Traditional Organizational Assessments broadly analyze the basic health and well-being of an organization, but don‟t often have the ability to adapt and focus on one of the most critical pieces of organizational survival and advancement—knowledge. This study looks at a 17-step knowledge assessment process, developed and refined through large-scale assessments with a variety of Army, Air Force, world aid, and corporate entities. This knowledge assessment process was developed to help organizations obtain an indication of their health in terms of knowledge flow, knowledge creation and transfer, and ultimately knowledge management processes, strategies, and approaches by looking at how the people, processes, technology, and culture integrate as methods of informal learning. The process focuses on identifying performance gaps between what an organization is doing and what it needs to be doing given its current goals. It also highlights the gaps between what an organization currently knows and what it needs to know to achieve its goals. It does this by identifying the causes and contributing factors of identified gaps, the impact each gap has on the organization, measures of effectiveness and priorities for addressing each gap, and recommended training and education strategies for closing the gaps and improving individual and organizational performance. The end product of this knowledge assessment is a targeted knowledge strategy, which is designed to help the organization develop knowledge management, training, and education approaches and methods to close the gaps. This paper looks at applying this knowledge assessment process with the United Nations Development Programme and U.S. Army Programs and addresses the knowledge gaps and strategies for improving formal and informal learning and knowledge transfer across various countries and cultures.
 
Baxter, H.C. (2011). Trends and best practices for improving knowledge transfer across the globe. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL. Selected as Best Paper in Education for 2011.
 

Abstract coming soon!
 
Baxter H. & Prevou, M. (2010). A method for effectively assessing knowledge in organizations. Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management, Pittsburg, PA.
 

Almost everyone from government organizations to small and large corporations struggles to adapt more quickly. We push to manage increased information, and to capture and apply the expertise of skilled employees to make the organization more effective and efficient. To improve the flow of knowledge and develop expertise more rapidly, many organizations have begun to look at improving their knowledge management (KM) capability. While many have embraced what they believe is KM, frustration continues because they did not thoroughly assess where the true needs and gaps were or analyze why those gaps exist. As a result, the solutions often focus on only the symptoms and overlook the root causes required to move knowledge effectively and achieve a positive outcome. To ensure agencies understand their knowledge-based challenges and avoid jumping into the wrong solution, a deliberate knowledge assessment that focuses on addressing root causes is needed.
 
Baxter, H.C. (2012). Don't Be Left Behind: Improving Knowledge Transfer. The Public Manager, Fall 2012. 39-43.
 

The commonly accepted model for KM considers only people, processes, and technology. For serious performance gains this approach is limiting. A more holistic model addressing all environmental variables affecting knowledge creation and flow is needed. The Knowledge EnvironmentTM is such a model. It consists of seven major components: people, processes, technology, content, organizational structure, organizational culture, and knowledge leadership. This article helps you understand how to consider and balance the components of the Knowledge Environment TM to support achieving organizational objectives and maintain a competitive advantage.
 
Prevou, M. (2011). Understanding the Knowledge Environment. Army Communicator, Summer 2011. Fort Gordon, GA: U.S. Army Signal Center.
 

Overwhelmed by email? Need to put some discipline in the way your organization uses and manages emails? This article outlines 16 simple rules any organization can put into effect today to improve email effectiveness. It also includes 10 Email Rules you Can Practice to be More Efficient with your own Outlook email.
 
Prevou, M. (2011). Taming the dragon: Rules of engagement for using email more effectively. Connected, April 2011. Ft. Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.
 

