The document outlines 10 ways to build expertise: 1) assess yourself, 2) read books and online materials, 3) join communities, 4) attend conferences, 5) use social media, 6) present and teach, 7) publish content, 8) attend training, 9) learn by doing, and 10) find a mentor. It provides details on each method, including specific resources and advice. The overall aim is to help individuals identify areas of expertise and guide ongoing learning through diverse activities.

1. 10 Ways to Build
Expertise
Stan Garfield
January 2014

2. 10 Ways to Build Expertise
1. Assess yourself
2. Read books, periodicals, blogs, and sites
3. Join, participate in, and help lead communities
4. Attend conferences
5. Tweet, retweet, and follow tweets
6. Present, speak, lead discussions, and deliver training
7. Post, write, and publish
8. Attend training
9. Learn by doing
10. Find a mentor
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

3. 1. Assess yourself
• Assess yourself against the list of specialties (next slide)
• If you were asked to meet with a client as an expert in the specialty
‒ would you be comfortable doing so?
‒ would the client be pleased following the meeting?
• Choose one or more specialties in which
‒ you are an expert, or
‒ you would like to become an expert
• Focus your development on those specialties
SELF-ASSESSMENT
Sharing, culture, organizational design, and change management
Collaboration and communities
Goals, measurements, incentives, and rewards
Communications
Portals, intranets, and websites
Web 2.0 and social media tools
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

4. 81 Knowledge Management Specialties
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Sharing, culture, organizational design, and change management
Innovation, invention, creativity, and idea generation
Reuse, proven practices, lessons learned, and knowledge retention
Collaboration and communities
Learning, competency development, and training
Goals, measurements, incentives, and rewards
Social networks, organizational networks, value networks, and network analysis
Expertise location and personal profiles
Communications
Facilitation and knowledge transfer
User support and Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS)
Content management, document management, and records management
Analytics, visualization, metrics, and reporting
Project management, process management, workflow, planning, and decision making
KM methods (peer assists, after action reviews, knowledge audits/maps/models, World Café, etc.)
Appreciative inquiry and positive deviance
Storytelling, narrative, anecdotes, and sensemaking
Information architecture, usability, user interface, and user experience
Search, findability, taxonomy, ontology, metadata, and tagging
Portals, intranets, and websites
Databases, repositories, business intelligence, and data warehouses
Competitive intelligence, customer intelligence, market intelligence, and research
Web 2.0 and social media tools
Semantic web, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing
Wisdom of crowds, crowdsourcing, collective intelligence, and prediction markets
10 Ways to Build Expertise

5. Methods
http://www.greenchameleon.com/uploads/KM_Method_Cards_Guide.pdf
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10 Ways to Build Expertise
© 2011 Straits Knowledge

6. 2. Read books, periodicals, blogs, and sites
• Read books from the list of recommended books
‒ Start with the 10 shown below
‒ Then choose ones that match your chosen specialties
• Subscribe to periodicals
• Read blogs
• Visit sites
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

7. Periodicals
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10 Ways to Build Expertise
Knowledge-Letter

8. Blogs
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

9. Sites
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

10. 3. Join, participate in, and help lead communities
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Subscribe: Get email or RSS and regularly read the threaded discussion board
Post: Start a new thread or reply in the threaded discussion board
Attend: Participate in community events
Contribute: Submit content to the community newsletter, blog, wiki, or site
Engage: Ask or answer a question, make a comment, give a presentation, and help lead
10 Ways to Build Expertise

11. 4. Attend conferences
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

12. 5. Tweet, retweet, and follow (or internal equivalent)
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Follow thought leaders in Twitter, Yammer, et al.
Participate in a Twitter Chat, e.g., #ESNchat weekly chat Thursdays at 2 pm ET
Search Twitter using hashtags, e.g., #KM
Ask questions on Twitter, Yammer, et al.
10 Ways to Build Expertise

13. Twitter Chat
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

14. Twitter list
Tweet themes
•#FF @hjarche Harold Jarche helps organizations
reintegrate work & learning, using the connectivity of
the Net/Life in perpetual Beta #KM #SM
•Title Thursday Review: The Intelligent Company: 5
Steps to Success with Evidence-Based Management
by Bernard Marr #KM http://bit.ly/h5iEQg
•Website Wednesday: Laying Groundwork for a #KM
Professional: Learning, Knowledge & Effective Action;
Alex/David Bennet http://bit.ly/hSlzq4
•Trackback Tuesday: Time for #KM to manage
knowledge about management? @stevedenning
presented this to SIKM CoP http://bit.ly/hFC5Iu
#KMers
•Meeting Monday: Mar 22-24 AIIM Conference &
Expo at info360 Washington, DC
http://www.aiimexpo.com/ #KM
•Meeting Monday: March 24 Social Business Summit,
London http://www.socialbusinesssummit.com/ #SM
#socialmedia
•Meeting Monday: Mar 22 KMEF Webinar: Laying
Groundwork for a #KM Professional: Learning,
Knowledge & Effective Action http://bit.ly/eFsrVC
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

15. 6. Present, speak, lead discussions, and deliver training
• Present at
o internal meetings
o con calls
o community meetings
o conferences
o client meetings
• Ask an established expert to allow you to co-present
• Offer to help facilitate a panel discussion
• Develop and conduct training
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

16. 7. Post, write, and publish
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Post to a discussion board
Write a blog post
Publish a document using Google Docs
Upload a presentation to SlideShare
Write an article for a publication
Use writing to
o test your ideas
o solicit comments
o refine your thinking about a topic.
10 Ways to Build Expertise

17. 8. Attend training
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Online
At a university
Before or after a conference
From a specialized vendor
10 Ways to Build Expertise

18. 9. Learn by doing
• Interact with others
• Attend different events to see which ones are the most useful
• Try things out
• Use tools
Process
People
culture and values
knowledge managers
user surveys
social networks
communities
training
documentation
communications
methodologies
creation
capture
reuse
lessons learned
proven practices
collaboration
content management
knowledge advisors
goals and measurements
incentives and rewards
classification
metrics and reporting
management of change
workflow
valuation
social network analysis
appreciative inquiry and
positive deviance
storytelling
Technology
user interface
intranet
team spaces
virtual meeting rooms
portals
repositories
threaded discussions
expertise locators
metadata and tags
search engines
archiving
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10 Ways to Build Expertise
blogs and microblogs
wikis
podcasts and videos
syndication
social software
external access
workflow applications
process automation
e-learning
subscriptions
points tracking
reporting

19. 10. Find a mentor
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Post in a community discussion board
Contact a blogger
Reply to a tweeter
Talk to a presenter at a conference
Visit the site of a thought leader and send an email message
Ask for a referral
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10 Ways to Build Expertise

20. For additional information
• Visit my web site at http://sites.google.com/site/stangarfield/
• Follow me on Twitter @stangarfield
The views expressed in this presentation are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current or former employers.
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