Knowledge Sharing. How To Make It A Success?

“Great Isabel, this evolution I see in my employees’ behaviour. They use LinkedIn to learn and to share knowledge. But now: how to make this change sustainable?”

In order to find an answer to my clients’ question, I decided to read books about habit formation (The Power of Habit – Better Than Before – Atomic Habits). But books only would not do the trick. I also wanted to learn from other people’s experiences and I launched a question on LinkedIn “How to make knowledge sharing a habit in your organisation – who wants to participate in my experiment?” 19 people reacted and I scheduled calls to give them an a concrete list of questions to reflect upon.

The books I read and the conversations I had with those people from Guatemala, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, gave me a lot of interesting ideas. Ideas that hopefully can help you when you want to promote knowledge sharing within the company or when you want your employees to become ambassadors on social media. 

1. Knowledge sharing as a reflection of our identity

Most of the literature about habits focuses on the change of behaviour (what / how). One chapter in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits explores a deeper layer: the layer of identity (who). “Your behaviours are usually a reflection of your identity.” (page 34).

The importance of the identity as a deeper layer that shapes habits became clear during my conversations with the people who participated in the experiment. Please note that all of them are passionate about knowledge sharing. I asked them to explain why: “why do you love to share?”

Their answers revealed something about their identity, their values, what they stand for.

• “I am passionate about my area of expertise. And this passion drives me to learn, to look for new information. This passion, this dedication to my field also drives me to share what I have found, what I have learned.”
• “It’s up to me to take care of my professional career. Sharing knowledge is a way of building my own brand, it’s taking care of my future.”
•  “Keeping on learning, growing, developing myself is simply crucial. It’s important to notice new things, to be open minded, to discover new ideas.”
•  “I like this idea of being a connector. Connecting with people through knowledge. But also connecting other people with each other.”
• “Sharing knowledge is about participating in dialogues, really listening to others, taking the time to reflect, being nurtured by new perspectives. All of this really gives me energy.”

In sum. The recurring elements in the participants’ answers were:

1. Passion about a certain topic.
2. A strong eagerness to learn.
3. The willingness of being in control of the future professional development.
4. Joy found in connections and dialogue.
5. Conviction of the importance about taking the time to reflect.

In my training sessions I often meet people who do not like sharing at all. The words these people use are clearly different:

• “I once posted something on Yammer. And other people reacted to it. Do I really have to read all those comments?”
• “I already spend a lot of hours doing my job and when not having to work I definitely prefer not to think about my company anymore.”
• “My job is about executing what other people told me to do. I do not have the time to reflect. By the way: work is about doing things.”

The words those people use clearly reflect other values, other beliefs that do not promote but rather inhibit knowledge sharing.

While talking to the experiment’s participants I also heard another interesting quote that illustrates the role played by identity:

“In my former job I was a consultant and I really liked being one. But this also the reason why sometimes I do not share. A consultant is a person who founds solutions. Sharing knowledge is about showing yourself as a person who is still looking for the right solution.”

The people in the experiment who love to share have these traits in common: passion about a certain topic; a strong eagerness to learn; the willingness of being in control of the future professional development; joy found in connections and dialogue; conviction of the importance about taking the time to reflect.

2. Sharing as a reflection of our identity: how to use that idea when promoting knowledge sharing?

It might be a good idea to start training those people whose identity is “naturally” promoting the behaviour of knowledge sharing: people with a great passion about their field of expertise – with a strong eagerness to learn – willing of being in control of the future professional development – passionate about connection and dialogue – people with a growth mindset who like learning.

You would only have to focus on the skills part since the right mindset is already there.

And then: what about the others?

“Behaviour that is incongruent with the self will not last.” That’s what James Clear writes in his book Atomic Habits. So what about the employees whose identity, whose values and beliefs do not promote knowledge sharing? Can we force all our employees to be passionate about their work? To like learning? To take control over their development? Is it up to us to change employees’ identity? Are we allowed to do so? Is it possible?

I do not have the final answer to these questions, but while discussing this with Anneleen Arnold working at ING she raised an interesting point: “We could start by making people clear that not being a lifelong learner is not the most adequate strategy to survive in this ever changing world.” Well, that’s a nice quote!

"We could start by making people clear that not being a lifelong learner is not the most adequate strategy to survive in this ever changing world." Anneleen Arnold - ING

3. Cue & reward. The basic mechanism behind habits.

In his book Charles Duhigg explains the basic mechanism behind habits. 

