Robert Parent - Episode 18 CCL KM Podcast

Bonnie Zink http://bonniezink.com/ @bonniezink In her words: As a corporate writer, I produce a wide range of materials for individuals and organizations in the academic, public, private, and nonprofit sectors. I counsel clients in determining how a message is packaged, which is just as important as the message itself. As a knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) professional, I strategize and implement comprehensive and integrated KTE strategies to aid researchers, policy and decision makers, and community organizations create the connections that matter. I help clients deliver research evidence into the hands of those who possess the power to affect positive and significant social change. As an editor, I ensure consistency and clarity while preventing embarrassing errors, such as grammatical missteps and punctuation mistakes, from reaching your audience. I specialize in bringing prewritten work to a polished and publishable state. As a writer/researcher, I pair key messages with appropriate and effective communication and filter the results through a diverse and versatile background to provide a memorable experience. My research and writing skills are highlighted regularly in both print and online publications, which are circulated to academic, public, and private audiences.

Welcome to episode twenty of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Paul McDowall is at the centre of the conversation about Knowledge Management in the Government of Canada. While he is understated, he has been a central figure in creating a more sharing and collaborative environment for those trying to work across silos and institutional barriers. Now at the Canada School of the Public Service, he shares his views about the need to re-engineer leadership, of the need for longer-term vision, of co-creating the workplaces that serve the citizens of Canada. He believes that the principal purpose of the Government of Canada is to serve Canadians. I was impressed by the results obtained from using communities of practice. I was also somewhat disheartened by the fact that change may not happen until the issues are urgent and pressing. I appreciated Paul’s wisdom and openness and I hope you do also.

Welcome to episode nineteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Dr. Kirsten Kramar is one of Canada’s leading criminologists. She explores very difficult issues like infanticide and improper use of power, such as happened with the Ontario Coroner’s fabrication of evidence. She takes her role as a disseminator of knowledge and teacher very seriously, yet she feels that more could be done to support knowledge mobilization. This interview was conduced both in Ottawa and over the phone from Toronto. (Her infant daughter – Evie – was with Kirsten and she decided that her mother should pay more attention to her.) Canada has great infrastructure to produce research information but more can be done to support exchanges between sectors – perhaps via the use of knowledge brokers, perhaps through changes in culture, perhaps through teaching students to be better knowledge consumers. Enjoy this fascinating conversation of one academic’s journey to make her work more available for decision-making.

Welcome to episode eighteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Dr. Robert Parent leads an exciting initiative at the Université de Sherbrooke: the Knowledge Transfer Research Laboratory. His comments about “second order knowledge transfer” should be considered very pertinent to those helping to create the conditions that will lead to sustained, trusting relationships necessary to ongoing learning and knowledge exchange. There is plenty that can be learned from sharing ideas across sectors and disciplines. Competitive advantage is not just something that is reserved for business; becoming better at the core functions of any organization or institution should be everyone’s concern, just as knowledge exchange is everyone’s responsibility. There are great challenges but there are also great rewards. Enjoy.

Welcome to episode seventeen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Daryl Rock has been a force for knowledge exchange and community development for almost two decades. His work at the Canadian Council on Learning has been breaking new ground and creating the conditions that enable individuals and groups to come together to build new value and understanding of complex and emerging issues. Although Daryl now lives in Vancouver, this interview took place in Ottawa – a city that he feels very much at home in. His focus of bringing people together for mutual benefit has created numerous long-term productive relationships that have benefited communities, institutions, and government agencies across areas of interest. The idea that knowledge exchange involves a “chemical reaction” is an important one – it’s not just putting all the ingredients together and hoping something happens; they have to come together in the right way, with the right conditions. I think there are some tasty ideas here – enjoy.

Welcome to episode sixteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Dr. Ray Deonandan is a scientist, thinker, teacher, novelist, and explorer. Not fitting easily into any one discipline or structure, he spans the boundaries between several worlds and shares lessons between each – perhaps an archetype of the knowledge broker that is emerging as a defined role in many organizations. The conversation we had in Ottawa was profound and humorous, focused and expansive; much like Ray’s approach to his work. I think you will appreciate his grounded examples and his ability to link difficult concepts to stories. Human history is grounded in storytelling, so is knowledge exchange. Sit back and enjoy a fun ride.

Welcome to episode fifteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Dr. Beth Savan is a world renowned leader in the practice of environmental sustainability. While the topic of the environment is much discussed by many, if not most, Canadians, Beth has spent the last 25 years actually doing something about these issues. The examples she gives of projects from the University of Toronto, are now having wider effects on other institutions, and more importantly on the generation of students currently going through a transformative period in their lives. One lesson I pulled from our conversation, is that knowledge exchange happens in many forms; most powerfully however, in face-to-face learning that is also supported by web-accessible information and institutional enablers. I was inspired and hopeful after this interview. I hope that you are too.

Welcome to episode fourteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. Khan Rahi is a well known community activist and researcher. He works with some of the most vulnerable people in Canada’s largest city. His use of research evidence to support the development and implementation of practices and policies is a great example of how evidence supports political changes and community improvements. The use of multiple modes of communication and the need for people to carry messages through oral channels is a reminder that, even with the growing trend towards technology, people still look to each other for knowledge and leadership. Although there is lots of background noise in the restaurant where we met, I think there is a strong signal coming from Khan; let’s be transparent, clear, blunt about the issues we are dealing with and then let’s work together to implement solutions. That is really what knowledge exchange is about – isn’t it?

Welcome to episode thirteen of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. The conversation that I had with Eimear O’Neill was quite different from many in this series. Eimear is a psychotherapist, thinker and mobilizer, who is busy helping to create a culture and context that supports transformative life-long learning that leads to a “One World Community”. Her perspectives and energy are quite amazing; you come to see that indeed all things are connected but you then ask yourself, how then do we keep creating differences and divisions? I appreciated her comment that leadership is for the task and from the middle. I agree that we are never totally free; but rather that we are bound to each other and responsible for the well-being of all. I share her hopefulness of the growing connectedness assisted by technology. Perhaps this shall enable us to be more collaborative and creative as we learn – together. Enjoy.

Welcome to episode twelve of the Knowledge Exchange Podcast. This podcast series is a product supported by the Canadian Council on Learning – Canada’s leading organization committed to improving learning across Canada and in all walks of life. I want to thank the great staff at CCL for their efforts with this project to advance our understanding of effective knowledge exchange to improve the learning of Canadians. You can download this episode, as well as one of the seventeen future episodes in the series from my website or from iTunes directly, just search for KM podcast. The transcript may be downloaded here. My conversation with Billie Allan revealed some very important ideas about knowledge exchange that had not emerged in previous interviews. Her thoughts about bringing various forms of knowledge together and the challenges this entails, the results that can be derived by mandating the inclusion of alternative perspectives, the limits of what one individual can bring to and represent in a complex learning environment, and how the way we are with people in using evidence has as much impact if not more than the methods we use to create evidence, were all very important and powerful comments. However, I was most struck by the wonderful example of life-long learning she gives near the end of our conversation. I hope it touches you as much as it touched me.