Kate Pugh is a convener, researcher, and manager with a successful record in artificial intelligence, large language models, strategy, agile product development, and organizational transformation. She has expertise in inclusive conversation models, quantifying the impact of conversation, digital transformation, information and metadata modeling, collaboration ROI assessment, change management, knowledge management, process improvement, journey mapping, social network analysis, and agile project management.

I first met Kate at a Working Knowledge Research Center conference at Babson College, when she was at Intel and I was at HP. I invited her to attend a debate between Tom Davenport and the late Larry Prusak at HP, when she was as Fidelity. Kate invited me to present to the Columbia University IKNS (Information and Knowledge Strategy) Master of Science program on multiple occasions.

She has been a frequent presenter on SIKM Leaders Community calls, at the Midwest KM Symposium, and at KMWorld. Kate started the SIKM Boston Chapter, and is a regular connector, convener, and contributor.

Experience

• Columbia University – Adjunct Faculty, 2011 – Present (Academic Director, 2012 – 2017)
• AlignConsulting – Consultant and Author, 2009 – Present
• Tufts University Gordon Institute – Instructor, 2023 – Present
• Plastic Free Islands Network – Principal and Co-Founder, 2020 – Present
• EY – Senior Manager, 2017 – 2019
• Earley Information Science – Senior Consultant, 2009 – 2016
• Fidelity Investments – VP of Knowledge Management, 2007 – 2008
• Intel Corporation – Senior Technical Program Manager, 2005 – 2007
• JPMorgan Chase & Co (Formerly BankOne Corporation) – First Vice President, 2003 – 2006
• PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM Global Business Services (IBM acquired PwC Consulting) – Senior Manager/Principal Consultant, 1999 – 2003
• Dialogos – Director of Learning Strategies, 1997 – 1999
• Oliver Wyman – Principal Consultant, 1995 – 1997
• Monitor Deloitte – Consultant, 1988 – 1995

Education

• MIT Sloan School of Management – Master of Science/MBA
• University of Maine – PhD, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2022
• Williams College – BA, Economics

Profiles

• LinkedIn
• Columbia University IKNS 
• Twitter
• Profiles in Knowledge: Columbia University

Books

Sharing Hidden Know-How: How Managers Solve Thorny Problems with the Knowledge Jam

Smarter Innovation: Using Interactive Processes to Drive Better Business Results with T.J. Elliott, Madelyn Blair, V. Mary Abraham, Catherine Shinners, et al.

Knowledge is the Business (with Tom Stewart): Chapter 7 in Unlocking Value: Knowledge as a Strategic Management Tool edited by Fiona Prowting

What knowledge leader are you: Embedded, Consultant, or Product Entrepreneur? (with Glynys Thomas); Chapter 9 in Successful Knowledge Leadership: Principles and Practice edited by Helen Roche

Content

• Align Consulting (archive)
• LinkedIn Posts
• LinkedIn Articles
• APQC Roundtable: How Technology Will Affect the Future of Knowledge Management
• SIKM Leaders Community Posts
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Podcasts

• Knowledge Management & IoT, Analytics & AI
• Reinventing Organizations Through Networks

Videos

• KMCDC Monthly Meeting, October 22, 2020
• Measuring Conversation’s Impact on Accountability, Innovation & Cohesion
• The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Strategy and Design
• Interview at Intra.NET Reloaded Boston
• Knowledge Jam: Linking Social Protection to Employment
• Radical Curiosity – Innovation Practices and Skills for the 21st Century
• Where is Knowledge Management Headed?

Presentations

• SlideShare
• Connect or Curate? That is the question.
• KMWorld
  • 2019 A105: AI: Virtual Agents & Content – Slides
  • 2018 C204: Transforming the Working World With Knowledge Tech with Greg Nemeth – Slides
  • 2017. A305: The Math of KM: Modeling Margins – Slides
  • 2014 A101: Knowledge Is the Business – Slides
  • 2013 C202: Igniting Innovation with Community, Social Media & Findability – Slides
  • 2012 W15: Facilitating Knowledge Into Action
  • 2011 C304: Channeling Insight Into Action – Slides
• Enterprise Search & Discovery 2019 Virtual Agents & Document Intelligence – Slides
  • Video: Hand Classification vs. Auto-Classification
  • Video: Rich Metadata for Enterprise Content
• Midwest KM Symposium
  • 2020 Building Muscles to Improve Innovation Networks with Sheryl Skifstad – Slides
  • 2019 New Frontiers in Conversational AI
  • 2011 Insight: Sharing Hidden Know-How Takes Intention, Openness and Stewardship – Document
• SIKM Leaders Community
  • 2007–10 Knowledge Harvest Facilitation with Nancy Dixon
  • 2010–06 Sharing lost know-how — solve thorny problems with the Knowledge Jam
  • 2011–08 Being the convener: facilitating tacit knowledge-sharing with Roberto Evaristo
  • 2011–10 Social Media in the Enterprise: the future is here — how can we make it work? with Tom Short, Mary Abraham, and Peter Hobby
  • 2015–02 How Great KMers are Innovation Conveners
  • 2015–11 KM Trend Spotting: A Conversation with Larry Prusak
  • 2017–10 Collaboration and the Four Discussion Disciplines
  • 2019–06 Conversational AI
  • 2021-04 Translating Effective Sustainability Conversations into Network Design

Articles

• Sustainability Conversations for Impact: Transdisciplinarity on Four Scales
• Neural nets for sustainability conversations: modeling discussion disciplines and their impacts with Mohamad Musavi, Teresa Johnson, Christopher Burke, Erez Yoeli, Emily Currie, and Benjamin Pugh
• KM and the Internet of Things with Ralph Poole
• Four Discussion Disciplines to Drive Effective Online Collaboration
• How To Create Social Impact Through Thoughtful Networks
• Designing Effective Knowledge Networks with Larry Prusak
• Sharing hidden know-how: How managers solve thorny problems with the ‘Knowledge Jam’
• Unleashing Unstructured Data’s Value: Mobilizing Us, Not Just Our Machines
• Jamming with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement with Jo Ann Endo
• Harvesting Project Knowledge with Nancy Dixon
• Don’t Just Capture Knowledge—Put It to Work with Nancy Dixon
• The future of KM? Ask a Digital Native
• In the Digital Fray, Don’t Just Converse. Collaborate!
• Driving KM Design with Data
• What is Knowledge Driven Digital Product Innovation?
• Building Project Capabilities with Knowledge Networks with Chivonne Algeo | Harry Linger, and Zaheeruddin Asif
• Knowledge Jam: Three disciplines to beat the merger performance odds

Blog (archive)

• Let’s Get Intentional: Four Disciplines for Online Discussions
• Knowledge Jam in a Nutshell
• Snapshot of Nonprofit Webinar Poll Results on Knowledge Networks
• How Big Banks Can Fix Their Leadership Blindspots
• Reducing Transition Risk Through Conversation-Intensive Knowledge Transfer
• Co-CEOs: Potency and Peril
• Shifting Learning and Development from Push to Pull
• Building the Social Media Ecology: Part One and Part Two

Get Your Team to Share Information that Matters Most

This is an interview between Wayne Turmel, author of the Connected Manager Blog on BNET, and Kate Pugh. The topic of the conversation was, “How do managers of virtual gatherings help get out tacit knowledge?”

What challenges do managers of remote teams encounter in building trust and getting out tacit knowledge?

A participant at a talk I gave recently came up to me and said, “Every time management asked me to train someone, I knew I’d be losing my role within the year. I became very cynical.” For many organizations, knowledge is power. You are valuable to your boss because you can do something she can’t simply automate or move offshore. It’s even more unsettling when you are remote and much of your brilliance is invisible to many of your teammates. So, when management asks employees and teams to talk about what they know, they may put up their guard.

On the other hand, motives for not sharing knowledge may be far less fear driven. I might not share with you because I don’t know what you need to know. (Or, I don’t know that I have any knowledge that could be even remotely valuable to you.) I want you to succeed, but I can’t see your whole context. “I didn’t know you might be meeting my client at the conference!”

What tools should they be using (and an example of how to use them?)

Great managers use both process facilitation and real-time facilitation to overcome challenges of protection or unawareness such as these. From a process perspective, managers invite the right people (people who know and people who could apply the knowledge), along with the right types of questions to draw out insights on a topic. From an engagement perspective, managers set a tone of curiosity, attend to the extremes (loud or silent), and model a language of respect.

For example, with the Knowledge Jam process, I call together a few participants before-hand to flesh out topics (for example, “What led you to know we were on the right track?” “What formulations didn’t work, and how did you change course?”). Also, I do one-on-ones, making sure that people come ready, and the more defensive people can imagine personal benefits of knowledge-sharing. Then, during the meeting, in real-time, as I type into the WebEx (or whatever), I ask questions using a posture of openness, rather than defensiveness. I help people to find language that’s both respectful and reflect-ful. I also reach out to the silent people, connecting the conversation to their interests, and invite them to jump in and ask questions or add comments. After all, it’s the participants’ conversation. I’m just a catalyst and cheerleader.   

What are some ground rules leaders and facilitators need to establish in order to get true communication going?

Here is the list of ground rules I typically flash at the head of the Knowledge Jam conversation:

1. Be responsible for inquiring/pushing the collective thinking (“Common curiosity”) 
2. Use data (illuminate points of view or positions)
3. Drive for clarity with questions, but not judgments
4. Speak one’s truth 
5. Ask the group for permission to digress or probe (use a “parking lot” liberally)
6. Pay respect / don’t interrupt
7. Pay attention (laptops, mobile devices off)
8. Share outside the room only as agreed-upon by the group

The bottom line is to prioritize the group’s shared knowledge ahead of yourself. I call this “common curiosity.” A ground rule I give myself is never to hold a Knowledge Jam conversation longer than 90 minutes. Anyone can pay attention for 90 minutes if the conversation is meaningful and aimed at informing action.

What are the 3-4 things (as specific as possible) that need to be said or done and what happens if they don’t?

Prework pays off: Having people enter the virtual room with a sense of purpose and curiosity is the result of the one-on-ones and topic-setting. (We all know how scattered conversations can be without an agenda or alignment on why we’re there.)

Openings matter: You have to set the stage (and even re-set the stage) to keep people thinking on several levels — our collective insights and the intrigue in the moment. (Our virtual lives are chaotic, and we need help shifting gears.)

Make it Explicit: Typing the notes in a structured way on WebEx (or whatever) slows the meeting down and makes people reflect more on what they and others have said. When you see your words captured or paraphrased, you know you’re being heard. (Have you ever attended a “leave no trace” meeting?  Did you wonder if it all fell on deaf ears?)

Put knowledge to work: This isn’t the responsibility of the manager/facilitator but of the participants. But, you can increase the likelihood that action will follow if you give the people who are applying the knowledge to say what they’ll do with it, before they leave the virtual room. And it can’t hurt to keep those intentions alive in future plans or meetings. (After people have shared their insights, they hope to make an impact. Letting it drop without explanation can be like an insult.)

This seems quite elementary – plan, do, act – but when you do these steps intentionally and with the right tone your remote meeting participants will feel heard, respected and enlightened.  And you’ll increase the likelihood that good ideas get put to work.