[
](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553378589?ie=UTF8&tag=vantan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553378589) Currently I’m reading ‘[Working with Emotional Intelligence’](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553378589?ie=UTF8&tag=vantan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553378589), which is Daniel Goleman’s follow-up to his hugely successful book, ‘Emotional Intelligence’.
Here’s an excerpt which is relevant to the work I’m currently handling. As we endeavour to improve information flow, we must remember it’s not just having a knowledge repository (systems/infrastructure) but building a sharing culture (people):
> When it comes to technical skill and the core competencies that make a company competitive, the ability to outperform others depends on the relationships of the people involved. In [John Seely] Brown’s words, “You can’t divorce competencies from the social fabric that supports them.”
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> Just as maximising the IQ of a small working group depends on the effective knitting together of the people within the group, so with organizations as a whole: Emotional, social, and political realities can enhance or degrade what the organization potentially can do. If the people in the organization cannot work well together, if they lack initiative, connection, or any of the other emotional competencies, the collective intelligence suffers as a result.
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> This need for smooth coordination of widely distributed knowledge and technical expertise has led some corporations to create a new role: that of “chief learning officer,” or CLO, whose job it is to direct knowledge and information within an organization. But it’s all too easy to reduce an organization’s “intelligence” to its databases and technical expertise. Despite the ever greater reliance on information technology in organizations, it’s put to use by people. Organizations that have such learning officers might do well to expand the CLO’s (or someone’s) duties to include maximizing the collective emotional intelligence.