{"id":12250,"date":"2013-06-26T13:43:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T17:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/researchimpact.ydsinc.ca\/reflections-from-a-brokers-spring-travels-reflexion-dun-courtier-en-tournee-printaniere\/"},"modified":"2021-11-23T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T21:45:20","slug":"reflections-from-a-brokers-spring-travels-reflexion-dun-courtier-en-tournee-printaniere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/researchimpact.ca\/fr\/archive\/reflections-from-a-brokers-spring-travels-reflexion-dun-courtier-en-tournee-printaniere\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections From a Broker’s Spring Travels \/ R\u00e9flexion d\u2019un courtier en tourn\u00e9e printani\u00e8re"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Johnny, RIR-York
\n1 Broker.\u00a0 3 Conferences.\u00a0 5 Flights.\u00a0 10 National Partners.\u00a0 16 days.\u00a0 62 Presentations attended.\u00a0 140 conversations.\u00a0 6334 Kilometers.\u00a0 Being an RIR knowledge broker in the spring\u2026priceless! <\/em>
\n1 courtier. 3 conf\u00e9rences. 5 vols. 10 partenaires nationaux. 16 jours. 62 pr\u00e9sentations \u00e9cout\u00e9es. 140 conversations. 6334 kilom\u00e8tres. \u00catre un courtier de connaissance du RIR au printemps\u2026 \u00e7a n\u2019a pas de prix!<\/em>
\nYes, it\u2019s that time of year, travel season!\u00a0 And the totals above only represent June 1-16 and do not represent RIR\u2019s presence at CAURA\/ACARU<\/a> in Montreal in May.\u00a0 During this 16-day window, I had the pleasure of attending in an RIR national network meeting, the annual Canadian KMb Forum, Congress<\/a>, and the recent CU Expo<\/a>.\u00a0 I am sitting in Corner Brook, NL<\/a> as I write this, the CU Expo only recently formally closed.\u00a0 This year things feel different and I mean that in a very positive way.\u00a0 Each of these events over the past 16 days has provided transformational learning opportunities for me.\u00a0 This reflection piece has provide me pages and pages of notes to look over, business cards to read over and follow up with and chances for me to leverage new knowledge and information to help make me a better knowledge broker.\u00a0 So\u2026 with all that, here are some thoughts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The value of a network \u2013 my bias with regard to RIR is strong; I believe in it and feel invested in it.\u00a0 On June 1 and 2, members of RIR met for informal and formal meetings where we looked at the roles, responsibilities and tasks for our members, both at a Director and Broker (operational) level.\u00a0\u00a0 I will share a takeaway from a CU Expo session on June 14\u00a0about Innovation in Newfoundland<\/a>, where one panelist shared this about collaboration, \u00ab\u00a0You get out of it what you put into it\u201d.\u00a0 That makes me feel encouraged because all participants worked hard to come to some common understanding about what RIR can be, and have self-identified roles to help achieve value for us all.\u00a0 These two days may help propel us on a good trajectory for the next two years!<\/li>\n
  2. Vision \u2013 Peter Levesque<\/a> is President of the Institute for Knowledge Mobilization<\/a> and led the extremely successful 2nd<\/sup> Annual Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum<\/a> in Mississauga, ON.\u00a0 One of the services offered by his Institute is a KMb strategy building session.\u00a0 One item he has shared in this session which really stood out for me is the continuum of KMb planning, from vision, mission, strategy, action, outputs, outcomes and impact (and there are likely others, but this is suffice for now).\u00a0 I am drawn to Peter because he is a visionary and working in the same field he does is a fortunate circumstance for me.\u00a0 However, let me fast forward to today, June 15, 2013, where I had the extreme pleasure of hearing Dr. Vianne Timmons<\/a>, President and Chancellor of University of Regina<\/a>.\u00a0 Dr. Timmons provided one of the most powerful and visionary talks on community-university engagement I have ever heard.\u00a0 The reason for this was her messages of enhanced needs for service and for deep meaningful engagement between university and community.\u00a0 I manage a service unit at York University and take that responsibility seriously, but Dr. Timmons\u2019 messages provided for me passion and renewed commitment to work harder to achieve a statement His Excellency, Governor General David Johsnton<\/a> made, \u201cthis community belongs to this university\u201d.\u00a0 Here, in my work, the takeaway is a clear vision that roots KMb with neighbouring communities enables success by following Peter\u2019s spectrum along to where action can result in positive outcomes and significant impact.\u00a0 Daniele Zanotti<\/a>, CEO of United Way York Region<\/a>, in his keynote talk at the KMb Forum, enlightened me on some of the impacts of the work of York\u2019s KMb Unit<\/a>, impacts I was unaware of until he shared them.\u00a0 At the foundation of my work in knowledge mobilization is a vision, which for me, is rooted in service and meaningful engagement.<\/li>\n
  3. Impact \u2013 RIR partner institution and CU Expo host, Memorial University<\/a> (in fact, four of the five CU Expos have taken place at RIR member institutions) were able to showcase their excellent work in community-university engagement and KMb.\u00a0 Rob Greenwood<\/a>, Executive Director for the Office of Public Engagement<\/a> for Memorial U, and Executive Director of the Harris Centre<\/a> spoke about accountability as an important aspect of transformation in collaborative work.\u00a0 Accountability has developed a negative connotation which is not always necessary.\u00a0 David Phipps<\/a> of York University<\/a> has written that impact is felt at the level of the end user.\u00a0 It is my feeling that in a collaborative model of engagement between universities and communities, there is shared accountability and impact helps to reinforce the desired outcomes, as well as the unanticipated or unexpected outcomes of a collaborative project.\u00a0 This places importance on shared governance, a common vision and activities that are realistic and measurable, and lastly, as Rob stated with such passion, communicate, communicate, communicate!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"MUN<\/a>
    Grenfell Campus, MUN, Corner Brook, NL<\/figcaption><\/figure>
    \nThese are all large and significant takeaways from a busy schedule.\u00a0 And here are a couple more.<\/p>\n