Knowledge sharing culture

Summary

Knowledge sharing culture is about making knowledge sharing the norm.

Some important notes: Learning to make knowledge productive is at least as important as sharing knowledge.

Elements

Key elements of building a knowledge sharing culture

• exemplary leadership at every level
• celebrating successes of the organization
• provision of resources necessary for people to find the information and knowledge they need themselves
• clarification of the business case and value proposition in specific terms

Trust

A high level of trust creates a safer environment for knowledge sharing!

There are two major types of trust:

◦personal trust
◦knowledge or topical trust (trust in another person's skills and knowledge)

One might not trust a co-worker on a personal level, but still might trust in his skills and knowledge - trust his professional judgment. However, personal and knowledge trust are usually related and most people prefer to work with those about whom they fell positive about.

If the trust level is high, people feel that:

◦sharing their knowledge is safe and will not have negative consequences,
◦there is some reciprocal value (either immediately or at some point in future) that they get back for sharing their knowledge

Challenges

• Understanding and fighting the paradigm that knowledge is often power.
• Share all knowledge is not necessary, sometimes it might be harmful or not valuable