November 2017 Seminar: The Future for Information and Knowledge Professionals – Tenth Anniversary Seminar

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Summary

2017 has been the tenth anniversary of the founding of NetIKX and this meeting was a celebration of this. The programme focused on the situation of knowledge and information professionals in 2017. Talks to set the scene were from Peter Thomson on major changes to the world of work and from Stuart Ward, Chair of NetIKX at its inception, who focused more closely on how KM and IM people can provide value in the workplace in this changing world. Then participants were invited to discuss the key ideas that they thought were the most relevant and put questions to a panel composed of people active and influential in our field.

What are the important trends in employment that we face and what is the role of communities like NetIKX that operate in this field? We looked back over the last ten years to set the scene for the changes we need to prepare for in the coming years. We also involved people from related organisations such as CILIP. ISKO UK and LIKE.
There were two introductory talks and first Peter Thomson looked at major changes to the world of work. Stuart Ward, Chair of NetIKX at its inception, focused more closely on how KM and IM people can provide value in the workplace in this changing world. Then, in a usual NetIKX syndicate session, participants were invited to discuss the key ideas that they thought were the most relevant. After this, to gain a wider perspective, questions based on these discussions were put to a panel composed of people active and influential in our field. These were David Haynes (Chair of ISKO UK), David Gurteen, David Smith (Government KIM Head of Profession), Karen McFarlane (Chair of the CILIP Board), Steve Dale and Noeleen Schenk (Metataxis Ltd, who has also been running a series of meetings on the future of knowledge and information management).

After a lively panel Q and A session, there was time for further discussion and networking over generous celebratory refreshments.

Speakers

Peter Thomson is an expert on the changing world of work and its impact on organisations, leadership and management. He regularly speaks on this topic at conferences and has worked with many groups of senior managers to inspire them to change their organisational culture. He headed up the HR function for Digital Equipment for Northern Europe for 18 years leading up to the dawn of the Internet. On leaving DEC, Peter founded the Future Work Forum at Henley Business School. He was Director of the Forum for 16 years, during which time he studied the changing patterns of work and the leadership implications of these trends. At the same time he formed Wisework Ltd, now a leading consultancy in the field of smart working. Peter is co-author, with Alison Maitland, of the business bestseller Future Work. He is also editor of a new book Conquering Digital Overload, which is about to be published. As a consultant and coach, he works with leadership teams and individuals to help them gain the maximum business benefit from new working practices. As a writer and researcher he is fascinated by the evolving role of leadership and management as we move into the ‘Gig Economy’.

Stuart Ward has been involved with NetIKX and its predecessors for over 15 years. With others he launched NetIKX 10 years ago and was the first Chairman. Stuart has wide experience in information and knowledge management and ICT, gained in business and as an independent consultant; he is interested in strategies that help to maximise the value of knowledge and information for organisations. Stuart began his career in IT and project management and, after developing a keen interest in improving the use of information in organisations, he became Director of Information Management at British Energy. In 1997 he established Forward Consulting to help organisations improve performance through information and knowledge management. He has worked with clients in both the public and private sectors. As an Associate of the IMPACT Programme, he managed their Information and Knowledge Exploitation Group from 1997 to 1999 and then again from 2004 to 2006. He was instrumental in developing the theme of the Hawley Committee: Information as an Asset with practical tools for use in business. In previous roles, Stuart has been a visiting lecturer at City University, Chairman of the Judging Panel for the British Computer Society Annual Business Achievement Awards, and chaired conference organising committees for Aslib. He is also currently an Associate of the College of Policing.

Time and Venue

2pm on Thursday 16 November, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Slides

Not available

Tweets

#netikx88

Blog

See our blog report: The Future of Work for Information and Knowledge Professionals

Study Suggestions

None

September 2017 Seminar: Closing the Loop on Lesson Learning

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Summary

Chris Collison explored the myths and truths of lesson-learning in different contexts, using real examples, both good and bad, challenging us to improve this important knowledge-management practice and make it more than a convenient phrase.

‘Lessons learned’ is a phrase that is a regular feature of news bulletins, sports team briefs and project team meetings – but are they really learned, or are they something of a fig leaf for those who carry responsibility?
What does it take to truly invest in lesson learning in a way which closes the loop and results in real change, improvement and risk-avoidance for the future?

• What does a good project review look like?
• What are the most effective questions to use?
• How do we capture the output of a debrief without sanitising the life out it?
• How do we ensure that there is an outcome for the organisation – that something actually happens?

During the syndicate session that followed, groups tried to identify barriers to learning and sharing, and proposed practical ways to both ‘unblock the flow’ and stimulate a thirst for learning.