The ability to share tacit knowledge and expertise rapidly between and among teams is crucial in today’s high-stakes organizations. The shift away from individual explicit routine tasks to a more team-based environment makes it imperative that we adapt by exploiting observations, insights, and lessons learned to create dynamic relevant training that develops more adaptive teams. Without effective knowledge capture and transfer techniques, these valuable lessons learned and best practices can go to waste. One of the biggest challenges is that expertise is very difficult to capture and share in a timely manner using traditional methods. Finding a way to do this in an innovative format is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. A new method for quickly capturing and sharing expertise from the field to the classroom is by using traditional community of practice forums in a very nontraditional way. ;. This study looks at how we went about transforming the US Army Transition Team Forum from a traditional knowledge management forum into a transformational educational tool that gives soldiers the ability to rapidly share and transfer lessons learned though the use of stories and other methods in an online structured forum format. This paper discusses how key principles of Cognitive Task Analysis were applied to an online community of practice in order to capture and transfer expertise among soldiers. We discuss the types of information we were capturing prior to any changes, how we altered the language used in the questions to capture expertise in a transferable format, and the significant change in both knowledge capture and transfer we saw as a result. Additionally, we share our lessons learned including best practices and tips for improving questions that stimulate discussion in communities and to move them from knowledge storerooms to knowledge sharing tools.
 
Baxter, H.C., Pruyt, R., & Prevou, M. (2008, December). Best practices for eliciting and transferring expertise through communities of practice. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

This quick reading book discusses a holistic approach to knowledge management that looks beyond just technology. It focuses on integrating key components in the right balance to create an effective environment for knowledge to be identified, captured, shared, and applied to some advantage. It helps clarify what KM is and what it is not so leaders and managers have a better understanding of how KM can help their organizations learn, share, collaborate, and perform. It provides a simple and practical outline for how we design and communicate a KM strategy and talk about how that strategy must be aligned with business goals and objectives.
 
Prevou, M. & Levy, M. (2012). #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05: Everything You Need to Know about Knowledge Management in Practice in 140 Characters or Less. Cupertino, CA: THiNKaha
 

The December 2008 U.S. Army Field Manual 7-0, Training for Full Spectrum Operations, defines the phrase “Train as you fight” as: “training under the conditions of the expected operational environment.” However, an installation‟s ability to emulate the conditions of an expected operational environment during live training is limited due to terrain, safety, and resource constraints. Acknowledging this as a problem, the Army invested in virtual and constructive simulations. In 2008, based on requirements from the field for a semi-immersive and flexible training tool, the Army formally recognized PC-based gaming as a training enabler. This paper explores the potential of the game, Virtual Battle Space 2 (VBS2™), as an effective training and educational tool for transferring knowledge and surrogate experience, enhancing cognitive skills, and developing an adaptive mindset in Soldiers. Using Improvised Explosive Device Defeat training as a case study, we demonstrate how leveraging a common training tool and fostering collaboration within the Army and among the Joint and American, Britain, Canada, and Australia user communities provides increased opportunities for teachable moments and potentially saves lives. Enabling Soldiers to virtually operate in environments and situations characterized by an increasingly hybrid assortment of lethal and non-lethal threats and challenges, VBS2™ bridges the pedagogical gap between classroom briefs and resource-intensive live training. Because the Army has moved beyond the debate about whether gaming possesses the potential to be an effective training tool (it decided it does) and which gaming tool should be used (it selected VBS2™), we address the practical matters associated with maximizing the effectiveness of VBS2™ as a training tool. By leveraging collaboration and connecting the gaming community, the training support community, and the units conducting training, we demonstrate how VBS2™ might be successfully integrated into a commander‟s blended training strategy.
 
Atherton, E. & Baxter, H.C. (2009, December). Positively gaming the system: A VBS2™ training case study. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL. Honorable Mention for Best Paper.
 

The traditional approach to learning is to define the objectives (the gap between the knowledge a person has and the knowledge the person needs to perform the task), establish the regimen for practice, and provide feedback. Learning procedures and factual data is seen as adding more information and skills to the person’s storehouse of knowledge. However, this storehouse metaphor is poorly suited for cognitive skill, and does not address the differing learning needs of novices and experts. Teaching cognitive skills requires the diagnosis of the problem in terms of flaws in existing mental models, not gaps in knowledge. It requires learning objectives that are linked to the person’s current mental models. It requires practice regimens that may have to result in “unlearning” that enables the person to abandon the current, flawed mental models. It requires feedback that promotes sensemaking. We propose a Cognitive Transformation Theory to guide the development of cognitive skills. Finally, we present several strategies that might be useful in overcoming barriers to understanding and to revising mental models.
 
