why trust is essential in the knowledge age

I am currently trying to "manage" years of information and old files (creating an archive of resources on Penelope, our Academy28 internal wiki via Google sites), I just came across some notes on knowledge - and so was provided with a great distraction and topic for a blog entry.

We have to be able to rapidly distinguish between information and knowledge. Information just "is" - however well organised it might be. Knowledge is what happens when we inform others, when we pass on the relevant information. And wisdom is probably knowing what to pass on, to whom, when and why.

Because the context of knowledge transfer and sharing is crucial, it has to be built on trust. We have to choose to volunteer information. We've all known organisations and departments where holding onto information is seen as protecting power. So choosing to share is choosing to trust.

We also need to be able to trust ourselves in managing information. It's almost impossible to avoid information overload in this 24/7 knowledge age. So we have to trust that we can decide what to read, and what to skim; what to keep, and what to let go of.

"Letting go of" is particularly important for change, for getting rid of old "baggage" and moving on.

I was once on the committee of a professional network that was 10 years old. We had serious issues we needed to address: to define strategy, future direction, the needs of the membership - all the normal stuff that is repeated in committees across the world.

We were discussing office space - we were losing our shared space for our part-time administrative support. I questioned why we had to have a physical place - it would be easier and cheaper to outsource it to a "virtual" resource. Wow - I was struck (metaphorically, of course!) by the passionate defence of the status quo. Basically, it boiled down to 2 main things, both of which could be seen through the lens of type:

1. an introverted Feeling response that wanted to hold onto the "shared history" of the organisation - which it felt that the 10 years of paper archives represented. This position was defended both from the sensing/past experience perspective (we need the information to make sure that we have continuity with past discussions and decisions that have been made) and the iNtuitive future orientation - we have to have the archives in case someone wants to write up the history of the organisation in the future.

2. someone in the past had made the decision to buy hundreds of folders for conferences - and these needed to be stored. We couldn't just get rid of them. This was a Sensing response - but again based on feeling, not logic. (Logic would say - they've already been paid for; we don't use them; we need to rebrand anyway and they have the old branding; and we'll be paying for them 10 times over, again and again, if the reason we can't change our structures to meet our needs is that we can't discard the results of bad decisions.

So having information is not always about knowing what is required.

Also, we often only know what we know when we need to know it. And that "knowledge" usually comes from within us. And we always know more than we say, and more than we can write down.

So - trust and knowledge:

1. if you have trust in the context, the environment, and the people around you, you will be more likely to freely and openly share information, so creating knowledge, and developing shared wisdom
2. trust yourself to let go of holding onto "stuff" - if it's not at hand, or in your head, you can either ask someone else, google it, or not bother
3. help build trusting, sharing and supportive collaborative ways of sharing knowledge and meaning