A521.7.4.RB – Knowledge Sharing Story
Stephen
Denning suggests, “the phenomenon of sharing knowledge through stories is
astonishingly pervasive and mundane” (2011, p. 182). While individually we tell
our story to someone or people in general, there is an exchange of knowledge. Additionally,
the author Stephen Denning believes that sharing knowledge in a narrative manner
is another way of learning. When we constantly repeat information or knowledge
that we already know, we are teaching ourselves.
As
I embarked the challenge of learning to become a medical assistant, I had a lot
of information to take in. One of the most challenging parts of being a medical
assistant was to learn about radiology. Whenever a patient arrives to their
visit, they have a complaint of some sort and according to where the pain is
mainly located, an x-ray is needed it. Each pain location consists of different
views, mainly three views for every problem. You can have pain on the lateral
aspect of the right foot proximal to the ankle reflecting on the dorsal
metatarsal bones of the foot. You may ask yourself, what is she talking about?
And that is exactly how I felt at first. It took me a good two months to
understand the real concept of x-rays and becoming certified. Nevertheless,
understanding all of this new information did not come that easily.
I
remember, when they used to explain to me how to take the so-called “pictures”
of the body part, the location of the plate or film was very important. There
are so many different positions and ways of doing it, that I would get very
confused between one and the other. I started to think how I could make myself
learn all of it to perfection. And as a lighting bolt, it hit me; I started to
draw each of the positions and write their respective names next to it. Little
did I know I was later going to be using my own notes and drawings. Six months
later, a new girl started to work at the office. She was so overwhelmed with
the amount of information that she was getting in such short time. I could see
she was struggling getting, especially when it came to the x-rays.
Therefore,
I decided to share my knowledge by telling her my story. I explained to her in
detail how I too, struggled with the radiology part of the job. Explained to
her that in a matter of months, she was going to look back and be surprise at
how much she had learnt if she followed my advice. Thankfully, she was very
opened minded and ready to learn. In the next few months, I made copies of my
drawings and notes and shared those with her. Progressively, she got better and
learned to do x-rays. Today, she does it all in her own and does excellent. In
the process of sharing my story and knowledge with her, I reinforced my
knowledge by repeating all the information I already knew and it only made be
better. Not that I cannot learn more. “It is frequently said that people learn
more from failures than from successes. It’s also true that people do learn
from stories with a positive tone” (Denning, 2011, p. 186). With that been
said, even if you share your knowledge, if you do not have a “positive tone” or
willingness, the other person will perceive a negative learning experience. And
that also works for the knowledge receiver, if she or he is not willing to
learn, then it will not matter how good the information sharer is.
References
Denning, S. (2011). The
leader's guide to storytelling: Mastering the art and discipline of business
narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
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