How to improve intra-office knowledge sharing - Need to build trust

The other day, we came across persons (more than three) from a well known organisation and globally well linked, being at the edge of a communication failure, mistrust and concern. The fact that it is a reputed organisation, and small in size, it does not have the problem of big hierarchy, it came as a big surprise to us.

What really was the problem? As a key partner to the above said organisation, we often have to deal with more than one member from that organisation. And, this itself becomes a cause for concern. The members began to feel that we should or should not talk to one or the other members.

This is a clear cut case of failure/ break-down of intra-office knowledge sharing, and even though there are brilliant knowledge sharing ICT tools, they don't necessarily solve the intra-office communication issues.

Due to the multi-cultural nature of the said organisation, and being global in nature, different cultural ethos affects the way people communicate.

The most important of it all is Trust. If people have doubts... they are beginning to widen the distance and is a warning signal for management to take note of the problems. These are but first signals of serious problems.

I have been trained by Sam Kaner on facilitation techniques, especially for conflict resolution, and a trained facilitator have learnt that the mediator may become not only necessary but also critical to address the current scenario in the said organisation.

I am deliberately not mentioning the name of the organisation, as we continue to deal with folks from that organisation, and we don't really want to hurt or offend anyone. But how will they know? When should they be told about the problem that we can sense?? Comments are welcome.

Dignity and respect for people, in whatever position they are in, is a critical pillar to the development and nurturing of knowledge sharing.

Hope these inputs will help people.