Huddle's Blog

H is for Hoarding

Posted on 14. Aug, 2009 by Laurika in A-Z Collaboration

Oh the dreaded knowledge hoarder. We all know someone who hoards. That person sitting behind their desktop with a smug look on their face, they know something you don’t. That said, hoarding, especially in the workplace isn’t always done out of spite.

Why do people hoard knowledge?

What if the information I have is wrong? I don’t want to look stupid.

I don’t think this is really important or useful to anyone else.

It took me forever to get this and I’m not going to just give it to the first person that comes along.

I don’t have time to share this.

Hoarding is not only bad for company morale, but for the business as a whole. You find people wasting time looking for information that may already exist.

How to stop people from hoarding?

Reward people for sharing. Instigate a monthly or quarterly award for the person that shared the most useful knowledge.

Help people work together in teams by organising regular sessions where they have the chance to collaborate and share ideas.

Give people the tools that will enable them to share information, such as online communities and white boards where they can contribute no matter which department they are based in.

Encourage staff members to shadow colleagues in another department for a day. Let the financial controller see how the marketing executive works. This will encourage understanding as well as new ideas to solve a problem.

Finally practise what you preach. If the CEO is hoarding information then it can’t be expected that the rest of the organisation is going to be sharers. This is one of those things that need to come from the top.