Knowledge Sharing
Open University Library
Seminar
9th May 2007
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Begin with the end in mind
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Take a look at knowledge sharing
Introduce the concept of ‘knowledge trading’
Look at the importance of “trust”
Encourage you to think about why we share and how
we can improve our ‘sharing’
• Introduce you to the Gurteen Knowledge Café
• Run a Knowledge Café
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Sharing
• We do not ‘share knowledge’ in the literal
meaning of sharing
• Not like sharing a cake
– Synergistic 2 + 2 = 5
• More about:
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Personal Networking
Helping each other
Working together
Collaborating
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
creating learning processes.
Peter Senge
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
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To get things done
Learning to be gained
Knowledge is perishable
Someone else will make our knowledge productive first
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Barriers to Knowledge Sharing
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A silo mentality
Knowledge is power
Lack of knowledge sharing processes
No time allowed
No knowledge sharing by executives
Managers do not walk the talk
Poor IT systems
Lack of encouragement
Bureaucracy
Resistance to change by managers
Karl-Eric Sveiby
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Is Sharing Natural?
• Some say
– sharing is human & comes
naturally
• Other say
– knowledge is power and sharing
is not natural
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Knowledge Sharing
Share your Knowledge
• credit to somebody else
• passed over for promotion
• depression
• alcoholism
• marital breakdown
• destitution
• die a bum
Reasons for Sharing
• ego
• money reward
• guilt
Is this really true?
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Do we share?
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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
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Trading Knowledge
We help people when they approach us for a variety
of reasons - tangible & intangible (often implicit):
• we need to do our job
• we are afraid of the
consequences if we don’t
• we like them
• we want to look good
• we want them to like us
• we enjoy it
• we are looking for promotion
• we are looking for a new job
• we want them to be indebted
to us
• we want to build a potentially
useful relationship
• they pay us or give us some
other tangible reward
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
The Desire to Learn
• By sharing our knowledge
with others we learn
– we learn from them
– we make our tacit knowledge
more explicit
– our assumptions are revealed
– we are forced to simplify things
• We learn when we teach!
If we want to learn we
should teach!
Stephen Covey
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
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Benefit & Time
Benefit
high
low
high
no brainer
Opportunity
for learning/
relationship
building
low
explore/
escalate
suggest an
alternative
Time
Availability
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
The Role of Trust
• When trust is high - communication is:
– easy, instant, effective
• When trust is low:
– like walking in a mine field
– politicking, ass covering, tension
– communication is difficult
• at times impossible
”Trust is the bandwidth
of communication”
”Trust is the highest form
of human motivation. It is
the life-blood of an
organization.
When people have a high
degree of trust in each
other - they work together
extremely effectively”
Stephen Covey
Karl Eric Sveiby
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
• It is important to build and maintain trust
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Business is a Conversation
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
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
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Conversation is central
to all that we do
Its our job!
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.
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Theodore Zeldin
Conversation
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Theodore in an Oxford
Historian
Conversation is creative
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.
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Its about understanding
& sense making
Through conversation &
storytelling
So, how do we understand things? It's
through stories that we understand how the
world works.
David Weinberger, The Cluetrain Manifesto
Two forms of Conversation
“A mechanistic and
unproductive exchange
between people seeking to
defend their own views against
one another”
Debate
or
dialogue?
“A frank exchange of ideas or
views on a specific issue in an
effort to attain mutual
understanding”
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Dialogue
• When we engage each other in dialogue
– we enter into a conversation 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
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Principles of Dialogue
• Suspend assumptions, do not judge
• Observe & listen to one another – look for the meaning
• Welcome differences & explore them
• Allow taboo subjects to be raised safely
Dialogue is based on
the work of the physicist
David Bohm
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Summary
• Business is a conversation
• Conversation is creative
• Understanding is more important than
knowing more
• Dialogue is the key to quality conversations
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The Gurteen Knowledge Café
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
What is a Knowledge Café?
• A knowledge café is a means of bringing a group of
people together to have an open, creative
conversation on a topic of mutual interest to surface
their collective knowledge, to share ideas and to
gain a deeper understanding of the issues involved.
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
What are the objectives
of a Knowledge Café?
• To gain mutual understanding of a complex issue
• To gain a deeper understanding of other people’s
perspectives
• To gain a deeper understanding of one’s own views
• To discover issues which need exploring
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
What resources are needed?
• A group of people 20-30 people (or more!)
• A facilitator/speaker
• A room with tables & chairs - ideally round
tables to seat about five people
• Time 60 – 90 minutes
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What's the process?
• Facilitator takes 10 minutes to introduce the
Knowledge Café and the subject under discussion
• Purpose of the Knowledge Café is made clear
• Facilitator poses 1 or 2 key open ended questions
• Participants from into smaller groups of 5 or 6 to
discuss the subject for say 30 minutes
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• The group re-assembles for an exchange of ideas as
a whole for another 30 minutes
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
What is the role of the facilitator?
• Facilitator need not be an expert
– Nor disciplined in facilitation
– A good listener and chairperson skills
• Facilitator should not take a lead in the discussions
• Should wander around and listen into the groups
• Should listen for problems and remind people gently
of the rules of ‘dialogue’
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
What’s the role of the individual?
• To see people with different views not as
adversaries but as resources from which they
can learn
• To enter into open conversation
• To listen more than speak
• To welcome differences
• To withhold judgment
• To avoid position taking
• To avoid being too politically correct
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
How do the small groups work?
• Don’t appoint a leader, chairperson or
note taker
• Anyone can make their own notes if
they wish
• Everyone is equal
• Engage as little or as much as you
wish
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How does the whole group work?
• Objective is to hold a ‘group conversation’
– Not reporting back to the facilitator!
• Facilitator plays a low key role
– not the expert
– helps facilitate the conversation
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What are the outcomes?
• Normally nothing is recorded
• Real outcomes are what you take away in your head
• A deeper understanding of the issue discussed
• A deeper insight into other people’s perspectives
• A better appreciation of your own point of view
• Better position to make more informed decisions
Gurteen Knowledge 2007
Where can I learn more?
• My website contains a lot of material
– www.gurteen.com
• The World Café
– Book The World Café: Shaping our futures
through conversations that matter
– Website : www.theworldcafe.com
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Lets run a Knowledge Cafe
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The Challenge of Knowledge Sharing
What prevents us from sharing our
knowledge more effectively?
How might we overcome these barriers?
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Questions & Discussion
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www.gurteen.com
David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Tel: +44 1252 812 878
Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com
Gurteen Knowledge 2007