Speakers

Chris Collison is an independent management consultant and business author with 20 years of experience in knowledge management, facilitation and organisational learning.

His corporate experience comes from long careers in BP and Centrica. He was part of BP’s KM program, a team accredited with generating over $200m of value through pioneering knowledge management. In 2001 he joined Centrica, working at the top levels in Finance and HR, before becoming Group Director of Knowledge and Change Management.

In 2005 he left the corporate world to establish Knowledgeable Ltd. Since that time Chris has been working as a consultant in the field of Knowledge Management and Organisational Learning, and has had the privilege of advising over 130 organizations around the world. Clients range from Shell, Pfizer and the World Bank to the United Nations, the UK Government and the International Olympic Committee.

Chris has worked as an associate or visiting lecturer at a number of business schools: Henley, Cranfield and Liverpool in the UK, Skolkovo in Moscow, Sharif in Tehran and Columbia University in New York. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

Time and Venue

2pm on 14 September 2017, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

 

Slides

No slides available for this presentation

Tweets

#netikx87

Blog

See our blog report: Lesson Learning

Study Suggestion

See Chris’s Book Learning to Fly Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organisations.  C Collison G Parcell, 2007  John Wiley and Sons

 

March 2017 Seminar: Gurteen Knowledge Café – Entrained and Entrenched Thinking

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Summary

David Gurteen, well known as a keynote speaker and conversational facilitator, ran a Knowledge Café on the topic of Entrained and Entrenched Thinking.
Knowledge cafés are a powerful tool for knowledge managers. David Gurteen is one of the foremost exponents of this method. David defines the essence of a knowledge café thus: “The only hard and fast rule is that the meeting is conducted in such a way that most of the time is spent in conversation – it is not about one person presenting to the group”.

We were privileged that David was willing to run such an event for NetIKX. This knowledge café focused on issues around shaking up people’s ideas and the chosen and challenging topic was entrained and entrenched thinking. This proved to be of interest and value to those who attended, allowing them to explore “thinking out of the box”.
Avoiding [entrenched and] entrained thinking
The concept of an ‘entrenched’ opinion is all too familiar! Someone has a point of view and is ‘dug in’ to defend it – perhaps against an imagined other someone in another trench, with an opposite point of view. When these behaviours get in the way of reasoned discourse and good decision making, we might use conversational strategies to break the impasse.
‘Entrained thinking’ is a less familiar concept, but also hampers good collective decision making and opinion forming.

Normally a NetIKX meeting includes a ‘syndicate session’. The structure of a Gurteen Knowledge Café is different. For this meeting, the following issues were considered:
• What factors in people’s backgrounds, and even professional education, lead to them having a ‘blinkered’ view of the range of available opinions and policy decisions, especially at work? How might this be mitigated?
• When we meet together in groups to discuss and decide, what meeting dynamics get in the way of considering the broadest possible range of opinions and inputs? Could we run such meetings differently and obtain better results?
• What are the first two questions forgetting to consider?

Speakers

David Gurteen is a keynote speaker and conversational facilitator.
He works in the fields of knowledge management, organisational learning and conversational leadership. He gives keynote talks, designs and facilitates knowledge cafés and runs workshops around the world.
He is best known as the creator of the Gurteen Knowledge Café – a versatile conversational process to bring a group of people together to learn from each other, share experiences and make better sense of a rapidly changing, complex, less predictable world in order to improve decision making and to innovate.
He has facilitated hundreds of knowledge cafés and workshops in over 30 countries around the world over the last 13 years.
He is the founder of the Gurteen Knowledge Community – a global network of over 22,000 people in over 160 countries and he publishes his regular monthly Knowledge-Letter, which is now in its 16th year.

Time and Venue

2pm on 16th March 2017, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Pre Event Information

None

Slides

None

Tweets

#netikx84

Blog

See our blog report: Gurteen Knowledge Café

Study Suggestions

See David Gurteen’s website, https://knowledge.cafe/knowledge-cafe-concept
Article on Global Trust in Media: https://digiday.com/media/global-state-trust-media-5-charts/
None

January 2017 Seminar: Information Design: approaches to better communication

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Summary

Conrad Taylor and Ruth Miller (long-standing practitioners of information design) presented some simple and practical applications of plain language, computer-based design, and design project management practices to help organisations and businesses to communicate clearly.
Conrad and Ruth looked at how information designers have developed approaches to clear communication (based on research by linguists, psychologists and other specialists). Whether information is written or visual, on paper or online, clear communication helps users find out what they need to know, to help them make informed decisions. Some simple workshop exercises helped promote discussion about ways to tackle everyday communication tasks and challenges.
The following summarizes the approach taken by Conrad and Ruth.

