Mapping Group Knowledge

IntroductIon During group meetings it is often difficult for participants to effectively: share their knowledge to inform the outcome; acquire new knowledge from others to broaden and/or deepen their understanding; utilise all available knowledge to design an outcome; and record (to retain) the rationale behind the outcome to inform future activities. These are difficult because, for example: only one person can share knowledge at once which challenges effective sharing; information overload makes acquisition problematic and can marginalize important knowledge; and intense dialog of conflicting views makes recording more complex. This article reports on the social process of mapping group knowledge which aims to better support the processes of sharing, acquiring, utilising and retaining, knowledge during group meetings. Mind mapping, causal mapping (Eden, forthcoming), concept maps (Gaines & Shaw, 1995a), and various mapping techniques reported in Huff and Jenkins (2002) have been used to structure and represent individual thinking and knowledge about an issue. Software now exist to support these mind-mappers (e.g., MindMap®, KMap, Decision Explorer). However, often individuals cannot solve problems themselves and instead need insight from a range of people who can collectively address the problem. For example, groups are often used where issues are so complex that they require the involvement of a number of diverse knowledge holders. Also groups are often used where political considerations suggest that the involvement of various key people would facilitate the implementation of actions. Thus, the principles of mapping individual knowledge have been applied to small groups of people to support their collective structuring and thinking about an issue. Approaches such as Dialog Mapping (Conklin, 2003), concept mapping (Gaines & Shaw, 1995a), and Journey Making (Eden & Ackermann, 1998a) can all support the process of mapping group knowledge during meetings. While it is possible to deploy these approaches using flipchart paper and pens, software have been developed to support these 2325 Mapping Group Knowledge aim to capture, represent, and model the par-ticipants' knowledge in a more versatile manner than is possible on paper, enabling more effective navigation and consideration of the breadth and depth of issues. This article begins with an introduction to the research on mapping knowledge. Then it reviews the benefits for knowledge management of engaging groups in mapping their collective knowledge. An example of a computer-based mapping methodology is briefly introduced—the Journey Making approach. Future research directions and implications for knowledge management conclude the article.