Lesley
Crane
Coming late to the academic domain, Lesley added to her
Masters in Media and English Literature
(University of Glasgow) with a BSc Hons in
Applied Psychology from the University of Derby
in 2010. She is now entering the final stages of
her Doctorate, also with Derby, which focuses on
a psychological approach to knowledge practices
in organizational contexts.
Lesley has had several research papers published
in academic journals and books, and has spoken
at international Knowledge Management
Conferences.
Lesley is an expert consultant in e-learning (adult and
work-based learning), knowledge management, and
the use of gaming concepts and technologies to
develop leadership skills. She has worked as an
independent consultant for ten years, before
which she ran her own successful e-learning
developer and communications company. Clients
have included many UK government departments and
agencies, and multinationals in the private
sector.
Lesley’s career began in the corporate television industry,
becoming a talented and accomplished
director/producer/writer of promotional and
training videos. She followed this with a career
in software development, eventually specialising
in e-learning and adult training, developing her
own company over a period of 15 years. A
particular strength was demonstrated in the use
of gaming concepts and technologies in education
and training. In 2004, Lesley embarked on
another career as an independent consultant
and researcher in e-learning, information
management and portal development. She developed
her long-time interest in human psychology with
a degree – which she completed entirely through
e-learning. Being on the ‘receiving end’ of
e-learning, and self-paced, self-motivated
learning has considerably extended her insight
and skills in this area.
This naturally led to an interest in the domain of knowledge
management (KM). Lesley’s approach to KM is
based on her theory that knowledge work is
entirely accomplished in talk and text in
interaction – discourse. Her particular
methodological approach to the study of
knowledge work draws on Discourse Psychology,
positing that this can reveal tacit knowledge at
work. She has deepened her theoretical stance by
integrating Discourse Psychology with work drawn
from the field of Cognitive Psychology, and in
particular that of Implicit Learning. Implicit
learning is the automatic and unconscious
abstraction of structures and patterns from the
environment which are represented as mental
models, and which formulate what is known as
tacit knowledge. A primary area of interest is
consequently the study of how people acquire,
model, utilise, share and create knowledge in
discourse, which has the aim of developing a new
diagnostic tool for knowledge practitioners.
Professionally, Lesley has strengths in problem analysis,
solution design, communications and
presentation, and strategic planning, amongst
others. These skills have come to the fore in
assignments where she has taken on consultative
roles to support senior management and in
advising senior government civil servants and
ministers on matters of policy relating to, for
instance, education and training. |
