Bant Breen:
I really want to get into what you’re working on. It seems it brings together both the left brain and the right brain here. So tell me how does this go?
Stephanie Barnes:
Absolutely it does. It’s an idea that I’ve worked on for 10-11 years since 2011. I was at a leadership workshop. And I thought, How do I do this in my day job? And being self-employed it’s a bit difficult to shift focus. But I felt there was a connection with the knowledge management work that I was doing. And there is around innovation, looking at things, and making connections. And so I just kept working on it. And then the pandemic came along, and I jumped over some stuff and the pandemic came along. And people were finally ready to hear and go, “Oh, we need to look at how we’re working and how we’re treating people and how we’re solving problems”. And so the Radical Knowledge Management, which is what I started calling it, in the first months of the pandemic had really taken off. So I’ve published two papers and spoken at some conferences. I got some more coming up this year.
Bant Breen:
So tell me more about this philosophy of Radical Knowledge Management.
Stephanie Barnes:
So it really boils down to, and I always hesitate to say this a little bit, because people might look think I’m a little nuts or a little presumptuous, but I feel like the great ideas come from these types of things. I feel like we’ve been doing it wrong for about 5000 years. We’ve separated creativity in the arts from business and science and said, “No, you know, these are separate things”. And they shouldn’t mix and there’s no integration point, and they keep them separated, and that’s just gotten worse. We’ve just focused on being analytical and rational. And, you know, the accountant in me and the MBA in me, it’s like, “oh, yeah, right, you know, efficient, effective. Yeah, let’s focus on that and optimizing what’s in the books”. But we’ve forgotten that when we optimize what’s in the box, whatever the box is, we’re not actually optimizing the whole system. And so adding creativity is really about optimizing the whole system. And through my research and development of this idea, I sort of discovered almost by accident, that all the best ideas come that way.
Bant Breen:
There is a rush to try to get to some semblance of normality. It all feels very awkward right now. So I feel like it’s almost like I said to a friend of mine, he said it’s every time I have a face-to-face meeting it’s like the first day of school all over again. Well, tell me a little bit about 2022. What are the trends that you’re seeing this year?
Stephanie Barnes:
I’m really excited about 2022. And I feel people have settled into this phase that we’re in. I have published my second paper on radical knowledge management, and people are really excited about that. And so lots of positive feedback and engagement about that. I’m teaching my second class about knowledge managers, which starts in a couple of weeks. And I have projects getting started, the people are ready to embrace a new way of doing things. So if 2022 is looking really good, really busy.
Bant Breen:
Stephanie, it’s been great having you on UNCAGED today. We look forward to talking to you again.
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