) in Berlin and Munich, I am happy to announce five free webinars on the subject:

1. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21^st Century Organization (27:12 minutes)
2. Collaborative Knowledge Services: Sharing Information, Knowledge, and Strategic Learning (27:48 minutes)
3. The Future of Knowledge Work: Exploring Management, Leadership, and Knowledge Services Principles (27:37 minutes)
4. Critical Success Factors: The Knowledge Services Audit (The Knowledge Services Assessment) (26:07 minutes)
5. From Knowledge Strategist to Knowledge Thought Leader (29:08 minutes)

I frequently hear from colleagues – located in countries throughout the world – who ask about knowledge services and how the practice can be applied for better knowledge sharing. Others – already performing as knowledge services professionals – ask how they can “refresh” what they already know.

With this announcement, I’m sharing the “top six” reasons for thinking about (and applying) knowledge services in your professional and personal life:

#1: For you, as a knowledge worker, knowledge services professional, or knowledge strategist, The Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair will enable you to become a daily knowledge services practitioner, master, and specialist in your field of expertise.

#2: By using these webinars for learning about knowledge services, you will strengthen your own understanding of the value of knowledge and recognize the importance of high-end knowledge sharing in any community with which you are associated.

#3: By using guidelines provided in these webinars, you become a specialist in applied knowledge services, able to distinguish between theoretical knowledge-sharing principles and what is practical and actionable in individual situations.

#4: As a member of a body of intellectual practitioners in information management, KM, and strategic learning, you position yourself for a leading role in developing a knowledge culture for any environment in which you find yourself.

#5: With the benefits you gain from the content of these webinars, your practical skills in knowledge use, knowledge sharing, and knowledge asset management enable you to evaluate current practices and recommend specific knowledge strategies for immediate use.

#6: The best result of using these webinars (and the application of the principles described in them) is that you become the recognized knowledge expert in any entity with which you are associated; the formal leaders of the business, organization, group, or community hear what you have to say.

The five webinars can be accessed at the De Gruyter Knowledge Services Series site, where each webinar is fully described. You can also use the following link: https://bit.ly/3i436Sx.

When you’re at the Knowledge Services series site, scroll down to: Take this opportunity to learn more about Knowledge Services in these five free webinars from series editor Guy St. Clair, where you’ll find directions for accessing the webinars.

There is no charge for accessing and using these webinars, which have been created exclusively for the professional and personal enlightenment of knowledge workers, knowledge specialists, knowledge strategists, and others interested in learning about how to best share knowledge for the overall benefit of the community.

There is no registration required, and the webinars are completely designed for self-study. Nevertheless, I am happy to hear from you from you about how you learn and make use of the content of the webinars; if  you wish, feel free to contact me at guystclair@smr-knowledge.com or at linkedin.com/in/guystclair.

The De Gruyter site includes links for accessing the webinars, as well as current and up-coming books in the series.

_____

NOTE: While there is no specific textbook for the webinars, the PDF for my 2017 title is available. It is a free Open Access title from De Gruyter, working in cooperation with Knowledge Unlatched, an Open Access service provider registered in Berlin, Germany.

Guy St. Clair. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization. (2017, Munich: De Gruyter).

The free PDF version of this book can be accessed at this site: https://bit.ly/3msI27V.

At the site, click on “Download the book” in the upper right to download or print the book. There is no charge for this service.

Our KM/Knowledge Services Community Discussion Forum will meet again on Wednesday, February 2, 2022, at 12:45 PM (ET).

Our subject will again have to do with Humanist Management and Knowledge Services, and Jake Gach and I will provide a brief introduction to our topic, after which we will open the floor for our group discussion.

Here is our guiding question:

Do we have measures and results in workplace satisfaction relating to a humanization initiative? Do any of these connect to KM/knowledge services and the work of knowledge strategists? 

Our KM/Knowledge Services Community Discussion Forum will meet again on Wednesday, January 5, 2021, at 12:45 PM (ET).

Our subject is Humanist Management and Knowledge Services, and I will be the host and moderator for our first discussion in the new year.

Humanist management – as a subject – was introduced to our knowledge strategy colleagues several months ago, in SMR’s Knowledge Services Blog. The post, written with my fellow knowledge services enthusiast Jake Gach, led off with a specific question for those of us working with knowledge services: If we seek to connect knowledge services with humanist management, what do we get?

