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Designing Knowledge Ecologies for Associations
The complexity of intellectual capital is a significant and pressing issue for association leaders. Creating and managing knowledge occupies a central place in today's associations. Barbara Sido, team vice president of nowledge at the American Institute of Architects, captures the challenge clearly: "Our members are brilliant and highly creative knowledge workers. A large part of our work supports and enables their success by continuously seeking, valuing, and sharing knowledge in our network of members. Much of our activity adds value to Ann Oliveri, a leader at the Urban Land Institute (ULI), describes it this way: "Our association has more than 26 practice disciplines, our members are extremely knowledgeable and often at the forefront of their respective fields, and our role is to create a space where much of this resident knowledge is recombined and leveraged into new knowledge and innovation." Knowledge, then, is the ubiquitous matter in associations; a leader seeking to manage the dynamics and complexity of knowledge brings to mind the proverbial fish managing the water. Any ecosystem encompasses both the interacting organisms and the environment in which they interact. To study a successful knowledge ecology is to study the dynamics of knowledge in an environment consciously created to foster that knowledge. We will enhance our understanding of knowledge ecologies by taking a journey through six elements: knowledge, leadership, culture, collaboration, design principles, and ecological principles (see figure 1). Where these six elements come together in balance, we find a thriving knowledge ecology and a thriving organization. Commentary on this journey will be provided by leaders from four organizations—the American Institute of Architects, the Urban Land Institute, the MVP Collaborative, and the Calgary Public Library—who are demonstrating state-of-the-art leadership practice in their nurturing of knowledge ecologies.  These six elements are vast and deep topics in their own right, and the discussion here will not do justice to any individual component. The purpose is to get association leaders thinking about the six organizing principles that converge to create a knowledge ecology. If the ecosystem is unwell, these are the places to look.
More Articles From Fall 2006 Issue
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Fall 2006
