TED Community » John James O'Brien
About Me
Based in Asia, Hong Kong and Bangkok, and now "on assignment" in British Columbia, I was raised in Canada and New England. Eclectic interests include architecture, organizational change process, music and intellectual capital measurement. With such diverse interests, it's not surprising that I multi-task in career terms. Public, private and non-profit leadership run parallel with a hobby business in which I redesign interiors to create residential suites and design gardens and exteriors. Music forays include 11 years with a balalaika orchestra playing primo tenor dom'ra and, more recently, Garageband composition and mixing. I have served a directorate officer in Hong Kong, an international consultant, educator at community, under- and graduate levels and give back primarily through board service ranging from professional to community and social service areas. With partner Rob Tornack, I have created a niche consultancy focused in knowledge resource development (IRM Strategies). I am also a co-founder of the non-profit Asia Pacific Institute of Records and Information Management.
My partner and I are writing a book on applying our conceptual model, the continuum from data generation through records and knowledge management to leveraging intellectual capital. It's all about bringing together people and the information they receive, create, share and rely upon for effective action. It's about maintaining transparency, accountability and risk management concurrent with enabling creativity, innovation and learning communities of practice for quality gains. In today's world, we are convinced that a disdain for evidence-based practice, deliberate or not, is at the heart of financial and governance crises.
Over 20+ years, we have found that organizations vacillate from lock down mentalities to kumbuya circles, reactive fads that misinterpret needs. What we need is consciousness, in person-centric, knowledge focused enterprise.
Check me out on LinkedIn, Naymz, Ecademy, Academici, Ryze, Ning, Viadeo, Facebook, etc. Open to exploring synergies and finding a reason to return to Stockholm, Moscow, Paris, Sydney or Melbourne. Eager to experience New Zealand, India and more.
Drop a line to kmadvisor(AT)gmail(DOT)com if you see mutual interests!
- Location:
- Hong Kong, Tung Chung
- Current organization:
- IRM Strategies
- Past organizations:
- Hong Kong SAR Government, Interactive Strategies, Inc. (ISI Global), Government of British Columbia
- Current role:
- Partner & Managing Director
- Gender:
- Male
- Areas of expertise:
- Records Management (Recorded Information Management), Change , Systems Thinking, Leadership, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Resource Management, Design, Urban planning (hobbyist), Creativity
- I am:
- Artist, Consultant, Designer, Educator/Teacher, Entrepreneur, Global soul, Idea generator, Policy maker, Writer/Editor
- Associations:
- Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM), ARMA International, Hong Kong Knowledge Management Society, PRISM International, Asia Pacific Institute of Records & Information Management
- Languages:
- English, French, Russian
- My website links:
- IRM Strategies, Anisotropic Road, Garden Oaks Fine Accommodation
- Universities:
- Royal Roads , University of Victoria
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Provocative enquiry and dialogue that illuminates, usually over a good meal with energetic, curious and engaged minds.
An idea worth spreading
Simplicity...isn't. Embrace complexity. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Talk to me about
Grounding authenticity in practice ... it's high time!
People don't know that I'm good at
Design of space. Cooking. Improv. Composing. Art. Voice play: languages (my accent is generally good, but my French and Russian are very rusty! Currently a beginner in Thai and Gongdunghua.
Comments
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A comment on Talk: Tavi Gevinson: A teen just trying to figure it out
A comment on Conversation: Why is the Nick Hanauer talk not posted?
With regard to Hanauer's talk (which I'll seek out to hear in its entirety for have not as yet) I have this to offer. It is the confluence of resources that makes an economy run: people are a fundamental resource from which all else flows. Lest we forget, however, it is also people who seem to have trouble getting that. Intellectual capital (capacity, relationship and the infrastructure that utilizes these) has a value beyond financial resources. Money is a natural by-product of intellectual capital management, not the other way around. At least some are seeking ways to measure it as a point of reference in economics...my own interest is in recognizing and harvesting it through effective management. A resourceful, financially poor population may be far better off than a prosperous one without the capacity to sustain that prosperity.
Surely we learn more through unfamiliar, even uncomfortable ideas. It was a huge mistake to shut that down. I must say, however, that if this had not happened, I would more easily have been led. I am grateful for the wake up call.
A comment on Talk: Deborah Gordon digs ants
We don't much care about others' patterns--we want our pattern to be noticed. Is this universal? Perhaps not. Think: communities of practice, some tribes.
Having some opportunity to observe a self-managed unit within a more traditionally structured organisation, and lots of chances to observe and experience organisations in general, I am struck by the potential of translating the essential elements of patterns into concepts that can be readily understood and used by people who are less concern with such ponderings and more concerned with how to get a task done, or who got recognized, or how to get off work early to catch a show.
Questions of meaning in and interpretation of patterns that may serve to guide (per ant-life) are only a part of the equation. Factors that may guide the interpretation itself are relevant. Satisfaction? Reward? Fear? Insecurity born of untried action versus the confidence of knowing a) the outcome or b) the security and confidence that derives from knowing that regardless of outcome, we have capacity to survive?
Great food for thought and relevant to my own interests in knowledge resource development.