David Skyrme is best known today as a leading authority on knowledge management, including being featured as a ‘guru’ by Information Age. He is a strategic analyst and management consultant with extensive knowledge and experience of information and knowledge management.

His book ‘Knowledge Networking: Creating the Collaborative Enterprise is acknowledge by Dave Snowden as ‘One of the best collations of knowledge management practice available in one place. David has been present at the birth of knowledge management, has witnessed much of the early experiments and knows most of the early pioneers ‘.

In this article he observes the critical elements of trust from a knowledge management perspective and gives a list of prerequisites to enable trust to develop.

“The largest challenge is our culture. People are protective of their departmental boundaries.”

“How do you shift from a position of ‘knowledge is power’ to ‘knowledge sharing is power’?”

“Why should I give freely of my hard won knowledge? What do I get in return?”

All are typical comments I hear from people in companies trying to improve their knowledge sharing. In general, people like helping other people. It makes them feel good and allows them to demonstrate their expertise. Why is it then, that there is this reluctance when the same individuals are in a corporate setting? One of the underlying reasons is a certain lack of trust:

Do I trust that this knowledge will used properly?

Do I trust the recipient not to grab it and use it as his/her own?

Do I trust the organization to recognize and reward me for my contribution to the corporate good?

The following list represents ideal behaviours to fostering trust:

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate – short and frequent communications help the process of dialogue and trust building.

2. Offer some knowledge freely and without strings – give away some knowledge that has some value to you, and will be of significant benefit to the recipient, such as some key contact names or key source material (after all, by sharing you have not lost this knowledge, you have just made it less exclusive).

3. Make a small commitment and meet it – if you say “OK, I’ll send that on to you”, do so. Its amazing with busy professionals how many small things fall through the cracks, whether through lack of time or disorganization. Better not make a commitment at all than make one and miss it.

4. Don’t over commit – a frequent problem of the professional perfectionist. I’d rather hear “no” from a colleague, rather than “yes”, followed by repeated missed deadlines.
5. Disclose your values in carefully managed phases – you don’t want to give somebody your life’s history or prejudices, but you do need to make clear what is driving you to behave in certain ways.
6. Make your expectations clear – if you are seeking specific knowledge or help on a problem, be as explicit as you can. That helps the other party the ability to give a definitive response.
7. Remind colleagues gently if they have not met their obligations or your trust – don’t make a big deal out of it, but don’t ignore it either; use it as a signal to show that you care, and to help them gauge their behaviour to you.
8. Be prolific with your thanks and praise – people appreciate recognition, even if they are only doing their job. Recognition is in short supply in many workplaces.
9. Socialise – even informally by email over the network. Informal conversation and identification of shared interests beyond the immediate business tasks, helps builds closer bonds.
10. Demonstrate interest and commitment to the other person. Do things for them that will help them succeed.