Open: How Collaboration and Curiosity Shaped Humankind Johan Norberg

 
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•  A Brief History of Knowledge 200,000 years of human history
•  A Conversation Dinner in Turin Knowledge menu à la carte
•  A Knowledge Café in English, French and Russian Knowledge Cafe's can be run in multiple languages
•  A Knowledge Café Is a Gathering It is not a meeting
•  Actor-network Theory (ANT) Actor-Network Theory
•  Adaptive Leadership ** Mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive
•  Admit When We Are Wrong ** We find it difficult to admit when we are wrong
•  Al Jazeera Cafe An interesting experiment not to deabate but engage in a global conversation
•  Anecdote Circles A narrative technique to guide participants in sharing stories
•  Are There Any Questions? Q&A is not interaction
•  Artificial Intelligence ** The ability of machines to perform tasks usually associated with human intelligence
•  Ask Questions ** Be curious - ask more questions
•  Avoid Anonymity Anonymity kills the conversation
•  Avoiding Modern-day Colonialism Colonialism: the dominance, control, and exploitation by one group over another
•  Banter with Care Banter: the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks
•  Be Open and Transparent ** Key traits of knowledge workers
•  Belief Systems Our beliefs are not isolated pieces of data that we can take and discard at will
•  Benjamin Franklin’s Junto Club Benjamin Franklin founded the Junto Club - a conversational society in 1727
•  Betrayed by Our Laughter Our sense of humor is something we find hard to fake or suppress
•  Blog Posts About the Gurteen Knowledge Café A selection of Knowledge Café blog posts, articles and papers
•  Brainstorming A group discussion to produce a list of ideas or solutions to a problem.
•  Bridging Divides **
•  British Gentlemen’s Clubs ** Of the 17th and 18th Centuries
•  Building 20 at MIT Innovation Story: A humble wartime lab that sparked a legacy of innovation and collaboration
•  C-group Develop your interpersonal and conversational skills
•  Café Style Meetings Hold conversations, not meetings
•  Carpe Diem – Seize the Day Seize the day everyone
•  Changing Minds Through Conversation The role of conversation in Derek Black’s transformation
•  Chatbots as Critical Thinking Partners Stimulating critical thinking is one of the most powerful application of chatbots
•  Chatbots to Analyze Conversations and Presentations Analysis of transcripts
•  Chatgpt: Your Critical Thinking Partner Engaging in thought-provoking conversations with ChatGPT
•  Cognitive Diversity Seeing and processing the world differently
•  Cognitive Surplus Untapping our human potential
•  Collective Sense-making The Knowledge Café is a powerful collective sense-making tool
•  Community of Innovation ** A form of community of practice that is dedicated to the support of innovation.
•  Community of Practice ** A group of people who share a passion for something they do
•  Complex Is Not the Same as Complicated We tend to use "complex" to describe things that are actually just complicated or challenging.
•  Complex Responsive Processes Ongoing patterns of interaction between people
•  Complex Systems ** Many parts interacting with each other in multiple ways
•  Conclusion: Two Pillars of Truth Critical thinking - a civic duty
•  Connect More Connect more broadly, more deeply
•  Connecting Minds Connecting and synchronising minds
•  Connection Before Content Without relatedness, no work can occur
•  Consensus ** The trouble with consenus
•  Contra-conversations **
•  Conversare Events Social gatherings which people engage in one-to-one conversation with a stranger
•  Conversation Covenant Creating a psychologically safer space for difficult conversations
•  Conversation in Ancient Greek Society ** Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
•  Conversation in Ancient Roman Society ** ...
•  Conversation Is a Dance ** Conversation and dance are both improvisational
•  Conversation Is Not a Panacea for All Our Problems ** But it goes a long way
•  Conversation Sharpens the Saw It is not a waste of time
•  Conversation Through the Lens of the Johari Window Understanding ourselves and others through conversation
•  Conversational Awareness The skill of being able to pay attention to various elements of a conversation
•  Conversational Capacities Prerequisites to a good conversation
•  Conversational Conferences In a conversational conference, the dominant style of presentation is the conversational talk
•  Conversational Leadership Framework ** A framework to help understand the concept
•  Conversational Leadership Mindset Developing a Conversational Leadership mindset
•  Conversational Post-project Reviews **
•  Conversational Self-awareness Being aware of our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during a conversation
•  Conversational Talks How to give a conversational talk or presentation
•  Conversations Are Complex Responsive Processes Conversations are dynamic, emergent interactions shaping organizational reality
•  Conversations Through the Cynefin Lens Unraveling the intricacies of everyday conversations
•  Converse in Good Faith Be sincere, fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome
•  Crafting Writing That Drives Change Larry McEnerney's insights on good writing
•  Culture Basic tacit assumptions about how the world works
•  Data, Information and Knowledge What's the difference?
