Information Outlook, Vol. 6, No. 2, February 2001
New Management for the New Information Workplace by Miriam A. Drake and Guy St. Clair
The events of September 11 and their aftermath have exacerbated uncertainty for people and organizations. The work of information/knowledge services managers is being reassessed and reevaluated in a new context. Some of the traditional management solutions no longer work. A new approach to management is needed, one that involves knowledge generation, sharing, and protection. This approach comes from a top-level view that examines not only the role of information/knowledge professionals in the larger organizational picture, but also that of every other employee, customer, and stakeholder connected with the organization.
Our goal now must be to provide information/knowledge services management that builds on our particular knowledge development and sharing strengths and utilizing these strengths to enhance organizational effectiveness and employee performance.
To meet these unprecedented challenges, SLA has commissioned a new strategic learning event for professionals with current (or future) responsibility for enterprise-wide information/knowledge services management. SLA's new Management Development Academy (to be held in Los Angeles on June 8-9, 2002 in conjunction with the association's annual conference) will be an intensive, two-day work shop focusing on critical management and business issues, the creation of value, and an integrated plan for the provision of knowledge services aligned with corporate goals.
Offering a holistic, integrated, and top-level approach, this learning event will deal with understanding complex business issues, working in a competitive and global environment, and implementing decision-making in an uncertain and ambiguous world. Workshop content recognizes that the emphasis in information/knowledge services management must now reflect a broader, more inclusive operational relationship within the larger enterprise, and to that end, SLA's Management Development Academy looks at such subjects as:
· understanding the larger competitive and external environment
· understanding business issues within the organizational context
· establishing leadership roles for information/knowledge services staff; creating value
· implementing collaborative programs with IT and other staff; establishing trust in the workplace
· disaster planning for insuring the protection of corporate intellectual and archival assets; participation in organizational planning for critical infrastructure protection
· establishing the return on investment for information/knowledge services
· ensuring that people work smarter through information and education; leading the development of strategic (performance-based) learning in the organization
· integrating access and content
· integrating internal and external information
Participants will be challenged to think about information/knowledge services from a corporate perspective. In fact, they will be challenged to think differently about how they learn and how they make decisions as they wrestle with managing information/knowledge services in today's new workplace environment, within the context of the larger company, its customers, and its business.
The workshop will utilize a unique, specially prepared case study. Participants, who will assume the role of chief knowledge officer, will be brought in to work with the chief technology officer to plan and implement the most effective knowledge services and operational structure for the company. They will use the case study, both as a group and in smaller planning teams, to provide a real-world context for the work. At every turn they will be challenged to make decisions that are best for effectiveness and optimal performance of the larger organization. At the end of the two days, each of the planning teams will have created a workable, practical strategy for the delivery of information/knowledge services for the company.
This program has been developed to challenge information/knowledge services managers to think in new ways and to plan and implement services of value in this new and uncertain workplace. SLA's new Management Development Academy is designed to provide them with the tools they need to meet this challenge.
Guy St. Clair is a senior systems analyst, Knowledge Management and Learning, Dynamics Research Corporation, New York, NY. Miriam A. Drake is Professor Emerita, Georgia Institute of Technology. Both Ms. Drake and Mr. St. Clair are past presidents of the Special Libraries Association, and they will be the program leaders for SLA Management Development Academy, Los Angeles, June 8-9, 2002.
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