Can Knowledge-centricity be a competitive advantage?

I was speaking to a client a few weeks back, on the topic of Microsoft SharePoint and Viva, and why I think they could benefit from lifting their gaze and aiming a little higher, than replacing one content management system for another (a.k.a. do more than the classic “rip’n replace”).

I suggested tweaking their scope just a little, expanding the work they had already planned, and go beyond document governance, meta data, and taxonomy, to incorporate Teams governance and best practices into their scope. Next, I suggested a gradual expansion of the scope to include processes beyond their “production process”, not directly associated with customer projects – as they have very well-defined processes for their external-facing projects, why not apply that experience and skill to internal projects within supporting processes, like IT, Finance and HR? Introducing common approaches to planning, execution and harvesting of lessons learned for other project-like activities as well.

The knowledge gained on every project, internal or external, could be valuable input into the sourcing of future sub-contractors, suppliers, and collaboration partners. These learnings could also go into their learning process and used for developing training, but also to identify skills, or competence, gaps. Gaps valuable to HR, when processing resumes and applications, in the hiring process, and in the development of onboarding guides and content.

A foundational “learning organization”, that captures experiences from across the organization consistently and repeatedly, feeding those back into every business process, is a solid foundation to grow a knowledge-centric organisation upon.

A next natural step to take from there, could be to look at how experiences and learnings are captured and shared and start thinking about other, more collaborative ways to help people learn and grow – like establishing “interest groups” or internal “networks”, where people could discuss common problems or ideas. Build informal, lightweight versions of “Communities of Practice” if you will.

By starting small and gradually expanding those groups, they could grow and evolve into more systematic and intentional “expert groups”, that are not just an alternative to classic training and onboarding but can serve as an open and inclusive means to building a sense of purpose and belonging for the employees. And double as a democratic communications platform for leaders and experts, to provide clarity of business objectives and goals, and drive engagement across teams – through dialogue, vis-à-vis information distribution.

These are small steps that go a long way, to becoming a knowledge-centric organization, instead of staying an information-centric one. Steps that do not require massive investments in new tools or technology…

And they will absolutely, without a doubt, create competitive advantages, in numerous ways:

• Employee satisfaction will go up, because people feel seen and heard and that their work, experience, and expertise are put to effective use and benefit everyone
• Productivity will rise, as motivation grows with recognition and sense of purpose
• People will be happier about both work and workplace, which means negative attrition will go down, as will costs associated with knowledge loss

A knowledge-centric organisation is a place where knowledge and experiences are consistently harvested, and people see the benefit of sharing their work and expertise – and feel good about it! People learn from each other and see the value of growing the collective knowledge together, because they are recognised for it, and their expertise and learnings are immediately used – across every part of the organisation!