•  Death Café At a Death Café people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death
•  Designing Powerful Questions Questions open the door to dialogue and discovery
•  Dialogic Organization Development From a dialogic perspective, change results from transformational conversations
•  Difficult Conversations Navigating emotionally challenging conversations
•  Disagree Constructively How to disagree well
•  Dominant Discourse and Narrative ** Shape the world
•  Don’t Discourage Dissent Fear, uncertainty and doubt are good things
•  Don’t Give Advice Especially when it is sought
•  Eat with Others We should make it a priority to eat with others whenever possible
•  Engagement Café Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.
•  Enlightenment 2.0 A New Enlightenment for the 21st century
•  Entrained Thinking Blinded to new ways of thinking by perspectives acquired through past experience
•  Ericsson Story **
•  Etymology of Conversation A history of the word "conversation"
•  Everyone Believes They’re the Good Guy The only real way to disarm your enemy is to listen to them
•  Everything Is Fragmented ** Fragmentation
•  Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups **
•  Exploring the Multifaceted Roles of Trust in Relationships and Society Without trust our civilization would collapse
•  Facilitator Bias ** A facilitator unwittingly influences a group
•  Filter Bubbles, Epistemic Bubbles and Echo Chambers Distort the reality of the world
•  Flipped Teaching Speech is a bad medium for communicating information - so watch lectures at home
•  Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is not just another value
•  From Enlightenment to Entanglement Adapting to the complexities of an interconnected world
•  Future Café Explore trends and issues that shape, influence and impact the future
•  Global Consciousness The capacity and disposition to understand and act upon global issues
•  Gossip and Lashon Hara Conversation about other people
•  Groucho Club Sales Café Ditch the pitch
•  Group Polarization The tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members
•  Groupthink The desire for harmony in a group can result in irrational decisions
•  Gurteen Knowledge Café: Entrenched and Entrained Thinking A blog post by Conrad Taylor
•  Hawthorne Effect Myth Being watched affects your behavior
•  History of Conversation ** The changing face of conversation through the ages
•  Hold Strong Opinions Weakly ** I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue
•  How Could We Be Wrong? Is a crucial question to ask in a conversation
•  Huawei Transforms a Global Conference with a Knowledge Market How to make a conference more participatory
•  II. Embrace Complexity We need to understand complexity & its implications
•  Impossible Conversations Navigating conversations across ideological divides
•  Improving Performance with After-action Reviews Building a culture of improvement
•  Influential Power ** You can never not influence
•  Interbrain Synchrony When neural activities align between people during social interactions
•  Intimate Conversations Conversations with strangers
•  Introduction: Conversational Environments ** Designing places and spaces for good conversations
•  Introduction: Conversational Leadership Conversational Leadership
•  Introduction: Conversational Learning Unleashing knowledge
•  Introduction: Conversational Methods Ways of structuring conversations
•  Introduction: Conversational Spaces Meeting places for conversations
•  Introduction: History and Philosophy of Conversation ** The art of conversation has evolved over thousands of years
•  Introduction: Innovation The introduction of something new
•  Introduction: Knowledge Café Improving decision-making, innovation, and collaboration
•  Introduction: Knowledge Delusion We delude ourselves about what we know and how we make decisions
•  Introduction: Two Pillars of Truth The convergence of science and philosophy in the pursuit of knowledge
•  Introduction: Virtual Conversations ** Computer-mediated converations
•  Is “useless Knowledge” Useless? Maybe not if it makes things taste sweeter
•  Jakarta Dutch Cultural Centre 2007 **
•  Knowledge Café at Regent’s University February 2024 What Are the Strongest Motives for Creative Endeavour in Your Life?
