Knowledge Management Thought Leader 59: Nancy White

Originally posted 22-Feb-24

Nancy White is the founder of Full Circle Associates, her consulting practice that includes an extensive network of professionals. She is a frequent contributor and a past core group member of KM4Dev, a global networked community of international development practitioners interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing issues and approaches, who seek to share ideas and experiences in this domain.

Nancy is a leading thinker, writer, and practitioner of online facilitation (group facilitation for distributed environments). She supports distributed learning, teams, and communities of practice, where technology is just the tip of the iceberg. She believes that organizational capacity and strong processes are the links to success.

Nancy supports communications for NGOs, NPOs and community organizations, thinking in, out, around, and beside the box. She offers fresh ideas and practical plans for implementation.

Her specialties include online interaction strategic planning, design, execution, online facilitation, training, NPO/NGO knowledge sharing/management, strategic communications framing, issue communications, project management, and chocolate tasting.

Background

Education

• Duke University — BA, Botany, 1980

Experience

• Founder, Full Circle Associates, since 1997
• Chief Operating Officer, Bullseye Internet News Service USA, 1996–1997
• Director of Programs and Communications, March of Dimes — Washington State, 1989–1996
• KIRO Radio and Television, Executive Administrator — Public Affairs and other positions, 1981–1989

Profiles

• Site Profile
• about.me
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Flickr
• KM4Dev
• Profiles in Knowledge

Books

• Amazon Author Page

Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities with Etienne Wenger and John D. Smith

The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future edited by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady — Chapter 59: Online Environments that Support Change (with Gabriel Shirley)

Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities and Technologies edited by Subhasish Dasgupta — Online Group Facilitation Skills (page 354)

Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice edited by Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble — Chapter 23: Click, Connect and Coalesce for NGOs: Exploring the Intersection Between Online Networks, CoPs, and Events

OTiS Online Tutoring E-book edited by Carol A. Higgison — Chapter 6: Culture and Ethics: Facilitating Online Learning (with Michel Labour, Charles Juwah, and Sarah Tolley)

Videos

• Matt Moore
• YouTube

1. YouTube Channel
2. Group Facilitation Vs. Network Facilitation
3. Successful Distributed Teams
4. CITEP UBA
5. KM Impact Challenge
6. Loomio

• Vimeo

1. Impressions from KM4Dev
2. An Intro to Twitter
3. Graphic Recording 101

Content

• Site and Blog
• Old Blog
• Online Community Toolkit
• Virtual Liberating Structures Community Handbook
• Knowledge Sharing for Development
• Technology for Communities
• SIKM Leaders Community Posts
• KM4Dev Posts
• LinkedIn Posts

Podcasts

• Community Roundtable with Jim Storer and Rachel Happe
• Social Speech by Rob Cottingham
• Slow Communities by Matt Moore
• Blended Facilitation — with Ed Mitchell by Matt Moore
• Life Online by Jon Lebkowsky and Scoop Sweeny

Presentations

• SlideShare
• SIKM Leaders Community

1. February 2010 Rethinking Ourselves (KM People) as Technology Stewards with Etienne Wenger and John Smith
2. September 2012 Graphic Facilitation

Articles

• ResearchGate
• Semantic Scholar

KM4Dev Journal Articles

• Learning 3.0: collaborating for impact in large development organizations with Rachel Cardone andAldo de Moor
• Knowledge management for development in 2020: let your imagination fly! with Kemly Camacho, Pete Cranston, Charles Dhewa, Sarah Cummings, and Ivan Kulis
• Little steps to lofty goals: keys to successful community learning for civil society development with Siobhan Kimmerle
• Editorial: Communities of Practice in development: a relic of the past or sign of the future? with Adrian Bannister, Charles Dhewa, Riff Fullan, Lucie Lamoureux, and Ewen Le Borgne
• Peeking behind the curtain: the realities of facilitation in development with Lucie Lamoureux
• Editorial: Stewarding technologies for collaboration, community building and knowledge sharing in development with Beth Kanter, Partha Sarker, Oreoluwa Somolu, Beverly Trayner, Brenda Zulu, and Lucie Lamoureux
• Communities and networks in support of knowledge sharing. Part 1
• Communities and networks in support of knowledge sharing. Part 2
• Technology stewardship in the face of a crisis. An interview with Dina Mehta with Beth Kanter

Articles by Others

• The Passion Behind Knowledge Sharing, Online Communities and Collaboration — Interview with TallyFox
• Conversations around the implementation of CIAT’s internal communications strategy by Simone Staiger
• Interview by Lilia Efimova
• Interview with ToP Network by Eunice Shankland and Sheila LeGeros
• Interview with Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
• Communities of Practice (CoPs) by Darren Sidnick

Improving cross-disciplinary collaboration with strategy knotworking and ecocycle planning

I have used the six knotworking questions plus ecocycle planning from Liberating Structures to make it possible for a group to look back critically, assess the current state, and prospectively generate options to move forward.

The six knotworking questions are:

1. What is the fundamental purpose of our work (as individual projects and as a portfolio)?
2. What is happening around us that demands change?
3. What are the critical uncertainties and paradoxes we must face to make progress?
4. Where are we starting, honestly?
5. Based on what we have discovered, what is now made possible?
6. What are our next steps and how will we know we are making progress?

From answering the six questions, a shared language evolves. Fresh ideas across portfolios of work within or across funded programs come into focus. Relationships form and deepen creating space for peers to ask for and offer specific help. Teams can more easily refer to issues across different contexts for optimization. Emergent ideas can be supported across portfolios of grant-funded projects.

What shows up repeatedly is how silos become more permeable and even networked. Two aspects of knotworking seem most useful in this context:

1. Action and learning entwined
2. Exploring together generates new options

Community of Practice Start Up Toolkit & Worksheets

Full Circle’s 10 Steps for New Communities

1. Define and clearly articulate community PURPOSE (Domain). Be clear where you want to aim in terms of depth and breadth. Ideally, do this with some (potential) community members. Be sure to consider alternatives to a community format.
2. Determine if there are any existing communities that fill your need. Don’t replicate. It is hard to compete for limited time and attention. If there is an existing community, see if you can work with them. If no community, continue!
3. Identify the PEOPLE (Community) who you would want to participate.
4. Articulate and test the purpose with potential members to see if they can see the value of participating. If not, reexamine your community purpose.
5. Analyze what initial community activities and PRACTICES you should plan for to engage people. Make sure there are some options, but not too many options. It is always wise to start simply.
6. Pick appropriate online tools and set them up as simply as possible to start. You may want to “turn off” some features at the start and gradually add them in.
7. Design your initial monitoring and evaluation approach. Consider focusing on the PURPOSE, PEOPLE and PRACTICE.
8. Seed your community with your friends and network. No one likes to join an empty shell. Invite people and spread the word.
9. Plan an engaging kickoff event and then keep going!
10. Take time to reflect and notice what is working (do more of that), what is not working (stop that) and what can be improved. Always be learning!

Why should I consider a Community of Practice?

• The knowledge we want to create, share, apply sits with the individuals, rather than codified into books, manuals, or other artifacts. The practice is complicated or complex enough that it can’t be supported with just “best practices.”
• The domain is uncertain, changing or emerging, so we need to regularly check in with each other as practitioners.
• The practitioners need the social support of other practitioners in addition to the domain content. This may mean helping people identify as professional practitioners, grow their skills and confidence, or grow by becoming a leader in their field.
• We are passionate about learning and advancing our field. We can’t get enough of learning!

CoPs bring unique value because:

• They tap into member knowledge and experience.
• They can blend with projects and teams or stand alone.
• They can fly under the radar” or be part of a more formal set up.
• They offer value in informality, voluntary participation and relationship that can go far beyond the content or domain.