07 May 2008

Enhancing Information and Knowledge Sharing as a tool for project sustainability

Starting his presentation, Mr Ram, who made a very interactive presentation, first asked the question “at what age or period does one starts communicating?” The participants gave various answers to his question. Some said the child starts communicating right from the first day he is born; others said the baby starts communicating from the womb whiles others said communication begins even with a foetus.

Mr Ram stated that it was scientifically proven that the foetus communicates with his mother. He said the baby can recognize his mother even in a group of mothers due to the trust built between them. The presenter then attributes the baby scenario to an organization that develops trust among its workers. He said without trust no organization can work efficiently. He noted that often time organizations forget the social aspect of their workers and always concentrate on work saying socialization of workers is important as it promotes collaboration in discharging duties and strengthens organization and individual workers. He said communication shapes the entire lives of all. 

Mr Ram talked about the process, contest and media used in communication in an organization to shape the firm and individual workers, which was followed by a question on the objectives of communication in an organization. The participants answered in various forms such as; share ideas, to solve problems, to give feedback, to seek information, to give direction, to improve quality of work and to impart knowledge among others. Mr Ram applauded the answers given by the participants and said all are geared toward improving an organization but often times workers forget about one essential issue which goes a long way to ensuring efficiency of work in an organization or network and mentioned socialization which is based on trust.

Mr Ram then narrowed the presentation on the northern node and said the success of the network depends largely on trust among members and said since a problem shared is half solved, the network would be more efficient in resolving its challenges if members share their challenges regularly. 

Furtherance to that, he asked what the challenges of the network are. In response, Mr Dery of PEPS-C mentioned the fear of being misunderstood by members and one’s inability to convey his message the right way as a great challenge and related it to natural human differences.

Madam Patricia of WADEP said a great challenge as taking advantage of the trust one has to betray another by divulging information that is meant to be confidential and for the consumption of only the parties involved.

Mr Ram noted that in most cases the parties do not state whether the shared information should be kept in confidence hence the situation.

Mr Obed also talked about lack of interest as a disincentive to sharing and receiving of information. Mr Ram corroborated the issue and said interest encourages sharing of information and added that because one has no interest it is difficult to carry his or her message across.

Mr Dery of PEPS-C said another challenge to communication is lack of feedback. Mr Bala of MAPRONET expressed worry about vertical communication within an organization where the authority dominates the communication and dictates the flow of the information. Mr. Ram said the other way round is horizontal communication which according to him helps in sharing of ideas by all members in an organization and especially among members of the network.

Mr. Ram spelt out various ways of communication by animals like monkeys but said they are not able to improve it as compared to humans who are evolving and developing up-to-date channels of communication and mentioned computers, internet, etc as a great evolution of humanity.


Mr Ram then mentioned the channels of communication and stated that in developing countries, equipment are expensive hence serves as a great challenge to sharing information. He said developing countries now have the opportunity to move at a fast pace since the necessary facilities for sharing information like computers, telephones etc have already been invented and developed but he quickly bemoaned the situation where developing countries have been turned into dumping ground and consume everything that come to them hook line and sinker. He said it is about time developing countries especially Africa and more importantly Ghana started being “producers” instead of “consumers” of the equipment to satisfy their own situation.

The participants lamented over the misuse of facilities like telephone, the computer, photocopier among other things as a great challenge to the individual organizations in the network. According to Mr. Dery in some instances workers invite outsiders to use the facility to the detriment of the organization.

There were various contributions to the issue and as a way of addressing the challenge the participants urged members to place such facilities at strategic location where all workers could freely have access to them since in most cases they are placed at a place that workers find it difficult to access.

Mr. Dery shared his outfit’s experience with the members and said history of all phone calls are taken as a means of ensuring accountability in the organization.

Mr. Mohammed of SEND Foundation also told the members that workers in his office have codes with which they make their calls and are responsible and accountable for them. The participants applauded and some hoped to inculcate in their outfits.

Mr Ram advised members to always educate and update members on new facility saying it encourages the workers to use them effectively and improves efficiency at work places.
Mr Ram asked members the channels of communication in the network and strategies to adopt for effective communication among members.
Mr Stephen mentioned the Google group as the channel of communication for members which he said was intended to metamorphose into d-group but lamented over the current structure of communication among members, which he said is no longer helping and advocated devising of other appropriate means since not all members are connected to the internet thus making sharing of information very challenging.
The second presentation was on Professional and Powerful tools-Emails and Virtual teams/d-groups/communities of practice.
Due to the fact that the first presentation covered almost the two topics, Mr Ram took the participants through virtual teams and communities of practice and their historicity. He outlined virtual teams as network team, parallel team and project team as well as d-group.
Mr Ram asked whether the d-group is moderated which Mr Stephen answered in the affirmative and said it is done by making sure information is checked before being put online. Mr Ram noted that as a virtual group the network need to set standards for itself whiles noting competence, strength and weakness of members. He said challenges of virtual group is misunderstanding especially when working in different cultures
Recommendations, Hindrances and the Way Forward

Mr Mohammed said there was the need to first identify the actual channel and process of communication among members before tackling them or devising new ways. He attributed inefficient communication among members to lack of knowledge about the objectives of the project node. He advised that new members should be introduced to other network members to enhance communication.

Madam Patricia said in order to bridge the knowledge gap between the old and the new members, there is the need for old members to share their knowledge and best practices with the new members so as to improve their work which Stephen said is the main essence of the formulation of the Projects Node.

Mr. Dery said a major impediment to communication among members is the high state at which members communicate and called on all to come down to a level that all would understand the issues and contribute to them.
Mr. Ram then urged members to be more opened to share individual organization’s challenges in order to attract solution from network members. He advised the network to have a data base, leaflet, internet, etc where everybody can have access.

Mr. Mohammed urged members to have a clear focus on one issue and address it and said it is better to identify a challenging issue and address it rather than having myriads of meetings without achieving any result.
Participants mentioned that the node was doing very little to address their project problems and to move them forward.

Madam Patricia stated that the very first node meeting held last year at CITRED helped her a lot as her outfit is leaving no stone unturned to connect internet facility. She said the ideas shared at the meeting has motivated her and lamented over the fact that her funding is woefully inadequate to carry out WADEPS’s programs.
In view of the concern raised by Madam Patricia with respect to funding, Mr Ram urged members to explore other areas since one source could thwart their efforts.

Members also advocated IICD to do more in capacity building for members so as to be abreast of modernism.
In response, Mr Stephen said permanent training partners is being sought after and seriously being looked at. Nonetheless, members lamented over IICD’s delay and hoped that IICD would hasten the process.
Also as a way forward Mr Stephen advised members to always acknowledge receipt of emails and give feedback to allow for continuous flow of information since lack of feedback terminates communication.
Madam Patricia of WADEP said for the network to be a more viable learning ground for members to develop, it has to do more in its networking by recognizing the imbalances among member organizations. She called for exchange visits to “developed” project sites and offices in order to replicate the experience in individual project.
The participants resolved to visit SEND Foundation’s ECAMIC project during 2nd Northern Node Project meeting as part of sharing experiences and learning from one another.