Our Co-Host will be Johel Brown-Grant. Joining Johel will be John Hovell, PMP, CKM as Guest Speaker and Moderator. John is Managing Director & Co-Founder at STRATactical International, and he is well known as a leader in the Conversational Leadership movement.

A recognized expert, John will share his thoughts on Conversational Leadership, the subject that – in my opinion – precisely connects Knowledge Services with what we’ve been attempting to do for the past thirty years. It is now becoming clear that Conversational Leadership, linking directly to our work with Knowledge Services, helps us create a body of social and organizational interaction that works for all.

Coming in 2022, John’s new book, Creating Conversational Leadership: Expanding and Combining Knowledge Management, Organizational Development, and Diversity and Inclusion, will be published as part of the De Gruyter Series in Knowledge Services. I’ve been happily working with John on the book for well over a year, and I can promise you that this title is going to be an eye-opening experience for all of us working with KM, knowledge services, and knowledge strategy. On December 1, we can count on John to help us pull it all together.

To reserve your place, go to https://www.meetup.com/km-knowledge-services-community/events/282153355/and sign in. On the day of the meeting, click on the direct link for the meeting which you’ll find at the right of the description. We look forward to having you join us.

On Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 12:50 PM (ET) our next Discussion Forum will have for its topic KM/Knowledge Services and Storytelling. Our Co-Host and Moderator will be Johel Brown-Grant, a noted leader on the subject (and an active member of our KM/Knowledge Services Community).

Johel is also recognized as one of the co-authors (with Dean Testa and Denise Bedford) of Assessment Strategies for Knowledge Organizations (Working Methods for Knowledge Management (Emerald Publishing, 2019). With that title – called “an unmissable book for knowledge management professionals and researchers” – Johel has emerged as one of the leading authorities on assessment in the KM/knowledge services field.

Now, with his equally recognized expertise as a storytelling strategist, Johel has a perfect framework for speaking to our group and moderating our discussion forum. Specifically, Johel will be talk about how we, as knowledge services strategists, can use storytelling to support our KM/knowledge services initiatives. Then he will then moderate our discussion, with specific reference to how we, as knowledge services strategists, can frame this important approach for knowledge services.

To reserve your place, go to https://www.meetup.com/km-knowledge-services-community/and sign in. On the day of the meeting, click on the direct link for the meeting which you’ll find at the right of the description.

Looking forward, John Hovell on December 1^st will be with us to speak about and moderate our discussion on Conversational Leadership. A recognized expert on this topic, John will share his thoughts on the subject that – in my opinion – precisely connects knowledge services with what we’ve been attempting to do for the past thirty years. I think of Conversational Leadership as linking directly to our work with knowledge services, knowledge strategy, and strategic learning, helping us create a body of social and organizational interaction that works for all. We can count on John to pull it all together for us.

So come join us. You’ll be welcome at our next KM/Knowledge Services Community Discussion Forum.

As such, knowledge services is the acknowledged framework for strategic knowledge management, leading to excellence in knowledge sharing and ultimately shaping the community as a knowledge culture.

As the series editor for Knowledge Services at Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH (de Gruyter Saur) in Berlin and Munich, I am happy to announce five free webinars on the subject:

1. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21^st Century Organization (27:12 minutes)
2. Collaborative Knowledge Services: Sharing Information, Knowledge, and Strategic Learning (27:48 minutes)
3. The Future of Knowledge Work: Exploring Management, Leadership, and Knowledge Services Principles (27:37 minutes)
4. Critical Success Factors: The Knowledge Services Audit (The Knowledge Services Assessment) (26:07 minutes)
5. From Knowledge Strategist to Knowledge Thought Leader (29:08 minutes)

I frequently hear from colleagues – located in countries throughout the world – who ask about knowledge services and how the practice can be applied for better knowledge sharing. Others – already performing as knowledge services professionals – ask how they can “refresh” what they already know.

With this announcement, I’m sharing the “top six” reasons for thinking about (and applying) knowledge services in your professional and personal life:

#1: For you, as a knowledge worker, knowledge services professional, or knowledge strategist, The Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair will enable you to become a daily knowledge services practitioner, master, and specialist in your field of expertise.

