Personal Knowledge Mastery

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1962) The Wild Years

PKM connects work and learning

“Seek > Sense > Share are three elements at the core of Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Mastery (PKM) Framework. With PKM, he shaped one of the most persuasive approaches to personal and professional development, combining natural ways of learning with an approach to sensemaking and contributing to a larger collective.” —GIZ.DE

Personal knowledge mastery is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world and work more effectively. PKM keeps us afloat in a sea of information — guided by professional communities and buoyed by social networks.

PKM is a framework of practical methods to connect work and learning in the digital age. Perpetual beta is our new normal so we need to connect our social networks, communities of practice, and our work teams. We have to seek to understand our environment, seek & make sense of new ideas, make sense of practical experience, and share new practices — continuously.

“The more I am out there chatting to clients, the more I realise that your PKM approach is the number one critical skill set. Any way I look at it, all roads seem to end there. It is the foundation. That’s why I thought this is where they need to start – and not just the employees – everyone including the managers.” —Helen Blunden, AU

PKM is the number one skill set for each of us to make sense of our world, work more effectively, and contribute to society. The PKM framework — Seek > Sense > Share — helps professionals become knowledge catalysts.

Today, the best leaders are constant learners.

Developing Mastery

Public online workshops are scheduled throughout the year:

PKM Online Workshop

Custom workshops for organizations:

Organizational PKM Workshop

PKM Explained

PKM in Practice

“A model of curation for the digital era that is being used in health and care is Harold Jarche’s ‘Personal Knowledge Mastery’ (PKM). This is about individuals making the best use of their networks and other sources of knowledge so that they can keep up to date with the most effective thinking in their area and practice new ways of doing things. Leaders who take responsibility for their own effectiveness through PKM create leverage and value for their organisations. The underpinning framework for curation within PKM is ‘seek, sense, share’. ‘Seeking’ is about finding things out and keeping up to date; pulling’ information, but also having it ‘pushed’ to us by trusted sources. ‘Sensing’ is about making sense and meaning of information, reflecting and putting into practice what we have learned and plugging information into our own mental models and turning it into knowledge. ‘Sharing’ is about connecting and collaborating; sharing complex knowledge with our own work teams, testing new ideas with our own networks and increasing connections through social networks.” —UK National Health Service White Paper: The new era of thinking and practice in change and transformation

“Another way in which the L&D function can create value is by encouraging people to take charge of their own Personal Knowledge Mastery and applying the Seek-Sense-Share framework of Harold Jarche. As more knowledge and content becomes open and accessible to all, and as we all face more complex situations and challenges, people need to develop their own capacity to find what they need when they need it (Seek). People also need to extract meaning from content and experiences they are exposed to, as well (Sense). And we all need to be able to help partners learn faster by uncovering and sharing knowledge, in meaningful contexts (Share). This is important work that we all need to create the space and tools for. The L&D function can help by reminding people how we learn, how we build networks, and by creating conditions for collaborative learning and working.” —Anca Iordache, Citi

working smarter with pkm

PKM in Higher Education

My PKM seek > sense > share framework has been used and referenced in these academic programs:

  • Australia, University of Southern Queensland, Networked and Global Learning Course
  • Canada, University of Ottawa, Knowledge Management Course, MA Programme
  • Finland, Tampere University of Technology
  • Ireland, University of Limerick, Kemmy Business School
  • USA, Creighton University, Interdisciplinary Doctorate Program
  • USA, University of Pennsylvania, Executive Doctoral Program
  • USA, Technological Systems Approaches to Leadership at Concordia University, Irvine
  • USA, Master’s Program in Learning & Organizational Change at Northwestern University
  • Wales, Bangor University Psychology Department

PKM in the Workplace

Organizations that have adopted the PKM framework:

  • ING Bank
  • Citigroup
  • Domino’s Pizza
  • Carlsberg Group
  • Hearing First LLC
  • MasterCard Foundation
  • National Health Service, England
  • United Cities & Local Governments
  • University of Nebraska Extension Network
  • eOppiva — Digital Learning Platform of the Finnish Government

Contact Harold for more information.

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