Klein, G.A. & Baxter, H.C. (2006, December). Cognitive transformation theory: Contrasting cognitive and behavioral learning. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

More than ever, the ability to share tacit knowledge and expertise is integral to today’s military. The asymmetric nature of our enemies is such that their tactics are ever changing, making it imperative that Soldiers adapt their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) by exploiting recent observations, insights, and lessons learned from theater to apply to relevant tailored training in order to become agile and adaptive leaders. Without effective knowledge management, these valuable lessons learned, TTPs, and best practices can go to waste, potentially putting lives at higher risk. One of the main problems is that tacit knowledge is difficult to capture. Tacit knowledge often involves skills so well learned and familiar that an expert may not even be consciously aware of using them in the course of performing difficult tasks or reacting to stressful situations requiring near instantaneous decisions. This knowledge is often so deeply embedded that it requires specially trained interviewers to get at the processes that Soldiers have difficulty articulating. Because this technique is costly and timeconsuming, many organizations have tried to acquire tacit knowledge through other more affordable, yet less effective means. This study took an in-depth look at the challenges faced by over 50 Soldiers ranging from Squad Leaders to Corps Commanders during recent deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan. These Cognitive Task Analysis interviews gave us insights about how to harness tacit knowledge in the field more effectively and efficiently. Soldiers and units can then take that knowledge and adapt, adopt, or discard knowledge within the context of their mission, location, and training requirements. Using the facilitated professional forums, collaborative tools, and storage and retrieval capabilities of the Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) empowers leaders to retrieve that knowledge in a way that promotes effective learning through development and use of high quality vignettes.
 
Baxter, H.C., Stevens, L.M., & Koskey, J. (2006, December). Discovering the invisible: Using tacit knowledge to develop agile and adaptive leaders. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

Today, many experts claim that more than 80% of adult learning takes place in informal settings outside the classroom, yet we have only begun to scratch the surface of a truly advanced blended learning environment where informal and formal learning is linked through social networks and communities of practice. This article describes one organizations attempt to enable lifelong learners, leverage knowledge management for learning and integrate communities of practice into the classroom.
 
Prevou, M., & McGurn, L., (2010, Spring). The role of social networking in advanced blended learning. Government Elearning! 26-29.
 

>This paper helps outline the profound changes required in the current training and performance environments, and offers guiding principles and a practical approach to getting started. The paper describes how to support learning before, during and after an event; how to combine knowledge management tools and learning approaches most effectively to maximizing tacit knowledge transfer; and how to scope of necessary system changes.
 
Prevou, M. & McGurn, L. (2009, December). Advanced blended learning: creating a learning organization. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

As the world changes, a gap has grown between the way students learn and the way many schools continue to teach. Today's students learn in a non-linear way. According to recent studies, students learn more about doing their jobs in informal learning environments and use social media platforms to connect with experts in the field. However, only a few military schools have found ways to blend the formal, informal, and emerging technologies to enable these new 21st century learners. This study looks at the profiles of emerging learners and offers recommendations into how professional military education (PME) can support these learning styles and the students who aspire to gain this knowledge. Based on a review of over 20 educational reports and interviews with students at each level of PME, this paper outlines the characteristics of these 21st century students and looks at how PME must adjust from performance-based to outcome-based learning in an effort to place greater emphasis on choosing and using learning strategies rather than about taking on knowledge and skills that are quickly outdated. This paper includes a detailed case study of how an advanced blended learning solution could be applied to a military classroom.
 
 
Prevou, M. & McGurn, L. (2010, Dec). Strategies for Designing 21st Century Military Education. Paper presented at the Interservice/Interagency Training and Simulation and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

This coaching guide provides the essentials for operating as part of a non-hierarchical team that works routinely across organizational boundaries. Based on the Teams of Leaders Approach this publication provides theory and practice to form and launch effective teams. It is military centric but is easy to translate into any organizational construct.
 
Prevou, M. (2008). The EUCOM teams of leader coaching guide. U.S. European Command publication. Stuttgart, Germany.
 