#2: By using these webinars for learning about knowledge services, you will strengthen your own understanding of the value of knowledge and recognize the importance of high-end knowledge sharing in any community with which you are associated.

#3: By using guidelines provided in these webinars, you become a specialist in applied knowledge services, able to distinguish between theoretical knowledge-sharing principles and what is practical and actionable in individual situations.

#4: As a member of a body of intellectual practitioners in information management, KM, and strategic learning, you position yourself for a leading role in developing a knowledge culture for any environment in which you find yourself.

#5: With the benefits you gain from the content of these webinars, your practical skills in knowledge use, knowledge sharing, and knowledge asset management enable you to evaluate current practices and recommend specific knowledge strategies for immediate use.

#6: The best result of using these webinars (and the application of the principles described in them) is that you become the recognized knowledge expert in any entity with which you are associated; the formal leaders of the business, organization, group, or community hear what you have to say.

The five webinars can be accessed at the De Gruyter Knowledge Services Series site, where each webinar is fully described. You can also use the following link: https://bit.ly/3i436Sx.

There is no charge for accessing and using these webinars, which have been created exclusively for the professional and personal enlightenment of knowledge workers, knowledge specialists, knowledge strategists, and others interested in learning about how to best share knowledge for the overall benefit of the community. There is no registration required, and the webinars are completely designed for self-study (although I am happy to hear from you from you about how you learn and make use of the content of the webinars; if  you wish, feel free to contact me at guystclair@smr-knowledge.com or at linkedin.com/in/guystclair.

The De Gruyter site includes links for accessing the webinars, as well as current and up-coming books in the series.

_____

NOTE: While there is no specific textbook for the webinars, the PDF for my 2017 title is available. It is a free Open Access title from De Gruyter, working in cooperation with Knowledge Unlatched, an Open Access service provider registered in Berlin, Germany.

Guy St. Clair. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization. (2017, Munich: De Gruyter).

The free PDF version of this book can be accessed at this site: https://bit.ly/3msI27V.

At the site, click on “Download the book” in the upper right to download or print the book. There is no charge for this service.

Kevin has been a close friend and professional colleague for over twenty-five years. He is a highly trusted human capital executive who leads Global Corporate Background Screening Services for Amazon, as part of the “Joining Amazon” team. Kevin is an ICF Certified Executive Coach, and in addition to his work as a human resources leader, Kevin is particularly well versed in the important connection between leadership and knowledge services.

Join us for Kevin’s visit on September 1 when he will speak briefly on “Leadership and Knowledge Services” and then challenge us to respond to what he has to say.

His essay “Human Capital, Knowledge Services, and Real Leadership” in my and Barrie Levy’s The Knowledge Services Handbook: A Guide for the Knowledge Strategist, has been widely quoted and much talked about. So Kevin’s visit promises to provide valuable insights for all of us in the knowledge-sharing workplace.

To reserve your place, go to https://bit.ly/3mdq0JT

To sign in on the day of the meeting, the direct link to the right of the meeting description will take you into the discussion.

As for what’s coming up, for our October meeting we’ll do a repeat of our July discussion. We’ll be positioned, I think for a better conversation since more time has now passed (and now we’re looking at a slightly different workplace environment, with all the questions about the variants and the seemingly on-going “to vaccinate or not” situation). So let’s do some more thinking about recovery/realignment pandemic in our knowledge services workplace.

For November, Johel Brown-Grant will talk about and moderate our discussion on KM/knowledge services and storytelling. Specifically, he will be talking about what we, as knowledge services strategists, can do to use storytelling to support our KM/knowledge services initiatives.

So come join us. You’ll be welcome at our next KM/Knowledge Services Community Discussion Forum.

