For productivity to flourish in the workplace, team members must share knowledge. It enables each worker to complete their tasks more efficiently and learn new skills. Meanwhile, it makes the company’s operation run smoother and provides quality products and services to customers.
However, how can you inspire knowledge sharing in the organisation with your colleagues’ different specialities and work values? Here are 10 ways you can do to encourage knowledge-sharing:
Create A Culture Of Learning And Growth
The first thing you need to do to encourage knowledge sharing is creating a learning and growth culture that your company focuses on.
To create this culture, you must help your team understand why learning and growth are essential for everyone’s success and how their thoughts matter.
Provide Avenues For Knowledge Sharing And Knowledge Databases
When everyone is supportive of the initiative, you need to create avenues for them to start knowledge sharing. These avenues could be in the form of open meeting rooms, community boards, and even collaboration apps that can help the team communicate in real-time.
Encourage Various Forms Of Knowledge Sharing
While creating new avenues for collaboration and knowledge sharing, don’t hesitate to encourage informal sharing of information.
For example, you can have remote virtual events, coffee areas for talks and casual areas for other workers to meet other departments. You can even hold off-site events for knowledge sharing.
Use The Right Tools For Better Knowledge Sharing
Since there are various ways to share knowledge, you should identify which tools to use to transfer certain types of information.
For example, if the knowledge being shared requires a demonstration, you should use video conferencing apps or video sharing sites. If the knowledge is factual and requires documentation, you should use a wiki-style website.
Have A Primary Resource For Everyone To Use
Knowledge sharing involves making current knowledge and specialities into assets everyone can use. However, there will be times when your team may be unable to use collaboration apps and the other avenues you have set up for knowledge sharing.
To combat this, you should have a primary resource that will help your team look into the knowledge content already shared without going through chat logs and forum pages.
Make sure that this primary resource is regularly updated to keep everyone up-to-date with the latest information.
Give Everyone Their Roles For The Initiative
To foster collaboration, you should assign roles to your team. By giving them roles, they will be motivated to continue learning and teaching others and open new opportunities for new knowledge shared.
Lead By Example
Knowledge sharing would not push through if there isn’t a person who would take the initiative to propose it and promote it. As the manager or team leader, you should lead the charge to encourage knowledge sharing and build trust for the effort.
Be a person who is transparent and open to collaboration with anyone, regardless of their position in the team. Once people see your initiative, they will follow.
Have A Standardised Knowledge Sharing Process
To make your knowledge sharing more efficient, you must have a standard process to follow. Typically, knowledge sharing may involve one of these steps or all of them.
Knowledge delivery
Knowledge documentation
Knowledge demonstration
Knowledge intake
Documented knowledge update
Each step has its pros and cons, and it will depend on your process on how these steps will be successful. Some of the factors you need to consider when making your standards include the knowledge that your company needs or must share, who will be involved in the process, and how the knowledge will be shared.
Don’t hesitate to collaborate with your team to develop a working process that works for everyone and opens more collaboration opportunities.
Schedule Training Seminars For Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing will not be complete if you do not have people to share vital information with the organisation. With this said, make it a point to invite experts to talk to your team about certain aspects of the industry they specialise in.
Having them involved during training seminars would allow your team to learn more about their tasks and better understand their role in the company. Experts can also help you save time sharing critical information otherwise challenging to transmit with simple documentation.
Acknowledge Everyone’s Efforts In Knowledge Sharing
You must remember that your knowledge sharing process will not work without your team. When you see that your efforts are improving the team’s productivity and bringing more income to the company, you need to let the team know it would not be possible without their contribution. You can thank them by giving them rewards or incentives, inspiring them to continue contributing to the effort.
Conclusion
Every employee deserves an opportunity to contribute to the companies they are a part of. With the onset of remote working, which affects team relationships and knowledge sharing, it is necessary to overcome it. With the steps above, you will foster collaboration and inclusiveness in your organisation.
Conducive workplace is what makes everyone productive. Check out here how to create a better working environment: How to Manage Pandemic Fatigue in Your Workplace How to Develop a Growth Mindset at Your Workplace What Is A Toxic Workplace?
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