The Triple Convergence

What is the Triple Convergence?

Convergence I: Merging software with hardware to create a beast of a machine or product – blending technologies to better empower the individual to make a greater impact on the world.

Convergence II: Flattening our thinking and collaboration from vertical to horizontal “because vertical thinking often requires you to start by asking who controls the system, now what is the outcome or effect you want to create” (Friedman, 2007, p. 209-210). Taking control out of the picture and instead focusing on an outcome helps foster collaboration and a sense everyone is in it together rather than working against one another.

Convergence III: Evening the playing field by allowing more players to be on the field at any given time (Friedman, 2007, p. 211). “Giving so many people access to all these tools of collaboration, along with the ability through search engines and the Web to access billions of pages of raw information, ensures that the next generation of innovations will come from all over Planet Flat” (Friedman, 2007, p. 211).

The Triple Convergence has a direct effect on knowledge management as more and more individuals are allowed the information, technology, and supplies to better equip them for their jobs. Individuals from Kansas to Bangalore, Washington to Russia, California to Japan are allowed to collaborate and be innovative using horizontal collaboration – prompting the people of the world to share their knowledge with one another – to provide a more diverse and dynamic education in all corners of the world.

The Web has impacted knowledge management in many ways with perhaps the most important being:

 1) An increasing amount of individuals worldwide are exposed to technology

 2) The Web allows individuals the capability to connect with people thousands of miles away, obtain information for research or reports, and to stay connected to entertainment, educational opportunities, the news, and their faith.

Knowledge management has evolved as a direct response to the increasing capabilities with the Web and information housed in it. While individuals might have had to wait in the past for two weeks to receive a letter from across the world now the moment someone hits send ‘you’ve got mail.’ The web allows individuals to gain valuable knowledge with the click of a mouse or the touch of a screen. The Web makes knowledge management possibilities endless – learning and the gaining of knowledge are now a reality for people who once could only dream of it.

Role of the Leader

If knowledge is socially developed the role of the leader in knowledge management is to be honest, provide the most current information, and play an active role in providing knowledge and education to her followers. As Friedman (2007) points out, leaders can no longer keep issues quiet if they are to be solved – as solving them could mean the need to share information with individuals all across the globe! The walls which in the past stifled collaboration have been demolished – making room for open collaboration with individuals from all over the world. Friedman (2007) states that “individuals who never dreamt they could work together, and jobs no one ever dreamt could be shifted from country to country, are suddenly on the move, now that many traditional high walls are gone” (p. 231). As leaders we must seek to create change through dissemination of knowledge to our counterparts in the next office, a building down the street, or at the other end of a computer screen half a world away. 

Friedman, T.L. (2007). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Ed.). New York, NY: Picador.