‘Official’ writing is often unclear (to say the least). Let’s assume that it isn’t a ploy to deceive us or hide the facts – rather, as George Orwell suggested, that ‘official’ writers may lack the skills to tell us plainly what we need to know. Concerns arise, nonetheless, when communications produced by organisations and businesses baffle publics and customers, or cause misunderstanding.

Sir Ernest Gowers addressed this problem in 1949 with his inspiring book Plain Words. But as a writer, he had little to say about how typography, visual arrangement and diagramming can help convey meaning, nor about how poor visual design can impair communication. Today, we have a range of devices and software available to help us both to edit text and to improve visual presentation, and they can be put to effective use with a little skill and knowhow.
‘Information design’ emerged as an interdisciplinary approach in the 1970s. It combines craft traditions in writing and design, applied psychology, and engineering methods such as prototyping and testing. Its effect can be seen in street and transport maps, computer interfaces, user guides, tax and business forms, legal documents, financial statements from banks and utilities, statistical graphs – and other types of communication.

Speakers

Conrad Taylor is a keynote speaker and conversational facilitator.
Conrad Taylor, for three decades a computer-based typographer and illustrator, and a trainer in communication design, has been involved with information design for 25 years. As well as empowering people with design knowledge and skills, he has helped organisations by designing suites of electronic stylesheets for document production. He writes on the interface between information management, technology, and design/publishing, and has an aspiration to gather up the stories of how these fields have developed over the last seven or eight decades. Conrad’s site Conradiator contains information on these and many related topics.

Ruth Miller hopped aboard the plain language bandwagon when it started rolling in a large government department in the 1980s. Her creative approach to clear communication has ‘uncomplicated’ much gobbledegook and thorny legal and financial documents in both public sector and agency environments. Most recently, she has applied plain language and simplification skills built up over many years of practice to teach English to refugees. Her mantra is, “clear writing stems from clear thinking”.

Time and Venue

2pm on 26th January 2017, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Pre Event Information

• To understand the plain-language approach to written communication: the how and why (and successful outcomes)
• To learn how the design features of even simple computer software help us make print documents and web pages user-friendly
• To see design methods as problem-solving and best practice as a way to match business and communication objectives to audience needs

Slides

None

Tweets

#netikx83

Blog

See our blog report: Information Design

Study Suggestions

Sir Ernest Gowers book Plain Words

March 2016 Seminar: Storytelling For Problem Solving & Better Decision Making

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Summary

A story is a recounting of events based on emotional experience from a perspective.
We use stories to:

• build maps of the world we experience so we can make decisions about how to act;
• make decisions about what to believe in, what we see and hear;
• transfer knowledge and information;
• playfully simulate possible outcomes before we commit to a course of action;
• condense experience into packages that re-expand in the minds of listeners.

Stories engage our attention, influence our beliefs or actions, and provide a “partial suspension of the rules of the real” that helps us safely explore the future. Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) is an approach in which groups of people participate in gathering and working with raw stories of personal experience in order to make sense of complex situations for better decision making.

Ron Donaldson, an expert practitioner in the art and science of storytelling techniques, facilitated a highly interactive and engaging workshop demonstrating the use of PNI in exploring a topical issue relevant to knowledge and information sharing. Delegates obtained new insights into the topic, as well as practical experience in how to apply storytelling techniques to issues and problems they face in their own organisations.

Speakers

Ron Donaldson is a knowledge ecologist and facilitator, experienced in applying Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI), Cognitive Edge ideas around complex systems and TRIZ, the Russian Inventive Problem-Solving methods.

Taking an ecological perspective means that you focus at the community level and catalyse the flow of meaning, knowledge and realisation of insights within a narrative landscape. The sharing of knowledge in an organisation is much more analogous to an ecology that needs to be nurtured than a precisely defined machine that can be managed. Ron is particularly fond of the idea that Ecology has at times been called the ‘subversive science’, since it subverts our egocentric insistence on separateness, and with it, our inclination to ride roughshod over the rest of the natural world.

Time and Venue

2pm on Tuesday 22nd March 2016, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Pre Event Information

Learning Objectives:
• To understand how to create the starting conditions for new relationships and collaboration
• To understand how to remove constraints and disrupt linear thinking, to allow an anticipatory awareness of the present to emerge
• To know how to seed, trigger and encourage creative thinking and to experience storytelling as a way to share knowledge and ideas

Slides

Not available.

Tweets

#netikx78

Blog

See our blog report: Storytelling for Problem Solving and Better Decision Making

Study Suggestions

Ron Donaldson’s website is https://rondon.wordpress.com and his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/rondon. To find out more about PNI see https://narrafirma.com/home/participatory-narrative-inquiry/.

