What happens when your best experts retire, your teams work in isolation, and breakthrough ideas die in meeting rooms, or worse, in forgotten databases?
Most organizations treat knowledge as something to protect and control, yet the companies creating real innovation today do the opposite - they turn knowledge into a living ecosystem where ideas flow freely and multiply through collaboration. This session, inspired by the most compelling insights from the KMGN - Knowledge Management Global Network 2025 Course, will reveal to participants how sustainable competitive advantage comes from connection, not protection.
Drawing from KMGN's breakthrough frameworks, we explore Arthur Shelley's Creative Friction model showing how controlled collision between different expertise domains sparks innovation. You will discover three powerful methods for transformation: KISMET (how Knowledge, Intelligence, Skills, Motivation, Environment, and Tenacity combine for innovation), the One Degree of Separation approach (connecting everyone in your organization directly), and Deliberating Structures that turn conflict into creative solutions.
We examine two transformative cases: Bergen's Hanseatic traders who created Europe's most successful trading network through radical openness, and Krasnoyarsk's restaurant community where competitors discovered that sharing their best recipes and techniques elevated the entire regional cuisine, attracting more customers for everyone. In structured table workshops, you will select and apply one of these methods to your organization's actual challenges, evaluating both the opportunities and the realistic barriers to implementation in your specific context.
After this session you will:
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Understand how Creative Friction and collaborative ecosystems outperform traditional knowledge protection
- Master three proven KMGN methods (KISMET, One Degree Separation, Deliberating Structures) for your context
- Recognize opportunities to transform isolated expertise into innovation through AI-enhanced knowledge flows
- Apply practical frameworks tested against real organizational environments with clear pros and cons
- Design sustainable systems where innovation emerges naturally from knowledge exchange rather than forced brainstorming
Facilitator
Gianguglielmo Calvi (aka Giangu) and Paweł Szymik-Kozaczko
Note
Please note that we may make photo, video and audio recordings during our roundtables. With your participation you signal your consent that SKMF may publish these recordings online as well as in printed form. Of course, you can revoke this consent before or during the event.
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