Don’t Recreate the Wheel: Five Tips for Organizational Knowledge Sharing

[Editor’s Note: SMR International and Soutron Global have long had a rewarding strategic alliance. For this post, Soutron Global is graciously sharing the following, written by Soutron Global’s Guest Blogger Sophia Guevara, MLIS, MPA. Thanks to Sophia and the Soutron Global team for permission to reproduce the post here. – Guy St. Clair]

Every day each experience we go through provides us with lessons. Many of those lessons are learned through our work experiences. Organizations are continuously learning new lessons, but much of this knowledge is not actively shared or even promoted. Many lessons learned find their way into a lengthy report headed for a dusty shelf and stay there, causing colleagues to end up recreating the wheel. If information is shared in an easily digestible format, it can improve work, save time and improve the successful outcomes of your organization. If you are open to rethinking how your organization’s knowledge is captured and shared, here are 5 tips:

Tip 1: Systems designed to share

Consider making use of a system like Microsoft Sharepoint to allow others within the organization to access lessons learned and other sources from other departments. Have a system? Ask your tech department to help you create a “Lessons Learned” page to share the department or colleagues’ experiences. Another tip – see if you can get the page promoted on the organization’s intranet to help draw attention to the work accomplished.

Tip 2: Build a repository

What should you consider storing? For recent pieces of work that are large, think about interviewing those most closely associated with the work for lessons learned and tips for others in similar situations. Include presentations, podcasts, videos, infographics and other resources that can help others learn.

Tip 3: Learning sessions

Consider speaking with organizational leadership about sharing lessons during bi-weekly sessions focused on learning and knowledge. A different option would be to include time for these learning sessions during regular staff meetings. If you know this won’t fit in your organization’s culture, see if you can get your team to agree to a ten minute meet-up right at the beginning of the day to give colleagues an opportunity to bring up issues they are facing in their own work. Give others a chance to share their knowledge to help colleagues reach better outcomes. Bring snacks and coffee to encourage participation.

Tip 4: Tools for sharing content

Pick tools that allow your organization to share the knowledge gained so that the staff can work to influence the field rather than just be affected by it. It is important to get clearance from the organization’s legal department, public relations department and leadership beforehand. Once you have approval, think about posting lessons learned on your company’s website or using tools like Slideshare.

Tip 5: Host a knowledge sharing fair

Consider developing a learning fair either on-site at your organization or virtually and think about inviting other departments. Other possibilities include a poster session or recording video where participants share their knowledge for a virtual learning experience.

[Readers who would like to learn more about how Soutron Global’s software can help with knowledge sharing in the organization can contact Tony Saadat at tsaadat@soutronglobal.com for more information.]