Shawn Callahan, International Knowledge Management Expert
Director - Anecdote Pty Ltd
Shawn Callahan is the Founding Director of Anecdote Pty Ltd. Regarded as a world leader in the practical applications of business narrative, communities of practice, complexity theory and knowledge management, Shawn often speaks at conferences or internal meetings. Before Anecdote Shawn was the knowledge-management practice leader for IBM Australia and regional leader of IBM’s Cynefin Centre. He has spent the last 15 years working as a consultant and researcher and has undertaken a wide variety of projects—including community-of-practice development, knowledge-mapping, knowledge strategy, and using narrative techniques
to tackle seemingly intractable issues such as trust, cash economy, and workplace safety. In 1999 Shawn co-founded the ACT Knowledge Management Forum (now known as ActKM), an international community of practice for knowledge management in the public sector, and helped to develop the group from eight members to more than a thousand. Shawn is currently working on a new community project with a small group interested in applying complexity theory to management practices.

Robyn Ciuro, Narrative Specialist
Anecdote Pty Ltd
Robyn Ciuro is a narrative specialist at Anecdote Pty Ltd. Her professional career began with telling stories to six and seven year
olds in a Grade One class at Cambridge Street Primary School in Collingwood. It was after leaving teaching to raise a family that
Robyn began to not only understand the concept of lifelong learning but  actively put it into practice, upgrading her education on a regular basis until bringing her broad and eclectic skills to the world of Information Technology and Human Resources. Along the
way she has become most interested in how people in organisations have the capacity to change.  She uses business narrative
and stories to enhance different perspectives on the way things might be working, develop interventions that address the issues uncovered and help people learn through the experiences of others.

Session Overview - Case study, how to & skills based
This joint presentation introduces business narrative and the Most Significant Change technique as a way of enhancing informal learning in organisations. The presenters have used these techniques across a variety of projects as a way to help individuals
learn in non-traditional ways while contributing to the development of organisational knowledge. The presenters will show how
the practical application of these techniques helped a large government department develop a program assisting new Aboriginal
staff to develop the knowledge and skills needed to address particular issues they might face after starting work in the department with the ultimate goal of improving aboriginal staff retention rates. Shawn and Robyn knew from the outset that they would have to contend with difficulties related to the intense politics but focussed on getting as many people who had a say involved in the project encouraging the group to use what they had learned to come to their own conclusions about what needed to be done next.

Key Outcomes
- Better understanding of the context, value and importance of using narrative to help organizational learning
- Practical and useful techniques to encourage informal learning
- Knowing how to use people’s stories to design learning interventions
- Understanding the link between learning and retention

Key Competencies
- Design learning that adds value
- Create learning leaders
- Deliver on-demand  learning
- Create passionate learners
- Deliver strategic learning outcomes