NetIKX Knowledge Cafe: "How do you make people share their knowledge?".

Slide 1: How do we make people share their knowledge! Learning, Sharing and Collaboration The Keys to success in the Knowledge based Organization NetIKX 21st November 2007 David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge David Gurteen

Slide 2: How do we make them share their knowledge? David Gurteen

Slide 3: How do we make The Question! them share? • Assumes US and THEM • Assumes THEY need to be MADE to share • Assumes we know better • A better way to phrase the question How do we better work together? Sally, I’d like to talk Sally, I’d like to talk to you about how with you about how you could improve we could better your knowledge work together. sharing. David Gurteen

Slide 4: Work with People – don’t do things to them! Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them. Alfie Kohn David Gurteen

Slide 5: How do we better work together? Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them. Alfie Kohn How do we How do you better work make them together? share? David Gurteen

Slide 6: Knowledge Sharing David Gurteen

Slide 7: Knowledge Sharing • We do not ‘share knowledge’ in the literal meaning of sharing • Not like sharing a cake – Synergistic 2 + 2 = 5 • More about: – Personal Networking – Helping each other – Working together – Collaborating David Gurteen

Slide 8: Knowledge Sharing • Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. • Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about Peter Senge creating learning processes. David Gurteen

Slide 9: Personal Reasons for Sharing • To help other people & to help ourselves • Other people – To get things done – To build relationships so they in turn help us • Ourselves – To get things done – Learning to be gained – Knowledge is perishable – Someone else will make our knowledge productive first David Gurteen

Slide 10: Barriers to Knowledge Sharing 1. A silo mentality 2. Knowledge is power 3. Lack of knowledge sharing processes 4. No time allowed 5. No knowledge sharing by executives 6. Managers do not walk the talk 7. Poor IT systems 8. Lack of encouragement 9. Bureaucracy 10. Resistance to change by managers Karl-Eric Sveiby David Gurteen

Slide 11: Is Sharing Natural? • Some say – sharing is human & comes naturally • Other say – knowledge is power and sharing is not natural David Gurteen

Slide 12: Knowledge Sharing Share your Knowledge Reasons for Sharing • ego • credit to somebody else • money reward • passed over for promotion • guilt • depression • alcoholism Is this really true? • marital breakdown • destitution • die a bum David Gurteen

Slide 13: Do we share? • We ALL help each other to a greater or lesser degree • Within our department • Within our project work • With friends and trusted colleagues • Within our network David Gurteen

Slide 14: Why do we share? • We share because – it is in our interest – we have something to gain • We do not give our knowledge away • We implicitly TRADE things – tangible and intangible • The major barriers to sharing – lack of TIME! – lack of obvious benefit i.e. there is no trade David Gurteen

Slide 15: Trading Knowledge We help people when they approach us for a variety of reasons - tangible & intangible (often implicit): • • we are looking for a new job we need to do our job • • we want them to be indebted we are afraid of the to us consequences if we don’t • • we want to build a potentially we like them useful relationship • we want to look good • they pay us or give us some • we want them to like us other tangible reward • we enjoy it • we are looking for promotion David Gurteen

Slide 16: The trick to sharing more • If we approach someone – help make clear the benefits • If we are being approached – look for the benefits • Especially the learning benefits David Gurteen

Slide 17: Benefit & Time Benefit high low Opportunity for learning/ high no brainer relationship building Time Availability explore/ suggest an low escalate alternative David Gurteen

Slide 18: Summary • Knowledge Sharing is not the same as Information Sharing • Knowledge Sharing is about ‘trading intangibles’! – we need to look for the benefits • Learning is one of the the major benefits David Gurteen

Slide 19: Should organizations reward knowledge sharing? David Gurteen

Slide 20: Here is what Alfie Kohn has to say about rewards For Best Results Forget the Bonus! To the best of my knowledge, no controlled scientific study has ever found a long-term enhancement of the quality of work as a result of any reward system http://www.alfiekohn.org David Gurteen

Slide 21: Rewards Punish • Threats & coercion destroy motivation and so do rewards • Rewards are manipulative • “Do this and you will get that” is not much different to “Do this else here is what will happen to you” • When people do not get the reward they hoped for they feel punished • The more desirable the reward the more demoralizing it is to miss out David Gurteen