This paper explores the question of how teams of leaders from diverse organizations with different operating mechanics and approaches, and sometimes incompatible interests and philosophies, find the shared situational understanding, purpose, trust and confidence to achieve success together. Based on results of multiple applications of this approach with different types of teams, and piloted in the U.S. Army’s European Command (EUCOM), the approach has shown that when we combine the multipliers of high performing team qualities with modern collaborative technology tools and sound information/ knowledge management processes, enabled by a simple leader-team development exercise, we create a synergistic effect that improves the qualities of shared purpose, trust, team competence and increases confidence; generates “actionable understanding” and accelerates sustainable, high-performance.
 
Prevou, M., Veitch, R., & Sullivan, R. (2009, December). Teams of Leaders: raising the level of collaborative leader-team performance. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

The speed that knowledge is applied for effective decision making, creation of new products and services, political and regulatory solutions and innovation requires a deliberate and practiced framework to make those connections productive. In this paper we address knowledge management as it pertains to enabling high performance in cross-boundary and multidisciplinary teams. We discuss KM as a means to improved performance and increased team productivity. To do this we offer a new, more comprehensive framework for managing the components of the knowledge environment rather than trying to manage knowledge itself and we offer an approach for deliberately forming and launching teams which we have been working with over the past several years. We discuss the conditions required for high performing teams to exist in an organization and we talk about case studies in which we have applied and researched various techniques on a variety of diverse, sometime geographically separated teams. Our hope for this paper is twofold: first that you will consider the value of looking at knowledge management in a different way and secondly, that you will acknowledge the value of a deliberate approach to forming, launching and developing any team within your organization and when given the opportunity ensure your teams are properly supported.
 
Prevou, M. & Hilton, B. (2012). Chapter 15: Knowledge-Enabled High-Performing Teams of Leaders. In Jay Liebowitz (Ed.), Knowledge Management Handbook: Collaboration and Social Networking, Second Edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
 

Traditional Organizational Assessments broadly analyze the basic health and well-being of an organization, but don‟t often have the ability to adapt and focus on one of the most critical pieces of organizational survival and advancement—knowledge. This study looks at a 17-step knowledge assessment process, developed and refined through large-scale assessments with a variety of Army, Air Force, world aid, and corporate entities. This knowledge assessment process was developed to help organizations obtain an indication of their health in terms of knowledge flow, knowledge creation and transfer, and ultimately knowledge management processes, strategies, and approaches by looking at how the people, processes, technology, and culture integrate as methods of informal learning. The process focuses on identifying performance gaps between what an organization is doing and what it needs to be doing given its current goals. It also highlights the gaps between what an organization currently knows and what it needs to know to achieve its goals. It does this by identifying the causes and contributing factors of identified gaps, the impact each gap has on the organization, measures of effectiveness and priorities for addressing each gap, and recommended training and education strategies for closing the gaps and improving individual and organizational performance. The end product of this knowledge assessment is a targeted knowledge strategy, which is designed to help the organization develop knowledge management, training, and education approaches and methods to close the gaps. This paper looks at applying this knowledge assessment process with the United Nations Development Programme and U.S. Army Programs and addresses the knowledge gaps and strategies for improving formal and informal learning and knowledge transfer across various countries and cultures.
 
Baxter, H.C. (2011). Trends and best practices for improving knowledge transfer across the globe. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL. Selected as Best Paper in Education for 2011.
 

Abstract coming soon!
 
Baxter H. & Prevou, M. (2010). A method for effectively assessing knowledge in organizations. Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management, Pittsburg, PA.
 

Almost everyone from government organizations to small and large corporations struggles to adapt more quickly. We push to manage increased information, and to capture and apply the expertise of skilled employees to make the organization more effective and efficient. To improve the flow of knowledge and develop expertise more rapidly, many organizations have begun to look at improving their knowledge management (KM) capability. While many have embraced what they believe is KM, frustration continues because they did not thoroughly assess where the true needs and gaps were or analyze why those gaps exist. As a result, the solutions often focus on only the symptoms and overlook the root causes required to move knowledge effectively and achieve a positive outcome. To ensure agencies understand their knowledge-based challenges and avoid jumping into the wrong solution, a deliberate knowledge assessment that focuses on addressing root causes is needed.
 
