John Girard's presentation "Empowering Knowledge Workers in the Arab World" Abu Dhabi, 28 September 2011

1. Empowering Knowledge Workers My Story … My Perspective
in the Arab World 2
(by creating a Knowledge Environment)
1
John P. Girard, Ph.D.
john@sscs.ae
www.sscs.ae
www.johngirard.net/?p=539
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
About Sagology KM Middle East 2011: The TLC of KM
3 4
Sagology is dedicated to connecting people with people to
facilitate collaboration, learning, and knowledge sharing
through keynotes, workshops, and consulting.
sagology [sāj-ol-uh-jee]
-noun
1. the study of organizational wisdom in all its forms, esp. with reference to
technology, leadership, culture, process, and measurement
2. the study of one venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom.
Origin:
2008; Canadian English, from Middle English sage + -ology.
Sage [Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *sapius, from Latin sapere, to be wise; see sep- in Indo-European roots.]
-ology [Middle English -logie, from Old French, from Latin -logia, from Greek -logiā (from logos, word, speech; see leg- in Indo-
European roots) and from -logos, one who deals with (from legein, to speak; see leg- in Indo-European roots).]
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Knowledge Sharing – Nothing New? What Advantage?
5 6
Knowledge Management is the
creation, transfer, and exchange of
organizational knowledge to achieve
a [competitive] advantage.
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
www.kmmiddleeast.com 1 info@kmmiddleeast.com

2. A New View of KM It is all about People!
7 8
Sagology is dedicated to connecting people with people to
facilitate collaboration, learning, and knowledge sharing
through keynotes, workshops, and consulting.
sagology [sāj-ol-uh-jee]
Measurement
Leadership -noun
1. the study of organizational wisdom in all its forms, esp. with reference to
technology, leadership, culture, process, and measurement
Technology
Process the study of one venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom.
Culture
2.
Origin:
2008; Canadian English, from Middle English sage + -ology.
Sage [Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *sapius, from Latin sapere, to be wise; see sep- in Indo-European roots.]
-ology [Middle English -logie, from Old French, from Latin -logia, from Greek -logiā (from logos, word, speech; see leg- in Indo-
European roots) and from -logos, one who deals with (from legein, to speak; see leg- in Indo-European roots).]
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Putting our Task in Context Aim of the Report
9 10
The ultimate aim is to analyse and identify opportunities
and risks inherent in the acquisition, production, creation,
and deployment of “knowledge”; a primary avenue for
More questions than answers! renaissance and human development.
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Arab Knowledge Report Macro Level Goals
11 12
“Chief among the reasons for
the current Arab interest in
establishing the knowledge
society is the desire not to
miss out on the anticipated
effects of the knowledge
revolution and to be alert to
the roles it plays in
generating progress, whether
on the political, economic, or
www.mbrfoundation.ae/Arabic/pages/AKR2009.aspx www.mbrfoundation.ae/English/pages/AKR2009.aspx
social level”
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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3. Key Concepts Empowering Knowledge Workers
13 14
Chapter 4: Information and
communications Chapter 8: Productivity
technologies in the Arab Through People
countries: The pillars and
tools of knowledge
Chapter 5: Arab performance
in research and innovation
Chapter 6: Building the
knowledge society in the
Arab world: A vision and a
plan
1982
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
We must consider the Arab View A little TLC goes a long way!
15 16
Leadership
•Transparency
•Vision and example
Measurement
•Resources (including time) Leadership
Technology Culture
Technology
Process
•Help or hinder •Need to Share vs
Culture
Need to Know
•Ease of access
•Privacy
•Tending toward
free •Content Creators
and Joiners
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
A New View of Knowledge Management TLC: Technology
17 18
5
4
CompuServe
3
Mean
2
1 “A social trend in which people
use technologies to get the
0 things they need from each
other, rather than from
y
p
re
t
s
en
og
hi
Measurement
es
tu
rs
m
Leadership
ol
traditional institutions like
oc
ul
de
re
hn
C
Pr
su
a
Technology
c
Process
corporations.”
