Workshop 1: The Gateway Workshop

Distance Learning Workshop 1: Theoretical Foundations of Knowledge Management: The Gateway Workshop

This Workshop provides a one-day introduction to The New KM (TNKM), and is also Day 1 of the CKIM Certificate Program. It covers the core TNKM conceptual frameworks, which provide the answers to many traditional and very important KM-related issues. Some of the important questions answered by the Frameworks are: What is Knowledge? How is it Different from Information? What is Knowledge Management and what is its purpose? How does it differ from Information Management? What is the scope of Knowledge Management? What are its value propositions? What is the behavioral and motivational context of Knowledge Management? What are the targets of Knowledge Management? How are knowledge processing and Knowledge Management related to everyday decisions, business processes and activities? What is the relationship between Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, adaptation, and problem solving? How is new knowledge made? How is new knowledge integrated? How do we select among new competing ideas? What is the Knowledge life Cycle? What is the Theory of Fair Critical Comparison? What is the Distributed Organizational Knowledge Base, and what is its relationship to decision making, business processes, and activities? What are the primary activities of Knowledge Management?

The core frameworks include the:

Three-Tier Reference Model (which distinguishes KM from knowledge processing, and knowledge use in business processing and decision making);
Organizational Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Framework (which places everything KM works with in the context of CAS theory;
Decision/Routine Learning/Creative Learning Framework (which specifies a decision framework within which learning occurs at the individual level;
Motivational Framework;
Knowledge Framework (The Unified Theory of Knowledge);
Knowledge Processing/Knowledge Life Cycle Framework (including the Knowledge Claim Evaluation/Fair Critical Comparison Framework); and
Knowledge Management Framework.

The Workshop also includes four interactive discussions applying the frameworks to your own organizations. The Workshop Syllabus is here.

The Gateway Workshop is taught by Joseph M. Firestone, Ph.D. Dr. Firestone's credentials are available here.

Text materials for the workshop are:

Mark W. McElroy, The New Knowledge Management, Burlington, MA: KMCI Press/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003

Joseph M. Firestone and Mark W. McElroy, Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management, Burlington, MA: KMCI Press/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003

In addition, a set of extensive course notes will be provided, and a Certificate of Completion will be issued upon completion of the Workshop.

The Gateway Workshop is generally available weekly on Wednesdays, and is a prerequisite for all other KMCI and CKIM Distance Learning Workshops, since it provides needed conceptual background and a common language applied frequently in other workshops. You can reserve it up to one week before a previously scheduled Gateway Workshop. After that time, the scheduled day will be freed up for other activities, including other workshops. Register Here to reserve and lock-in the Gateway Workshop.