A Halloween Business Story

Most modern organizations are haunted by the ghost of business as it was conducted in another era. And nowhere is this more evident than in the way people hoard information.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   
      
Contact: Carol Kinsey Goman
Phone: 510-526-1727
cgoman@ckg.com

      
IS YOUR ORGANIZATION HAUNTED?

Companies lose billions when people dont tell what they know.

Berkeley -- October 1, 2002 -- "Most modern organizations are haunted by the ghost of business as it was conducted in another era. And nowhere is this more evident than in the way people hoard information," according to Dr. Carol Kinsey Goman, author of GHOST STORY: A Modern Business Fable (KCS Publishing, released on Halloween, 2002, $19.95 Hardcover).

The main assets of the Industrial Age were equipment and real estate, but in the Information Age they are the insights and creativity of people. "Success in this new era increasingly requires knowledge sharing and collaboration among employees, and the ability of managers to develop environments that nurture teams of knowledge workers," states Goman.

And yet, after surveying 200 mid-level managers about the state of knowledge sharing in their organizations, Goman finds that people arent telling what they know due to a variety of organizational and personal barriers -- rooted in old beliefs and practices.

This is an expensive reality. Due to inefficiencies and the reduced performance of workers who cant find needed information, Fortune 500 companies are losing, conservatively, $12 billion annually.

Gomans new book, GHOST STORY: A Modern Business Fable, explores why the attitudes, actions, and decisions of the past no longer work in todays business climate -- and then gives the new rules.
   
o Knowledge ISNT power -- but a reputation for sharing knowledge is.
o Don't treat knowledge like gold. It's perishable, and nothing is less valuable than expired knowledge.
o You cant share knowledge you dont know you have.
o If you win and dont tell others how you did it, everybody loses.
o Everyone has something to contribute even if they dont know it.
o Nobody knows everything, so nobody can succeed alone.
o It all begins with trust -- in yourself and in others.

Women, especially, have been trapped by self-defeating behaviors. They are less likely to speak up in meetings, less likely to believe that their contribution is valuable, and more likely to personalize failure while externalizing success.

"Goman has written an important book that shows why knowledge sharing is essential for organizational and personal success. She uses an easy-to-read fable that tells the reader how to unlock the kind of collaborative creativity that brings results to the bottom line."
Robert L. Dilenschneider, CEO, The Dilenschneider Group

About the Author
Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D. is the author of eight previous business-related
books, including This Isnt the Company I Joined, Creativity In Business, and The Human Side of High-Tech. President of Kinsey Consulting Services, specialists in change-management, she presents keynote addresses and seminars for management conferences and major trade associations. A frequent guest on radio and television shows, Goman has been cited as an authority in media such as Industry Week and Investors Business Daily, as well as on CNN and the NBC Nightly News. She lives with her husband in Berkeley, California.
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