Knowledge Sharing Culture – Exploring Realities, Treaties, and Solutions.

A) Exploring the Cultural realities

?"First, I’ll prepare a well thought question then ask it to the community..."        

"I’m hesitant whether I should post the question to the community or ask my colleague..."        

"I’m not sure if the community is going to answer my question…"        

?It's a reality that some of the members don't ask questions because they're intimidated and afraid to look incompetent in front of their colleagues. By going online, it may?impact their image in front of their managers,?affect their evaluation or simply being hesitant about it. I have spotted additional realities that hinder the inauguration of a knowledge sharing and learning culture. For example:

• Engineers, field technicians and operations most probably will disconnect and lose interest whenever they are preached around collaboration and/ or Knowledge sharing.
• Employees consider that they’re already collaborating through conference calls, workshops, customer projects, committees, and cross-functional teams.
• Employees put in the mix all types of collaborative technologies: Box, Yammer, Teams, SharePoint, Alfresco, Jive, Tableau… with a little of efforts to understand the differences.?
• Knowledge management terminologies and vocab are often outside of the employee’s linguistic field and perceived as jargon.
• People leaders expect their team members to get the job done indifferently of the way it’s done.
• Success metrics are financial and outcome-related and rarely measure the degree of collaboration, shared or reused knowledge.
• Beliefs, norms, and attitudes towards collaboration are most often a cumulation of long-life events that rooted from early childhood, get amplified in school/ university and stamped with the first work experience. Changing one’s belief at mid-20s is a past-due educational challenge.

Human nature also tends to collaborate in smaller groups, or circles where they have established a solid relationship, a special connection (similar life experiences), an informal bonding (sport, cooking, school...) so they trust each other. The Dunbar number limits the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships around 150. This limit is based on the size of the neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for cognitive processing. According to Dunbar, this number represents the maximum number of individuals with whom a person can maintain meaningful relationships, beyond which it becomes increasingly difficult to sustain close connections. The Dunbar model (5-15-150) has been observed in various social contexts, including personal family and close friends (5), inner circle (15), and social groups (150). Beyond this number, maintaining stable social relationships becomes increasingly challenging due to cognitive limits on social processing.

?The question related to the inauguration of the knowledge sharing culture becomes:

"How to establish?trust?and?a safe climate?to ask openly and freely?on a bigger scale? on a?much larger basis? among people that have never met?or?worked together? "

B) Suggestion of treaties for remediation

?To address the realities described above and answer the question of fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and learning, I can suggest some of these treaties:

1. ?Include in the HR competency evaluation framework the ‘asking a question’ as a curiosity behavior. Demand from people leaders and middle managers to lead by example and start asking questions as a valuable part of the learning process rather than incompetence or deficiency.
2. ?Create the collaboration tools poster (A3 format) highlighting the unique benefits of the different collaborative technologies available. Show and explain to employees when and how each tool can enhance productivity in the flow of their work.
3. Avoid using jargon, knowledge management terminology and vocabulary. I always try to match my speech with the target audience. For example, I learn the fundamentals of the automotive industry if I’m pitching to the transmission system engineers. By doing this, I establish a rapport with the group, so they feel more comfortable and ready to listen for any knowledge sharing initiatives.
4. Work with the KM program sponsor and top management to expand success metrics beyond financial and outcome-related measures to include indicators of collaboration, shared knowledge, and reuse of information. This can help reinforce the value of collaboration and provide feedback on the effectiveness of knowledge sharing initiatives.
5. ?Address deep-seated beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes towards collaboration. Truly, they are deeply ingrained and may require long-term efforts to change. I conduct and prioritize education sessions over technology training. These educational programs and interventions target mindset shifts and provide ongoing awareness and reinforcement towards a culture of learning and knowledge sharing.?

C) Long-term and sustainable solution

?Sustaining a culture of learning and knowledge sharing requires a multifaceted approach that fosters engagement, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 3R Knowledge Services has long experience in designing and implementing community-based knowledge sharing programs. Unlike other approaches that are prescriptive, 3R knowledge approach is pragmatic/ activist towards collaboration. We create a supportive environment where individuals feel empowered to share their expertise and experiences openly.

At 3R Knowledge Services we can help you design, build, and operate a long-term and sustainable solution for knowledge sharing. We've done this before! Engage with us at [email protected]