•  Knowledge Café Debate Debate sharpens up the important aspects of the issue under discussion
•  Knowledge Café History It began on September 5th, 2002 at the Strand Palace Hotel in London
•  Knowledge Café Principle: Conversation Is Sovereign It's all about the conversation
•  Knowledge Café Principle: Create a Safe Space Where conversation can flourish
•  Knowledge Café Principle: Engage in Small Groups Real conversation takes place in small groups
•  Knowledge Café: Capturing Outcomes The outcomes are what you take away in your head - note taking is a distraction
•  Knowledge Café: Conversational Topics Some examples
•  Knowledge Café: Design Checklist Knowledge Cafés should be thoughtfully designed
•  Knowledge Café: Getting Started Make an impact
•  Knowledge Café: Invitation People should not be coerced to participate in any way
•  Knowledge Café: Measuring Success The outcomes are what you take away in your head - note taking is a distraction
•  Knowledge Café: No Flip Charts or Butcher Paper They get in the way of the conversation - avoid them
•  Knowledge Café: No Report-outs There is nothing more boring than a report-out
•  Knowledge Café: Small Group Conversations The small group conversations are the heart of the Café
•  Knowledge Café: the Host The role of the Knowledge Café host
•  Knowledge Cafés ** Include one or more Knowledge Cafés
•  Knowledge Cafés and Communities of Practice ** There is a difference
•  Knowledge Cafés at ING Bank, Netherlands Connect, connect, connect
•  Knowledge Cafés at NASA Identifying risk issues, and meaningful mitigation approaches
•  Knowledge Cafés at PSMA Australia Using the Knowledge Café process to run a Knowledge Management Forum
•  Knowledge Cafés at the European Patent Office The Personal Growth Community
•  Knowledge Cafés at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Give people a voice
•  Knowledge Is Communal Most of our knowledge resides in other people
•  Knowledge Is Not Power Our ability to influence people is power
•  Knowledge Only Exists in the Mind Everything else is information
•  Knowledge Sharing ** A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle
•  Lashon Hara Jewish religious term for derogatory speech
•  Leadership Is a Practice Not a Position of Authority Anyone can practice leadership
•  Learn by Talking When speaking we organize cognitively what we know
•  Learn to Listen and to Tell the Truth Do we listen, to confirm what we already think or do we listen in order to reply?
•  Learning **
•  Let’s Get Rid of Lecterns The lectern is a barrier to connecting with your audience
•  Levels of Conversation ** Four levels of conversation
•  Listen Empathically ** Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply
•  Listen with the Intent to Understand Don't listen with the intent to reply
•  Losing and Giving Face The fear of losing face is a significant barrier to open conversation in many cultures
•  Make Big Talk Make big talk not small talk
•  Make Time to Talk The lack of time for conversation is just an excuse
•  Marketing Café ** Holding marketing conversations
•  Measures, Targets, Rewards and Punishments When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
•  Mirror Neurons The key to social cognition
•  Motivation ** Motivation is a fire from within
•  Multipolar Traps or Moloch Traps Acting against our collective interests
•  Narrative and Story ** Narrative provides a way of looking at and interpreting the world.
•  Navigating Complexity with Safe-to-fail Probes The power of safe-to-fail probes
•  Nurturing a Collaborative Culture Through Knowledge Cafés Using Knowledge Cafés to bridge silos and encourage open dialogue
•  Obliquity in a Complex World In a complex world, goals are often best achieved indirectly
•  On Conversation An essay by Benjamin Franklin, the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1730
•  Open Mindedness ** Willingness to seek and weigh evidence that challenges our beliefs, plans, or objectives
•  Open Space Technology ** No formal agenda
•  Open, Adaptive Strategy Make employees partners in the strategy process
•  Oracy The ability to express oneself in and understand spoken language
•  Oral Public Discourse Verbal expression aimed at a public audience
•  Our Brains Are Designed for Conversation That is why we find conversation so easy
•  Our Old Ways of Thinking and Working Are Failing The outcome
•  Our Tribal Nature The human brain is hardwired to be tribal
•  Our World Is a Mess The metacrisis
•  Our World Is Complex It is a VUCA world
•  Our World Is Hyperconnected The world is an increasingly connected place
•  Ownership, Not Buy-in We need to move from buy-in to ownership
•  Passion at the Gurteen Knowledge Café Blog post by Mathew Rees
•  Peer Assist Learn from your peers; someone has already done it
•  Peer Instruction Where students learn from each other
•  Peer Learning Unlocking collective wisdom
•  Personal Power ** We hold more potential today than ever to transform the world
•  Philosophy of Conversation ** Conversation is fundamental to the human experience
•  Pitching by Conversation ** Ditch the pitch
•  Politics Is Life We can't escape it
•  Pollution of the Global Information Ecosystem The contamination of information with false and misleading material
•  Post-biological Evolution ** Evolution is not limited to biological evolution
•  Pseudoscience and Its Dangers Misinformation and its impact on society
