Knowledge Matters™

I’m annoyed today because twice in less than a week I have been asked by a client to brief consultants masquerading as academics on how I did a business network analysis. To make matters worse a scientist internal to the organisation asked me by e-mail today to:

“Please provide me a copy of your presentation and all your data so that I can brief my boss.”

I have a couple of irritations here. The first is a lack of transparency, dare I say honesty, on behalf of the academics. In both cases it did not emerge until the end of the brief that they were not working for the internal scientific organisation (something my client did not know), and that they were in fact working as independently contracted consultants. I might add their hourly rates are more than twice mine! Yes they are loosely affiliated with my client’s scientific organisation, but they do not work for it and are not reporting to it. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were validating my work but they aren’t. Why do I feel like they are stealing my ideas? Probably because their non-disclosure was unethical!

My second irritation concerns the internal scientist’s request. A colleague and I collected the data; I conducted the analysis, and I provided the senior leadership briefs. The “boss” in question has an office immediately adjacent to the workstation my client has provided – it’s not as if he is interstate or in another location! For almost two years my business partner and I have explained to the scientist and his team how an analysis might be done and how it might add value to the organisation. For two years it fell on deaf ears and was considered too hard. Suddenly, now that it has been done and awkward questions are being asked, it’s important and interesting. Again I wouldn’t mind if the intent was to validate my work, but it isn’t. It’s simply a face-saving or “look how good I am” exercise!

I feel like I am being exploited. My trust has been breached.  I am generous with my rates and time. I pride myself on transferring know-how. I publish on this website much of my work, and every genuine request or question I receive I answer. I’m happy to provide detailed briefs to almost anyone, but in return I expect some credit and acknowledgement. I also expect the people asking the questions to be honest and genuine in their intent. Plagiarism, or the intent to plagiarise, might be the highest form of flattery but for me transparency and honesty matter more than anything else!

Regards Graham