On Producing Knowledge Assets

A knowledge asset is something of value that comes from what you have learned. I have had a small moment of clarity around my attitude to being able to produce these things. This is probably to do with my increasing number of years in my field, and growing confidence in my contribution.

Before I believed that you had to filter other people's ideas and try to consciously mould this into something insightful. Like forcing together pieces from different puzzles, analyse other's work, and present it. That somehow that is where good articles come from. I worried that my experience and ideas on their own would be challenged as unreferenced biased opinion, with no substance.

My new realization is that while I should always be taking in knowledge and other people's perspectives, that this is just one ingredient in what I myself produce.

My own insights are a thing of substance in their own right, because they are the product of my thought processes, experience and work, as well information I have read or consumed from experts. If I give enough sincere attention to communicating effectively, what I produce will be an accurate reflection of what I know, and where I am in my career. This has inherent value.

So it is less about whether I know 'enough' and more about internally having confidence in my abilities and where I am in my career to produce something, and be satisfied that is is a true reflection of my ability to contribute. This can only get better the further I go in my career.

I have a lot of great ideas, and let them pass me by a lot of the time, without capturing them, and building their development into my routine. If however I want my contribution to add up to more than the sum of my deliverables at work, I have to start somewhere, and writing articles for my blog is the first place to start.

I have had some great ideas and insights into community development based on a workshop we did on problem solving and collaborative design. I am keen to develop these ideas further, so this will be my next step on this blog as a project. Other ideas that could have value I will also develop further, albeit in a private space. When they are launched or otherwise publicly attributed to myself as knowledge capital, then I will surface the process, and knowledge here as well. This could very well be the beginning of my 'contribution' part of my career, as seperate from what I do for my employer.

Thanks for reading, and watch this space...