•  Psychological Safety ** A shared belief that within your team it is safe to take risks
•  Punished by Rewards Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody
•  Raising the Ships on the Sea The comedy or cornucopia of the commons
•  Randomised Coffee Trials It is just a coffee, but at the same time it is much more
•  Reading Group Café A reading group, reading circle or book discussion club
•  Recognising New Age Mumbo Jumbo Understanding and avoiding deceptive New Age ideas
•  Reframing Questions Shifting perspective changes the conversation
•  Rethinking Our Beliefs It is not easy to change our beliefs
•  Reversing Cause and Effect The conversation creates the speakers
•  Rhetoric To influence people through speech or writing
•  Ritual Dissent ** A structured way for a group of peers to criticize proposals or ideas
•  Sales Café Ditch the pitch - create sales conversations
•  Salons A gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host
•  Say So, If We Don’t Have an Opinion It's perfectly OK to say ‘Sorry, I don’t know’
•  Science Curiosity A desire to seek out and consume scientific information for pleasure
•  Shared Meaning To understand each other's perspectives well enough to accept them
•  Sharing Knowledge Through Conversation Knowledge isn't there the way ore is buried
•  Show Respect Failing to respect one another negatively impacts the future for all of us
•  Silicon Valley Versus Route 128 Innovation Story: How Silicon Valley's open culture outpaced Route 128's closed network
•  Speak Last Learn to be the last to speak
•  Speak Up Express our opinions frankly and openly
•  Speak with Less Conviction Speaking with conviction inhibits learning
•  Speed Consulting Drawing on the experience of others
•  Spirituality A deep appreciation, respect, and love for the universe, the world, all life, and humanity
•  Stammtisch Tables Tables in pubs or restaurants reserved for regulars
•  Strategic Conversations Have the potential to influence the future direction of an organization
•  Strategy ** Strategy is much more than a plan
•  Street Epistemology Exploring deeply held beliefs
•  Talk More The essence of Conversational Leadership is to talk with people more
•  Talk with Strangers Why and how should you talk with strangers?
•  Telepresence – Beaming Into a Knowledge Café ** Being present virtually
•  Tell the Truth Lies distort the world
•  The Allure of Simple Stories We tend to readily accept uncomplicated narratives without verification
•  The Anthropocene The age of humans
•  The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason We did not evolve to reason individually but to reason socially
•  The Art of Navigating Conversations Choosing our repsonses carefully
•  The Cognitive Benefits of Doodling ** Doodling can help you stay focused, grasp new concepts and retain information
•  The Conversible World ** The sphere of human interaction and exchange of ideas
•  The Cynefin Framework A conceptual framework to help make decisions
•  The Dérive An unplanned journey through a urban landscape
•  The Difference Between Dialogue and Debate ** In dialogue, finding common ground is the goal while in debate, winning is the goal
•  The Difference Between Responsibility and Accountability We take responsibility but are held accountable
•  The Difference Between Sense-making and Meaning-making The terms have distinct meanings
•  The Differences Between the Knowledge Café and the World Café There are some significant differences
•  The DIKW (data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) Pyramid The DIKW model
•  The Emergence of Conversation in Early Cultures ** Conversation stretches far back into prehistory
•  The Enlightenment The Age of Reason
•  The Extended Mind The power of distributed cognition
•  The Fallibility of Science Understanding the limits and strengths of science
•  The Four Levels of Knowledge Management The relation between Conversational Leadership and Knowledge Management
•  The Fourth Industrial Revolution A new era of connectedness and complexity
•  The Global Information Ecosystem We live in a vast sea of information
•  The Great Conversation – the Evolving Dialogue of Ideas Exploring the exchange of ideas across cultures and eras
•  The History of Conversational Leadership 1985 to today
•  The History of the Socratic Method The evolution and impact of Socratic dialogue
•  The Huawei Break the Book Community A powerful example of peer learning
•  The Impact of Cognitive Biases in Conversation Cognitive biases can lead to flawed or irrational conclusions in a conversation
•  The Innovation Café Network Sparking everyday innovation
•  The Knowledge Delusion We know far less than we think we do
•  The London Coffeehouses of the Enlightenment Centers of Enlightenment thinking
•  The Mehrabian Myth It is not true that 93% of our communication is nonverbal
•  The Mind Is a Fire to Be Kindled Not a vessel to be filled
•  The Myth of Thamus and Theuth Does writing allow the pretense of understanding, rather than true understanding?
•  The Narrative Paradigm All meaningful communication occurs via storytelling or reporting of event
•  The Neuroscience of Conversation Conversations trigger changes in the brain
•  The New Science of Building Great Teams ** 35% of variation in team performance is accounted for by the amount of face-to-face communication
•  The Oracy Lab An experimental space for exploring the power and possibilities of conversations
•  The Origin of Language ** ...
