IN DEPTH
KM in a Covid-19 crisis: Try selling fluffy to engineers!
Paul Corney reflects on a CILIP’s inaugural virtual KM event and looks at how latest challenges around Covid-19 have been met by the sector. CILIP’s KM event showcased how Knowledge Management has proved to be a core service at a time of crisis.
“IT’S a funny old game Saint” foot- baller Jimmy Greaves once famously said to Ian St John, co-host of the award winning Saint & Greavsie TV show. It became their signature saying and was much used in the late 80’s to describe strange goings on! Sadly, with the arrival of ‘pay per view’ TV, their show was axed as the new broadcast- ers Sky wanted fresh faces to front their future vision of football on TV. I thought of this when preparing for the CILIP event: what will the “new normal” look like and will KM have a prominent role to play or will it, like the Saint & Greavsie show become a thing of the past?
Well, the last three months have been anything but funny for most of us; they’ve certainly been strange and caused many to doubt whether life as we know will ever return to ‘normal’ once the pandemic has passed.
CILIP’s decision to set up a virtual event looking at the role KM is playing in helping organisations to cope in the Covid-19 crisis was a bold move. Some questioned whether it should be pay to attend, others ques- tioned the level of the delegate fee. Few questioned the veracity of doing it. I’ve run many Masterclasses on Virtual (Distributed) Working so I was intrigued to see how quickly speakers and delegates adapted to and interacted in this new format and mightily interested to see if KM is at the centre or periphery of organisational activities.
An array of speakers
The event started (appropriately it seemed) with a focus on Healthcare and the efforts of Health Education England Knowledge Services and ended with personal reflections from a
28 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
member of the Civil Service. In between we heard about Local Government, Financial Services, Utility Sector plus an international perspective from a UN Agency. Well-constructed, it was adroitly chaired by Helene Russell who among other things is Chair of the KIM SIG.
Nuggets:
Good communication is key to engagement. Health librarians and knowledge specialists ensure that decisions are based upon the best available evidence and encourage knowledge to be captured, shared and re-used. Multiple benefits are possible for NHS staff, patients and organisations when they work closely with health librarians and knowledge special- ists. There are many ways to communicate
June-July 2020
Paul J. Corney (@PaulJCorney
paul.corney@knowledgeetal. com) is founder of knowledge et al (
knowlegeetal.com), a UK-based knowledge consultancy. He is President Elect of CILIP, the recipient of the 2019 Walford Award and a member of the BSI KM Standards Committee. Recently nominated as one of the global KM thought leaders*.
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