As the adage goes; knowledge is power. But experts also say that a person can only improve on their knowledge by sharing it with others, which is our topic for today. In today’s blog, we’ll explain knowledge sharing and highlight its importance in the workplace.
Moreover, we’ll also identify and elaborate five strategies that promote sharing knowledge at work. So, let’s dive into it.
What is Knowledge Sharing?
Consider it this way. As a manager, you suddenly stumble on some new technology or an agile development method. Now, there are two ways to deal with this. Either you keep this game-changing secret to yourself, or you share it with your team members.
Unfortunately, the former takes place in most organizations, which is not a healthy attitude. Rather, the latter should be the case.
So, whether you’re a leader or part of a team, you should share whatever new knowledge you gain with your team members.
Now, let’s look at the advantages of sharing knowledge in the workplace.
Advantages of Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing has numerous advantages, both for the organization’s culture and your personal growth.
From an organizational perspective, knowledge sharing helps employees learn new skills, which keeps your team updated. According to research, 55% of employees prefer to receive knowledge-based insights from their mentors. So, it’s evident that employees are looking for opportunities that improve their knowledge.
When it comes to your growth, knowledge sharing creates a collaborative culture, where people discuss a new development and debate by putting forth their opinions. Moreover, different minds also come up with different ideas, which creates an influx of diverse solutions.
So, everyone learns something new, which contributes to enriching work, and results in smarter work approaches.
Now, let’s look at five essential strategies that promote knowledge sharing at work.
How to Improve Knowledge Sharing at Work
Here are the strategies that you can use to promote a culture of knowledge sharing in your organization.
1. Acknowledge employees who share knowledge
The easiest thing that you can do to motivate knowledge sharing is to acknowledge existing employees who already follow the practice. You can do this with something as simple as a pat on the back, or make it a bit more elaborate by sending out an email on the “company family group”, acknowledging the employee’s positive gesture.
How does this help? Employees like to be recognized for a job well done, which is evident by the fact that it’s an integral part of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Thus, when you acknowledge the act, you’re not only encouraging the employee, but also others to share knowledge with their peers, which promotes a positive culture within the organization.
2. Conducting trainings and seminars
Training and seminars are another great way to promote knowledge sharing in your organization.
For example, you can hold a physical seminar in your meeting room or auditorium, where you can take charge, and explain new concepts with the help of PowerPoint slides and videos.
Once you explain the concept, you can take a digital or physical test to assess the understanding of your employees. You can also distribute the training material among the participants to facilitate accessibility to the content for future reference.
There are other ways to conduct seminars as well, such as with the help of a “webinar” (online seminar) or, through Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet sessions. Either way, all methods promote organizational knowledge sharing.
3. Promote Documentation
Documentation is one of the best knowledge-sharing strategies. Why’s that? It’s because it’s easier to refer to documents at a later date. Thus, when you hire a new employee, they’ll not only learn the scope of their role but also be able to familiarize themselves with their new responsibilities and handling of daily tasks.
As a result, they’ll be able to easily adapt to their roles and responsibilities, promoting efficiency.
Moreover, rather than documenting only to promote the onboarding of new employees, you can create a centralized database, such as a combined folder across all devices, which provides access to everyone. Thus, all employees can gain knowledge and improve their skills.
4. Encourage coaching opportunities.
Employees are more likely to be invested in an organization that provides coaching opportunities. How can you do this? Provide employees with the open opportunity to take trainings of their choice.
For example, if your paid ads specialist wants to do a course certification from Coursera, tell him/her that the company will finance the course and also allow two hours daily to take the training.
As a result, employees will be more committed to taking training and upgrading their skills.
5. Encourage cross-department collaborations
Another way to promote knowledge sharing is by facilitating cross-functional collaboration among departments. This means that you’ll have to relax your hierarchical structure and allow members from departments to easily interact with each other.
One way to encourage cross-functional collaboration is by changing your existing organizational structure into a matrix. A matrix structure isn’t based on closed departments. Rather, it’s more project-based and includes members from various departments that are segregated into teams dedicated to each project.
This structure facilitates collaborative flow with the help of varying ideas from members from different departments. The combined input results in perspectives and opinions from various departments, which facilitates brainstorming.
To further facilitate cross-department collaborations, you can also take the help of project management tools like Asana and Jira, and platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. These tools create workflows and facilitate cross-communication, which eases the spread of information.
The Takeaways
- Knowledge sharing is essential for organizational success, but only a few companies encourage it.
- Knowledge sharing promotes employee growth and facilitates smart work.
- There are various to promote a culture of knowledge sharing, such as acknowledging people who share insights with their peers, conducting seminars and trainings, facilitating cross-collaboration among departments, documenting work practices, and financing employee training opportunities.
- Encourage knowledge sharing at work, as it promotes a culture of growth, contributes to employee satisfaction, and helps retain employees.
Hence, promote opportunities for knowledge sharing within your organization to promote employee growth and foster a culture of learning.