Baxter, H.C. (2012). Don't Be Left Behind: Improving Knowledge Transfer. The Public Manager, Fall 2012. 39-43.
 

The commonly accepted model for KM considers only people, processes, and technology. For serious performance gains this approach is limiting. A more holistic model addressing all environmental variables affecting knowledge creation and flow is needed. The Knowledge EnvironmentTM is such a model. It consists of seven major components: people, processes, technology, content, organizational structure, organizational culture, and knowledge leadership. This article helps you understand how to consider and balance the components of the Knowledge Environment TM to support achieving organizational objectives and maintain a competitive advantage.
 
Prevou, M. (2011). Understanding the Knowledge Environment. Army Communicator, Summer 2011. Fort Gordon, GA: U.S. Army Signal Center.
 

Overwhelmed by email? Need to put some discipline in the way your organization uses and manages emails? This article outlines 16 simple rules any organization can put into effect today to improve email effectiveness. It also includes 10 Email Rules you Can Practice to be More Efficient with your own Outlook email.
 
Prevou, M. (2011). Taming the dragon: Rules of engagement for using email more effectively. Connected, April 2011. Ft. Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.
 

The ability to share tacit knowledge and expertise rapidly between and among teams is crucial in today’s high-stakes organizations. The shift away from individual explicit routine tasks to a more team-based environment makes it imperative that we adapt by exploiting observations, insights, and lessons learned to create dynamic relevant training that develops more adaptive teams. Without effective knowledge capture and transfer techniques, these valuable lessons learned and best practices can go to waste. One of the biggest challenges is that expertise is very difficult to capture and share in a timely manner using traditional methods. Finding a way to do this in an innovative format is critical to maintaining a competitive advantage. A new method for quickly capturing and sharing expertise from the field to the classroom is by using traditional community of practice forums in a very nontraditional way. ;. This study looks at how we went about transforming the US Army Transition Team Forum from a traditional knowledge management forum into a transformational educational tool that gives soldiers the ability to rapidly share and transfer lessons learned though the use of stories and other methods in an online structured forum format. This paper discusses how key principles of Cognitive Task Analysis were applied to an online community of practice in order to capture and transfer expertise among soldiers. We discuss the types of information we were capturing prior to any changes, how we altered the language used in the questions to capture expertise in a transferable format, and the significant change in both knowledge capture and transfer we saw as a result. Additionally, we share our lessons learned including best practices and tips for improving questions that stimulate discussion in communities and to move them from knowledge storerooms to knowledge sharing tools.
 
Baxter, H.C., Pruyt, R., & Prevou, M. (2008, December). Best practices for eliciting and transferring expertise through communities of practice. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

This quick reading book discusses a holistic approach to knowledge management that looks beyond just technology. It focuses on integrating key components in the right balance to create an effective environment for knowledge to be identified, captured, shared, and applied to some advantage. It helps clarify what KM is and what it is not so leaders and managers have a better understanding of how KM can help their organizations learn, share, collaborate, and perform. It provides a simple and practical outline for how we design and communicate a KM strategy and talk about how that strategy must be aligned with business goals and objectives.
 
Prevou, M. & Levy, M. (2012). #SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LEARNING tweet Book05: Everything You Need to Know about Knowledge Management in Practice in 140 Characters or Less. Cupertino, CA: THiNKaha
 

