Re: Sharing the Learning LO3241

Carol Anne Ogdin (Carol_Anne_Ogdin@deepwoods.com)
17 Oct 95 21:25:54

Replying to LO3215, where Barry Mallis writes...

>Tom Stewart mentions disincentives to sharing knowledge, and how
>consequential a phenomenon that is.

>I suspect this phenomenon is rooted in our aversion to risk-taking,
>because sharing involves some modicum of risk. All the institutes,
>retreats, workshops, etc. whose goal is communicating are attempting to
>overcome this aversion, and perhaps supplant it with an openness of which
>we are also truly capable as humans.

>So is this a basal aversion (built into our bio-circuitry), or is it
>learned by hard knocks in society of the last umpteen centuries?

Barry, it is my opinion, having worked in several of these
situations, that the behavior has many roots, some of which
include:
- Bias in our modern business systems toward competitive-
ness, yielding a "zero-sum" mentality. The antidote
seems to be to enlist participants in the quasi-spirit-
ual quest toward some larger sense of community within
the organization.
- Rewards for personal performance. The antidote is
likely found in the revamping of compensation plans to
include some substantial fraction from *group* efforts.
- Habit: People have little experience with the concept,
and fear the unknown of how their openness will be used
to their own disadvantage (to which you allude, above).
The antidote seems to be education and a few convincing
examples.
- (Need I create more? These are just off the top of my
head while I'm in a hotel room, having just spent the
day on the issue with clients.)

--
Carol Anne Ogdin             "If we fixed a hangnail the way our
Deep Woods Technology, Inc.   government fixed the economy, we'd
CAOgdin @ DeepWoods.com       slam a car door on it."
                                  --Cullen Hightower