10 Tips on Creating a Knowledge-Sharing Culture

Healthy competition can keep your employees sharp, but rivalry can push them to start hoarding information just to stay on top. This is not an environment that will give the best results for your company.

• What is Knowledge Sharing Culture?
• Why Create a Knowledge Sharing Culture?
• How to Create a Knowledge Sharing Culture?

What is Knowledge-Sharing Culture?

Every company and organization has an environment ruled by a specific culture. This culture is based on both spoken and unspoken rules, levels of trust and camaraderie, and other qualities based on what encourages your employees to do their best. So, what does a knowledge-sharing culture, or information-sharing culture, involve?

In a knowledge-sharing culture, employees working and collaborating with each other is the rule of thumb. However, sharing knowledge within an organization is not just about collaboration, but providing the tools to do so as well. 

Implementing an open-door policy, creating an environment of trust and patience, along with appropriate software tools is a way to start a knowledge-sharing culture.

Why Create a Knowledge-Sharing Culture?

While a competitive culture forces employees to keep their skills updated, it can also scare away great talent and hinder productivity. Knowledge sharing done well boosts employee productivity: employees share ideas more freely and take feedback better.

The average employee can spend about five hours every week searching for files and data they need to perform their tasks. This has caused Fortune 500 companies to lose roughly $31.5 billion yearly. 

Knowledge falls through the cracks in an overly competitive culture when employees move on. This causes new hires to spend longer learning the ropes. On top of that, the new hire would have a hard time finding someone to trust from whom to acquire the information they need.

How to Create a Knowledge-Sharing Culture?

1. Start an Open Door Policy

Your employees will not feel comfortable openly sharing information if management isn’t willing to do so as well. An open-door policy does not mean one’s workspace would be encroached on, it just means employees are welcome to share thoughts and ideas with their supervisors and team members. 

Employees should feel free to approach anyone in the company to answer any doubts or questions at any time, free of judgment. This builds the team bonding a knowledge-sharing culture depends on.

2. Implement Knowledge Sharing Software

What is your organization currently using as your task and information management system? A proper cloud-based knowledge-sharing software platform, like Kipwise, lets anyone find the information they need without leaving their terminal. That alone makes day-to-day work faster and easier.

Software alone doesn’t create the culture: a wiki full of stale pages trains people to stop trusting it and go back to asking a person directly, which is the habit you were trying to break. Give every important page an owner and a review date, not just a home. When a page has no owner, the fastest fix is usually to archive it rather than leave it live and wrong; a smaller wiki people trust beats a large one they double-check.

3. Encourage Knowledge Sharing

Make sure there is time for your employees to share and bounce ideas among them. Some employees will be more excited than others to do so. Start with the ones who are already open to sharing, and let their enthusiasm carry the rest.

It is also important for you to share information and upcoming projects with your employees. 

4. Reward Your Employees for Sharing Knowledge

Working in a knowledge-sharing culture is not always a natural process, some teams might find it easier if they are rewarded. External motivators work too, like the stamp card a coffee shop gives returning customers. Offer that kind of reward to anyone who shared ideas during a set period.

Real-life rewards can be anything from free food and online gift cards to discounts for local shops.

5. Making Mistakes is Fine, but Document Them

For employees to know they feel comfortable sharing ideas, they must know making mistakes at work is O.K. and will not be judged or punished for it.

A way to do this is to discuss what worked, and just as openly cover what didn’t and why. Use them as a learning experience, rather than a reason to judge and punish.

6. Assign Mentors

Hiring great talent is a priority for any organization, but you can lose time in training and getting them used to a knowledge-sharing culture. In all organizations, there’s a group of employees who are more knowledgeable or experienced. Capitalize on these team members by providing a platform to share their knowledge as mentors.

These mentors are meant to be someone the new hire can trust and go to with questions or concerns. Mentors are not meant to be your new employee’s immediate supervisor.

7. Allow Shadowing of Employees by New Hires

Sometimes employees may simply not feel they have worthwhile knowledge or know what knowledge is worthwhile.

For such cases, you can arrange for your new hire to shadow someone who is comfortable in the knowledge-sharing culture. When the shadowing employees are able to observe how their co-worker operates, they will be more knowledgeable and, hopefully, be more comfortable sharing.

8. Ask Employees for Their Input

The best way to know how your employees are feeling and how comfortable they are sharing information is to ask them directly for their input. Many organizations assume employees have nothing valuable to add, or that they would volunteer it unprompted if they did. Both assumptions are usually wrong.

It’s important to have a system to periodically collect feedback from your employees and other team members. This will ensure the knowledge-sharing culture is working as it should and employees feel comfortable in your organization. 

9. Schedule Social Events for Employees

Team bonding brings employees closer together and makes them more comfortable sharing ideas with each other. You can’t have teamwork without people who feel like a team.

When deciding on what social event to have, make sure is something all your employees can participate in.

10. Have Patience

You are taking the first step towards a healthier and more efficient work environment. However, you will need to be patient while your employees adjust. Competitive work environments are the norm, and employees who are used to this culture will have a hard time trusting a new culture.

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