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The Knowledge Revolution has Taken Flight - Global Learn Day VI Stop in Venezuelaby Debra M. Amidon, founder and chief strategist, ENTOVATION International Ltd., and Global View Director, KnowMap Welcome to Caracas, Venezuela. The knowledge revolution has taken flight; and communities around the globe are innovating - industrialized and developing nations alike.
This was my own third visit to this spectacular country and I invited all listeners from Global Learn Day VI to visit this tropical paradise in person. For me, returning to Venezuela was like coming home - a tribute to this global village of which we are all now a part. Thanks to John Hibbs and his able Global Learn Day team - this village is getting smaller and expanding at the same time. We now have global friends in every corner of the world and through the computer and communications technology, we are all now accessible to one another. This is an ideal example of The Innovation SuperHighway in action! PDVSA's SalasDr. Olimpia Salas joined me. She is the founder of the Knowledge Management Team at PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., Caracas-Venezuela) - the quasi-governmental oil conglomerate and largest employer for the country, who hosts an annual week long international conference for knowledge and innovation.
This event - the fourth international conference in a row - has become a premier event in the knowledge field and is sponsored by their CIED (Center for International Education Development). The meetings involve key company organizations and stakeholders, including suppliers, distributors, customers and alliance partners from around the world. They are learning and sharing the knowledge required for their sustained prosperity and thus the prosperity of all their stakeholders within Latin America and abroad. Salas shared with the audience the operational steps along the way to link executives with this new agenda and convert good ideas into action. She shared her aspirations for the agenda of the week. Speakers included several leading names in the field, such as Arie DeGeus, formerly from Royal Dutch Shell, and Tom Stewart, of Fortune magazine fame and now the new editor of the Harvard Business Review. As she suggested: "The Corporate Knowledge Management Team emerged as a group of advocators from the different business units interested in obtaining synergy from the different efforts that were developing in an independent and autonomous way within PDVSA, such as technological intelligence, knowledge centers, centers of excellence, communities of practice." Today the 117 Communities of Knowledge integrated through the KM Corporate Network connects more than 10,000 employees sharing their knowledge and experiences. Agent of ChangeSalas says that to be a change agent you always will find advocates that follow you in an easy way since sometimes they see opportunity in new ideas; and more of the time they may feel and think like you do. However, sometimes you can underestimate people since you feel they think differently because they don't embraces the new ideas in the same speed that you do. This means you may need to understand the difference being in the position of an innovator places you. The program objectives as outlined in the brochure include the following:
Now, the KM program is an integral part of each business structure rather than a parasystem. Salas adds: "The challenge is to institutionalize KM, to promote a new way of doing things and working, and to keep working to close the knowing-doing gap." Silvard's Knowledge ConcertI was also joined by Dr. Silvard Kool, a professor of marine biology at Boston College and the international recording artist, who provides the music harmony for the Tour of the Knowledge World. This knowledge entertainment plays while viewing the names and profiles of the ENTOVATION 100, selected knowledge practitioners from around the globe who are featured on the Global Knowledge Leadership Map. Silvard, as he is known in the music world, originally from the Netherlands, started playing the piano at age ten. At 18, he left Holland for the United States to pursue studies in Marine Biology. During his undergraduate studies at the University of South Carolina's Coastal campus in Myrtle Beach, he began performing his own arrangements of contemporary music in local restaurants and hotels.
He continued his education by pursuing a graduate career in Zoology at George Washington University, in Washington, DC. Silvard carried out his dissertation research, partially funded by the Smithsonian Institution, where he studied the collection of his favorite group of animals: mollusks. His studies of marine snails and his interest in the oceans took him to many remote corners of the world. Throughout graduate school, he kept a busy performance schedule in the Washington area. After completing his Ph.D. (doctorate) in Zoology in 1988, Silvard was offered a job in the Mollusk Department at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1994, Silvard recorded his first piano album: Heartfelt. In 1996, he released his second album: Picture of Time, featuring original orchestrated piano compositions. Since 1989, Silvard has been the resident pianist for one of the United States' leading convention hotels, the Boston Marriott Hotel at Copley Place. In addition, Silvard keeps an active concert schedule and also performs at corporate and private functions all around the U.S. and abroad. His repertoire consists of his own arrangements of popular melodies (Broadway, movies, standards, Top 40, and so on) as well as his own improvisations and compositions. When performing, Silvard often composes as he is playing. Over time, the impromptu music often evolves into compositions. Silvard says "I feel that composing is communicating from the soul of the musician to that of the listener. It is like sharing your innermost emotions with the audience. When the audience is captivated, it feels like magic!" Continuing his dual career path, Silvard is an Adjunct Professor in the Biology Department at Boston College. He teaches several courses from marine biology to evolution and is enjoying his teaching responsibilities tremendously. "In a way, teaching is another type of performing. However, in a classroom setting, musical vibrations are replaced with cerebral stimulations; it is establishing a connection with the brains of the members of the audience, rather than with their souls", he states. South America
In the GLD VI visit to South America, we also explored the global implications of The Innovation SuperHighway, the Innovation Frontier, Architecting a Future, the Globe as a Network, Innovation Leadership in Practice and a Millennium Vision. Bottom line: it is up to us as individuals to make a difference in creating the world we want our children to inherit; and the time is now. Following 9/11, it is even more imperative that we innovate our future…together. LinksFor more on Salas and other ENTOVATION 100 Global Knowledge Leaders: www.entovation.com/kleadmap/index.htm For more on Silvard: www.silvard.com For more on the book - The Innovation SuperHighway: Harnessing Intellectual Capital for Prosperity: see Review Read more about Debra M. Amidon.
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