never assume that information you have is unwanted.

this isn’t a poker game in the wild west. you don’t need to guard your hand from the eyes of everyone else. it only hurts your organization.

just because someone sent you an email, or someone told you in a conversation, or you saw it on the internet — that doesn’t mean that you’re the only one who will find value in that information as well.

in this knowledge based economy the world is growing into, organizations need to manage their information better. knowledge management seeks to answer the questions of who has the information, who needs it, and how do you bring those people together. that’s the premise behindenterprise 2.0:collaboration is key.

at other times, the value is simply in that someone knows that you know it. if you need help in decomposing that sentence, just think of yourself as a project manager or task lead. quite frankly, they probably don’t care about what information you have — but it’s important to managers to know that you at least have information. it’s there. it’s out in the open. it’s available.

i’m not sure why it is, but — much like the card game at the local saloon in the wild west — there is a lot of information guarding that happens in organizations. we get split from our main team into smaller project teams with a specific focus. then, we put our heads down and start working, looking around to share information only when asked for it. but when we do this, we’re leaving out the knowledge, expertise, experience, and diversity of thought and opinion of a large portion of our own team, and an even larger portion of our entire organization.

the person who may be able to help break open the case might not be on your immediate team; they could be halfway across the nation (or the world). but you may never know, because you’ve been guarding your information from the eyes of anyone who hasn’t asked for it.

business isn’t a crazy game of poker; put your cards on the table. why? because it may just surprise you who has the winning hand.