•  The Perils of Binary Bias ** Simplifying complex issues into two extreme and opposing categories
•  The Postproduction Paradigm – AI and the Art of Remixing LLMs as catalysts for a remix revolution
•  The Power of Curiosity ** Driving human progress
•  The Power of Serendipity Discover how chance encounters can lead to insights and new opportunities
•  The Power of Talking with Enemies Özlem Cekic’s story of transforming hostility through conversation
•  The Power of Team Huddles How brief team gatherings can align, motivate, and connect
•  The Provisional Nature of Scientific Knowledge Understanding science as an ongoing process
•  The Role of the Knowledge Café in Open/adaptive Strategy An ideal tool to help implement open strategy
•  The Roots of the Scientific Method Exploring the history of the scientific method
•  The Science and Benefits of Walking ** We are more creative when walking than sitting down
•  The Scientific Method The backbone of modern science
•  The Socratic Elenchus A tool for intellectual discovery
•  The Socratic Method A powerful tool for critical thinking
•  The Two Pillars of Truth How the scientific method and Socratic elenchus underpin civilization
•  The Unconference A conference organized, structured and led by the people attending it
•  The Value of Conversation ** Why are conversations so valuable?
•  The Value of Hallway Conversations The magic of the hallway conversation lies in its spontaneity
•  The Vector Theory of Change Navigating change in a complex world
•  The Virtual Random Café Informal conversations and networking ... from home
•  Theodore Zeldin’s Conversation Dinners Dinner and a stimulating conversation with a stranger
•  Thinking Together Talking with each other beats talking to ourselves
•  Three Questions for Meaningful Conversations Clarify focus, approach, and community-building in discussions
•  Tolerance Is A Social Contract, Not a Moral Absolute The paradox of tolerance
•  Town Hall Meeting ** A meeting in which a report is made and participants have an opportunity to ask questions
•  Tribal Thinking Tribe before truth
•  Turn-taking in Conversation When we talk we take turns
•  Two Realms of Intellectual Discourse ** The learned and the conversible
•  Two Worlds Learning to live in an entangled world
•  Understanding Debates Argument is meant to reveal the truth, not to create it
•  Understanding Scientific Terms Clarifying common misconceptions
•  Unintended Consequences In a complex system, every purposeful action produces unintended consequences
•  Use of Self Using who we are to be more effective in life
•  Values Values are beliefs we hold that something is good or desirable
•  Verbal Judo ** Using one's words to prevent, de-escalate, or end an attempted assault.
•  Videos: Knowledge Cafés A selection of videos from past Knowledge Cafés
•  Viennese Coffeehouses ** An institution of Vienna that played an important role in shaping Viennese culture
•  Virtual Knowledge Café Process On the Zoom video conferencing platform
•  Ways of Knowing Ways of acquiring knowledge
•  We All Have the Freedom to Choose If We Choose To The last of human freedoms
•  We Are Not Enemies but Friends—mostly Finding understanding by conversing with those who think differently
•  We Humans Are Complex Human socio-technical systems are complex
•  We Know So Much but Understand So Little It is through conversation we make sense of the world
•  Weaponizing Public Discourse **
•  What Are Cognitive Biases? Mistakes in reasoning, evaluating or remembering
•  What Is a Real Conversation? There is more to conversation than just talking or exchanging messages
•  What Is a System? ** An interconnected set of elements organized in a way that achieves something
•  What Is Communityship? Where everyone in a community practices leadership
•  What Is the Difference Between Rhetoric and Oracy? Rhetoric is monologue, oracy is dialogue
•  What Is the Optimum Group Size for a Conversation? More than five people and it is not a conversation
•  What Makes a Real Community? Members of a community care about each other
•  What Would Make a Better World? Many things
•  What’s New About the Knowledge Café? In some ways it is not new but in others it isn't
•  Why Chatbots Can’t Have Real Human Conversations The limits of artificial chatting
•  Why Does Human Life Exist? ** Why are we here?
•  Why the Generative AI Intelligence Argument Is Irrelevant Redefining intelligence in the age of GenAI
•  Wisdom of Crowds of Crowds Crowds within a crowd outperform 'wisdom of the crowd'
•  World Café A conversational process intended to facilitate open and intimate discussion
•  Zoom Virtual Knowledge Café On the Zoom video conferencing platform
•  Zoom Virtual Knowledge Cafés **

On Dialogue – an Essay in Free Thought

Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges