John Gunkler writes
>I understand that there are anthropologists who focus on the dynamics of
>cultures, but that focus is not evident to me in Ed's description of what
>KMC is doing.
You have a surprising and interesting mental model of Anthropology.
I disagree that Anthropology = static models. It is also risky to classify
any science as following one approach or another. Like most social
scientists, there are many approaches anthropologists take towards their
field of interest.
Most of the works in Anthropology, that I know of, relate to dynamic
models such as the work of Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead and
many others. Mead specifically writes about knowledge diffusion between
cultures and its impact on intercultural dynamics. Besides, like any good
knowledge seeker, anthropologists are always on the look out for better
analysis tools including the use of a System Dynamics approach to culture.
Recently, several anthropologists have been influenced by a
multi-dimensional, dynamic approach to cultures -- Complex Adaptive
Systems Theory.
By pulling in John Holland's work in Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and
the work at Santa Fe Institute as the foundation for an anthropological
study of KM, the KMC is clearly addressing the dynamics of cultures as
well as other dynamics. CAS provides us tools to take us into areas where
traditional system dynamics modeling become too cumbersome. We are working
with Jim Hines at MIT to develop a modeling language to blend the power of
System Dynamics and CAS to help model and understand the cultural dynamics
of knowledge governance within an organization. CAS coupled with SD allows
us to create extremely complex models with little effort. A couple of SD
software tools might be expanded to support this new approach.
The real point behind using an anthropological view is to work with KM
from a holistic, human-driven perspective rather than a single system or
artifact driven one. My mental model of anthropology was the viewing of
culture from a complex adaptive systems perspective that includes a system
dynamics one. I know that the main thought leaders within the KMC agree.
Even though the KMC uses this applied anthropology perceptive to get a
handle on KM, the primary focus of the KMC is to develop a knowledge base
of measurable, actionable knowledge that can help an organization achieve
their "bottom line" goals faster and more effectively.
Ed
Edward Swanstrom
President/CEO
Knowledge Management Consortium International
B (301) 590-0102
F (301) 519-9197
swanstrom.e@km.org
http://km.org
--"Ed Swanstrom" <swanstrom.e@km.org>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>