See also Past Event Information September 2020 where Ron discussed his involvement with TRIZ

Human Capital – The Last Differentiator – Tuesday 19 January 2016

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How do you keep your skills relevant in an ever changing environment?

Can Social Knowledge Management provide answers?

As we adapt to new workplace challenges (or opportunities) at a time when organisations are looking to increase productivity and make savings through automating routine work, we need to think about the ’human differentiator‘ – in essence, ensuring that we are all still employable!

In this interactive presentation at the next NetIKX meeting, Social KM expert Rooven Pakkiri, will discuss how we can transform the way we engage in our work, with radical strategies based on ‘Social Learning’, ‘Talent Insights’ and ‘Decision Sourcing’.

As we move forward, a key differentiator of successful organisations will be whether and how they are able to leverage in a consistent way the talent and knowledge of their workforces so as to meet their objectives. Companies that are bound by tradition and hierarchy will struggle to compete.

This session will enable us to consider how we fit within this changing environment and how we can continue to learn new skills and remain relevant.

Speaker

Rooven Pakkiri works with clients to deliver sustained adoption strategies for collaboration platforms such as Yammer, Jive and Connections. His focus is on engagement (often through HR) with the business managers in an organisation. Together they design, develop and deploy a highly customised Social KM road map that revolves around the use of the social tool set in order to solve client-specific business/organisation problems or to address current opportunities. Everything Rooven does is led by business/organisation requirements and user adoption and not by the features and functions of the chosen collaboration technology.

A veteran of the dot.com era, Rooven is a digital evangelist who focuses on the way technology changes organisational communication and collaboration. He is an author and regular speaker on the subject of Social Knowledge Management and how it is transforming the corporate rule book. Rooven is also the co-founder of a regular thought leadership event in London at which independent thinkers discuss issues of user adoption and cultural transformation.

As a Social KM consultant, Rooven is responsible for developing client-specific adoption strategies and immersion programs. As part of this process Rooven employs a number of techniques such as  scenario modelling, content seeding, champion identification and community development.

Intended Learning Objectives

  • To be aware of how we fit within the changing organisational environment
  • To learn how to keep our skills relevant in this ever-changing environment
  • To understand how Social Knowledge management can provide answers

Venue

The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS (The nearest London Underground Station is Bond Street)

Registration is at 2.00 pm and the meeting will run from 2.30 pm to 5.00 pm, with a glass of wine and light refreshments to follow until 6.00 pm.

Seminar Costs

If you are a NetIKX Member or join NetIKX when you register, there is no charge.

Non-members are welcome to attend.

Please register at https://www.netikx.org/content/human-capital-last-differentiator-tuesday-19-january-2016.

Athough the normal rate for non-members is £50, there will be discounts available for returning members and others. For further information, please send an email to web[at]netikx.org.

January2015 - Seminar

January 2015 Seminar: Auditing your KIM Skills Gap

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Summary

This was a joint seminar of the Network for Information & Knowledge Exchange and TFPL Connect-ed. The start of the new year is a great time to take stock, reflect on the achievements of the last year and plan your objectives for the upcoming twelve months … The workshop was aimed at anyone with skills … and we all have them!

Auditing your KIM Skills Gap will include:
• How to identify your skills and their value
• What skills are trending in the KIM marketplace
• Marketing your skills
• Making an impact

Included within this session were refreshers on how to write the all-important CV and application form. ‘Making an impact’ presented practical tips on ways to shine at interview – and plenty of time was allowed for questions and lively discussion, helping to facilitate an invaluable environment for learning and development.

Speakers

Jayne Winch has worked with TFPL since 1999 initially as part of the contract team and is now a generalist recruiter handling permanent roles within the areas of Information/Knowledge/Records Management/Research and Insight across the UK for the commercial sector. Jayne also enjoys delivering workshops and presentations on an ad hoc basis both on site for TFPL candidates as well as for external audiences on the topic of CVs, interviews and career options within our specialist field.

Suzanne Wheatley has worked in information recruitment since 2002 and at Sue Hill Recruitment since 2006, where she now manages the knowledge & information management team. She enjoys helping jobseekers progress in their careers and working with employers to find the right person to continue the success of their service offering. An advocate of recognising and utilising your own skills, Suzanne enjoys facilitating workshops and networking, believing that shared personal experiences in the workplace are invaluable for learning and development. She can also be found writing articles, blogs and tweeting.