Le
Te
groundswell.forrester.com
Culture
ea
M
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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4. The Social Technographics™ Ladder The Social Technographics™ Ladder
19
US Adults 20
Creators Creators make social content 2007 2010 Creators
US 18-24 US 35-44 US 55+
go. They write blogs or upload 18% 24% 46% 23% 12%
Critics respond to content from video, music, or text.
others. They post reviews, Critics Critics
comment on blogs, participate 25% 37% 50% 34% 28%
in forums, and edit wiki articles. Collectors organize content for
themselves or others using RSS
Collectors
feeds, tags, and voting sites like 12% 21% Collectors
38% 20% 12%
Digg.com
Joiners connect in social
Joiners Joiners
networks like MySpace and 25% 51% 85% 54% 26%
Facebook
Spectators consume social
Spectators content including blogs, user- Spectators
generated video, podcasts, 48% 73% 89% 73% 64%
Inactives neither create nor forums, or reviews
consume social content of any Inactives Inactives
44% 18% 3% 17% 30%
kind
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Regional Internet Usage – March 2011 Global Top Internet Sites (Reach)
http://www.alexa.com/topsites/
21 22
1. Google 47% 1. Google.ae
2. Facebook 44% 2. Facebook
3. YouTube 32% 3. YouTube
4. Yahoo! 23% 4. Google
5. Wikipedia 15% 5. Yahoo!
6. Blogger 13% 6. Live
7. Live 11% 7. Blogger
8. Baidu.com 10% 8. Maktoob
9. Twitter 9% 9. Wikipedia
10. QQ 7% 10. MSN
September 2011
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Gulf News – 27 September 2011 According to Facebook
23 24
 2,330,780 Facebook
users live in UAE (age 18
or older)
 3,813,720 Facebook
users live in KSA (age 18
and older) Personal or Organizational
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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5. Why Matters The Internet Big Picture
25 26
>350 million
> 800 million > 400 million
active mobile
active users login daily
users
2 billion posts 250 million
130 friends is
are liked per photos up per
average
day day
Average user
75% of users
connected to
outside USA
80 pages
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Regional Internet Usage Chapters 4 and 5
27 28
“Arabic is technologically
poor in comparison with the
languages dominating the
ICT field”
“The Report intends to
measure the degree to
which the Arabs have
entered the knowledge
society taking as a starting
point their levels of ICT
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm
access and acquisition”
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Technology - Leadership New Technology
29 30
“On the ICT axis, the Arab
states have made reasonable
Progress”
“The weakest point in Arab
knowledge performance may The Newest always is Best …
be the lack of enabling
environments appropriate to
the establishment of a
knowledge society”
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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6. The Right Technology History of KM: Leadership
31 32
c. 350 BC 17th Century 1950s 1990s 2000s
Aristotle Sir Francis Bacon Michael Polanyi Carla O’Dell
Classification
of
Knowledge
Aristotle
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
TLC: Leadership A Leaders view of knowledge . . .
33 34
Including Ray Downey, Special Operations Command lost 95 men that day –
totaling 1,600 years of experience. (emphasis added) “. . . there are known knowns; there are things we know that we know. There are known
unknowns; that is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also
unknown unknowns — there are things that we do not know we don't know.”
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Knowns and Unknowns Unknown unknowns
35 36
Unknown Unknown
Knowns Unknowns
Somewhere on the West Coast
HP Wa l -Ma rt
Known Known
Knowns Unknowns
Comp Intell
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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7. Current State of KM in Region
37 38
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Emphasis on Soft Skills TLC: Culture
39 40
It is clear that Arab CEOs favor soft skills
such as problem-solving and
communication skills over the ability to
perform routine tasks. The International
Labor Organization corroborates these
finding when suggesting that
employability is closely linked to the
capacity of an individual to adapt to
change and the ability to combine
different types of knowledge and build
on them by managing self-learning
throughout his/her working life
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Hofstede: Cultural Dimensions KM Enablers and Barriers
41 42
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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8. KM Opportunities and Challenges Expat Know-how Transfer
43 44
When asked to identify whether there
was an adequate transfer of ‘know-how’
expatriates to national staff, 74% of Arab
CEOs believed that this was the case.
That said, the proportion of CEOs in the
UAE and Qatar who shared this view
was lower than the Gulf average of
70%. Conversely, confidence was much
higher amongst CEOs in the Levant at
88% and North Africa at 85%, results
that can be attributed to the higher
national productivity and educational
levels prevalent in those sub-regions.
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Expat Knowledge Transfer Twitter Revolution
45 46
See Sonia Ben Jaafer: www.slideshare.net/KMMiddleEast
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Social Knowledge: Are you ready for the Future?
