Tuesday 14 February 2012


The role of asking in sharing


ASK On Sunday I picked up an interesting blog post from Roxanna Sami, where she asks How can we encourage people to share knowledge without feeling threatened

She gives a little story about sharing knowledge about driving conditions with a friend, and concludes

When and why do we share?We tend to share when we come to know of something, when we read or hear of something interesting, when we have an idea, when we are faced with a challenge, when we experience something, when we have aspirations, when we do not know, when we want to show-off and when we are forced to.
Who do we share with?We share with people who we trust, we share with our community and our peers, we share with those who love us, we share with those who hate us
So what is preventing us from sharing?"I do not have time to share", etc


I think she misses a significant element from her story, which is that her friend asked her to share her knowledge. If her friend had not asked, I doubt if she would have shared proactively. I would conclude from the story, and from long experience, the following. There is a huge difference between "sharing when asked" and "sharing without being asked", and

"When do we share"
Most often, when we are asked


"Who do we share with?"
People who ask us

"So what is preventing us from sharing?"
Ofen, nobody is asking.

Nancy Dixon said that many companies that think they have a sharing problem, actually have an asking problem.

Don't neglect the role of Asking as part of Sharing - it's probably the biggest factor 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hmmmmm
Listening might be the problem too.
Or, all will have influence.
Shaping circumstances for listening / asking is ok.
It's not that simple!
Asking me will feed my vein.
I like to be talked to by people with a good / sound / inspirational story!

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