Knowledge Cafés at PSMA Australia Using the Knowledge Café process to run a Knowledge Management Forum

This is a story written by Alison Jones, a Knowledge Manager at PSMA Australia, in which she explains how she adapted the Knowledge Café process to run a Knowledge Management forum.

In 2019, I joined PSMA Australia as its inaugural Knowledge Manager. PSMA is a trusted source of accessible location data. In the data-driven economy, our data powers new products and processes; improves productivity, and stimulates economic growth. We help create connections between people and places by providing fundamental infrastructure for a digital world. One of my first initiatives was to set up a Knowledge Management Forum.

The criteria for joining the Forum is simply a passion for knowledge management. The current purpose of the Forum is to provide

• input into,
• raise awareness of,
• and identify desirable changes

to all elements of the Knowledge Management Program, especially those elements requiring participation and understanding across the enterprise.

We have about 12 people participating from diverse areas within PSMA. No members, apart from myself, are experts in Knowledge Management. It also consists of a variety of personalities. Some are forthright in their opinions. Others would hesitate to advocate their viewpoint.

The Forum is not meant to be a space where debate and voting ensure one viewpoint prevails. Instead, it is a space where, as was said at our first gathering, we can express what we know is true in our everyday work for us and our immediate colleagues. By sharing with and learning from other colleagues at the Forum, it was hoped that we could come to an understanding of how Knowledge Management will work best within the context of PSMA Australia.

To achieve this, I suggested that we use a World Café/Knowledge Café approach (it is a hybrid of the two!) Rather than an agenda, we would use a critical question. Rather than debating and voting, we would have a conversation in small groups for two or three rounds on the subject and write or draw as we wished on butcher’s paper during that conversation.

Members would also be invited to contribute one key idea out of the meeting on a post-it note at the end of the session. The writing, drawings, and key ideas would be the outcomes of the meeting.

Our Forum’s first meeting was in July 2019, and we have met monthly since that time.

Our discussions have included:

• What difference will it make if we share our knowledge at PSMA Australia
• How do we make space for knowledge management at PSMA Australia
• What needs to change corporately and personally for there to be enough time to manage our knowledge well at PSMA Australia?
• What needs to change to convince PSMA staff to engage with managing our knowledge so that it becomes business as usual?

We also used the Café approach to review the Forum’s operations, which proved an honest and open way of considering how we are working together.

Successes of the Forum

The Forum has succeeded spectacularly in generating ideas around how we can best manage knowledge at PSMA Australia. I can quickly implement some ideas as Knowledge Manager; for example, using visualization to communicate knowledge management issues across the organisation better.

It has also increased the understanding of Forum members around knowledge management. Some Forum members are using knowledge gained within the Forum to take the lead in managing knowledge within their immediate workplace; for example, through designing SharePoint sites suitable for their teams. Offering a weekly Knowledge Clinic, which anyone can attend to ask anything about knowledge management, has proved to be another excellent way of increasing staff understanding of and capability in knowledge management.

Members expressly enjoy the Café approach to the Forum, which has been recognized as an innovative approach to holding meetings by senior leadership within PSMA. The Café approach has also helped to keep up enthusiasm and momentum for the Forum amongst members.

Going forward

The main issue for the Forum has been the question of what role the Forum might have in the organisation into the future.

Additionally, we are finding that similar ideas come up in multiple meetings without these ideas resulting in changes within the organisation.

To overcome such issues, we are considering:

Our purpose: The original purpose of the Forum was deliberately focussed on generating ideas, which was a successful way of kicking off a new gathering of people who were not experts in knowledge management. With their increased confidence in their capabilities around knowledge management, we are considering whether Forum members become knowledge champions in the organisation. This would significantly shift the purpose of the Forum to primarily one of empowering, supporting, and upskilling our knowledge champions.

Our questions: We have found it tricky to use the Café method as we have implemented it to come to decisions when required. One way to address this might be to sometimes use the “Three reaction questions” approach, where a proposal for a way forward is put to the Forum, which then discusses, Café style, what they like about the proposal, what further information they need and where they have concerns. (See: Getting More Done in Meetings: Structuring Effective Conversations for Decision-Making)

Our membership: While we do not want to move to a strictly representational membership, we noticed that most of our Forum members were from corporate support teams. Our operational teams who make data usable and create products using that data were not so well represented.

Recognising this, we have deliberately sought out better representation within the Forum from operational teams.

The Café method of meeting has been a great success in starting our Knowledge Management Forum, keeping the momentum going through engaging our staff and especially in generating many ideas about how we can manage knowledge well within PSMA Australia. We intend to continue to use the Café process as we develop the Forum’s purpose and membership and as the Forum becomes more confident to make decisions enabling optimal sharing and managing of our knowledge for PSMA Australia.

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