Principle of Sharing
During the olden days Sharing was commonplace and not such a great thing to talk about. People shared things as a way of life.
Today it is not so.
Having seen the classical times and been forced into the modern times, we realize with some surprise that today we do not share often. Sharing is not a commonplace custom anymore in modern times—at least not in personal life.
Is it so? Is it true that Sharing is an activity to be forgotten, ignored and marked as a thing of past? It surprised me no end that the reality is just the opposite. Though we do not share things in personal life without keeping track of how much we have shared, sharing as a function has silently entered into every imaginable activity area. Now Sharing needs to be recognized as one of the most powerful Problem Solving Principles that are there. I classify Sharing as a Basic Problem Solving Principle in our Problem Solving Armory resources that combines all the principles, techniques, methods, methodologies and approaches that help to solve varieties of problems systematically and efficiently.
Case example 1: Knowledge increases with sharing
In a recent workshop, while deliberating on various principles of Innovation and Problem Solving, I took up the Principle of Sharing. I asked my audience, "I believe knowledge increases with sharing. Can you tell me in how many ways it does?"
There was a brief silence. The members of the audience were from knowledge dissemination community. Then slowly responses started to come. Two suggestions were first offered.
- Teacher's knowledge increases because she has to prepare well for a particular lecture session, and in the process not only organizes her thoughts, but also brings in new knowledge into her discourse. Quality and extent of her knowledge thus increases.
- The knowledge of the listeners increases as they directly absorb new knowledge.
I asked, "Is that all? Any more ways?"
Usually we do not go more than this. But if we are practitioners of principle of exploration and principle of persistence, we may further find that:
- Not only does the individual knowledge of the students increase, collective knowledge of the learner group also increases. The mechanism behind collective knowledge increase is—the students tend to discuss their new found concept among themselves thus gaining new insights. Also they look for instances of application of the new concept in their environment and then start applying the concept thus going up the stages of learning.
Here I would request you to look for applications of the principle of sharing in your own environment. You will find that the awareness of instances of application of a concept in your environment significantly enhances your awareness of the concept. We have already mentioned this method earlier. If you actually practice a technique, your understanding of the technique will get still deeper.
Is that all? Any more ways the knowledge increases?
- Well, it may so happen that some of the students decide to share their new knowledge further down a chain with their own friends and students and a situation of avalanche mechanism may well arise.
Any more ways you can think of? It seems there is one more at least.
- When a lecturer delivers a lecture and gets the students fully involved in deep interactions, questions and answers start. In this process of deep interaction, many times students either pose a difficult question forcing the lecturer to break new ground on the go or suggest a new solution or a new process of solution directly. This enriches the whole group of the students and the lecturer.
If you are very curious, you may find the existence of further ways knowledge increases on sharing. If you do find please let me know. I love to learn.