Channel your inner George Costanza : a KM tip for us Introverts
One of my favourite Seinfeld episodes features the neurotic George Costanza doing the opposite to his what his instincts tell him to. Early in the episode, George decides that every decision in his life has been wrong, and taking the guidance of his friend Jerry, decides to do the opposide. By following this approach he lands a job with his favourite baseball teams, the New York Yankees, moves out of his parent’s home and finds a girlfriend. Hilarious.
Its an approach I take to deal with Introversion, an aspect of my personality which can lead me to act in ways consider to be anti-KM. Having taken personality tests like Belbin, Myers-Briggs and others there can be no doubt. You might not think it to meet me, but I promise you, it’s there.
I believe Introversion is a feature of many who work in the KM sphere, especially on the Library / Information Management side. This is purely from personal experience. I do know several massively extroverted librarians (I’m thinking of you James & Johnny), but on balance I believe Introversion & Librarianship are strongly correlated.
Now, a preference for Introversion is not a bad thing, but I find it can get in the way of important activities like building your network. In a KM-sense that includes limiting my exposure to groups of people I don’t know.
I recently presented at the BIALL conference in Manchester and with the exception of one person, I didn’t know anybody else there, meaning I would be spending the evening meeting new people. Owing to scheduling, work commitments, etc. I arrived on the Friday evening for the BIALL cocktail drinks / banquet having missed two days of the conference. Imagine my delight when I showed up at the with an hour or so of chit-chatting to do with a group of people I didn’t know and whose background I did not share, who would be discussing a conference I had not attended.
Not good.
This is when “the opposite” kicks into gear. I hate these situations and if I had listened to my natural preference I’d have found a quiet bar somewhere and returned when people sat down to dinner. I won’t pretend that I can magically work the room (I can’t) but I do make the effort to introduce myself to others to the extent possible. Having done so helps build my network, which in turn increases my exposure to new ideas and people who can help me (or vice versa); undoubtedly a feature of KM.
Are you doing something anti-KM? Perhaps doing the opposite will help you.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:01 am
Neil – interesting post – I can see how being introverted might limit an individuals exposure to groups that are interesting and which could potentially lead to some interesting work. I will say I think some of the Social Media tools have helped with this.
I absolutely agree with your point about individuals in the Library/Information Management field being introverted. Although as you say there are some very good examples of people who aren’t, anyone who speaks at the BIALL Conference must be or just very brave! Unfortunately I don’t think it comes naturally and in situations where we have to “network” with people we don’t know it certainly shows. It also becomes a problem when we think about marketing ourselves, which in the climate we currently work in could be disastrous.
I also wouldn’t say I’m a complete extrovert I don’t think anybody really is, having said that someone I work with here when placed in a room will speak with absolutely anyone, on the proviso that they have something interesting to say! It’s really interesting to watch because it just seems so natural but for me to even consider doing it is completely alien.
July 27th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Neil,
I am in the same camp as you, and often surprise myself with how easy it can be to connect with people. I think you are right about people in the KM/IS sphere — I think that is why we end up here (rather than in marketing, for example). I think social software is particularly useful for introverts.
If you haven’t already seen it, there is an interesting article in The Atlantic from 2003: “Caring for Your Introvert” (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch).