Facibus Reviews

Peter Drucker used the term knowledge worker in 1959. I consider myself a knowledge worker, and more than that: Knowledge Worker 2.0.

According to the wikipedia definition:

Knowledge worker, a term coined by Peter Drucker in 1959, is one who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.

Due to the constant industrial growth in North America and globally, there is increasing need for an academically capable workforce. In direct response to this, Knowledge Workers are now estimated to outnumber all other workers in North America by at least a four to one margin (Haag et al, 2006, pg. 4).

A Knowledge Worker’s benefit to a company could be in the form of developing business intelligence, increasing the value of intellectual capital, gaining insight into customer preferences, or a variety of other important gains in knowledge that aid the business.

How do knowledge workers work? Again, according to the wikipedia definition:

Knowledge workers are believed to produce more when empowered to make the most of their deepest skills; they can often work on many projects at the same time; they know how to allocate their time; and they can multiply the results of their efforts through soft factors such as emotional intelligence and trust (Francis Fukuyama, Manuel Castells). Organizations designed around the knowledge worker (instead of just machine capital) are thought to integrate the best of hierarchy, self-organization and networking rather than the worst. Each dictates a different communications and rewards system, and requires activation of knowledge-sharing and action learning. A basic pattern rule of human systems is that when you mix them you will get the worst of each unless you contextually and carefully attend to connecting the best.

It is a bit like limiting access to technology for technologists - work with people in the way that they work best and you will be rewarded with better productivity.

So if I am Knowledge Worker 2.0, what is Knowledge Worker 1.0? Looking at the way that knowledge management has changed over the years, it is probably easier to talk about it in categorisation terms rather than Web 1.0/Web 2.0 analogies. In the beginning was the rigid taxonomy - there was a place for everything, and everything in its place. Knowledge Worker 1.0 (KW1) helped to define the pigeonholes and then place things into them, watching all the while that the whole organisation toed the line, and teaching the taxonomy to others so that everyone would know where to store and find information.

Knowledge Worker 2.0 (KW2) uses taxonomies as one categorisation strategy/tool - but knows that they are only a part of the total solution. KW2 designs information systems that recognise that different people find things in different ways, and that sensitivity to the organisational culture is as important as any best practices.

Steve Collins is working on thoughtglue, a resource to enable Knowledge Worker 2.0. I’m hoping to interview Steve soon to find out more about it. According to the thoughtglue blog:

thoughtglue ties together in a meaningful way all of the latest information available about knowledge work and the knowledge economy and builds the value of that information by exploring for workers and managers how that information can be leveraged in business.

UPDATE: The interview with Steve Collins of thoughtglue will be here shortly!