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| The Gurteen Knowledge Website |
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Article
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Opportunity By Knowledge Sharing Is Key For South African Economic Development |
 
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The greatest shame of apartheid was that it deprived the majority of South Africans of opportunities for betterment. They were deprived by receiving poor or no education, by restrictions on where they could live and work, by only being allowed to be employed in certain categories of work and by generally being placed outside the economic mainstream of the country. For a long time they were even regarded as physically being outside the country, having to live in economically deprived and corrupt 'homelands' outside our borders. Many of the poor today are poor not only because they have no money but because of the legacy of having no opportunities. Our greatest challenge is to address this shame with a sense of the utmost urgency. Many may feel that we are doing enough by passing laws for affirmative action, labour equity and human rights. Black economic empowerment may also be seen as restoring the balance. But, as every year goes by, as a country we are getting poorer and there are even fewer opportunities for the poor to better themselves. "It can't happen overnight", many will say and perhaps not, but when will it begin happening? Time is a luxury that we can ill afford. If the lack of opportunities was the problem in the past, surely seeking and exploiting opportunities now is the answer. Most certainly, but as we were all part of the problem, so too must we all now be part of the solution. Finding opportunities for job creation and economic development cannot just be left to the Government, NGOs, churches or well-meaning volunteer organizations. In the new era of globalisation and technology, businesses cannot exploit opportunities to enrich themselves without enriching the broader community. Individuals and communities have to become involved in the opportunities and have to experience the benefits. All of us have to be passionate activists for seeking and exploiting opportunities. Assisting others to find opportunities is not charitable work that may help appease our consciences. In today's business jargon, finding new opportunities will give this country the kick-start that is so desperately needed. It will give us our competitive edge, our deserved place in the sun. For the thousands of immigrants to the country in the 50's, 60's and 70's, 'Sunny South Africa' was a land of opportunity, there were abundant opportunities awaiting the new arrivals, provided they were like us. Since we did not want to share the many opportunities with the majority of our fellow citizens who were not like us, we could afford to share them with people from other countries who were like us. Perhaps now the opportunities appear to be less abundant. Perhaps they are more complex and less obvious. But, they are still there, they are just waiting to be discovered and to be shared by all South Africans. An opportunity is essentially an innovation, doing something differently or creating something new. It does not have to be some big technological breakthrough or some fantastic new invention. It can be something quite small. In the non-linear complex world we live in today, where output is not necessarily a direct function of input, a small improvement can have a major effect and realise significant value. Think, for example, of the 3M 'Post-It' notes. Who would have thought that a little scrap of paper with a very weak adhesive on it would have such an impact on our lives and produce so much value for the company? At the heart of finding opportunities lies knowledge sharing. Knowledge, which is best defined as being able to act, gives us the ability to seek and use opportunities. It allows us to do things, and to learn by doing these things. Knowledge is based on action, for if we don't do anything we cannot learn and if we don't learn we can never create anything new, we can never innovate. All of us have knowledge, irrespective of our education, background, IQ and career history. Those of us who were previously advantaged cannot say we have more knowledge than those who were disadvantaged. Knowledge is not a function of wealth or power. Knowledge is a personal human attribute and one person will never have the same knowledge as another. As people share knowledge, however, new knowledge emerges. The more diverse the individual knowledge, the richer the emergent knowledge. Knowledge thus grows when shared and it is this single fact, together with our wonderful diversity, that holds so much promise for this country. Knowledge sharing won't come easy to us and we will have to change many of our attitudes. Instead of hoarding knowledge, believing it to be 'power', we will have to see that greater value lies in its exchange. We will also have to work very hard to ensure that we have a climate that is conducive to sharing. We will have to value and respect all individuals and treat them as knowledge 'assets'. We will have to look well beyond the borders of our organizations, associations and communities and recognise the value of the knowledge that lies there. We will have to become more creative in thinking about our problems and begin to seek multiple outcomes rather than predetermined solutions. We must see that this is our problem, our challenge and our opportunity to start doing things for ourselves. We hold the solution, not some distant international aid agencies or consultants. Most importantly, we need to have the betterment of all our people as our common purpose and as our incentive for sharing. As with so many things in this country, it is easy to talk about what we should be doing but a lot more difficult to start acting. The best vehicle for knowledge sharing is self-managing relationships between ordinary people. These relationships can be part of partnerships, strategic alliances, outsourcing arrangements, joint ventures between companies, government departments and NGOs, but unlike many of these that currently exist, their prime motive should not be to increase profits but to bring about innovation and opportunity for all. We are running out of time to solve our problems and to develop our economy. Instead of complicated and bureaucratic schemes, that take ages to activate, we need to start looking at the contribution that ordinary individuals can make. In our desire to organise and control, we have tended to ignore the unique knowledge of individuals and have placed more importance on functions than on relationships. This may have produced large, well-controlled and highly profitable companies, but in our circumstances has done little to help the impoverished and the economic development of our communities. Now is the time for us to realise that we, as thinking and knowledgeable individuals, can make a difference. All we need is passion, a sense of purpose and a willingness to help other people. Bob Andrew is a consulting value engineer offering services and training courses on partnership building, knowledge management and community development. He can be contacted at anneve@iafrica.com
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