Talk -Show: Jaap Pels

(missed the first bit)

…if you look at our business plan you won’t see knowledge management. We talk of knowledge sharing mechanisms and information products.

World rapidly urbanising, we implement / facilitate learning alliances. In those learning alliances, you have to work with utilities, local governance, farmers in the neighbourhood, (I)NGOs, universities etc. You have to work together with all sort of organisations.

• Have to get people together to talk / develop the same language.
• Get people togetther and start with the problems, you don’t get anywhere.
• So we start by talking about the situation in 50 years, less threatening => vision.

Are the cities working together or are you mobilising them?

Each city working by itself. We try to get alliances between cities / cross pollinate on topics / issues / techniques.

What is the key networking thing you have done?

Still in needs analysis, scoping study and you go on with the parties that come out of it. It will be a beehyve over the years, people / org in and out. Next big step is visioning / scenario building (see ODI papaer by Ben R.)

Funding for the activitiy of learning alliances. We had a big argument with the funders for co-creating etc. Research universities – do the research and then hire an extension worker. We fought and are still fighting for it.

Thread of negotiation. Who comes in and senses this isn’t going to be imposed and says this is going to be negotiated? How do you build that ability to negotiate in across and between …?

Why are they working in these learning alliances?

For most, it’s for the money the topic the research. It was the learning alliances approach that got the funding, but politics / stakes etc are involved, so you know you have to make a case constantely

Issue of motivation, helping to surface them and make them visible.

How does need translate into demand and action? We are primitive about this, and we are amazed when it doesn’t work. This linearity is absurd. Motivation as a particular form of need. Need complexity. If we want to be serious about being need given, we have to investigate how does the whole setting of needs interact?

Importance of looking for intersections, rather than funnel.