Knowledge leaks

Knowledge Leaks

Years ago, I was part of launching a latch-key child tutoring program. It was the first in our city, seeking to address an emerging need. It was also the first foray for me into Process Consulting as we worked with neighborhood organizations, five area elementary schools within walking distance, nearby congregations, and our next-door neighbors to gain support for this program. Their generosity with their knowledge leaked into us: educational standards, neighborhood demographics, community organization governance, and how to get appropriate information together and apply for grants. 

Once underway and succeeding, the knowledge of our staff and volunteers began leaking into the children whose math skills and reading comprehension hurtled forward and upward. Success! And then there were our visitors, wanting us to share knowledge with them as they observed and planned similar centers elsewhere. These visits quickly became mutual exchanges as we shared stories, techniques, and our process improvements.

We weren't competing. Our competitive fight was against ignorance and the pull of the street. Leaky knowledge helped this.

Knowledge leaks. It needs to. In this case, the leakage benefitted the children in our program and into programs in other cities. Yes, patents and copyrights intend to provide protection and compensation for inventors and creators so that there is an incentive to keep inventing and creating. Still, patents and copyrights can be held only so long before they pass to eminent domain and the commons for everyone's use.  

• Aren't you glad not to have to pay a toll for every street you travel, each bridge you cross, and every gate through which you pass?

• Can we celebrate the gift of drinking fountains, public libraries, and the search engine that helps you prove your point when playing Trivial Pursuit?

• Who doesn't enjoy a sunset walk along a body of water, especially if there is a park bench, a beautiful vista, and someone special to soak in it with you?

A learning exchange will happen, passing through your care and into the broader world. One might spend a lifetime trying to hold on to what they know--afraid of theft, fearful of misuse, concerned that precious knowledge will be lost. But the knowledge will eventually leak through reverse engineering, plagiarism, or serendipitous discovery elsewhere. Knowledge finds a way to leak and travel on.

We can choose to try to hoard what we know. Or we can decide to strike a generous and abundant posture. The Process Consultant chooses the abundant stance, offering curiosity, perceptive inquiry, and value-added connection to resources from the first encounter with a prospective Client. Generosity is what ultimately sells the service. The latest sales technique or boasting about who the Consultant is privileged to serve isn't needed.

There is a metaphor I carry. It comes from living above a water reservoir in the American west. Mountain water runoff is captured and held in trust at a reservoir to share at appropriate times and locations.

Some use the water at home. Some water goes to agriculture. Some is piped to factories for manufacturing. The reservoir is used for recreation: windsurfing, kayaking, skiing, and fishing in addition to water management. Some water also gets wasted, and wasteful people make water unavailable to others. That we can have any water, including that which gets misused, comes from our pulling together to create and manage a shared resource, constantly seeking ways to improve our stewardship.

The mountain water metaphor fuels how I want to respond as I work with other Process Consultants. Rather than being fearful that they will do a better job than I, and perhaps gain a Client that I did not land, I want to treat other consultants as colleagues instead of competitors. Rather than thinking some will do this work less well, I want to help others keep growing in the art of our vocation. Our Clients benefit as a result and all of us can live with a rich and mutual interchange of knowledge.  The real competition, the big battles against which we fight, are against enemies such as crippling fear or anger, injustice, famine, flood, racism, slavery, and warmongering. All those things reduce our commonwealth and leave people in ignorance. There is so much of it operating in our world that Process Consultants will not run out of good things to do as we listen, help, and learn, alongside Clients committed to a better world.

Dr. Mark L Vincent
Design Group International
Founder and Senior Design Partner

The core competencies of process consulting have been developed and are taught by the Society for Process Consulting. If you are interested in receiving your credential in process consulting please visit our website.