Summary
According to Thoughtworks' Tech Radar, Knowledge Flow — knowledge as a sociotechnical system we can design — is an essential technique to learn.
How do you generate knowledge flow? When so few decisions are driven by meaning and expertise shared across teams, tools, and digital systems ... where do you begin?
This workshop is an invitation to design knowledge flow. It doesn’t teach knowledge management—it helps you build the future of knowledge work. Through hands-on practices, real-world examples, and practices grounded in systems thinking, you will learn to architect the knowledge environments your teams need to thrive.
What you'll learn
- Enter the Fireswamp where you'll face the Six Delusions of Unusual Size -- knowledge myths that keep us trapped in quicksand of systemic gaps.
- Discover the Six inconceivable Truths: Practices that actually generate knowledge flow.
- Walk the Spiral Paths: Hands-on keystone activities that shift your thinking, increase your effectiveness and deliver high-value impact with each step.
- Create a Knowledge Repository: Architect as if everything is intertwingled (because it is!). Think as if complexity is the river of modern knowledge work (because it is!). Iterate and Improve.
- Prototype a meaning-driven system: Get geeky with a small, ontology-driven prototype that demonstrates the power of this paradigm shift ... in the medium of code.
(If you are an expert coder, you can dive in deep. If you aren't a coder, but don't mind touching some code, you can build a prototype too. Attendees can also pair skillsets, like we do IRL.)
Whether you're untangling legacy systems, designing better decision-making processes, or trying to make sense of complex product landscapes, Knowledge Flow gives you the mindset, methods, and tools to turn information overload into organisational intelligence.
If you are happy with Jira-driven engineering, documentation-drowning requirements analysis, architecting relational database queries to create faux data relationships, and designing information pipelines rather than knowledge systems ... this workshop is not for you!
If you want to experience a powerful, practice-driven approach to architecting and building software systems that supports synthesis, collaboration, real-time sense making that produces real innovation ... join us on the adventure.
Helpful but not required prerequisites: You enjoy snarky metaphors, schema label debates and aren't afraid to return to work muttering the word "ontology."
For who?
This workshop is for Systems Designers and Architects, Engineering Leaders, developers, ad Devops Practitioners, Product leader and UX designers, Business Leaders, Human systems facilitators, Content managers and Information architects.
Prerequisites
Curiousity, a "yes, and" mindset, a laptop, and willingness to follow some instructions before they arrive.
Learning Systems Thinking
Written by Diana Montalion - Published by O'Reilly
Welcome to the systems age, where software professionals are no longer building software; we're building systems of software. Change is continuously deployed across software ecosystems coordinated by responsive infrastructure.
In this world of increasing relational complexity, we need to think differently. Many of our challenges are systemic. This book shows you how systems thinking can guide you through the complexity of modern systems. Rather than relying on traditional reductionistic approaches, author Diana Montalion shows you how to expand your skill set so we can think, communicate, and act as healthy systems.
Systems thinking is a practice that improves your effectiveness and enables you to lead impactful change. Through a series of practices and real-world scenarios, you'll learn to shift your perspective in order to design, develop, and deliver better outcomes.
You'll learn:
- How linear thinking limits your ability to solve system challenges
- Common obstacles to systems thinking and how to move past them
- New skills and practices that will transform how you think, learn, and lead
- Methods for thinking well with others and creating sound recommendations
- How to measure success in the midst of complexity and uncertainty