Sharing ideas, learning, models, freely, leads to work
Roxanne gave examples of this idea and commented that 3M was the only
organisation that imposed (or sought to) a set of constraints relating to
ownership.
Like many of us I have been asked to sign contracts relating to
confidentiality which I am generally happy to do.
I have been in two situation similar to her 3M experience and I offer
these as additional alternatives for consultants beyond the 'freely
giving' option.
1. I was paid to produce a model that described a clients consulting
process. They saw it as something developed for them and asked me not to
use it elsewhere. As they used it as a part of their selling process I
accepted this and developed the model into slightly different directions
that avoided any conflict of interest. Not always easy, and especially
difficult within an ethical stance. I felt slightly uncomfortable, a) with
the original request, b) doing modifications so that I could use it.
2. A large manufacturing organisations 'Learning Division' sought our help
in developing some tools to support change. At the outset we saw that this
could have life outside the client situation and sought to points of
agreement. a). THat the final product was jointly copyrighted showing
our's and the clients names together. b). we had explicit permission to
use the product, for our gain, in agreed situations. This has been
satisfactory. In fact we are hoping to get the product formally published
and by changing some things have been given permission to dothis under our
own copyright.
Like some things, in my experience, talking about them a seeking win-win
outcomes, works well.
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk
--tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>