Personal Knowledge Mastery

A cohort-based online workshop
to help professionals work smarter

Learn how to become a knowledge catalyst in your field

Helping professionals become knowledge catalysts because the best leaders are constant learners (Harvard Business Review).

Work Smarter with Personal Knowledge Mastery

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.

Innovation is not so much about having new ideas as it is about making connections. The more connections we have, the greater the chances for new ideas. Machines produce stuff, people produce ideas.

PKM For Individuals

  1. Develop knowledge networks for continuous learning
  2. Find communities of practice to help make better decisions
  3. Create a disciplined approach for professional development that reduces cognitive load

PKM For Organizations

  1. Faster sharing of knowledge
  2. Greater potential for innovative ideas
  3. Increased connections to knowledge outside the organization

Workshop participants come from a wide variety of organizations, including:

NASA, Amazon, MasterCard Foundation, National Health Service (UK), University of Kent, United Cities & Local Governments, SSAT (UK), Autodesk, BC Patient & Safety Council, University of Nebraska, National Australia Bank, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Deloitte, Carleton University, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, European Environment Agency, Target, CITI, CGI, AT&T, Roche, Verizon, The World Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Cronycle, Göthe Institute,  Salvation Army, Hasbro …

Recommended by Practitioners

“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

“And, contrary to lots of other online courses, it’s not just watching a series of videos, it’s really about doing things and being part of an active community. Fully recommended!” —Filip Callewaert, BE

“Personal Knowledge Mastery is where the game is in terms of the skills needed to make sense of work in a world where we are no longer remote, but distributed.” —Luis Suarez, ES

Contact Harold for more information.

2023 Schedule — workshop start dates

  • 6 February (registration closed)
  • 17 April
  • 2 October

Last workshop at this price!

Fee $(CA)600*

* ± $(US)450 … €415

  • Fees are non-refundable. Substitutions or deferrals may be arranged
  • Participants may take a subsequent workshop any time at no additional charge
  • 15% HST included for Canadian participants
  • e-transfer available for Canadian residents
$(CA)600


More Information

Download PKM Field Guide

Download Chapter 7: PKM from Perpetual Beta 2020

Working Smarter with PKM (3 minute videos & transcripts)

This Personal Knowledge Mastery workshop is conducted over 40 days, and comprises 18 activities spaced through six weeks, in addition to resources, links, and tips. Each Monday, Wednesday, & Friday a new assignment is posted in the online community space. People can work on their own or share in the discussion forum with other participants as they like. Harold is available to personally support all participants. At the end of the workshop, an additional two weeks are provided for reflection or catch-up, so participants have access for eight weeks in total.

The discipline of PKM helps to develop four core work skills, identified by the Institute for the Future:

  1. sense-making
  2. social intelligence
  3. new media literacy
  4. cognitive load management

See workshop outline below.

Q&A

What will I learn?

  • how to examine and visualize your professional networks
  • how to be mindful of your connections, online and otherwise
  • an understanding of some new tools that can help with your sense-making
  • how to continuously share and communicate in order to make sense of a complex world
  • how some of the ideas, concepts, and methods discussed can become part of your regular routine
  • workshop learning methodology — modelling

How much time does the workshop require?

Four hours per week is suggested, but more may be necessary to go deeper if desired. Note that there are an additional two weeks set aside to catch-up and reflect.

Where do we post our work?

You may add a comment to the activity post, post to your own website, or mention it on Mastodon, using the #PKMastery hashtag which Harold follows. It is up to you how much and where you share. You may keep all your thoughts private if you wish.

Are there any scheduled live activities?

Due to time zone variations with a global cohort, there are no scheduled live sessions, but individual video chats may be arranged on request during the workshop.

Workshop Outline

Comments and reflections are all done via the website as threaded discussions, so there are no specific dates or times to attend.

Harold Jarche provides coaching, advice, feedback, and other resources as needed.

Harold is also available via audio or video conference on request.

Discussion is encouraged so that people can learn from each other. For participants, the more they give, the more they get.

  1. Network Mapping
  2. Sparking Curiosity
  3. Communities of Practice/Interest
  4. Intentionality
  5. Navigating Complexity
  6. Aggregators & RSS
  7. Understanding Media
  8. Fake News
  9. Half-baked Ideas
  10. Experts
  11. Connectors
  12. Seekers & Catalysts
  13. Narrating Our Work
  14. Systems Thinking
  15. Adding Value
  16. PKM in Action
  17. Reflecting
  18. The First Step

Testimonials

“Imagine you’re trying to fix a problem, dealing with a crisis, or even just replying to someone, responding to a query, thinking about a possible solution. Most people deal with the issue at hand. That’s great already!

But if your KM meta reflex kicks in, all of a sudden you see another arc:

Hold on a minute! Is this a one-off? Or something likely to happen again? What can I do here and now that will not only help in the moment, but save time for me, and possibly others, in the future?

THAT is the meta reflex that gives you an edge. And it’s personal knowledge mastery at work. It is to knowledge management what meditation is to life. It’s the open secret that helps you avoid the hole in the road. Repeatedly.” —Ewen Le Borgne

“I got asked this week ‘If I could invest in only 1 piece of personal development in 2020, what would you recommend?’. Easy. By a country mile the best investment I’ve made in the last few years is PKM … Harold has very carefully put together an online course designed to help participants learn to collate, make sense of, and add value to specialist web content. As we rapidly transition towards volatile and uncertain work landscapes, being able to quickly digest and derive meaning from increasing volumes of information will become an increasingly necessary skill, in order to remain relevant at a human level. In this, I feel Harold’s course is ahead of the game, and I’d thoroughly recommend the course as essential learning in the future of work.” —Cathryn Barnard, UK

“I signed up, read a few pages, already had 2-3 deep learnings! BOOM!” —Jonathan Anthony

“As a master mapping out a pathway for followers, I think you’ve neatly avoided the common trap of being overly prescriptive and kept it to a minimum of discrete steps.” —Chris Mansell

“This exercise has been great (the course has paid for itself already!) in identifying a blind spot.” —Shaun Coffey

“Your workshop with its very valuable content is very meaningful – and helpful to me. Especially ‘Perpetual Beta – strong beliefs, loosely held’ made me say YES! A lot of other times when I was reading your words I just thought ‘thank you’.” —Workshop Participant

“Therefore, if I were to comment on this program, Harold, I’d have to say it’s brilliant: it offers something for all of us. But it’s up to each of us to take what you offer; make SENSE of it and filter it to identify information that is immediately useful vs useful later vs less useful, then SHARE key insights formed as a result of having gone through this process.” —Chemene Sinson

“I encourage you to sign up for the workshop in Personal Knowledge Mastery.” —Kenneth Mikkelsen

leaders must be knowledge catalysts

“Harold guided us in assessing our needs and setting realistic goals. He revitalized the global network by demonstrating the value of focusing on people instead of tools, as well as the introduction of his PKM model (seek > sense > share).” —Senior Analyst, AstraZeneca