‘The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff’
I recently attended a conference, sponsored by the Delphi Group. There was a great deal to be learned from companies such as Fluor Corporation, Ernst & Young, Intel, and Banner Health. But the one thing I was hoping to get more insight about was "how do you get people to share?"
Turns out, these companies, and many others, are trying to figure that out too. "Knowledge is power," several told me. "People don't want to share for fear of losing their jobs." "People are too busy," another lamented.
Kent Greenes, Chief Knowledge Officer and SVP of SAIC summed it up best: "The soft stuff is the hard stuff," he said. Like all the other speakers at the conference, Greenes asserts that it's people who impede the rapid diffusion of information across an organization. He cited two major studies, conducted 10 years apart, that indicate that the biggest barrier to sharing is people. Apparently, most people don't want to seek input from somewhere else. This was intriguing to me, as I've been known to ask too many questions.
Getting what's inside people's heads requires an understanding of people. The "soft stuff." It's culture and social issues. It's behavior change. And this soft stuff isn't taught in business school.
Here's a great idea: Wachovia Bank has a bi-annual "DocStock." Modeled after Woodstock, this event is billed internally as "3 Hours of Peace, Love, and Document Sharing." Promo posters include the peace sign. There's a brownie baking contest. Knowledge managers and Community Coordinators learn how to use new technology tools, and contribute resources as part of the event.
This event gets at the soft stuff. It's fun. People relate to it because most of the attendees came of age in the sixties and can wax nostalgic about the event of Woodstock. It's creative, and a creative, fun environment in which people identify with a common cause is an environment that's conducive to sharing.
How can you get at the soft stuff to drive your affinity group? How could you create your own DocStock? What would it look like for your membership? Dream about it in tie-dye color. I can almost hear Jimi Hendrix now…