The risk of rejection may be high but being honest promotes learning and builds trust. Here is a simple way to demonstrate the benefits of bringing people together to create a knowledge pool.

Using a marking pen place a large X on one side of a plain paper cup and place it in the center of the room. Ask those who can see the X from where they stand to raise their hands.

Point out to those who didn’t raise their hand that if the X represented vital information, they would have missed it unless those who did see it shared what they saw. This simple exercise demonstrates the worthiness of gathering all points of view and more importantly not being afraid of having your view rejected just because you can’t see the X from your vantage point.

Pooling knowledge becomes especially critical in situations where no one person has the full picture. It also demonstrates the futility of arguing over whether or not there is an X on the cup when that’s not the problem. Additionally, it points out the need to explore the deeper meaning of a situation whenever the people involved don’t agree on what they see from where they stand.

In the above exercise the solution to knowledge pooling is simple—just rotate the cup so that those whose views were previously blocked can now see the X.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple when people are scattered around the organization or in various locations. There’s not likely to be a place where all team members can go to compare their viewpoints and come up with a unifying vision.

One way to facilitate data collection and share the findings is to introduce the Inclusionary Thinking model as an expanded version of the X-on-the-cup.

The Inclusionary Thinking model described below shows what a knowledge pool looks like and how it is formed. Here is a list of sample questions to help you get the process started.

Assumptions

• What conclusions have people brought with them?
• What do they actually know?
• What information is missing?
• What are the major agreements and differences?

Opinions

• What do people think should happen?
• Who has taken a stand and who is open to change?
• Are people proactive, reactive, or inactive?
• How were their opinions formed and by whom?

Perceptions

• What do people think has happened?
• What information has gotten through?
• What needs correcting or modifying?
• Who is up to date and who is not?

Expectations

• What are the anticipated outcomes?
• What information sources are people using?
• Which expectations are viewed as positive?
• Which expectations are perceived as negative?

Viewpoints

• What do people see from their position?
• What individual views are represented?
• What facts are true, and which are being altered?
• Whose views are blocked and by what or whom?

The key to creating a knowledge pool and moving the collected information to the point where it can do the most good is to gather the right people. Selecting key players can be a problem if you are not certain about who should be involved.