Slide 22: Rewards rupture relations • Excellence depends on teamwork • Rewards (especially if scarce) destroy cooperation • Incentive driven employees will not ask for help from their manager when they need it • They will conceal problems from their manager to appear infinitely competent David Gurteen

Slide 23: Rewards ignore reasons • To solve problems people must understand the causes • They ignore the complexities of the problems • Each situation calls for a different response • Rewards tend to blindly promote a single solution David Gurteen

Slide 24: Rewards deter risk-taking • People are less likely to take risks; to explore possibilities; to play hunches • The No. 1 casualty of rewards is creativity David Gurteen

Slide 25: Rewards undermine interest • Loving what you do is a more powerful motivator than any goody including money • Rewards are controlling! • If people focus on getting a reward they tend to feel their work is no longer freely chosen and directed by them • If they have to bribe me to do it - it must be something I don’t want to do! David Gurteen

Slide 26: So what’s the solution? How do we make people share? How do we make people do anything? David Gurteen

Slide 27: Alfie Kohn • Pay people well • Pay people fairly • Then do everything possible to take money (rewards) off people’s minds Incentives, bonuses, pay-for-performance- plans and other reward systems violate this last principle by their very nature! David Gurteen

Slide 28: Bob Buckman Our approach to KM is far more than stick or carrot. We say, "Knowledge Sharing is your job. Do it!" As a reward you may keep your job. David Gurteen

Slide 29: How Children Fail Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them John Holt David Gurteen

Slide 30: Change The only way to change is to change your understanding. Anthony de Mello, Jesuit Priest David Gurteen

Slide 31: Changing People’s Behavior • We cannot change other people's behavior - only they can do that! • Threats, rewards and praise do not work • We don't need to be told what to do. We just need to understand the world better and then we will see what needs to be done for ourselves • So how do we better understand the world? David Gurteen

Slide 32: How do we understand better? Through being involved and through open conversation! David Gurteen

Slide 33: Business is a Conversation David Gurteen

Slide 34: Business is a conversation Business is a conversation because the defining work of business is conversation - literally. And 'knowledge workers' are simply those people whose job consists of having interesting conversations. David Weinberger The Cluetrain Manifesto David Gurteen

Slide 35: Conversation is a meeting of minds Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards. Theodore Zeldin Conversation David Gurteen

Slide 36: KM is about understanding For all our knowledge, we have no idea what we're talking about. We don't understand what's going on in our business, our market, and our world. KM shouldn’t be about helping us to know more. It should be about helping us to understand. So, how do we understand things? It's through stories that we understand how the world works. David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto David Gurteen

Slide 37: Conversation “A mechanistic and Debate unproductive exchange between or people seeking to defend their dialogue? own views against one another” “A frank exchange of ideas or views on a specific issue in an effort to attain mutual understanding” David Gurteen

Slide 38: Dialogue • When we engage each other in dialogue – we enter into a conversation with a view to learn from each other – rather than impose our views on the other. The kind of conversation I’m interested in is one in which you start with a willingness to emerge a slightly different person. Theodore Zeldin, Historian David Gurteen

Slide 39: Principles of Dialogue • Suspend assumptions, do not judge • Observe & listen to one another • Welcome differences & explore them • Allow taboo subjects to be raised safely • Listen to your inner voice • Slow the discussion • Search for the underlying meaning David Gurteen

Slide 40: The Role of Conversation • It is through conversation that we – communicate, co-ordinate & collaborate – surface our tacit knowledge – share our tacit knowledge – learn & gain insights & new perspectives – our blind-spots & assumptions are revealed • Conversation is central to all that we do • It is key to understanding the world! David Gurteen

Slide 41: Conversation Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self- deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture. David Bohm, Physicist David Gurteen

Slide 42: Summary How do we How do you better work make people together? share? Better understanding Rewards through open and Praise conversation David Gurteen

Slide 43: Questions? David Gurteen

Slide 44: Knowledge Cafe David Gurteen

Slide 45: Knowledge Sharing How do we make people share their knowledge? David Gurteen

Slide 46: www.gurteen.com David Gurteen Gurteen Knowledge Tel: +44 1252 812 878 Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com David Gurteen