The December 2008 U.S. Army Field Manual 7-0, Training for Full Spectrum Operations, defines the phrase “Train as you fight” as: “training under the conditions of the expected operational environment.” However, an installation‟s ability to emulate the conditions of an expected operational environment during live training is limited due to terrain, safety, and resource constraints. Acknowledging this as a problem, the Army invested in virtual and constructive simulations. In 2008, based on requirements from the field for a semi-immersive and flexible training tool, the Army formally recognized PC-based gaming as a training enabler. This paper explores the potential of the game, Virtual Battle Space 2 (VBS2™), as an effective training and educational tool for transferring knowledge and surrogate experience, enhancing cognitive skills, and developing an adaptive mindset in Soldiers. Using Improvised Explosive Device Defeat training as a case study, we demonstrate how leveraging a common training tool and fostering collaboration within the Army and among the Joint and American, Britain, Canada, and Australia user communities provides increased opportunities for teachable moments and potentially saves lives. Enabling Soldiers to virtually operate in environments and situations characterized by an increasingly hybrid assortment of lethal and non-lethal threats and challenges, VBS2™ bridges the pedagogical gap between classroom briefs and resource-intensive live training. Because the Army has moved beyond the debate about whether gaming possesses the potential to be an effective training tool (it decided it does) and which gaming tool should be used (it selected VBS2™), we address the practical matters associated with maximizing the effectiveness of VBS2™ as a training tool. By leveraging collaboration and connecting the gaming community, the training support community, and the units conducting training, we demonstrate how VBS2™ might be successfully integrated into a commander‟s blended training strategy.
 
Atherton, E. & Baxter, H.C. (2009, December). Positively gaming the system: A VBS2™ training case study. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL. Honorable Mention for Best Paper.
 

The traditional approach to learning is to define the objectives (the gap between the knowledge a person has and the knowledge the person needs to perform the task), establish the regimen for practice, and provide feedback. Learning procedures and factual data is seen as adding more information and skills to the person’s storehouse of knowledge. However, this storehouse metaphor is poorly suited for cognitive skill, and does not address the differing learning needs of novices and experts. Teaching cognitive skills requires the diagnosis of the problem in terms of flaws in existing mental models, not gaps in knowledge. It requires learning objectives that are linked to the person’s current mental models. It requires practice regimens that may have to result in “unlearning” that enables the person to abandon the current, flawed mental models. It requires feedback that promotes sensemaking. We propose a Cognitive Transformation Theory to guide the development of cognitive skills. Finally, we present several strategies that might be useful in overcoming barriers to understanding and to revising mental models.
 
Klein, G.A. & Baxter, H.C. (2006, December). Cognitive transformation theory: Contrasting cognitive and behavioral learning. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

More than ever, the ability to share tacit knowledge and expertise is integral to today’s military. The asymmetric nature of our enemies is such that their tactics are ever changing, making it imperative that Soldiers adapt their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) by exploiting recent observations, insights, and lessons learned from theater to apply to relevant tailored training in order to become agile and adaptive leaders. Without effective knowledge management, these valuable lessons learned, TTPs, and best practices can go to waste, potentially putting lives at higher risk. One of the main problems is that tacit knowledge is difficult to capture. Tacit knowledge often involves skills so well learned and familiar that an expert may not even be consciously aware of using them in the course of performing difficult tasks or reacting to stressful situations requiring near instantaneous decisions. This knowledge is often so deeply embedded that it requires specially trained interviewers to get at the processes that Soldiers have difficulty articulating. Because this technique is costly and timeconsuming, many organizations have tried to acquire tacit knowledge through other more affordable, yet less effective means. This study took an in-depth look at the challenges faced by over 50 Soldiers ranging from Squad Leaders to Corps Commanders during recent deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan. These Cognitive Task Analysis interviews gave us insights about how to harness tacit knowledge in the field more effectively and efficiently. Soldiers and units can then take that knowledge and adapt, adopt, or discard knowledge within the context of their mission, location, and training requirements. Using the facilitated professional forums, collaborative tools, and storage and retrieval capabilities of the Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) empowers leaders to retrieve that knowledge in a way that promotes effective learning through development and use of high quality vignettes.
 
Baxter, H.C., Stevens, L.M., & Koskey, J. (2006, December). Discovering the invisible: Using tacit knowledge to develop agile and adaptive leaders. Paper presented at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

Today, many experts claim that more than 80% of adult learning takes place in informal settings outside the classroom, yet we have only begun to scratch the surface of a truly advanced blended learning environment where informal and formal learning is linked through social networks and communities of practice. This article describes one organizations attempt to enable lifelong learners, leverage knowledge management for learning and integrate communities of practice into the classroom.
 
