Books by Arthur Shelley
Knowledge leadership is a subjective participation sport of perspectives and relationships. The m... more Knowledge leadership is a subjective participation sport of perspectives and relationships. The more effectively you influence others to play with you, the greater your own success, and the more value you generate with, and for, others. Great (knowledge) leaders generate trust and act in an open and trustworthy manner. In doing so, they generate an environment in which people desire to be involved in decision-making and the implementation of value-creating actions. They interact in an open manner to solicit a range of perspectives to ensure knowledge is transferred between them, constructively challenging current thinking to generate the ideas to make a better tomorrow. Knowledge leadership is primarily behavioural (both for the leader and their followers) and generates a collaborative atmosphere of ownership and a sense of identity around the shared purpose. Reflect on why you have followed those you consider your leaders, mentors, and role models. Reflect on why we will move mountains for those we trust… and why we place them in the paths of those we do not. Such self-awareness will lead to insights on why leadership is critical to success and why knowledge and behaviour are essential ingredients in this success. Context for the emergence of knowledge leadership It seems a natural progression for the dialogue around knowledge, improvement, competitive advantage, social interaction, collaboration, performance, and success to arrive at leadership. These areas of human endeavour are all highly interdependent and benefit from insightful leadership to bring them together in an organised manner to generate desired results. Whilst it could be argued (and has been, endlessly, for some time) that these disciplines require management, this limits the discussion to the application of existing knowledge to current problems in convergent conversations. Whilst management is of value (for now), we benefit significantly more from exploring, through divergent conversations, how we can approach future challenges we are likely to encounter, yet know little about, in sustainable ways. In short, knowledge leadership represents an informed approach to complex issues that is future focused and generates sustainable outcomes. Knowledge assists our understanding of what is relevant to a situation and how to best act to create optimal outcomes for that context. Knowledge guides our thinking and is constantly growing as we learn through exposure over time to new situations (provided we reflect on what we see and observe). Leadership defines the direction of our future actions and engages followers to align their effort and approach to best deliver the desired goals. You cannot be an effective leader in the longer term unless you have willing followers. This requires you to be adaptable, critically aware of changing circumstances, and to demonstrate you can adjust accordingly. Knowledge leadership incorporates the application of rich insights to guide an emergent approach (based on experiences and knowledge) to confidently and quickly address the importance of knowledge gaps and risks. Knowledge leaders seek a range of options (divergent discovery) before prioritising and analysing these (convergent critical thinking) to create an optimal path that continues to adapt as new knowledge becomes available over time. 1 An effective knowledge leader influences their followers' mindsets from 'what is?' to 'what is possible?' In doing so they create an environment in which options are considered more openly and trusted relationships flourish through shared responsibility for the outcomes generated. 2 Knowledge leadership can happen from any part of the organisation, not just at the top of the hierarchy. One can lead others through the adaptive use of knowledge from almost any part of the organisation. It is not unusual for genuine knowledge leaders to be working within the depths of the organisation as quiet achievers in roles such as mentors, leaders of communities of practice, or as a forum facilitator asking all the probing questions of the right people at the right time.
This case study describes how the former Cadbury Schweppes developed a strategy around community ... more This case study describes how the former Cadbury Schweppes developed a strategy around community behaviour and stories to stimulate participation in knowledge based activities to " Make KM work in their organisation ". This strategy was deliberately designed to generate some short-term wins to increase awareness and provide foundational stories to engage significant stakeholders. Relationships were created between people in similar roles from different parts of the world (many of whom previously did not know each other) to build a sense of identity and belonging amongst them and develop trusted relationships. Support and opportunities for these people to " connect, collaborate and capitalise " on each other experiences and expertise were provided through a small central knowledge management team who (half) jokingly referred to themselves as the " corporate dating service ". The deliberate gathering and reuse of success stories was leveraged through a range of internal and external communications including newsletters and senior management conferences. Some examples of these stories and the process of how they were collected, collated and communicated is shared here to assist others to emulate this path. However, just one word of advice before embarking on such a path. It is rare to be able to simply take an approach and " make it happen " elsewhere. Although the author is confident an adapted version of this approach could be successful in many other situations, the finer points need to be adapted to suit other situations and cultures.
Highlights the ways creative metaphor from The Organizational Zoo has been used to enhance behavi... more Highlights the ways creative metaphor from The Organizational Zoo has been used to enhance behavioural dynamics in organisations.
Exploration of leading knowledge initiatives and the behavioural capabilities required for succes... more Exploration of leading knowledge initiatives and the behavioural capabilities required for successful performance enhancement.