I was particularly interested in the reward and asked participants to reflect upon it. Maslow’s pyramid allowed me to categorize the answers as follows:

Esteem needs – recognition – prestige – accomplishment:

• “It’s a recognition of my expertise.”
• “It’s nice that people like what I have shared, that they even say “thank you” or “hey I will use that”! It’s a confirmation of my added value, a recognition of my work.”
• “It’s about establishing myself as a Subject Matter Expert. Branding myself. It will help my professional career. It will give me opportunities for promotion, inside and outside the organisation.”
• "The comments on my posts make me realise that what I have learned is also valuable for someone else. That makes me happy."
• "Something is settling and coming to rest. For myself AND for the other person. A good explanation is sometimes followed by silence. It is as if I could feel the insight of/ in the other person."

Belongingness

• “It helps me to find people who work on the same topic.”

Self-actualisation

• “It helps me to grow and to become the person I want to become.”
• “This goes far more deeper than just social media. Sharing my knowledge allowed me to find my purpose, it’s a strong sense-making activity.”
• “It’s an assurance against burn-out. Let me explain: I can only share what is meaningful to me, what is really touching me, so sharing on social media is a way of becoming conscious of what is really touching me. And by doing so I even find other people who are touched by the same topics.”
• "By sharing my knowledge I realise that - even when days are difficult or when things go wrong - I learn something new every day."
• “Taking the time for reflection is like giving a present to myself. It’s about learning and growing as a professional and as a person.”

I was particularly touched by the quotes refering to the highest level in Maslow’s pyramid (self-actualisation). I hope you want to take the time to read them again and to appreciate their beauty.  

"Sharing knowledge helps me to grow and to become the person I want to become." Sharing is about self-actualisation.

4. The different rewards of knowledge sharing. How to use that idea when promoting knowledge sharing?

The reward as described by Charles Duhigg is “a prize telling your brain this loop is worth remembering in the future.” But James Clear adds “it is the expectation of a rewarding experience that motivates us to act in the first place.” (p. 108).

If this is true, if the power of the expectation of the reward is so strong, I think it might be a good idea to make people reflect upon the reward they get because of sharing knowledge. And not just reflect upon it but maybe even asking them to write their reflections down. It is my assumption this will reinforce the power of the expectation. 

5. The organisational level: even more important than the individual one

“Interesting this exercise about my identity, values and beliefs. But by focusing on that you might neglect a more fundamental layer: the organisational one.” That’s what Arno Sprengers, one of the participants told me.

“The individual identity shapes habits, that’s true. But this also applies to the identity of the organisation.” He added. “Some organisations inhibit sharing while others promote it. Not taking into account this element is like building a house on a weak foundation”. 

So how to build a strong foundation? A foundation that allows and encourages employees to share? I don’t think I have a complete view but let me mention already the following 3 elements:

A. Work = action + reflection

B. Psychological safety

C. Community-thinking

“Some organisational cultures inhibit sharing while others promote it. Not taking into account this element is like building a house on a weak foundation”. Arno Sprengers

6. The organisational level: Work = action + reflection

Sharing knowlegde presupposes you take the time to reflect. But not everybody is allowed to do so. “I pay you to act not to reflect.” That’s what one of my former managers once told me. This statement shocked me. Was this a vestige of old ways of working? A souvenir of a world where time for reflection was reserved for the happy few, the upper layer of the organisation?

While talking recently to this upper layer in a big multinational, I realised my analysis was incorrect. What they told me made me realise even senior management does not always take the time to reflect. “I simply do not have the time to do so.”

According to a 2017 article in the Harvard Business Review even leaders do not take the time to reflect because they “have a bias towards action” (…), “they don’t like the process because then they have to tolerate messiness, inefficiency and feelings of vulnerability”.

Anyhow, it is my strong belief all layers of the organisation chart should take the time to reflect. Because the world has changed fundamentally. Before, work was about following clear instructions and linear processes. Nowadays, linear processes and stability are replaced by constant change and complex challenges. Questioning one’s way of working, learning quickly and adapting constantly has become important for all of us.

But is is damned difficult to get rid of the paradigm that work is all about action. One of the participants in the experiment said “even though my organisation is promoting sharing, I feel guilty when I take the time to reflect during my working hours”.

“Even though my organisation is promoting sharing, I feel guilty when I take the time to reflect during my working hours.”

7. Work = action + reflection. How to use that idea when promoting knowledge sharing?

I have to admit I am stuck here. How to inject more time for reflection in our daily workflow? I can only hope the rise of “agile” impacts our old ways of working. The agile mindset preconizes retrospectives, regular points for reflection, learning and readjustement. But how to convert employees, trained to follow linear paths, to be failure averse and to communicate only when a product is finished, to this fuzzy and mysterious religion?

A recent podcast with a professor from the London School of Business refers to ING where “agile is used not just in the IT department but also in a lot of customer facing functions”. The professor talks about “cross-functional teams working in rapid iterations with their customers, teams that take responsability for both the work they are doing and the consequences of that work”.