Time and Venue

2pm on 27th January 2015, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Pre Event Information

It gives both NetIKX and TFPL Connect-ed great pleasure to announce our first joint workshop: Auditing your KIM Skills Gap, followed by drinks, nibbles and networking.
You are warmly invited to attend this practical workshop session run by Jayne Winch from TFPL and Suzanne Wheatley from Sue Hill Recruitment.

Slides

None

Tweets

#netikx71

Blog

None

Study Suggestions

None

March 2014 Seminar: Incentivising knowledge sharing behaviours

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Summary

Steve Dale gave an excellent presentation on the ‘hot topic’ of ‘gamification’. Quite simply, ‘gamification’ is the process of applying game elements to non-game applications using the fundamentals of human psychology to address motivation, ability levels and ‘triggers’.
Steve instanced a number of examples – from a multitude: within the NHS (a gamification app to encourage exercise); within local government (Halton Borough Council puts RFID tags on bins to track correct recycling by households and rewards good practice by awarding points that can be redeemed at local shops); within the market place (Supermarket club cards and loyalty cards).
Steve cautioned against an unthinking approach to adopting ‘gamification’ within an organisation. He emphasised the need to think carefully about organisational culture and to ensure that organisational goals are clear. After Steve’s talk and questions we moved on to syndicate sessions where five groups devised a gamification strategy to achieve an objective within their organisation. We then talked about the strategies.

Speakers

Stephen Dale is the founder and Director of Collabor8now Ltd, an organisation focussed on developing collaborative environments (e.g. Communities of Practice) and the integration of knowledge management tools and processes to support business improvement. He is a KMI certified knowledge manager and the author of several published research papers on collaborative behaviours. Over a 30-year career he has led major change programmes and developed knowledge and learning strategies for clients across public, private and not-for-profit organisations. He is one of three community facilitators for Warwick Business School’s “Knowledge & Innovation Network (KIN)”, a not for profit member organisation committed to developing and sharing best practice.

Time and Venue

2pm on 18 March 2014, The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Pre Event Information

If there is anything on the flier that is not included in the meeting write up, add it here.

Slides

Steve’s presentation was available at: http://www.slideshare.net/

This site does include some Steve Dale slides, but it is not currently being managed.  Contact NetIKX if you want more information

Tweets

#netikx66

Blog

See our blog report: Incentivising knowledge sharing behaviours

Study Suggestions

For more information on Steve Dake go to http://about.me/stephendale
You can also see another write up of this session in the journal “Managing Information” Vol. 21 Issue 2 2014 pp. 26-28. ISSN13520229. by Graham Coult. This is a subscription journal available at http://aslib.com/resources/mi_intro.htm

September 2013 Seminar: Title: The Knowledge Council and the KIM professional

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Summary

Karen took us on a tour of the Knowledge Council’s work so that we were all aware of the latest developments in the Government’s thinking. She encouraged us to be encouraged by the Government’s serious embrace of KIM ideas and practices.

Speakers

Karen McFarlane, Chair of the Government’s Knowledge Council and Government Head of Profession for Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) a Specialist with extensive experience of operating at senior levels as a knowledge and information professional in the UK government sector. She is experienced in: information management; knowledge management; records management – paper and electronic; intranet management; information governance; information risk management; information security; library and Information services.

Time and Venue

September 2013, 2pm The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Slides

No slides available

Tweets

#netikx57

Blog

See our blog report: Embedding knowledge capture & retention
See another excellent blog report: ‘True tacit knowledge can’t be passed on when people leave…’ by Paul J. Corney

January 2013 Seminar: Born digital or Digital native?

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Summary

This meeting was a lively and engaging session. We heard from Karen Blakeman and Graham Coult who spoke about the way technology is changing lives through the perspective of the differences that our individual experience will provide.  The idea that a ‘digital native’ will be confident and well informed about the implications of new technology may be misplaced as understanding is not the same as ‘knowing what to do’. We also heard about research that looked into digital behaviours, noting how widespread the use of social media is now, used by young and old – but perhaps in different ways. As usual, a NetIKX meeting included networking in small group discussions and then lively chat over refreshments.

Speakers

Karen Blakeman is from RBA Information Services. Her talk was called ‘Born digital: time for a rethink’.

Graham Coult is the Editor-in-Chief of Managing Information and expert in ‘Research Behaviours: the evidence base’.

Time and Venue

28 January 2013. 2pm The British Dental Association, 64 Wimpole Street, London W1G 8YS

Slides

These are not available now

Tweets

#netikx59

Blog

See our blog report: Digital native or digital immigrant?

Study Suggestions

Marc Prensky’s paper, ‘Digital natives, Digital Immigrants’, 2001.
For more information about Karen’s work, the RBA website is: http://www.rba.co.uk/