Conference Presentations by Arthur Shelley
Participants of Creative Bangkok 2014 engaged in a creative metaphor interaction to assess the im... more Participants of Creative Bangkok 2014 engaged in a creative metaphor interaction to assess the impact of behaviour on creativity. Each metaphorical character from The Organizational Zoo represents a behaviour and collectively these can be used to profile what the " behavioural DNA of creativity " looks like. Participants engaged in a fun atmosphere through stimulating constructive conversations about the impact of behaviour on creativity. The metaphor enabled participants to discuss the behaviours separately and without reference to specific people (making it a safe way to discuss behaviour). Limited exposure to the characters before the intervention enables participants to intuitively make sense of the behaviour and engage with others about how that behaviour impacts for the specific context of creativity. This approach involves minimal preconception and opens the interaction for maximal challenges to produce a genuine collective set of data. It can be seen that there is a variety in what behaviours people like, and don't like, when creatively interacting. The metaphor character cards enabled people to engage in constructive conversations about the impact of behaviour. The key point is it not the actual cards selected, it is the insights and understanding of what others appreciate or dislike, gained though these exchanges that enable better relationships. Armed with these insights, you can be more creative together. Context: Creative people exchanging perspectives on the impacts of behaviour on creativity. Creative Bangkok in October 2014 was the first immersive experience in Asia inspired by the Mosaic Creativity Summer School. From the beginning it was an emergent, interactive and participative experiment. Deliberately people from a range of disciplines were invited to come together and explore what creativity is and how they could do this more effectively by collaborating and challenging each other Approach The participants of Creative Bangkok 2014 engaged in assessing what " animals " (Organizational Zoo metaphor characters representing behaviours) stimulated creativity and which were detrimental to it. The Organizational Zoo (Shelley 2007) character cards were used as the 26 metaphor characters collectively represent the most common behaviours observed in organisations, thereby providing a useful intervention that is both intuitive and fun (Shelley 2011). The tool has been effectively used to stimulate constructive conversations about the impact of behaviour on outcomes in a range of contexts including leadership, collaboration and conflict. The metaphor enables participants to discuss the behaviours separately and in isolation to reference to specific people. Limited exposure to the characters before the intervention enables participants to intuitively make sense of the behaviour and engage with others about how that behaviour impacts for the specific context of creativity. This approach involves minimal preconception and opens the interaction for maximal challenges to produce a genuine collective set of data. A very quick quiz was used to highlight just how easily recognised some of the behavioural stereotypes can be recognised. A cartoon image of a Lion in a personified scene is displayed and the facilitator asks the audience what behaviours they think this represents in single words and short phrases. Very quickly they responded with words including " Leader " , " Command " , " Control " , Fierce " , Territorial " , Egotistical " and phrases like " King of the jungle ". Other figures are similarly shown (including a Bee-collaborative team work and Owl, supportive knowledgeable mentor, etc) to build confidence that their immediate intuition about the behaviours represented were valid. That is, their initial emotive reaction to the metaphor was real and able to be used by them in the discussion about behavioural impacts (despite them having different preferences for the behaviours-see later).
Papers by Arthur Shelley
Action Research: Creative Metaphor to Build Relationships in Projects
SAGE Research Methods Cases, 2014
Project management and leadership education facilitated as projects
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2015
The Journal of applied bacteriology, 1987
Raw milk samples were stored for 1-4 d and examined for bacterial growth and lipase activity. Thi... more Raw milk samples were stored for 1-4 d and examined for bacterial growth and lipase activity. Thirty-six samples in which an increase in the heat-stable lipase activity was observed during storage were selected for further study. From these raw milk samples 205 lipolytic psychrotrophic strains were selected using butterfat agar and subsequently characterized with 86 taxonomic tests. Complete linkage cluster analysis of the taxonomic data produced two major and six minor clusters at the 83% similarity level. Pseudomonas fluorescens and Ps. fragi accounted for 63.9 and 31.2%, respectively, of the isolates.
Growth of lipolytic psychrotrophic pseudomonads in raw and ultra-heat-treated milk
The Journal of applied bacteriology, 1986
The lipolytic floras of 36 raw milk samples showing lipolytic defects were dominated by pseudomon... more The lipolytic floras of 36 raw milk samples showing lipolytic defects were dominated by pseudomonads. Representative lipolytic isolates were selected and tested for growth, lipase activity and lipolysis in ultra-heat-treated milk at temperatures ranging from 5 degrees to 30 degrees C. Pseudomonas fluorescens was the most frequently encountered species but Ps. fragi was found to cause more severe lipolytic defects in both single and mixed strain milk cultures. A representative strain of Ps. fragi multiplied faster in cold-stored milk than did three representative strains of Ps. fluorescens. The lipases produced by Ps. fragi strains were more heat-stable than those produced by Ps. fluorescens strains.
Project-Oriented Leadership
Strategic Considerations for Effective Mapping of Educational Technology to Academic Outcomes
The Organizational Zoo: A Survival Guide to Work Place Behavior20082Shelley, A.. The Organizational Zoo: A Survival Guide to Work Place Behavior . Fairfield, CT: Aslan Publishing 2007. Available through Amazon
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 2008
Metaphor Interactions to Develop Team Relationships and Robustness Enhance Project Outcomes
Project Management Journal, 2012
Journal of Microbiological Methods, 1987
Journal of Dairy Research, 1987
Construction Management and Economics, 2008
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the usefulness of two stakeholder mapping techn... more Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the usefulness of two stakeholder mapping techniques that can be used to develop a stakeholder engagement strategy.
Metaphor as a means to constructively influence behavioural interactions in project teams
Creative metaphor as a tool for stakeholder influence
... Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Pooh Bear and Tigger (Disney 2010) as well as Daffy Du... more ... Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Pooh Bear and Tigger (Disney 2010) as well as Daffy Duck, Tweety, Wile E ... draining stimulating Rattlesnake noisy politician Political, sharp, defensive, reactive, insecure sincere, trustworthy, loyal, trusting, pleasant sloth sleepy hermit slow ...
Studies on lipolytic psychrotrophic bacteria from raw milk
Being a successful knowledge leader
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Books by Arthur Shelley
Conference Presentations by Arthur Shelley
Papers by Arthur Shelley