To be honest, I think there is a long way to go. 

8. The organisational level: psychological safety.

Researcher Amy Edmonsson defines psychological safety as “the belief that all work relevant content is welcome, even content that might not make us look so good, like asking for help, sharing mistakes and voicing half-finished thoughts.” This is exactly where the shoe pinches. In the past we were supposed to show ourselves as people who know-it-all, perfect employees who speak up when they have found the solution. The idea of sharing work in progress, thus being seen as somebody who is still learning, struggling to find the answers, causes discomfort. 

9. The organisational level: how to install more psychological safety?

Psychological safety is a prerequisite for prosperous knowledge sharing. That’s also the reason why I was eager to read Amy’s Edmonsson latest book ‘”The Fearless Organization”. I wanted to know how to install this atmosphere where people can feel free to discuss, without the fear of reproach when having work related problems they cannot solve immediately.

Unfortunately, reading Amy’s book did not give me a clear answer to my question.

I did find 2 interesting elements: one in article published by researcher Paul Leonardi and another one during my work with SUEZ.

Paul Leonardi talks about the crucial role played by managers on social media platforms. He refers to a research that shows that managers create more psychological safety by publically responding to someone’s post that he does not have the knowledge to solve a problem and is looking for help himself with comments like “great question, I don’t know that either, I’d love to see what people come up with”.

The crucial role played by leadership also became clear when I recorded a video with SUEZ’ Belgian CEO, Philippe Tychon. He wants his senior leadership to play a more active role on LinkedIn. He says “I do understand that posting on social media causes fear. Fear of losing time. Fear of losing control. But I am confident the learning track will help you to master this new skill and new mindset. I am also confident you will get in control of the new streams of information and that you will become a part of digital communities. Posting on social media also allows us to live the SUEZ’ values: sharing expertise, continuous development of our teams, trust.”

When I asked the participants to tell me what they heard, they said “Our CEO acknowledges this is new for us, but he gives us the time to learn. He trusts us.”

The CEO’s message was a good way of building psychological safety. 

10. The organisational level: community-thinking.

Knowledge sharing presupposes a specific mindset: the idea that we, as employees, are not only part of a team, a business unit and an organisation, but that we are also part of communities. Communities that go beyond the barriers of our team, our business unit, our organisation. 

For younger people this idea of finding their information in the network, of being connected is quite natural. But that does not mean it’s easy for them to share their knowledge. And about the older people in organisations, I can only say there is still a lot of work to be done. 

In conclusion

Do you want your employees to share knowledge inside the company? Or do you want them to play an active role on LinkedIn? First of all do not underestimate the change it requires. And secondly look for other people to help you answering the following questions: 

1. Who in your organisation corresponds to the following profile: leaders / employees passionate about a certain topic, strong eagerness to learn, willingness of being in control of the future professional development, joy found in connections and dialogue, conviction of the importance about taking the time to reflect. Those people could act as ambassadors. Train them and make sure their managers are not blocking factors.
2. How to make sure your ambassadors become more conscious about the reward of sharing?
3. What actions have to be taken in order to make sure working hours are not only about action but also about reflection?
4. How to make sure leaders show the appropriate behaviour in order to install more psychological safety?
5. How to help people to feel the strength of communities?

The last 3 questions are the most difficult ones.

If you would like to know more about the learning track #connectsharelead, please email [email protected] or call 00 32 477 87 24 69. I would love to help you setting up a sharing organisation. 

And to end: I especially would like to thank all the people who participated in this experiment. Without their generosity this article would never have been written.

Arno Sprengers (ASML - the Netherlands), Veronika Haug (Robert Bosch - Germany), Anneleen Arnold (Acerta - Belgium), Dirk Vanderhoydonck (Acerta - Belgium), Sylva De Craecker (Acerta - Belgium), Frederik Simoen (Luminus - Belgium), Silke Kramprich (Laser Zentrum Hannover - Germany), Anja Blesl (Brose Group - Germany), Diego Alvarado (Corporacion Multi Inversiones - Guatemala), Pascale Cox (SBS Skill BuilderS - Belgium) - Daniella Cunha Teichert (Robert Bosch - Germany), Barbara Hilgert (independant agile coach - Germany), Yves Willems (A Hermes - Belgium), Michael J. Hild (Munich RE Group - Germany), Alexandra Giroux (MLOZ - Belgium), Ellen Buwalda (Belastingdienst - The Netherlands), Jeanine Hoppe (Baloise - Switzerland), Maret Karaca (Holisticon AG - Germany), Frédérique Thiriet-Smith (BASF - Germany).