What the Bord Bia values mean to me and how I live them? - Mairéad Mc Keown, Manager Knowledge & Critical Capability, Bord Bia

Written by Mairead Mc Keown Snr. Assoc. SALAI HDip LIS CKM CKS CL EAI

Bord Bia’s values serve as a guiding North Star in my role as Manager of the Knowledge & Market Intelligence team at Bord Bia. They set the standard for the behaviour that my team and I practice helping to bring Ireland’s exceptional food, drink, and horticulture to the global stage.

How do I live the values in my role:

We are Connected:

The Knowledge & Market Intelligence team takes great pride in managing THE SOURCE, Bord Bia’s AI-powered knowledge engagement platform, which functions as our primary hub for sharing and uncovering internal insights and knowledge. This is where colleagues are encouraged to connect respectfully and positively to expand their understanding, information skills, and discover social learning opportunities to innovate and excel in their work. We shared ”How Bord Bia/ The Irish Food Board successfully built a culture of insight sharing” at the IFLA (International Federation and Library Associations) WLIC (World Library Information Congress) 2022 Knowledge Management Satellite Conference, with knowledge management peers from across the globe. We are constantly evolving THE SOURCE; this year we are experimenting with communities of practice, FAQs, and new AI tools to foster even greater connectedness among colleagues.

We Champion Sustainability:

We aim to make the UNSDGs (United Sustainable Development Goals) well-known within the Bord Bia library by creating various activities that enable colleagues to act responsibly, learning and working in ways that support both personal and organisational well-being, society, and the planet. We’ve mapped our entire library collection to the UNSDGs and continue to promote them to colleagues and clients, established a UNSDG Conversation Club, developed a sustainability glossary, library guide and directory, published a UNDSG story about how our librarians are helping fill skill gaps in agriculture and food sectors on IFLA’s UNSDG Library Map of the World, and shared our story at a national Library conference. Additionally, we continually seek professional development opportunities to sustain and deepen our knowledge of sustainability—all to foster inclusive and equitable learning opportunities for our colleagues, clients, and library peers.

We are Courageous:

Instead of fearing AI and lagging, we made a conscious and bold decision to learn about it and adapt to unleash the spirit of change in libraries and knowledge centres. We presented the Story of AI at the Bord Bia library at a national conference in March. At the Library, we helped shape Bord Bia’s Gen AI policy, created an AI glossary of useful terminology, and produced a report on the Future of AI in the Food & Drink Industry. We continue to share best practices in prompting and effective communication with AI chatbots. We connect our colleagues to timeless soft skills, empowering our industry to unlock creativity and future-proof skill sets for current and future roles, in a workplace that is more human than ever. Most importantly, we keep experimenting with use cases for AI, reflecting and making sense of it to cultivate a culture of psychological safety and lifelong learning.

We are Driven:

We share the same commitment and passion that we observe from our customers, producers, and farmers. We take pride in our work and celebrate our achievements. Shared learning is a regular agenda item at our weekly team meetings (this includes new skills, emerging insights, manifestations of Bord Bia Cultivate innovation pathways and trends, and much more), and we habitually recognise our big and small victories and surface challenges so we can move forward, harnessing our collective intelligence as One Bord Bia. We know that together, we can achieve greater things.?Our strength lies in our diversity, and we believe that you and me will always be better than you or me.

We are Impactful:

We deliver informed impact for clients and stakeholders by applying insightful thinking and creativity to curate a world-class library collection (handling about 3,000 desk research requests from the industry annually) and create authoritative market insight reports and templates that help our clients recognise opportunities and keep abreast of trends and developments in a rapidly changing world. We take time to learn from our work, striving for continuous improvement to constantly adapt. This year we developed our Performance and Prospects dashboard to make it even easier for colleagues and clients to generate smart trade data insights. We share our skills in knowing to best use information so that our colleagues and Talent academy can use insight to deliver maximum business value. Ultimately, we help save the industry time, inform decision-making, reduce uncertainty, and highlight opportunities that contribute to the success of Irish food and drink.

We are Grounded:

We implement a programme of strategically aligned activities that keep us grounded to Bord Bia’s purpose. We show up every day to champion our clients, the producers, and growers of Irish food and drink because their success is our success. We love the work we do, and the work we do shines brighter for it. We are lifelong learners, aware that our abilities are not fixed and as a result we are always ready to grow and adapt in delivering our purpose..

The Bord Bia values are a guiding North Star in my role as Manager of the Knowledge & Market Intelligence team at Bord Bia. They set the standard for the behaviour that my team and I practice helping to bring Ireland’s exceptional food, drink, and horticulture to the global stage.

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Picture at top of article (left to right): The Knowledge & Market Intelligence Team at Bord Bia - Mairéad Mc Keown, Manager, Knowledge & Critical Capability, Amy Bond – Assistant Librarian & Information Specialist, John Tobin – Data & Market Intelligence Specialist, Lauren Sneyd – Assistant Librarian & Information Specialist