Our July topic (“What Will Knowledge Services be Like When the Pandemic Ends?”) created considerable (and many) good thoughts. Here is some of what we picked up from the chat comments:

• A very important consideration (and a provocative suggestion) was that we knowledge strategists – instead of thinking in terms of “recovery” – might move to thinking about “realignment” as we consider what comes next.
• We also recognized that in knowledge services, it would be an advantage to begin thinking about a distributed work force, so that the knowledge “framework” (as we often refer to what we do) might become of part of the organization or community’s more “spread-out” management and functional operations.
• Another valuable consideration came up when one of the group suggested we take a positive attitude to some of what we are going to be facing, and in particular give attention to some of the “good things” (a good way of putting it) that come up when we’re trying to address some of the chronic concerns relating to information and knowledge sharing.
• In doing so, we could find ourselves – as knowledge strategists – with a variety of opportunities for defining and re-defining information sharing values within the organization, community, or group.
• Building on this, we knowledge strategists can impact the knowledge strategy in terms of resourcing and priorities and, as quickly grew out of the discussion, give us even more evidence that KM/knowledge services is very human-centric: key players matter.

Our KM/Knowledge Services Community Discussion Forum was so stimulating on July 7, in fact, that my colleagues and I have decided to repeat the July topic for our October meeting. We think it will be good, after more time has passed, to do even more thinking about recovery/realignment pandemic questions as our “new” work begins to play out.

In the meantime, we have two exceptional discussion programs coming up. On August 4, our Guest Presenter and Moderator will be Timothy Wood Powell, who will speak with us and then hear what we all have to say on the important topic: “The Knowledge Community: Method or Myth?”

Tim, an acknowledged leader in KM/knowledge services, is the President and CEO of The Knowledge Agency in New York City. He is also the author of The Value of Knowledge: The Economics of Enterprise Knowledge and Intelligence (Berlin and Munich: De Gruyter, 2020), and you can learn more about Tim and his work at his ten-minute video: First Look: The Value of Knowledge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A791Ujybg5Y&t=6s). Both Tim and I look forward to having you with us on August 4.

I’m predicting a fascinating discussion when we tackle that challenge Tim presents for us, to determine whether our work in what we like to refer to as our KM and knowledge services “community” is a method or a myth.

To join us, sign up at the Meetup KM/Knowledge Services Community site.

Tim and I are both looking forward to seeing you on August 4 and Kevin and I on September 1.

Come join us. You’ll be welcome.

We had a fine turnout, and I’m grateful to those of you who were able to attend and participate.

Our topic was “Introducing Knowledge Services,” and we had a good review for experienced knowledge services strategists and from what I heard, people not familiar with knowledge services learned much about the methodology so many of us are familiar with:

• Among the comments was one about the nice informal feel of the group, and everyone seemed happy with the tone of what we were doing with the group.
• We also spoke about the importance of the knowledge-sharing culture that knowledge services encourages, recognizing that the development of a knowledge-sharing culture should be intentional.
• At the same time, several members of the group commented about how they appreciated that “part” of our work. But we also noted that it’s important to recognize when a knowledge culture already exists and work within it. We don’t necessarily need to be looking to create or establish a new culture.
• Other comments emphasized a “culture of contribution” within knowledge services, noting that people throughout the organization (group, community) need to see the value of participating in the knowledge process themselves.
• And that led to a good conversation about Ron Young’s ideas about the “knowledge-driven” organization.
• All in all, a very fine get-together, with many good ideas exchanged, so thanks to all participants.

If you did not attend and want to be with us for the next discussion, the KM/Knowledge Services Community will meet on Wednesday, July 7, at 12.50pm (we’ve scheduled our meeting to try to end no later than 2pm).

To join us, sign up at the Meetup KM/Knowledge Services Community site.

This time, I will again be the Moderator and Host, and I will provide a brief presentation to get us started. Our topic asks a single question: What will Knowledge Services Be Like when the Pandemic Ends?

And before we meet, I recommend that we look at Nick Collison’s excellent and thoughtful essay, How the Pandemic Has Changed the Values of Professional Communities.

Please join us, and let’s talk about how we’re going to move forward with our work as knowledge strategists as the pandemic slows down.

And to get us ready for our August meeting (August 4): Our Guest Presenter and Moderator will be Timothy Wood Powell, the author of The Value of Knowledge: The Economics of Enterprise Knowledge and Intelligence (Berlin and Munich: De Gruyter, 2020). Tim’s topic will be “The Knowledge Community: Method or Myth?”

And you can learn more about Tim and his work at his ten-minute video: First Look: The Value of Knowledge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A791Ujybg5Y&t=6s)

Looking forward to seeing you on July 7, and Tim and I are both looking forward to seeing you on August 4. Please join us. You’ll be welcome.