47 48
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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9. Knowledge Economy Index
49 50
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page7.asp
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Knowledge Index ICT Index
51 52
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page7.asp http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page7.asp
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Innovation Education
53 54
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/kam2/KAM_page7.asp
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
www.kmmiddleeast.com 9 info@kmmiddleeast.com

10. Are You Ready? Exchange and Transfer of Knowledge
55 56
TACIT
n Ext
tio ern
za a
i
ial
liz
Soc
ati
on
EXPLICIT
TACIT
on
Co
ati
mb
liz
Measurement in
Leadership
a a ti
rn on
Inte
Technology
Process
Culture
EXPLICIT
http://socialnomics.net/
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
The impact of not . . . sharing Storytelling by Steve Denning
57 58
Purpose of Story
1. Sparking action
2. Communicating who
you are
3. Transmitting values
According to Computer Associates . . .
4. Fostering collaboration
5. Taming the grapevine
6. Sharing knowledge
7. Leading people into
www.stevedenning.com/SIN-136-HBR-publishes-Telling-Tales.html
the future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH39xjXaLW8
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
Storytelling: Commander-in-Chief
59 60
2006
Golden
Globe
Awards
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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11. Empowering Knowledge Workers
61
in the Arab World
(by creating a Knowledge Environment)
62
John P. Girard, Ph.D.
john@sscs.ae
www.sscs.ae
www.johngirard.net/?p=539
A Leader's Guide to Knowledge Management © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
KM Middle East 2012
63 64
David Gurteen (UK)
David is an independent Knowledge
consultant, curator, facilitator and
speaker. He is pioneer in the use of
Knowledge Cafes to help people better
understand the world through
conversation and thus make better
decisions and to be more innovative. He is
the founder of the Gurteen Knowledge
Community - a global learning network of
over 18,000 people.
For details see: www.gurteen.com
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
KM Middle East 2012 KM Middle East 2012
65 66
Arthur Shelly (Australia)
Kenneth Wilson (UAE)
Arthur was the Global Knowledge Director of
Cadbury Schweppes before establishing his own Dr Kenneth Wilson is Director of the
business in knowledge and professional National Research Foundation (NRF) of
development. He is the author two books: Being a UAE. Prior to joining NRF, Dr Wilson was
successful Knowledge Leader and The Professor of Economics and Director of
Organizational Zoo, A survival guide to workplace the Economic & Policy Research Unit,
behavior. Arthur is the coordinator of the Zayed University, UAE. NRF was
Melbourne KM Leadership forum and established established in 2008 to help create a
a peer mentoring community engaged around ‘competitive knowledge economy’ in UAE
performance improvement. He lectures in by focusing upon research capacity
knowledge in the RMIT University MBA program. building in the country’s universities.
Full details see: www.organizationalzoo.com
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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12. KM Middle East 2012 KM Middle East 2011
67 68
Nolwazi Mbananga (South Africa)
Allam Ahmed (UAE)
Dr Mbananga is the Chief Executive Officer of the
Professor Allam Ahmed obtained his Ph.D.
Centre for Informatics, Knowledge Management
in Technology and Knowledge Transfer
and Knowledge Economy (CIKMKE/SANCIKMKE).
from Edinburgh Napier University, UK and
She is the founder of the South African Knowledge
recipient of several international Awards
Management Professional Association (SAKMPA).
and Medals. He has published more than
She has an extensive experience in data,
120 publications, including twelve books,
information and knowledge management
numerous articles on knowledge and
spanning over 20 years since 1990 to date. She is
technology transfer and management,
the founder and an organizer of the bi-annual
sustainable development (SD), marketing
International Conference on Knowledge Economy
and policy reports on sustainability and
(ICKE) in South Africa. She is the founder and an
competitiveness.
organizer of the bi-annual International
Conference on Knowledge Economy (icke ) in
South Africa.
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D. Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
KM Middle East 2012
69
Geoff Turner (Cyprus)
Geoff Turner lives in Cyprus and is the Executive Director of
the European Centre of Knowledge Management Research,
which is hosted by the University of Nicosia where he is an
Associate Professor at that University. He holds a BA in
Accountancy, MBA, and PhD in Accounting. His doctoral
thesis examined the need for accounting for human
resources in the context of intellectual capital
management. He is a member of the executive committee
for a number of European and International conferences.
Empowering Knowledge Workers © 2011, John P. Girard, Ph.D.
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