My name is Leanne and I have a bad case of Imposter Syndrome.

Way back when (October 2017) I was having a brilliant time learning about “Demonstrating Impact in 5 Easy Steps” at one of the workshops run by Tracey and Victoria. I was already part of the MAP Community of Practice but I wanted to know more about impact.

Fast forward to January 2019 and due to Victoria having other commitments, Tracey asked if any other MAPpers would be interested in co-delivering the Impact workshop at the NHS Wales Library Service Partnership Conference. I was in the middle of a very supportive and fabulous mentoring contract and my mentor was making me believe  I could do anything…….  So I said “ yes of course, that sounds an amazing opportunity” . I couldn’t even blame the heat as it was winter. Jason, a fellow MAPper for whom this was also their first impact workshop to facilitate at, also got on board.

At our annual MAP face to face meeting, the NHS Wales Library Service Partnership Conference was one of the items on our agenda and we discussed how to edit the session to fit into our session slot. Tracey and Victoria have delivered the workshop in various formats over the years so together we were able to have an outline for the presentation by the end of the meeting. Sadly, one of the best changes ended up being left out as we couldn’t fit in any references to The Smiths based around the workshop ethos of “What difference does it make” However, I hope that reading it now gives you the earworm to move forward with your impact thoughts. As an aside, this also led to us having an 80’s music interlude.

Tracey, Jason and I pulled the session together over various conference calls and allocated sections of the presentation to each of us,. By this time, I was feeling a bit apprehensive as I really didn’t want to let any of the MAP team down nor ruin Tracey and Victoria’s, fabulous work and reputations. What had I done? What was I thinking to volunteer for this???

Tracey and I met up the night before the conference and had a run though and I started to look forward to the workshop and feel more positive about presenting. That I could do it and that it would be ok. I’d like to thank Tracey and Jason for making it the whole experience so fabulous.

On arriving at the conference Meg (conference organiser) had a “thank you” card and chocolates for us and we were made very welcome. Our session was in the afternoon so we had the morning to enjoy sessions from Tina Donnelly, RCN Wales Director and David Stewart, CILIP President.

And then, after a lovely dinner it was time to deliver “How to demonstrate impact in 5 easy steps”.  Tracey opened the session and off we went.  It was such a fantastic experience and I really, really enjoyed it. Everyone was super engaged and the room was buzzing with enthusiasm. The appetite for impact was demonstrated (see what I did there?) in the feedback that Meg circulated afterwards, it looked like everyone else enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you.

So yes…. Revalidation this year has certainly become a lot easier thanks to this experience and the learning and reflection that went with it..

I’d also like to add that being a MAPper has certainly helped my networking and opened up lots of opportunities for me so please do get in touch if you’d like to join the Merry band of MAPpers!