Posted by Brett on March 14, 2001 at 15:43:46:

In Reply to: How to motivate knowledge sharing posted by Jan Willem on March 13, 2001 at 09:30:27:

Jan,

In your message you state: "one of the biggest problems in KM is that people don't share their knowledge." I would modify that statement slightly to read: "...people don't share their knowledge if there is no direct benefit to them."

As several of the followups posted here discuss, many times people will respond to questions asked of them directly by others. They may not get any direct "business" benefit, but they are receiving a very real "social" benefit. We are all creatures of ego, and when we can share our expertise with others, and see and feel their appreciation, we feel good about ourselves.

Compare this to "sharing" knowledge with a database. The database doesn't appreciate what you do, you don't know if anyone will ever even read what you've posted, and if they do you will likely never know their reaction.

Using a "find the expert" type system or other technology based Q&A type application is kind of a mix of this. You may get an e-mail saying that so-and-so is looking for an answer, can you help? If you respond, you may not ever know how the person reacted, if they used it, etc., but you at least have the satisfaction of knowing that you provided something to someone in need, not just to a collection. On the other hand, you may choose to ignore the request because you don't know the person, don't have time, or just don'e think it is worth the effort. It is much easier to turn someone down "virtually" than if they are standing at your desk.

We are, for the most part, a social species sharing what we know is in some ways a polite way to "brag" and show our importance. If our sharing does not achieve this goal (or we don't think it will), it may not (in personal terms) be worth the energy expended.

Of course, the scenario I describe comes about because our societal upbringing causes most of us to think in terms of individual and discrete events and immediate cause and effect instead of looking at the big picture. Those who have read "The Fifth Discipline" will recognize that the solution is "systems thinking," looking at the big picture. Unfortunately, we are not quite there yet.

Brett

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