seemingly unsurmountable problems. I think this will influence how we work better in the future.
The net result was stronger relation- ships to support the incredible amount of change that was necessary to ensure delivery. This change was organisa- tional, but also individual, with, for example, rigorous respect of health protocols and always erring on the side of precaution.
One aspect of this worth mentioning is the critical importance of communicat- ing horizontally and vertically, openly, transparently, and continually. I think our Games delivery leadership did this incredibly well, and there are many lessons there too.
Andwhatelsedidyoudiscover thatwouldberelevantforthe CILIP
community?
Chris – One interesting project we have developed, working closely with our Olympic Studies Centre (OSC)2
, is what
we are referring to as an institutional memory of the Covid experience. By interviewing key actors in the pro- cess to develop solutions to allow the Games to go ahead in a pandemic, we aim to preserve, safeguard and archive an unprecedented situation. We will essentially create a blueprint for the IOC and future Games editions, looking carefully and various countermeasures, processes and scenarios, in case another such delivery threat emerges. This has been a fascinating process as the Covid impact has evolved in many unexpected ways and the learnings are considera- ble. We hope to use such experiences to produce a comprehensive case study for the public record in due course. Many will have experienced the acceleration of hybrid working that Covid provoked. The IOC was no exception. We had the huge adoption of many tools and were happily well set up in advance to exploit these tools. We remained very effective and productive, despite being all home-based for a long period. We’re moving into a hybrid rhythm now, but I’m not sure we’ll ever quite go back to the previous norm.
DidtheIOC/IKLinvestinany specific
innovationsthatenabled
youtodelivertheGames?Ifso, whatandhowdidit/theyhelp? Chris – Several, but I’ll mention one specifically. Many experiential learn- ing opportunities were not possible in Tokyo and that will be the same in Beijing. We did, and will deliver again, an observation programme, but heavily reduced. To compensate for this, we have increased our work on virtual 360 camera-based tools that allow people to still visualise key locations, efficiently
December 2021
capture lessons, analyse them, and gen- erally get some learning done remotely. The technology allows us to see spaces in various states of evolution as the Games approach. Kind of a virtual time machine for key Games job sites. The benefits extend to a reduction in cost, time and carbon. There will be a lot more of this in the coming Games.
I think perhaps this is taking us closer to engines that will allow cost-effective development of an artificial but scaled and realistic 3D landscape for any given host city. And the really exciting thing from my perspective is the placement of knowledge assets in the right context and space in this virtual environment, plus many VR training opportunities. Currently, these kinds of solutions are cost-and time-pro- hibitive for a specific Games edition, but things are evolving quickly.
NowthatTokyo2020isover,what new learnings might you expect fromthesecondGamestobeheld during the Pandemic, in Beijing in February? Chris – I think it will be more of the same, but who knows? The really tricky thing is expecting and planning for the unexpected or unknown, especially given an entirely different cultural context in Beijing. The trick, I think, is to equip leaders with the right potential scenarios, and to link those scenarios with executive decision-making processes and relevant levels of delegation. This in a nutshell is the highly effective Playbook approach developed by our Games delivery leader- ship. It’s worth having a look at the Playbooks, they are very interesting knowledge artefacts in their own right3
.
We will operate within the Playbook constraints again in Beijing and take a formal, structured approach to making the various scenarios actionable in our own context – for example, delivering the observer programme, or conducting data capture. And above all, of course, respect- ing the health and safety imperatives.
Paul – I’ve watched the development of the IOC’s knowledge and learning capability over the last decade with great admiration. Underpinned by information management and data analytics, it has become one of the “go to” examples I use when describing what effective knowledge transfer looks like. I find it compelling that their current strategy is organised into four portfolio projects:
l Data and Analytics (DA) is about meas- urement and insights.
l Information Management (IM) is about structure and standards
l Knowledge Development (KD) is all about contextualising content to support learning
l Games Learning (GL) is about developing capability
When Chris Collison and I were working on their contribution to our “KM Cook- book”, what struck both of us was how aligned their activities are with the ISO KM Standards 30401 and specifically the clarity of its mission.
“Our mission is to promote and stimulate both innovative and integrated learning in the delivery of the Olympic Games”
Over the past year in these Presidential Musings pieces, I have called upon a wide range of people in different disciplines to share thoughts and ideas on topics that I thought might be of interest.
My sincere thanks to: Patricia Eng and Carol Aldridge, Martin White and James Robertson, James Macfarlane, Kate Thompson, Mike Wall, Luis Suarez, Neil Usher and Rob Cottrill and, of course, Chris Payne, for giving their time and sharing their thoughts.
I hope you have enjoyed reading them as much as I have working on them. IP
About Chris
“I’ve been working in the Olympic world for many years, notably spending nine years end-to-end with London 2012, before moving to the IOC a year later. We currently run 43 information, knowledge and learning initiatives, and are always looking forward to the next evolution. We have already started with Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032, laying knowledge foun- dations. My current mild obsessions are finding ways to do cost- effective natural language processing of unstructured data, and really exploit- ing the potential of hypertext as a tool for thought and knowledge exchange. I am married with three children and live in the hills behind Lausanne. In my spare time, I like to get lost exploring the Swiss countryside on my e-bike, always with a spare battery!”
References 1. Olympic Agenda 2020+5 (
olympics.com)
https://bit.ly/2YH2ITC
2. Olympics Study Centre
https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-stud- ies-centre: IKL works very closely with the OSC across numerous initiatives. The OSC is the public-facing knowl- edge and research unit of the IOC’s Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage, linked to The Olympic Museum.
3. Beijing 2022 Playbooks
https://olympics.com/ioc/bei- jing-2022-playbooks
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