Posted by Ann Feeney on April 20, 2000 at 09:12:19:

In Reply to: Re: incentives for sharing knowledge? posted by Martyn R Jones on April 18, 2000 at 17:31:45:

As everybody else has commented, this is the big question. And if I had _the_ answer(s), I'd be sharing this information from the pages of a business best-seller!

I'm not sure how to transfer these into tips and techniques, but here's what I've seen as the recognition-related hallmarks of organizations where knowledge is shared. No particular order.

1. People who share are openly recognized and given credit for doing it. A V. P. who stands up and gives a stellar presentation that's based on the work of three other folks is going to get a lot more co-operation and sharing for the next presentation if he or she explicitly thanks them for their work and gives them some credit.(Why don't more people do that? Part of it is a kind of perverted sense of self-reliance, believing that even in this day and age, you look better if you imply that you did it all yourself rather than saying that you used the best resources to hand, which include the ideas of other folks.) This kind of feedback and recognition can be informal as well as formal and public, but public recognition is a major aspect.

2. Management provides people with the tools they need to share knowledge, whether it's the technology, or almost always even more importantly, the time to do it.

3. Management demonstrates that it values people who share and who learn, with raises, promotions, plum assignments, time off to learn with the understanding that there will be more sharing, and assistance with professional development. While academia and its "publish or perish" methods are not a perfect system, and there are thousands of documented failures, when it operates at its best, with the right combination of teaching, publishing, and studying, it's about as close to perfect as we can get.

4. Management leads by example so that people who make a practice of sharing and learning feel like they're part of the movers and shakers.

5. Management makes learning a priority as well as sharing. If I share information in the forum for sharing, whether it's a database, Lotus Notes, Intranet, or whatever, but still have to answer the exact same question every week, I'm not going to be really enthused about proactive sharing the next time I get a good gob of info, because it doesn't save _me_ any time or effort.

Ann Feeney
Research and Planning
YMCA of the USA

P.S. I've been lurking for a while and now got the courage to post. This is an incredible forum, and my deepest gratitude to the folks who are participating and sharing!

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• Re: incentives for sharing knowledge? Tom Weathington 11:46:46 04/20/00 (0)

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