One of the biggest issues we see in growing companies, particularly once they pass a certain cliff, is they become very lethargic. Systems slow down, information sharing becomes limited… companies slowly become dinosaurs, very susceptible to the winds of changes. Arguably the biggest company in the world (if not by size, then by process) Amazon has banned powerpoint presentations and instead requires it’s managers to write 6-page “press-release style“ memos.
Why? To make information sharing that scales and prevent knowledge hoarding (because nobody reads power-points)
We call the collective information ethos of a company Organizational IQ. Modern, built-to-last companies utilize their corporate memory, including intellectual assets, in a systematic and organized manner to encourage knowledge sharing. And knowledge, as they say, is power.
Why knowledge sharing?
While the old school methods of getting together to share and exchange information are still valid – a huddle, a lunch break, an offsite weekend – the digital transformation of businesses has changed the language in which we all communicate. There’s cloud storage instead of paperwork, Skype meetings instead of boardroom assemblies, and Slack for internal communication instead of intercom calls.
Knowledge is a crucial asset that thrives on sharing, storage and refinement. Although businesses have been sitting on this goldmine for ages, it’s only in the last decade or so that the consulting industry has highlighted the worth of using a company’s knowledge to form key practices and technologies. The focus on the importance and the employability of a company’s intellectual assets, including corporate memory optimization, has led to the coinage of the term ‘knowledge management’ that’s become a bit of a buzzword.
With knowledge and data growing exponentially, having an efficient knowledge management (KM) tool can help in mapping out and segregating the wealth of information that’s relegated around your organization.
While there are a number of ways in which you can initiate knowledge sharing at your organization, I feel you should start by implementing the following two:
Create a knowledge base:
Companies that are growing at a rapid pace will also be hiring and expanding quickly. With so much shuffling, the HR department has to brief new employees about company processes, and respond to similar questions repeatedly. This continuous circulation of information, if left unmanaged, can take up an incredible number of man-hours and result in a massive dilution of company education.
Using a tool or software equipped with search engine functionality that both the existing and new employees can refer to when required, without having to go through multiple channels. Invest in creating repositories or an indexed knowledge base that can be communicated to all individuals during the first-day orientation to build a self-reliant workforce.
For example, you can start with a few broad categories related to the lessons learned over the years and expertise locator systems, before moving on to sub-categories like best practices databases, incidents reports database and alert systems to locate the required information using highlights or tags. Here are a few tools to help you get started:
- HelpSite.io is an excellent platform that allows you to create mobile-friendly, searchable and responsive FAQs for your platform.
- Use Driftbot to create a chatbot for your knowledge base in order to minimize manual processing and get relevant answers to your queries instantly.
- LifeDigger acts as a more personalized knowledge base, where you can easily build, search and review notes.
Prevent knowledge hoarding amongst employees:
The first step towards creating a self-sufficient and congenial work environment is to foster a culture of knowledge sharing, by breeding trust and collective learning. Intra-company competition and personal inhibitions of individuals make them sceptical of trading valuable information.
An organization in itself runs on collectivism, where the contribution of one individual aids the work of another, which, in turn, enables the entire work system like an interrelated chain reaction. You should encourage your employees to unlearn the concept of ‘knowledge hoarding’ by showing them the exact amount of time they usually spend searching for a vital piece information that could otherwise be easily accessible to all.
Once you’re able to change this outlook, it’ll be easier to introduce knowledge management tools and techniques to streamline the entire process. Doing this ideally leads to a perfect harmony between an organization’s five driving pillars – people, culture, processes, technology, and knowledge. There has been considerable research, standardisation of policy, and streamlining of operations for implementation and collaboration around the first four pillars in recent years.
By contrast, ‘knowledge’, despite being a critical asset to a company, has been largely neglected.
What kind of knowledge sharing tool should you use?
There are a few knowledge sharing tools and platforms for various work systems, however, all of them come with shortcomings of their own. Not to mention, whenever you introduce a new technology at your workplace, a significant amount of time is wasted in training the employees about the latest processes. Given the situation, most people need of a program that integrates easily into the procedures you’re already following, so you don’t have to familiarize yourself with something new.
Shameless plug: this is why we built Kipwise. It seamlessly integrates Slack, which enhances the scope of work without disrupting the workflow.
Unlike other knowledge management technologies (like Confluence), Kipwise does not function as a stand-alone and attaches itself to existing processes and acts as an assistance tool to boost performance. So, instead of using multiple mechanisms to store, search and share information, Kipwise gets rid of the inefficient and unproductive practice of copy-paste and manually messaging.
Apart from this, you can also use Kipwise to:
- Organize, collaborate on and save content for you to access later.
- Add tags to the content directly in Slack to easily locate the required information.
- Sync added an annotation with Slack in real time and update your teammates about the highlights/changes.
- Access all saved content on the Kipwise dashboard.
Incorporating a KM system into your organization will pay great dividends in management, administration, technical, as well as financial aspects. You can identify critical knowledge, make it accessible to your workforce and infuse a culture of collective learning to achieve your business goals in a more structured way.