SO WHAT IS LEARNAPALOOZA?
Learnapalooza is a Kettering Health Network event that is intended to promote the growth and competence of people through sharing knowledge, personal experiences, and innovation in a fun and collaborative way.
How did this whole Learnapalooza thing get started? Interesting story. Check out the interview of Chris Yuppa and Matt Reker below.
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Chris Yuppa’s enthusiasm for the new Learnapalooza program is infectious. In fact, all of the team members on this project working with Chris as the project coordinator, including, volunteers Matt Reker, Natalie Mescher, Doris Ross, Brenda Oliver, Patty Peets, Tom Zink, Donna Jenkins, Kara Carnevale, and Katie Hitzeman, are excited about it. It’s not hard to see why. Learnapalooza is a dynamic new program of learning that will be offered to all IS staffers over the four Fridays in March. It was an idea that came to Chris with Matt Reker’s input, during the Epic upgrade. These 20-40 minute sessions are meant to answer some of the questions everyone has, such as, what does an acronym stand for, where do I find the information I need, or how can I better manage my emails.
The topics are broad and cover different areas of IS. They are Epic related and more general in scope, as well, and are the result of a survey conducted by the team in midDecember. After the subjects of interest were uncovered, the team posted them on the IS SharePoint site and asked for volunteers who are experts and are willing to share their knowledge in a presentation. Presenter Applications have flowed into the team.
“We are excited about the response. So far, there are some twenty submissions from presenters, and even though the deadline for submissions is the 17th of this month, I expect to receive more. This says that people are interested in expanding their understanding of the work done across different teams in IS. We see this kind of knowledge-sharing as being in sync with the new Center of Excellence and LEAN concepts.” Says Chris.
A list of the presentation applications that have been received is on the IS SharePoint site that can be accessed via the IS Only link on the IS Intranet site. Consider this small sampling: “Manage Your Email So It Doesn’t Manage You” offered by Mike Snow, or “How did that get in here? Making life a little easier with Device Integration,” offered by Greg Stanton. There is also a topic called, “What does NOS do?” that was submitted by Patrick Snow. There are presentations being offered on Reporting, the Community Connect program, OneNote, Meaningful Use, and how to use Intelliweb, along with many others.
The theme for the March programs spins around music after the original concept of the Lollapalooza, a music event held annually that brings a variety of musicians together over an extended period. In keeping with that idea, the team is calling the individual programs, Jam Sessions. They are working on a concept of a “Backstage Pass” which will be provided to individuals who want to learn more about a subject matter. “That might mean a one-on-one learning session with a presenter at a later time. We’re still working some of those things out,” says Chris. Later programs will have different themes.
The overall goal is to disperse knowledge that is often only located in single areas. “It really gets to those head-scratching moments we all have. We want to know something, or we encounter something that is new to us but we don’t know where to go to obtain the information we need,” says team member, Matt Reker. “We’re trying to help create a broader understanding of the work throughout the entire division. We think that will help break down barriers between, say the Epic side of IS and the non-Epic side.”
The group envisions the learning sessions to be like an Epic User Group Meeting: informative, interactive, helpful, and even more important, fun. This is peer to peer learning in a relaxed and engaging environment, and the long term vision is to do more of these types of learning sessions throughout the year. Based on the response from the survey and from the number of submissions, there is enough content to continue the program. All of the team members echo the excitement over the response and the possibility of the program continuing.
(Published in the IS Express Newsletter, January 24, 2013, by Grace Curtis & Kara Carnevale)