Tuesday, October 04, 2011

KM Chicago October 11th meeting, with Jeff Merrell

What happens when you ask graduate students -- all experienced business and not-for-profit managers -- to think about KM as tightly integrated with organizational learning and change? For the past 10 years, knowledge management has been a core part of the curriculum at the Master's Program in Learning & Organizational Change at Northwestern University (MSLOC). Jeff Merrell will share insights that make the case for the value of KM as a discipline and shed light on KM’s role in the greater organizational system. He will also share how the program has used collaboration technology to change its own learning and knowledge sharing environment.

Jeff Merrell is Associate Director of the Master's Program in Learning & Organizational Change (MSLOC) and the Center for Learning & Organizational Change (CLOC). At MSLOC he teaches the program's organizational knowledge management course and is faculty adviser for student Practicum projects. Through the CLOC he manages the development of new Practicum projects with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Jeff's professional background includes experience as both a consultant and corporate leader in organizational learning and knowledge management. He is founder of Purple Line Associates, a consultancy and research practice established in 2001 to help organizations define knowledge sharing and collaboration strategies and to implement new technologies and practices. His consulting work includes projects for global leaders in the pharmaceutical and retail industries as well as not-for-profit and federal government organizations.