Sustainability & Knowledge Management: A Green Inspiration Do “Tree Huggers” really do it better? And Why?

Knowledge for Sustainability Information, measurement, ideas, practices… A recurring theme in all my investigations is the underlying need for education and understanding about the nature and the complexity of the problems that confront us. The need for urgency

Levels of Analysis: The necessity for context… Global / National / Regional City Industry Organisational HRM / OH&S / Risk Individual – Work / Domestic

The Connectivity Factors… Networks Systems / Life

Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” Tipping points are "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.“ ( the ice-berg rolls over ) Gladwell defines a tipping point as a sociological term: "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." His book seeks to explain and describe the "mysterious" sociological changes that mark everyday life. He says, "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do."

Important roles associated with social tipping points: Mavens are "information specialists", or "people we rely upon to connect us with new information." They accumulate knowledge, especially about the marketplace, and know how to share it with others Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They tend to have an indefinable trait that goes beyond what they say, which makes others want to agree with them. Connectors are the people who "link us up with the world... people with a special gift for bringing the world together." "their ability to span many different worlds [... as] a function of something intrinsic to their personality, some combination of curiosity, self-confidence, sociability, and energy.

The Stickiness Factor, the specific content of a message that renders its impact memorable. Popular children's television programs such as Sesame Street and Blue's Clues pioneered the properties of the stickiness factor, thus enhancing the effective retention of the educational content in tandem with its entertainment value. The Power of Context: Human behavior is sensitive to and strongly influenced by its environment. As Gladwell says, "Epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur

Curriculums – the need to align the products and services toward the sustainability mind set. All graduates should have this Business Practices – TAFE needs to ‘walk the talk’ as part of its educational role A Virtual Lead Centre for Sustainability – launching soon…

Ian says that the point he thought was interesting was my observation that the ‘sustainability’ network was a particularly collaborative, helpful and sharing community. He asks himself why that might be? What are the characteristics that support this. Also he likes the idea of the frames of reference / levels of analysis that I’ve mentioned. He sees this as part of his ‘context’ questions with respect to KM.

Two Reasons for Attention… Turning the attention of the Knowledge Management Community towards Sustainability Using Knowledge Management techniques in the service of Sustainability endeavors.