The Changing Role of Information Professionals: New Opportunities Created by Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business

The Changing Role of Information Professionals: New Opportunities Created by Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business Larry Hawes, Principal SLA Pharma and Health Technology Division Spring Meeting Philadelphia, PA April 12, 2010

Chapter 1: Meet the Main Characters

Chapter 2: Along Came a Spider

What is Enterprise 2.0?: Andrew McAfee “Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms by organizations in pursuit of their goals.” • blogs • wikis • proﬁles • social networking • bookmarking • media sharing • microblogging • activity streams © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 6

What is Enterprise Social Software?: Wikipedia “Enterprise social software (also known as a major component of Enterprise 2.0), comprises social software as used in “enterprise” (business/ commercial) contexts. In contrast to traditional enterprise software, which imposes structure prior to use, enterprise social software tends to encourage use prior to providing structure.” 2000 Documents © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 7

What is Social Business?: My Take Social Business recognizes people as valuable sources of information and knowledge. It supports their efforts to connect, learn from, and work with each other. 2000 2010 Documents People © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 8

Chapter 3: The Plot Thickens

SLA Professional Competencies for Information Professionals Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century Revised edition, June 2003 A. Managing Information Organizations C. Managing Information Services A.4 Contributes effectively to senior management strategies and decisions C.1 Develops and maintains a portfolio of cost-effective, client-valued regarding information applications, tools and technologies, and policies for the information services that are aligned with the strategic directions of the organization. organization and client groups. A.6 Markets information services and products, both formally and informally, C.2 Conducts market research of the information behaviors and problems of through web and physical communication collateral, presentations, publications current and potential client groups to identify concepts for new or enhanced and conversations. information solutions for these groups. Transforms these concepts into customized information products and services. A.7 Gathers the best available evidence to support decisions about the development of new service and products, the modification of current services or C.3 Researches, analyzes and synthesizes information into accurate answers the elimination of services to continually improve the array of information services or actionable information for clients, and ensures that clients have the tools or offered. capabilities to immediately apply these. C.4 Develops and applies appropriate metrics to continually measure the B. Managing Information Resources quality and value of information offerings, and to take appropriate action to ensure each offering’s relevancy within the portfolio. B.2 Builds a dynamic collection of information resources based on a deep understanding of clients’ information needs and their learning, work and/or C.5 Employs evidence-based management to demonstrate the value of and business processes. continually improve information sources and services. B.3 Demonstrates expert knowledge of the content and format of information resources, including the ability to critically evaluate, select and filter them. D. Applying Information Tools & Technologies B.4 Provides access to the best available externally published and internally D.1 Assesses, selects and applies current and emerging information tools and created information resources and deploys content throughout the organization creates information access and delivery solutions using a suite of information access tools. D.4 Maintains current awareness of emerging technologies that may not be B.5 Negotiates the purchase and licensing of needed information products and currently relevant but may become relevant tools of future information resources, services. services or applications B.6 Develops information policies for the organization regarding externally published and internally created information resources and advises on the implementation of these policies. © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 14

SLA Personal Competencies for Information Professionals Personal Competencies Every information professional: - Seeks out challenges and capitalizes on new opportunities - Sees the big picture - Communicates effectively - Presents ideas clearly; negotiates confidently and persuasively - Creates partnerships and alliances - Builds an environment of mutual respect and trust; respects and values diversity - Employs a team approach; recognizes the balance of collaborating, leading and following - Takes calculated risks; shows courage and tenacity when faced with opposition - Demonstrates personal career planning - Thinks creatively and innovatively; seeks new or ‘reinventing’ opportunities - Recognizes the value of professional networking and personal career planning - Remains flexible and positive in a time of continuing change © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 15

Chapter 4: A Tale of Two Practitioners

Story 1: Mary Maida, Medtronic • Librarian, Rosemount Engineering • Information Specialist, Teltech • Principal Information Specialist, Medtronic • Information Solutions Manager, Medtronic © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 18

Story 1: Mary Maida, Medtronic Has always liked working with people. Training experience. Saw Interest in E2.0 & Social Business new potential to locate information and people to answer questions. Job Changes: Intentional or Primarily organic. Gravitated to new opportunities on her own, not pushed by management. Additive to her duties, but a natural extension Organic and not huge additional workload. Changes have been within traditional librarian role. Every new job has Role Duties: Traditional v. New had those core aspects, but with different emphasis. Lit searching, training, website development -- all helped prepare her for social efforts. Already had a great personal network in place before social Community Aspect collaboration tools were introduced, so it was a natural transition to a community facilitator role. Medtronic has 3 leaders of speciﬁc communities (copywrite, information Colleagues Making Similar Moves searchers, "presenting well") that were traditional info pros as well. They also have some people that are leading info-oriented communities. Mary and her colleagues are part of larger innovation efforts at Tie to Corporate Strategy Medtronic. Connect people to share ideas and get to market faster. Work better across geographies and businesses. Focus reporting on active engagement. Traditional metrics: # of visits, Results discussions. Collect and communicate stories. Effort is too new (5 mo.) to have sophisticated metrics or impact assessment in place yet. See your role as being optimal facilitator, not gatekeeper. Make info & Advice knowledge obvious. Bring other knowledge workers together; encourage them to help each other. Others are looking for you to lead. © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 19

Story 2: Jane • Library Assistant • Information Research Professional • Business Integration Analyst Employers have included Bristol-Myers Squibb, McNeil/Ortho, and Princeton University © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 20

Story 2: Jane Started doing surveys and interviews to identify new products Interest in E2.0 & Social Business and services we could offer. Began to realize that Usability and User Experience was becoming more and more important. Job Changes: Intentional or Organic at ﬁrst, then forced. Tried to make Usability a strategic priority, but re-org brought a new manager who didn’t see value. Organic Dedicated group was disbanded. No traditional library work. 50% Usability needs analysis via Role Duties: Traditional v. New surveys, focus groups, interviews. Other 50% is solution UAT and deployment. Community Aspect No formal community facilitation responsibilities. Very few pharmaceutical companies concerned with Usability. Colleagues Making Similar Moves Most colleagues were hesitant to emphasis it too much. Seen by their group as an attempt to become more agile and Tie to Corporate Strategy entrepreneurial, but this was really a stretch for most observers. Corporate emphasis on cost cutting opposed investment here. Results Did not have time to collect metrics. Talk to your users, ask questions, and act on what you learn. Advice Respond by creating solutions for them yourself or, even better, collaborating with them to do so. © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 21

What Can We Learn from These Stories? • Stretch yourself; others are looking for leaders and examples • Reduce personal career risk by gradually adding E2.0 and Social Business activities to your traditional role, not by making an abrupt position change • It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but it can be done • Reuse accepted value messages when describing desired actions and anticipated beneﬁts • Seek and leverage support from others in similar roles outside of your organization © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 22

Chapter 5: Our Hero Leaps into Action

Your Call to Action • Learn what social information sources exist in your organization and engage with them • Add social to your job responsibilities • Be a Community Facilitator; work your existing corporate social network • Tie personal efforts and results to stated business strategy and objectives • Set and monitor progress toward measurable goals for your efforts © 2010 Dow Brook Advisory Services – All Rights Reserved 24

The Changing Role of Information Professionals: New Opportunities Created by Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business

by Larry Hawes on Apr 20, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Embed Views

Statistics

The Changing Role of Information Professionals: New Opportunities Created by Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business — Presentation Transcript

Get analytics right now with SlideShare PRO

An effective way to find out who is viewing your content

Remove ads from all your pages with SlideShare PRO

Your viewers will engage with your content, not ads