Towards a futures strategy for the Victorian Community Services Sector A Knowledge Perspective Richard Vines Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare Alfred Felton Research Program
Acknowledgements Leaders within the Child and Family Welfare Sector Alfred Felton Trust Fund Telstra Foundation
What is a knowledge lens? How might this contribute to a “futures strategy”?
The child and family welfare sector as an example … leading to some generalisable principles for the community sector
Comments about the knowledge management community generally …..… uncertainty about how KM is defined …. …. And the primacy of the “end user’ – being people in community!
The Child Protection System … as a complex adaptive system Child and Family Services
Complex adaptive systems Individual agents (people) Adjustments to environment Actions (individual and collective) Inter-connected elements Adaptive to change Unpredictable Characterised by
Knowledge as an emergent property of a complex adaptive system Knowledge is relational … it is simply solutions to problems
Complex Adaptive System Flow on impact into related sub- systems and other service systems ???
Complex adaptive systems Patterns before
Emergent pattern? Complex adaptive systems
Emergent pattern?
Towards a Futures Strategy A knowledge lens
A knowledge lens leading to … …the idea of some general principles
Principle 1 Respect for the contextualised (inc localised) nature of knowledge A knowledge lens
Principle 2 The need for new mechanisms to identify emergent patterns
Principle 3 Negotiated agreements about intervening in complex adaptive systems A knowledge lens Including emerging approaches to mass capture of narrative and anecdotes
Principle 4 Support for organisational-knowledge capacity development See formal paper for full details
Support for organisational- knowledge capacity development Principle 4 ● Examination and support for ways in which CSOs absorb new knowledge (solutions to problems) ● Learning and development, including skills associated with working in complex adaptive systems ● Inclusion of the voice of the user in impact analysis ● Aging workforce issues ● Support for mobile workforce infrastructures and technology support systems to enable mobile / flexible work activities ● Connecting with historical vision and mission
Principle 5 Support for strategic research (and brokering research)
Principle 6 Specific support mechanisms for data management (and knowledge management?)
Principle 6 A knowledge lens Multiple data systems for different government agencies
Principle 6 A knowledge lens Multiple schemas for quality assurance
Principle 7 Strategic research associated with interoperability
A knowledge lens Principle 7
Thank you Richard Vines Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare Alfred Felton Research Program