We all know that expression, and we believe in it: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
How do we comprehend this sentence?
Is our interpretation to our advantage, or do we put obstacles in our way with our beliefs?
About whose knowledge are we talking to?
Usually, we think of the following situation when we say: Knowledge is power.
If we think of our working environment or the possibility of being promoted or of being in charge of the next highly desirable project, a fear of our expert status bubbles up in us. We worry about a loss of success if we share our hard-earned knowledge with colleagues.
“Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most powerful of them all?”
However, we are not aware that we can achieve much more with our team compared to a lone fighter. With this in mind, the question arises, with what attitude do we do our work?
Are we real team players, or are we more of an egoist? Are we farsighted, and do we have in mind the tremendous joint success of our company? Or do we focus on our personal goals that are insignificant for the company?
Of course, one can now say that every coworker considers personal success as his primary motivation.
But do personal successes also inevitably lead to collective success? No, because if we do not act, think, and collaborate in teams, we will be weak and beatable, no matter how much we keep our knowledge to ourselves. No matter whether we are working as a one-person business or as an employee of a company, we usually deal with a “bundle of people”: other teams, other companies, other experts or business partners that are part of active networks. It is in our nature to bundle us and our forces.
So if we want to succeed, we have no choice but to share our resources, our knowledge in this matter, with those people with whom we are likely to celebrate the greatest possible success.
These people are usually our colleagues or business partners. Each of us has different strengths, different experiences, and access to various information, which means different valuable individual knowledge. Each of us also sees a different facet of a situation.
Imagine, we put our selfish ideology aside and unite. Imagine we bring together all our knowledge and views. And imagine we compare our so far best protected personal expertise with what we now have at our disposal.
What will we notice?
What we have so far regarded as incredibly valuable knowledge that our colleagues should not possess is a fraction of what we know together. And now consider what chance we as miserly knowledge-collectors would have against this group of experts if we hadn’t collaborated with them.
Bottom line
The next time you are afraid to share your knowledge with others, ask yourself the following questions:
- What does success mean to me, and how do I determine the degree of my success?
- Which people could I collaborate with to achieve even greater success?
- How high are my chances of success if I can make it on my own instead of joining a network of experts and sharing my knowledge?
What do you think? Do you now see possibilities for collaborative knowledge sharing in your field?
Maybe there are also opportunities to set up collaborative projects in this community.
I am very excited and open to ideas and exchange about this topic. So feel free to comment or to contact me.
Successful collaboration, everyone.
Azadeh AzadehEshaghi