Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 256 – October 2021
I have talked about the Consilience Project in the past. I find this an exciting project, and they are doing some great work. Some time ago, they published an article Democracy and the Epistemic Commons.
Democracy cannot function without an epistemically healthy public sphere that makes it possible for democratic self-government to achieve successful outcomes, maintain its legitimacy, and avoid runaway concentrations of power in society.
The institutional structures responsible for maintaining our epistemic commons have faltered.
Only a new movement for cultural enlightenment can harness the energy needed to reboot and revamp our ailing institutions—or generate new ones entirely—and thereby restore our democracy.
Credit: The Consilience Project
They have followed this up with a short six-minute video on the subject. This is a crucial topic — well worth taking the time to read the article or watch the video.
Contents
- World Values Day Knowledge Café
21 October 2021 - Tweet of the Month September 2021
September 2021 - Making sense of a complex world
There is no information we can trust - How You Teach Kids How Easy It Is to Divide a Community
The Salem Witch Trials - Books on Conversational Leadership and related topics
Conversation is King - Three disturbing things I learned this month
That may or may not be true - Help Keep My Work Alive
- Unsubscribe
- Gurteen Knowledge Letter
World Values Day Knowledge Café
21 October 2021
World Values Day is an annual campaign to increase the awareness and practice of values around the world. It provides an opportunity to think about our most deeply held values and explore and act on them with others.
For the last five years, in partnership with Charles Fowler, I have held a free Knowledge Café as part of the event, so this year’s Café will be the sixth since our first one in 2016. It is being held online on Zoom on 21st October 2021, 17:00 - 19:00 London time.
This year the theme of the Café is Reconnecting: Shifting from “Values” to “Valuing” Can this make the BIG difference needed?
The speaker is a good friend and mentor of mine, Charles Savage. Charles says this about himself:
Charles has been inflicted by a profound curiosity virus and awareness of how little is really known of the dynamics of life.
Come along. I think this Café will be a humdinger.
You will find more information and can register here.
Tweet of the Month September 2021
September 2021
If I ignore a Dibert tweet where Wally claims to be a raging sea of knowledge management and strategic thinking, my top tweet of the month with the highest engagement rate was this one
How Humans Think When They Think As Part of a Group. The word for it is "entitativity". It’s produced when people act and feel together in close proximity. We need it more, but we’re getting it less.
#KM #KMers #KnowledgeManagement #DistributedCognition
It references an article in Wired Magazine that is an extract from a new book, The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
by Annie Murphy Paul. Having only just spotted the article and given its relevance to Conversational Leadership, I immediately bought the book and would highly recommend it.
Making sense of a complex world
There is no information we can trust
We live in a world of misinformation and disinformation. Furthermore, much information we need to make good sense of any situation is not readily available.
A world where our information ecosystem is so polluted that there is no information we can trust.
In general, this is bad enough, but it takes on fundamental importance in the life and death of millions of people, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
This newsletter from Rebel Wisdom Why The 'Lab Leak' Matters: Sensemaking, Consensus, and Trust looks in exceptional depth at the source of the COVID-19 virus.
They do not come to a conclusion, and we are unlikely ever to know the truth, but if we are to avoid future pandemics, it would be of tremendous help if we did.
Take a look at the article — it makes it abundantly clear just how difficult it is to make sense of a complex issue like this.
Unfortunately, so many of the more serious social problems we face in the world today are equally complex.
How You Teach Kids How Easy It Is to Divide a Community
The Salem Witch Trials
This is a story about how easy it is to divide a community posted on Linkedin by Emine Fougner that I reposted and so many people loved. I think the power and simplicity of the game are awesome.
This really got my attention, so I wanted to share it with anyone interested in history.
One of my friends told me about a powerful lesson in her daughter's high school class recently. They're learning about the Salem Witch Trials, and their teacher told them they were going to play a game.
"I'm going to come around and whisper to each of you whether you're a witch or a regular person. Your goal is to build the largest group possible that does NOT have a witch in it. At the end, any group found to include a witch gets a failing grade."
The teens dove into grilling each other. One fairly large group formed, but most of the students broke into small, exclusive groups, turning away anyone they thought gave off even a hint of guilt.
"Okay," the teacher said. "You've got your groups. Time to find out which ones fail. All witches, please raise your hands."
No one raised a hand.
The kids were confused and told the teacher he'd messed up the game. "Did I? Was anyone in Salem an actual witch? Or did everyone just believe what they'd been told?"
And that is how you teach kids how easy it is to divide a community.
Shunning, scapegoating and dividing destroys far more than they protect. There's plenty of it going around. Do not allow the political elite to divide and destroy us. We must remain united against those who would do so.
Credit: Emine Fougner
Books on Conversational Leadership and related topics
Conversation is King
Those of you who have taken a look at my website on Conversational Leadership know that it is a blook and a blog. It is also a resource site containing books, people profiles, quotations, videos, and academic papers/articles.
I have just spent a few days tidying up my booklists and making them look pretty. You may find them of interest, in particular, the list of books that I have purchased in the last year or so (I still have several to add).
Three disturbing things I learned this month
That may or may not be true
I learned three disturbing things this month. And by disturb, I mean they have given me cause for some deep thought and reflection.
- Gandhi was almost certainly racist.
- Mother Teresa was likely not a Saint.
- Sir Ken Robinson's influential TED talk Do schools kill creativity (over 20 million views on YouTube) was probably substantially wrong.
As I have indicated, I am not 100% certain of any of these statements. Google them for yourself. Look for credible sources. All three probably have some elements of truth and falsehood.
Help Keep My Work Alive
For almost 25 years, I’ve been sharing the Gurteen Knowledge Letter each month, and many of you have been reading it for five years or more. My Knowledge Café also reached a milestone, celebrating its 20th anniversary in September 2022.
If my work has made a difference to you, I’d be grateful if you could consider supporting it. A small monthly donation or any one-off contribution would greatly help cover some of my website hosting costs.
Thank you to the 50+ patrons who already support me – your generosity means a lot.
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Gurteen Knowledge Letter
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David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
