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LEARNING 
12 
 
SMART PEOPLE 
Ghost story
Outdated attitudes, behaviors scary
By Carol Kinsey GomanI believe in ghosts.Not only do I believe inghosts, I’ve seen how theyhaunt individuals, teams,departments, and entireorganizations around theworld.And nowhere are theseworkplace ghosts moreinsidious than in the area of collaboration.What
I’m
calling “ghosts”are those out-dated attitudesand behaviors aboutcollaborative knowledge-sharing that still hauntcorporate halls and factory
floors.
It’s an expensive hauntingthat causes wasted talent andunderused brainpower andresults in billions of dollars inlost ideas, in not sharing bestpractices and lessons learned,in a lack of innovation, andin employees’ not having theinformation needed to dotheir jobs.Now
that’s
scary!To explain what I’d beenseeing in organizations, Iwrote a book called “GhostStory.” And I wrote it as a business fable – just for fun.And fun I had creatingsome pretty weird characters:A magpie who hoardsinformation, a three-leggedMartian who is the ultimateoutsider, a 400-pound pig inan admiral’s uniform whotreats staff as if they werechildren, and the two-year-old head of IT who speaks“dribble” – to name only afew.Actually, it wasn’t thathard for me to create thesecharacters. Truth is, I’ve metall of them. Of course I’m
speaking figuratively.
The pig, for example, isthe prototypical “commandand control” manager whodistributes information on a“need-to-know” basis.His role, he believes, is toprotect people who are unableto absorb what’s really goingon within the organization.Let them know what’sactually happening, he insists,and they would panic, freak out, and defect like rats.So, naturally, the pig ishesitant to share.Everyonein the story, in fact, has avalid reason for not sharinginformation.The Martian
tried
to give
his opinion when he first
 joined the organization, onlyto be told: “That’s not the waywe do things around here. Itmay have worked on Mars, but not here.” So, over time, hestopped contributing.And we’ve all met the“techie” (and other expertslike him) who thinks he’sinforming us, but really justconfuses the issue because hecan’t translate what he knowsinto words we can understand.Then there is Dot, theheroine of the story. Aftersurveying 200 mid-levelmanagers regarding the stateof knowledge-sharing in theirteams and departments,I found women to be at adistinct disadvantage: Theyare less likely to speak up inmeetings, less likely to believethat their contributions arevaluable, and more likelyto personalize failure whileexternalizing success.Dot symbolizes those of uswho don’t share information because we are unconsciouslycompetent. We simply “don’tknow what we know.”One of my favoritecharacters in the book is atalking bonsai tree. I neededa living thing that Dot coulduse as a mentor, something
you might find in a corporate
meeting room. I also wantedher mentor to have obvious
flaws.
The bonsai offers a lotof good advice, but doesn’t
Carol Kinsey Goman, PhD, is an author and keynote speaker who addresses association,government,and business audiences around the world. Her latest book and program topic is 
The Nonverbal Advantage 
 
– Secrets and Science of Body Language at Work 
.For more information,emailCGoman@CKG.com, or through her Web sites:www.CKG.com and www.Nonverbal.Advantage.com.
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