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By Virginia Henry
 These are interesting times for information professionals - and not
just in the proverbial sense.
There's such a lot going on: so many new approaches and
developments, SO much to discuss and to learn about. But where to start?
In its strategy document 'Information matters: building government's
capability in managing knowledge and information' (http://digbig.com/5bbaaq), the
Government's Knowledge Council describes GCHQ's building, designed to
encourage networking and the transfer of knowledge, recognising that personal
interaction is the cornerstone of good knowledge sharing. I'm sure the
five-thousand or so people working there appreciate the
networking opportunities afforded by the doughnut's architecture. But
I'm equally sure theirs isn't a typical working environment. Many
people work alone or in small teams within
organisations, isolated by corporate functional structures or by more
tangible structural impediments. And it's not uncommon for individuals to be so
busy juggling their workload that they barely have time for lunch, let alone a
chat with colleagues about issues on the information horizon!
Outside of the working environment there are a number
of networking opportunities provided by professional associations and
business networking specialists. But, as Stephanie
Peckham pointed out in her November article (http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/share/4339) about
overcoming barriers to networking, it can be truly daunting to
walk into a room full of strangers. It doesn't matter how friendly and
welcoming they turn out to be if that sinking feeling as you walk through
the door stays with you for much of the evening.
Setting the tone
When Marja Kingma, a collections manager at the British
Library, Jennifer Smith, an information professional providing
intranet solutions for small businesses and I set up LIKE, the London
Information & Knowledge Exchange (http://www.likenews.org.uk/),
we thought very carefully about how we wanted people to feel when they walked
through the door at a LIKE event.
We were creating an open forum for the exchange of knowledge and
information. So the following were of vital importance:
- The group should be free to join, and
open to everyone
- The ‘tone' would be informal and
inclusive - no committees or elaborate administrative structure
- The frequency of events should be consistent -
we would meet on the last Thursday of each month
-
The format would be flexible
- we'd host world café-style group discussions, invite guest speakers
to contribute presentations, and organise visits to external events
-
For organising and promoting events we'd use
existing web 2.0 tools: establishing a LIKE Group on Linked In and making use
of Twitter and blogs.
Planning the events
We've been guided in our planning by three rules:
1. Relevance: the topic must be of interest
and value to our members
2. Inclusion: everyone has an equal right
to nominate issues for discussion and to volunteer themselves as
speakers or suggest outside experts they'd like to hear
from
3. Variety: for example, a round-table
exploration of the usefulness of books as information resources was followed by
a visit to the Science Museum for Tim Berners-Lee's
centenary lecture on the history and the future of the World Wide Web.
The approach has worked well. By planning events no more than a couple
of months in advance we are able to respond to issues and developments
affecting our members in their daily working lives. It also leaves us free to
review events that are scheduled by other organisations, such as the RSA
or the Science Museum, and select the best of them for
our members to attend.
Learning from experience
We've learned quite a lot about publicising
our events, exploring issues and stimulating discussion. Most
importantly, we've learned about the needs of our members. During the
summer months it was acceptable to offer a buffet meal. But as
winter closed in something more substantial and
sustaining was required. So for LIKE 8 we
announced "Dinner with Tim Buckley-Owen - a
discussion of the changing information landscape". The prospect of an
excellent speaker and a hot meal was persuasive: seats filled
up very quickly. LIKE 9's dinner and discussion, with Cerys
Hearsey, on the challenges of SharePoint
implementations attracted an even bigger response. As we plan our events
for 2010, we know we may need to start looking for a larger venue. What a great
problem to have!
At the time of writing we have more than a hundred and seventy LIKE
members signed up on LinkedIn. If our steady rate of growth continues, by
the time LIKE celebrates its first birthday there will be more than two
hundred. There are members from the public and private sectors,
from consultancies and charities, universities and professional
associations. The list of job titles includes: Head of Information,
Knowledge Manager, Information Architect, Management Consultant, Librarian,
Head of Content, Taxonomy Manager.
Access to so much experience and knowledge provides us with an
invaluable resource as we plan for future developments of the LIKE network. For
example, in the coming year we aim to build on our after-event reporting and
make more use of our member surveys. And, of course, we'll continue to be
guided by the interests and preferences of members.
We asked those who attended the last meeting of 2009 what they most enjoyed
about the group. These are some of their comments: "I like the relaxed
and informal environment", "the ambience is perfect for
networking", "interesting topics, good speakers, interesting and friendly
people", it's a relaxing and friendly environment in which colleagues can
network and talk honestly about issues that matter".
How to do it
A LIKE member, who'd been able to join us only because
she was in London for
business, was considering toward the end of the evening whether she should set
up a group in Manchester.
I suppose it would be called MIKE. Why not? It'd
be great to have a network of Information & Knowledge Exchange
groups, meeting locally and sharing their experiences globally.
If anyone wanted to start one, here are the ten top tips we'd
offer:
1. Enable everyone to own their involvement by
encouraging and implementing their ideas and engaging them as speakers, panel
members etc
2. Plan the details: a comfortable
environment, the correct amount of light (not too bright), air (a comfortable
temperature, and enough oxygen to go around!) and space (remove furniture if it
gets in the way of people mingling)
3. Cater to peoples' needs by offering a
satisfying choice of food and drink, and scheduling the event to
neither start too early or end too late
4. Be welcoming - make sure you know who is
coming, and meet people as they arrive, introducing new attendees to regulars
5. Publicise the events, sending reminders as
the day approaches
6. Use devices such as questionnaires to focus members'
minds on the topic for consideration, gather material to inform the debate and
provide the speaker, panel or group with an indication of peoples'
interests
7. Follow up on the event by reporting it
on your website or blog
8. Encourage everyone to blog and twitter about
the events
9. Regularly canvas the membership for ideas and
feedback, and let everyone know why you're asking and how you will use what you
learn
10. Enjoy yourself!
By Virginia Henry
Virginia Henry is
a Consultant specialising in Knowledge Management and
Engagement. She's experienced in implementing organisation-wide
knowledge intranets, nurturing communities of practice and ensuring
knowledge management initiatives last longer than their project budgets
and the average implementation team's attention span! Virginia has a
special interest in the role of knowledge management in onboarding and
in training and development. Networking - for learning and enjoyment -
is a favourite pastime and she regularly twitters and blogs about the
events and meetings she's been to http://virginiahenry.wordpress.com/
FUMSI articles by Virginia Henry »
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