Innovation is a team sport, and great Knowledge Practitioners are well-suited to lead this. That is because they have long been product innovators and have the temperament and toolkit to be idea-bridgers and conveners.

1. How Great KM’ers are Innovation
“Conveners”
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
1
February 17, 2015
Kate Pugh, Columbia University and
AlignConsulting
kp2462@columbia.edu
Smarter Innovation (20 articles on innovation)
http://www.alignconsultinginc.com/boo
ks/smarter-innovation (For reduced US
pricing, e-versions, educational copies
dsmallwood@ark-group.com)

2. Ideas
• Innovation leadership
• Research: Innovation microprocesses
• Building an innovation competency
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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3. Innovation
• An innovation is some economic entity– an
object, a service -- that solves a problem
systemically, and that persists over time because
it interacts.
• It can be internal to the organization, or
external, generating revenue or societal impact.
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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4. Innovation leadership failures
• Language
• Process
• Practice
• Reflection
• Politics
• “Walk the talk”
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Claude Legrand, “How Leaders can Close the Innovation Gap” Ivy business Journal, 2011
References: TJ Elliot, “Escaping Gravitiy, in Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014.

5. Why knowledge practitioners?
• “Label” for connections
• (Co)generate solutions
• Mobilize partners
• Keep the pulse
• Cross the boundaries
• Model the way
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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• Language
• Process
• Practice
• Reflection
• Politics
• “Walk the talk”

6. We’re often the first to see opportunities
• Virtualization
• Participation
• Datafication
• Benchmarking/
Aggregation
• Sensor integration
• Everywhere
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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7. We lead knowledge-driven strategies
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Knowledge’s
Fundamental
value…
Knowledge-
enabled strategy
Knowledge-based
strategy
Knowledge-driven
strategy
Makes us more
effective
Helps us to win Is the reason
customers choose us
Is informed
by strategy Informs or shapes strategy
KM...
“Fit” the
strategy.
ID’d with specific
competitive moves
and capability
enhancements.
At the front line in
the form of
knowledge services
or smart products.
Knowledge
activities and
platforms …
Source Stewart and Pugh:, “Knowledge is the Business” (Ark Group, 2013)

8. At the front line...
Knowledge practice landscape
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Revenue or external impact
Productivity
CollaborationInformation Mgt.
Mostly explicit K to
tacit
Mostly Tacit K to
explicit
Knowledge
Driven
Knowledge-
based,
Knowledge
Enabled

9. At the front line...
Knowledge practice landscape (cont’d)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Revenue or external impact
Productivity
CollaborationInformation Mgt.
Doc and Content
Mgt., Analytics,
metadata & findability
Team/ecosystem
collaboration, enterprise
social media, networks
Knowledge-driven
products, e.g., FitBit,
Google Nest, Angie’s
List
External communities,
social media marketing,
global knowledge
networks

10. Knowledge product types
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Distilled
Instilled
Embodied

11. Nonprofit knowledge products
AlignConsulting KM
Introduction
11
Distilled
Embodied
Instilled
All

12. Innovation leaders’ strategy questions
1. Where do we compete?
2. How do we win?
3. How do we sustain
competitive advantage?
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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(Source: IKNS “Strategy Sequence” discussion)

13. How we win and sustain
• Make barriers to entry, via patents, reputation,
relationships
• Make switching costs for customers, via design-
ins, relationships, competitive price
• Be proactive, anticipate, deliver just in time for
customer loyalty
• Partner, manage the ecosystem
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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14. Innovation is a team sport
• The ability to come up with a novel, valuable,
and non-obvious idea is often necessary, but it’s
never sufficient to guarantee success…
[I]nnovation is about connecting, not inventing.
No idea will make a difference without building
around it the networks that will support it as it
grows, and the network partners with which it
will ultimately flourish.
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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See : Hargadon, Andy, “What is Innovation?” (Blog Post, 12/5/2010)
http://andrewhargadon.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/12/what-is-innovation.html

15. Five
Innovation
Dimensions
for Smarter
Innovation
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Where do we
compete?
How do we win?
How do we
sustain
competitive
advantage?