Prevou, M., & McGurn, L., (2010, Spring). The role of social networking in advanced blended learning. Government Elearning! 26-29.
 

>This paper helps outline the profound changes required in the current training and performance environments, and offers guiding principles and a practical approach to getting started. The paper describes how to support learning before, during and after an event; how to combine knowledge management tools and learning approaches most effectively to maximizing tacit knowledge transfer; and how to scope of necessary system changes.
 
Prevou, M. & McGurn, L. (2009, December). Advanced blended learning: creating a learning organization. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

As the world changes, a gap has grown between the way students learn and the way many schools continue to teach. Today's students learn in a non-linear way. According to recent studies, students learn more about doing their jobs in informal learning environments and use social media platforms to connect with experts in the field. However, only a few military schools have found ways to blend the formal, informal, and emerging technologies to enable these new 21st century learners. This study looks at the profiles of emerging learners and offers recommendations into how professional military education (PME) can support these learning styles and the students who aspire to gain this knowledge. Based on a review of over 20 educational reports and interviews with students at each level of PME, this paper outlines the characteristics of these 21st century students and looks at how PME must adjust from performance-based to outcome-based learning in an effort to place greater emphasis on choosing and using learning strategies rather than about taking on knowledge and skills that are quickly outdated. This paper includes a detailed case study of how an advanced blended learning solution could be applied to a military classroom.
 
 
Prevou, M. & McGurn, L. (2010, Dec). Strategies for Designing 21st Century Military Education. Paper presented at the Interservice/Interagency Training and Simulation and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

This coaching guide provides the essentials for operating as part of a non-hierarchical team that works routinely across organizational boundaries. Based on the Teams of Leaders Approach this publication provides theory and practice to form and launch effective teams. It is military centric but is easy to translate into any organizational construct.
 
Prevou, M. (2008). The EUCOM teams of leader coaching guide. U.S. European Command publication. Stuttgart, Germany.
 

This paper explores the question of how teams of leaders from diverse organizations with different operating mechanics and approaches, and sometimes incompatible interests and philosophies, find the shared situational understanding, purpose, trust and confidence to achieve success together. Based on results of multiple applications of this approach with different types of teams, and piloted in the U.S. Army’s European Command (EUCOM), the approach has shown that when we combine the multipliers of high performing team qualities with modern collaborative technology tools and sound information/ knowledge management processes, enabled by a simple leader-team development exercise, we create a synergistic effect that improves the qualities of shared purpose, trust, team competence and increases confidence; generates “actionable understanding” and accelerates sustainable, high-performance.
 
Prevou, M., Veitch, R., & Sullivan, R. (2009, December). Teams of Leaders: raising the level of collaborative leader-team performance. Proceedings of the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference, Orlando, FL.
 

The speed that knowledge is applied for effective decision making, creation of new products and services, political and regulatory solutions and innovation requires a deliberate and practiced framework to make those connections productive. In this paper we address knowledge management as it pertains to enabling high performance in cross-boundary and multidisciplinary teams. We discuss KM as a means to improved performance and increased team productivity. To do this we offer a new, more comprehensive framework for managing the components of the knowledge environment rather than trying to manage knowledge itself and we offer an approach for deliberately forming and launching teams which we have been working with over the past several years. We discuss the conditions required for high performing teams to exist in an organization and we talk about case studies in which we have applied and researched various techniques on a variety of diverse, sometime geographically separated teams. Our hope for this paper is twofold: first that you will consider the value of looking at knowledge management in a different way and secondly, that you will acknowledge the value of a deliberate approach to forming, launching and developing any team within your organization and when given the opportunity ensure your teams are properly supported.
 
Prevou, M. & Hilton, B. (2012). Chapter 15: Knowledge-Enabled High-Performing Teams of Leaders. In Jay Liebowitz (Ed.), Knowledge Management Handbook: Collaboration and Social Networking, Second Edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.