As knowledge management practitioner time and again I hear phrases such as "to mainstream KM in the organization we need to put in place an incentive system " or "people are not sharing knowledge because they have no incentive".
Personally I never understood why anyone would need an incentive to do something so natural as learning and sharing! And I was always made to feel as if I was completely nuts when I challenged such statements.
Well, I must say, today is MY DAY..... Earlier this afternoon I read Anand Giridharadas' piece entitled "Deciphering the cause of human motivation" in which he refers to Daniel Pink's work. Shortly after I tweeted the article and sent it along to my organization's extend KM community of practice, Mary Adams sent the link to Daniel's video!!
Make sure you read Anand's article and do not miss Pink's video.
I must admit, after watching the video and reading Anand's article - who incidently is a great guy - I will never again shy away from expressing my views of incentives -especially incentives related to knowledge management and knowledge sharing.... I now know that I am not mad, rather I now have scientific evidence that I am right!!!
Check out also this lecture from TED.Com
I hope I can find a similiar evidence showing the futility of knowledge management indicators.
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