[extracted from original message]
>My thoughts (that is, this afternoon, anyway) suggest that there are two
>fundamental 'flows' (analogous to air and blood) I'd want to check. I
>think I'd look for the flow of Trust from heart to heart within the
>organization, and I'd look for the flow of Knowledge from brain to brain.
>And somehow, it seems like both need to be present and the flow of one
>influences the flow of the other. For instance, I don't think you can
>have a high flow of Trust without a high flow of Knowledge.
>Michael A
I would probably start by looking at cashflow :-)
It is easier to imagine measuring the flow of explicit knowledge than
tacit knowledge.
I agree that trust is key to reducing transaction costs. One of my
favorite books is "Passion Within Reason: The Strategic Role of Emotions"
by Robert Frank. Also, the transaction costs for knowledge transactions
are unique and important.
We also need to be explicit about defining trust. I think of "Expectation
Trust" versus "Commitment Trust". I have high Expectation Trust for a
junk yard dog, he will "signal with candor" and bite if I come near. I
have Commitment Trust for my wife. I believe she will defer her
self-interest to serve her perception of our collective self interest (and
I have reasonable confidence of her perception of our collective
self-interest).
My initial thought was that Commitment Trust will lower transaction costs
more than Expectation Trust. Exceptions would be, for example, if the
collective self-interest was difficult to identify.
But, if Commitment Trust reduces knowledge transaction costs, why was it
so much more difficult for me to teach my wife to drive a manual
transmission than for me to teach my neighbor how to load his new PC?
Doug Merchant
Currently On Career Sabbatical
--"Doug Merchant" <dougm@eclipse.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>