Smarter Socially Mediated Conversations

ECSM 2014 Brighton

Gurteen Knowledge Café Sept 2002

The Knowledge Café

• The purpose of the Café is to bring a group of people together to have a conversation on a topic of mutual interest

• The aims include:– the surfacing of the group's collective knowledge– learning from each other– sharing ideas and insights– gaining a deeper understanding of the topic & the issues involved– and exploring possibilities

• It also helps:– connect people– improve inter-personal relationships– breaks down organisational silos– improves trust and engagement

• It is a social face to face process

The Knowledge Café Process

• Speed Networking

• Speaker makes short presentation

• Poses question

• Small group conversations at tables

• Three rounds of conversation

• Whole group conversation in a circle

• Share actionable insights

• Approx two hours in total

UKSpainNorwayRussiaUSASingaporeHong KongIndonesiaMalaysiaThailandAustraliaColombiaBrazilNew ZealandSouth AfricaIndiaEgyptCroatiaDenmarkPortugalNetherlandsGermanyUAE

Café Stories

Jakarta 2007Knowledge Sharing Workshop

Lesson: Own language

Malaysia 2008IBM Workshop

Lesson: People like to stay in their comfort zone

Thailand 2008University of Bangkok

Lesson: Small groups work

well, large groups do not

Abu Dhabi 2011

Lesson: Some people are very uncomfortable talking

Barriers to Conversation

Poor English

Lack of confidence in

English language ability

Fear of loss of face

• Saying something stupid • Making yourself look foolish

• Lack of confidence• Fear of dominant people

Fear of causing someone else to lose face

Possibly a bigger fear than losing

face oneself especially if the

person is an authoritive figure

Deference to Authority

Singapore workshop story

Humility

• Sense of humility

• Who am I to express an opinion?

Culture

Story of Chinese woman in Norway

- education- don’t question

authority

These traits are dominant in SE Asian Cultures but also exist in our Western Cultures

Barriers1. Poor English2. Loss of face3. Causing someone

else to lose face4. Deference to

authority5. Humility6. Culture

Some Research Findingson Conversation

Why is conversation easy?

• Presenting & listening to speeches should be more straightforward than holding a conversation

• This is clearly not the case

• Conversation is easy because of an interactive processing mechanism that leads to the alignment of linguistic representations between partners

• Humans are ‘designed’ for dialogue rather than monologue

Why is conversation so easy?Simon Garrod; Martin J. Pickering

The reason I started my Knowledge Cafés

Influence of group size

• In large, 10-person groups, communication is like monologue– members are influenced most by the dominant speaker

• In small, 5-person groups, communication is like dialogue– members are influenced most by those with whom they

interact in the discussion

Group Discussion as Interactive Dialogue or as Serial Monologue: The Influence of Group SizeNicolas Fay; Simon Garrod; Jean Carletta

The size of my small Café groups

Friends with cognitive benefits

• Talking with other people in a friendly way can make it easier to solve common problems

• Conversations that are competitive in tone, rather than cooperative, have no cognitive benefits

• Executive function: working memory, self-monitoring and focus

• Skills that are critical to problem solving

Friends (and Sometimes Enemies) With Cognitive BenefitsOscar Ybarra, Piotr Winkielman, Irene Yeh, Eugene Burnstein, Liam Kavanagh

Speed Networking

Social sensitivity

• Group intelligence relates to HOW members of a team talk to each other

• Depends on social sensitivity of the group members

• Readiness of group to allow members to take equal turns in the conversation

• Groups where one person dominates are less collectively intelligent than in groups where the conversational turns are more evenly distributed

Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alexander Pentland, Nada Hashmi,Thomas W. Malone

No Café table leaders

Knowledge Café Principles

Café Principles

• Relaxed, non-threatening, open conversation– Close to a pub or café conversation

• Everyone equal; no table leaders or report back

• No one forced to do anything– OK to just listen

• Trust people to talk about what is important– OK to go off-topic

• No capture of outcomes– Outcomes are what people take

away in their heads

1. No fear2. No coercion3. No leaders4. No hierarchy5. No capture6. No control

So what does this mean for online discussion forums & a potential virtual

knowledge cafe?

Properties of many Forums

• English is the lingua franca• Large number of people• Open to anyone• No idea who is in the forum• Do not know the people• No idea of the authority figures• No idea of the trolls• Everything is recorded• 90:9:1 law

Barriers1. Poor English2. Loss of face3. Causing someone

else to lose face4. Deference to

authority5. Humility6. Culture

Nature of many Forum Conversations

• Posts tend to be monologues • Posts often very lengthy• Grandstanding• Responses carefully thought through• More debate/argument than dialogue• Trolls & “intellectual trolls” thrive• Easy to misunderstand someone• Not easy to correct misunderstandings

Barriers1. Poor English2. Loss of face3. Causing someone

else to lose face4. Deference to

authority5. Humility6. Culture

So what’s the solution?

Some Ideas?

• Specific language forums• Peers only• Clear who is in the forum• Ability to edit/delete posts• Do not store threads for long• Small groups (3 or 4 people)• Permission to join conversations• Limit size of posts• Real time discussions

Café Principles1. Small groups2. Socialization3. No fear4. No coercion5. No leaders6. No hierarchy7. No capture8. No control

Barriers1. Poor English2. Loss of face3. Causing someone else

to lose face4. Deference to authority5. Humility6. Culture

Randomised Coffee Trials

• In large organizations not easy for people to connect & build relationships

• RCTs pair people at random for coffee once a week

• Bank of England connects 4 people & call it “Coffee Fours”

• SABMiller have “Randomized Beer Collaborations”!

• Nesta• Cabinet Office• Mars• RSA• KHDA (Dubai)• DfE• Scottish Government

Can be done virtually over Skype or Google Hangouts

Telepresence – a blended solution?

• Beam+ • Double Robotics

Before I take questions, first I have a question for you

How do you think we could improve engagement in online forums & how do we improve the quality of those

conversations?

Questions

www.gurteen.com

David GURTEEN Gurteen Knowledge Fleet, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 7774 178 650 Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com