Promoting a Topic Through Ad Hoc Discussion Groups (Forums)
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Dec 1, 2004
- 2 min read
Do you sometimes have a "hot" topic that you urgently want to put on the agenda and bring to all your employees' attention? This happens to everyone. These are typically related to lessons learned, worker safety, procedures, or new guidelines.
But what happens when you're dealing with a large and dispersed workforce? How can you reach employees efficiently and in a short timeframe?
An interesting method for promoting a topic combines local face-to-face discussion meetings with an ad-hoc forum (Discussion group) opened for a limited time (even a few weeks). For example, suppose we want to improve employee safety in the organization. In that case, we will hold several concentrated conferences on the subject in central locations, and in other places (in the country and worldwide), we will discuss the topic in a virtual forum by raising interesting discussions that developed during the conferences.
Stages:
After deciding on a topic and formulating the content to be delivered:
Hold at least one face-to-face conference for a large group of employees where the topic is presented and opportunities for discussions are provided (small discussion groups or public discussion). The conference is recommended to conclude by providing tools for implementing the topic.
Establish at least one virtual forum (Discussion group) on the same topic simultaneously with or immediately after the conference. This forum should present the content delivered at the conference and allow continued discussion or open new discussions.
It is recommended that the discussion group have a moderator who will present topics for discussion and encourage the use of the group.
The forum will be removed after a short period, after verifying the implementation and exhaustion of the topic.
In summary, we usually focus on knowledge sharing for medium—and long-term needs. Still, the same knowledge management tools can equally assist in disseminating knowledge for short-term and ad hoc needs.
Good luck!
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