The concept may seem simple enough, but there is much more to establishing a knowledge sharing culture than meets the eye. You create online learning materials with specific learning objectives, provide your employees with the resources they need to successfully achieve those objectives, and enable them to work. However, effectively establishing a culture that embraces knowledge sharing requires careful organization, actively engaged workers and a strong online e-learning community. Allen Woo, a specialist in harmonious work environments, discusses how to transfer knowledge among team members.
Fostering a culture that embraces the sharing of knowledge is one that helps your organization fill information gaps, increase performance and productivity, and encourage leaders within your company. The use of technology can be one of your best tools for fostering your knowledge-sharing culture, as it can help you eliminate workplace communication barriers within your organization and increase the ease and efficiency of knowledge transfer.
Maximizing the knowledge that exists within your organization is one of the many essential ingredients for business prosperity. Yet, too few companies are harnessing its power by establishing a defined corporate knowledge-sharing strategy.
Modern companies understand that learning occurs through a combination of formal, informal and experiential learning. The use of technology, such as an e-learning platform, which supports a blended learning approach can be critically important to bringing an effective knowledge-sharing culture to life.
“Even in this era we live in, many organizations continue to miss the mark. In fact, many organizations have not provided employees with a forum or community where they can ask questions and share their knowledge,” Woo explains.
An analysis conducted by the expert found that 30% of all organizations do not have forums or communities set up where employees can contribute and absorb knowledge from their peers. Only 20% believed that knowledge sharing was effective or very effective.
Supporting knowledge sharing within the workflow has proven to be incredibly effective. Coupling your knowledge management strategy with learning technology yields a number of measurable and actionable benefits.
Woo adds, “A learning management system can help you deliver more engaging training materials, facilitate blended learning, and increase your visibility into your employees’ activities, which can help identify skills gaps and establish strategies to close them.”
Making the most of your human resources to increase productivity and efficiency is a benefit of this practice. Since all employees should participate in their knowledge-sharing experience, everyone has the opportunity to give and receive valuable information and insights to improve productivity and efficiency, making the best use of their human resources.
In addition, organizations can reduce their training costs. This is because there will be less reliance on formal e-learning tactics and materials, relying instead on valuable online discussions that happen organically, and other e-learning initiatives based on collaboration and workflow learning.
Motivating employees to play an active role in e-learning conversations is necessary. Give learners a way to contribute to conversations, share ideas, ask questions, and address the concerns of their peers.
“Motivate employees to participate and actively engage with the online learning materials they interact with, and improve knowledge retention,” Woo suggests. “It also provides learning managers with a way to collect and analyze the results of existing learning activities and customize new programs based on new goals and objectives that match the future needs of an organization’s learners.”
The pace at which today’s organizations must operate is a symptom of technologies that allow knowledge to be continuously updated. This is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a valuable resource in building a culture of knowledge sharing because it ensures that whatever information a learner wants to access is not only current, but also valuable to whatever their circumstances. time. This involves ensuring that the right mechanisms are in place to demonstrate to employees how knowledge is shared, absorbed, and the value it has for the company and their peers.
In a knowledge-sharing culture, reward and recognition systems do not reward individual effort and knowledge. Still, they celebrate the creation of knowledge and the sharing and reuse of that knowledge among the collective organization. Doing this effectively requires a connection between business objectives and strategies, the people involved and the factors that motivate them.