We knew this as Sparknow often utilizes objects as ‘introduction’ tools. Objects surface interesting stories, subjects, and avenues to explore; they overcome barriers in a group and are valuable icebreakers. We also found objects are catalysts for knowledge transfer and a powerful qualitative research tool.
Read on to learn from the second of our blog postings from the More than Money workshop, this time on our experience of using objects to stimulate discussion.
The participants were Leeds City Museums’ collection staff using their monthly peer meeting to explore new conversations with business through objects in their collections [seen above being recorded with our faithful workshop object the Zoom audiorecorder]. In advance everyone was asked to bring along a picture of an object from his or her collection that had an untold story. The aim: to start new knowledge conversations around familiar objects. This exercise uncovered lovely nuggets of hidden stories, and by asking a participant to listen to another’s object story and then tell this story to the group as a whole, knowledge exchange and varying interpretation of the objects began. We found that even though a couple of people had chosen the same object, the stories around these objects and the object interpretation had differing knowledge takes. One participant introduced an object saying: ‘we all think more or less the same in this place’ but reading the stories below do they?
01 Colleague’s interpretation: ‘I don’t have a picture of this object, you have to imagine it and in fact the story is ‘Why don’t many more of these rocks fall in Britain?’ Keep hold of that as a strapline [laughs all around]. In fact, it is about that big [illustrates by cupping hands over each other to indicate the size and asks Camilla Nichol if it’s correct]. It’s a rock. It’s a meteorite. They fall in great numbers on this planet, but not many are found in this country because they are so innocuous, they disappear into the environment. They are highly sought after and they are situated in the desert areas, because they look so different to their background and can be easily located. They have helicopter trips to go and find them. In some collections there are many, and NASA like these rocks because they subject them to analysis. What’s fascinating is that if you analyze their composition they are exactly the average composition of the earth. In some meteorites, all the elements we find in the Earth’s core are present in these meteorites.
So we are not alone! [laughs all round]But the title of the story of Why don’t these fall in Britain?’ well they actually do but we don’t find them.
Facilitator: and you haven’t been hit by any? [laughs all around]
Initial story holder: exactly, and he told it much better than I did [laughs]
Facilitator question to initial story holder: and was the significance for you?
02 Initial story holder: the significance for me is something I forgot to mention to you [looks at colleague]. You hold a meteorite in your hand and you’ll never hold anything older than that. There is no object on earth that is older than a meteorite. It’s a true piece of history and a piece of the universe.’
03 Colleagues interpretation: ‘Do you believe I’ve also been given the meteorite to talk about. We all think more or less alike in this place [laughs all round]. [My colleague] says he goes into the City Museum and you see this lump of rock and it really doesn’t look like anything in particular. It’s one of those things that could just be anything until you are given a bit of information and you know about it, you are then aware of its immense age. Because neither of us are geologists, we’re wondering how you can tell how old the things are? What exactly are they made of? We’ve been told about that.
We all know about the enormous damage that a meteorite can do, because we’ve all read about the craters that they make. For some reason nobody actually gets hit by one, either they don’t survive or they don’t live to tell the tale. They always seem to be found in deserts. It is in the life on earth gallery in the museum and it’s an object of wonder and that’s why it’s exciting to look at.
We assume that everyone has the same; knowledge; perception; experience of objects that are part and parcel of a person’s working day be it in a museum or a business. People bring their life experience, emotions, knowledge interpretation, interests and working practices. We can see there are differing viewpoints and ways to access knowledge around objects. Understanding this and opening up knowledge thoroughfares through objects enables an organization to see what is actually going on the working life of their employees and strategies, employee engagement plans and new business projects can be developed through reflection; understanding, listening and learning to the stories these objects spawn.
A financial business communications company has recently asked me
How can knowledge work around objects in a museum be the same as or relate to business?
My answer was easier than I thought
Working in the business sector knowledge is created, assembled and curated to be transferred and accessed through many objects: knowledge management systems; conversations; human to human interaction (external and internal); all creating knowledge for the business and real world to access and use. The objects in a museum work the same way; there are many knowledge sources around an object displayed in a museum; a display panel, different human perspectives; archaeologist, curator, historian, administrator, learning, PR and marketing etc. Both the museum and the business worlds are made up of objects of knowledge curated for people to access and use in different ways. Acknowledging this similarity, museums and businesses can open up new conversations through objects and maybe work together in knowledge ways other than a traditional sponsorship partnership.
Whilst visiting Manchester for my University studies, I would meet Mark Gould (Head of Knowledge Management at the law firm Addleshaw Goddard) in the Cornerhouse for a coffee and discuss
how could a law firm use local heritage collections to open up conversations with new or existing clients?
With the advice of a fellow University of Manchester PhD student, Joanne Davies, Schools and Colleges Manager at Manchester Art Gallery who works with objects and their stories everyday, here is how we proposed to answer that question
Image and all quoted text courtesy of: Manchester Art Gallery:
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/permanent-galleries/cis-manchester-gallery/
If we look at the snapshot stories around a meteorite and the worksheet above, we can see that there are differing; view points, knowledge, experiences around objects that can relate to many areas of organizational practice. Objects enable a ‘true piece of history’ to be assembled in ‘real time’, through people’s real life experiences and emotions, a qualitative method which can sit alongside quantitative methodologies in business and organizational research to
- discover current market trends
- investigate client/audience needs
- hold new conversations with new or existing stakeholders and act upon what is heard
- learn not to be reactionary
- listen and reflect in order to put together long-term and effective strategies (employee engagement, marketing and financial strategy etc.)
The story of the object is a powerful one. There is even more hidden material around objects than we thought and we would extend or adapt this in the next More than Money workshop.
The blog to follow: being brought back to life, will conclude this story with knowledge conservations Leeds Museums and Galleries are currently having with business.
Authored by Julie Reynolds
paulcorney
