5 Things You Should Know About Knowledge Sharing

How to grow your organisation’s intellectual assets for free

What is knowledge sharing?

Simply put, knowledge sharing is a process that — when implemented properly — establishes an organisational culture in which information can be recorded and shared between colleagues easily and openly. Adopting this approach means that the right knowledge can reach the right people at the right time with greater reliability.

Are there different types of knowledge?

Before we get further into detail on the specifics of knowledge sharing, it’s important to make a distinction between the two main types of knowledge: Tacit and Explicit.

Tacit knowledge is dynamic in nature and is acquired through expertise and learned through individual experiences and narrative. An organisation’s culture, values and beliefs are also tacit, to a large extent.

On the other hand, explicit knowledge is entrenched within an organisation’s core structure, policies and procedures. It is a tangible resource and can be easily measured and identified.

Whilst it’s important for an organisation to agree upon an explicit knowledge structure of ‘how things should be done’, a successful knowledge sharing strategy must also harness the tacit knowledge of individuals within the team in order to maximise intellectual capital.

Unfortunately tacit knowledge is often trickier to capture and curate than explicit knowledge. Sharing tacit knowledge also requires high levels of trust and the founding of strong relationships as a prerequisite for success. However, despite requiring more effort and preparation, effectively extracting and sharing your team’s tacit knowledge will increase the value of your organisation’s intellectual assets exponentially.

How to implement an effective knowledge sharing strategy

First and foremost, efficient knowledge sharing requires a solid social structure and thriving internal networks as prerequisites within your organisation before any strategy can be implemented. But applying and achieving an exceptional knowledge sharing strategy is a tall order, so don’t discount the role of technology in this process.

Most likely, you’re going to need a tool to support your knowledge sharing, and not just for curation purposes; email, intranet systems, training resources and repositories are just a few examples of platforms where valuable knowledge sharing takes place within organisational structures on a daily basis.

Remember that any technology you choose will need to be easily-accessible whilst allowing integration into workflows — not to mention flexible enough to allow interactions to flourish!

Nodemap as a knowledge sharing platform

Nodemap breaks down the wall of verbal communication and allows for the sharing of knowledge via highly interactive, visual representations of roadmaps, guides, plans and procedures.

These maps can easily be shared as a URL to those people you want to build a knowledge sharing relationship with. Whether you’re sharing your processes with a new hire or educating clients and students, Nodemap gives you the ability to share knowledge like never before.