16. Five
Innovation
Dimensions
for Smarter
Innovation
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Where do we
compete?
How do we win?
How do we
sustain
competitive
advantage?
1. Bridging
2. Social and
operational
integration
3. Capability
validation
4. Market and industry assessment
6. Innovation
ecology
5. Commer-
cialization

17. 1. Bridging
• Making sense of an idea
translated from one domain to the
next.
• Quirky (GE Open
collaborative community)
• Broadli (Generosity app and
social capital on LinkedIn)
• Motorola Solutions (4
discussion disciplines for
virtual innovation – integrity,
courtesy, inclusion,
translation in Jive)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

18. Discussion disciplines can drive innovation
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Skifstad and Pugh, “Beyond Netiquette: Discussion /Discipline Drives Innovation” (In Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014).
Discussion discipline Description Benefits
1. Integrity Use true voice, research
views, Ask questions that
propel
Primarily
tonal; builds
community
and social
capital.
2. Courtesy Respect others and forum.
3. Inclusion Broaden the perspective.
Explain terms, call others in.
Primarily
content-
related; drives
innovation.
4. Translation Summarize/use insights
generated, and help others
with summarizations.

19. 2. Social and operational integration
• Socialization and refinement of a
new idea across a network of
employees and/or collaboration
partners.
• MonitorDeloitte ([SME]
“thoughts in progress”)
• BAE / Lockheed Martin
(Knowledge Continuity for
succession planning); Knowledge
Jam)
• Change Agents Worldwide
(virtual networked org that
“swarm” challenges)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

20. 3. Capabilities validation
• Validating the organization’s and
individuals’ capabilities and
readiness to pursue the innovation.
• Columbia Information and
Knowledge Strategy
(Findability framework)
• Company Body (human-
modeled sustainability)
• Columbia/Emory/ Deloitte
study (Risks of sharing in
turbulent markets)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

21. 4. Market and industry exploration
• Using collaborative microprocesses
(and data) to determine whether
the market and industry are viable
and profitable.
• Perks Consulting (scores
“Corporates” acting like
entrepreneurs -- “scrum” for
commercialization)
• ARRIS (Motorola Mobility)
(risk selection, attitude,
structure which, in turn,
promote monetization models
in disruptive markets, gain an
innovation mindset, and up-
stack market awareness)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

22. 5. Commercialization
• Considering practicalities of
pricing, positioning, promotion,
and production using collective
decision approaches.
• Bain & Co. (Loyalty Forum
for the Net Promoter Score
“program” not just “service”)
• TomorrowMakers (formerly
MGTaylor) (enables
consensus-building with
value prototyping, Design
Shop)
• 3M (sales knowledge
coverage models,
rationalization)
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

23. • Organizational-level
– Shared language / metadata
– Consensus innovation “process”
– Sense making, benchmarking, systems
thinking
– “Open-space” v hyper-programmed
– Inter-co swaps, sabbaticals, laterals,
organizational mash-ups
– Mindfulness, physical space
• Individual-level
– Mastery
– Self-awareness
– Deep curiosity outside field/
boundary tracking
– Attracted to the foreign
– Comfort with ambiguity
– Nexus and convening skills
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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Team- or Community- level
−“Desire-to-know,” not “need-to-know”
−4 disciplines (integrity, courtesy, inclusion,
translation), other interaction tools such as
“Essays in two voices”
Convening an innovation ecology
Smarter Innovation, Ark Group, 2014

24. How great KM’ers are innovation
conveners
We lead by design
• Span industry,
functional, technical
opportunities
• Deliver knowledge
products (distilled,
instilled, or embodied)
• Position for competitive
advantage (internally and
externally)
We convene by temperament
• Focus on interactions
1. Bridging
2. Social integration
3. Capabilities validation
4. Market/industry assessment
5. Commercialization
• Build innovation ecology
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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25. Kate Pugh, Columbia University, AlignConsulting
•Kate has held leadership positions with Intel Corporation,
JPMorgan, and Fidelity. She is Academic Director of Columbia
University’s Information and Knowledge Strategy Masters
program, and is author of Sharing Hidden Know-How (Jossey-Bass,
2011) and Editor of Smarter Innovation (Ark Group, 2014).
•Sample clients include Athena Health, Clear Channel, The Gates
Foundation, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Medtronic,
Mitokine Bioscience, Project Mgt Institute, Women’s World
Banking, and The World Bank.
How Great KM’ers are
Innovation “conveners”
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•Kate has an MS/MBA from MIT Sloan, a BA in Economics from Williams College,
and certifications in Dialogue, Facilitation, Mediation, Project Mgt., and LEAN Six
Sigma.
•Kate has articles in Sloan Mgt. Review, Harvard Business Review, Ark Group, NASA Ask
Magazine, Huffington Post, Journal of Digital Media Management, Reuters Great Debate, and
Ivey Business Journal.