How a Culture of Knowledge Sharing Contributes to Your Success

Sharing knowledge within a team has never been easier, thanks to all the tools we have today — from software to digital communication and the internet. But with all that information flying around, it can quickly get overwhelming, and staying organized can become a challenge. Plus, not everyone is eager to share what they know. That’s why business leaders need to focus on making knowledge sharing simpler and even encourage their teams to collaborate and share their expertise.

Knowledge sharing ultimately promotes healthy, sustainable growth for modern businesses, regardless of industry. Here are some ways in which prioritizing knowledge sharing can help your organization succeed and thrive.

How knowledge sharing transforms organizational culture

These days, transparency in business — both with customers and internally — is more important than ever. Customers appreciate companies that are open and honest, and for employees, internal transparency is one of the key factors when deciding whether to join a company.

Incorporating radical honesty into your business practices is the first step to creating a workplace where employees feel comfortable sharing their knowledge. When your company’s culture supports open communication, it not only helps your team perform better but also gives you the edge in attracting and keeping top talent. This is especially true in hybrid and remote work environments, where 74% of remote workers define career growth as opportunities to learn a new skill.

An organization that values knowledge sharing becomes more efficient in its workflows and processes, while also boosting overall agility and productivity. When employees are empowered to reach their full potential, they gain more opportunities for growth, including leadership roles that benefit their teams and departments. With solid knowledge management processes in place, it’s easier to foster a dynamic, collaborative company culture.

How Slack helps organizations with knowledge sharing Slack’s AI-powered work operating system makes sharing and managing knowledge simple and efficient. Let’s look at some examples: New-hire onboarding. At Personio, new employees find everything they need to get started on their first day in a Slack canvas. This includes HR contacts, relevant Slack channels, key IT information, and more. Rather than being flooded with information from multiple sources, they’re directed to a digital hub with all the information they need in one place. This makes it easier for new hires to start work and makes onboarding more efficient for HR. Prompt customer service. The customer care team at Inter uses InterGPT, a custom AI solution developed within Slack, to answer clients faster. Instead of manually searching through databases or watching videos, the team can simply ask InterGPT a question to get a rapid and more reliable response based on information from their existing knowledge bases. Knowledge-sharing channels. At Coles, engineers on the digital team use the company’s Slack channels for knowledge sharing. Coles encourages employees to share information freely on Slack, allowing engineers to quickly and easily find answers to their questions before reaching out to a colleague. On-demand answers. During a time-sensitive contract renewal with a vendor, a senior engineer at Wayfair quickly asked Slack AI, “What’s the latest on the contract?” to get immediate information rather than having to depend on colleagues for basic details. Employee recognition. IBM leverages Slack Sales Elevate’s integration with Salesforce Sales Cloud to identify recently promoted members of the IBM sales team, announce the news in a group channel, and invite colleagues to celebrate their success — with no shortage of emoji.

Building a knowledge-sharing culture to enhance collaboration

Knowledge sharing is about more than creating a knowledge base or setting up a few internal wikis. The most valuable knowledge is “tacit” — experiential and intuitive know-how that includes cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes — as opposed to “explicit.” Tacit knowledge is much harder to store within a knowledge management system.

As a result, there is a growing emphasis on a “switchboard” style of knowledge sharing, which requires teammates to be willing to help each other. But when teams work in silos, their access to knowledge is reduced regardless of the tools at their disposal. This makes it harder for an organization to achieve peak performance.

A knowledge-sharing culture requires a positive work environment where employees feel comfortable collaborating, working cross-functionally, and genuinely getting to know one another. This environment creates engaged teams that yield solid returns. Gallup research found that organizations with highly engaged employees experience a 23% increase in profitability and a 10% boost in customer loyalty and engagement. Companies with engaged workforces even have higher earnings per share compared with their less engaged peers.

To cultivate a healthy, collaborative culture:

• Lead by example. Leadership should be accessible to employees at routine intervals.
• Encourage feedback. Ask for input from employees, management, and departments regularly.
• Create a safe space. When employees feel psychologically safe at work, they are typically more likely to share their expertise without fear of competition or job instability.

 

Using knowledge management tools to connect people and ideas

Let’s say you want to learn how to make a soufflé. Would you rather follow a recipe you found online or have a five-star French chef teach you at home?

Hands-on learning is often more effective than theoretical learning. While a best-practices document is useful to have on hand, knowledge sharing is most effective among colleagues rather than between a worker and a wiki. Wikis may be outdated or lack crucial tacit knowledge that’s difficult to capture in a database.

To keep people engaged, any knowledge management tool you invest in should prioritize a people-first philosophy, whether it’s a knowledge management system or a work operating system such as Slack.

Here are several ways to accomplish this:

• Virtual training and workshops. Live video workshops and webinars are perfect for sharing knowledge in a teaching format. Internal experts can walk their colleagues through a new process improvement on the spot, even answering questions as they arise.
• Peer learning experiences. Video meetings can also be used for mentoring, coaching, and on-the-job training. This is one way to intentionally cultivate a knowledge-sharing culture at your organization.
• Knowledge-sharing channels. Encourage and promote knowledge sharing with dedicated channels or canvases where people can access educational resources such as training guides, standard operating procedures (SOPs), or videos. To surface valuable institutional knowledge, create a forum and encourage team members to ask and answer questions.
• App integration. Some collaboration platforms integrate with apps your team members already use daily. Pull contextual insights from those apps directly into a centralized hub, such as a Slack canvas. This allows people to take action right from there if they wish.
• Knowledge management integration. If you already use a full-fledged information repository such as Confluence Cloud, Guru Enterprise AI Search, Dropbox Paper, or Seismic Knowledge, consider integrating it with Slack or your preferred work collaboration platform so employees can find all the information they need from directly within the tool.

 

Retain institutional knowledge by promoting knowledge sharing

If you’ve ever lost a key team member, you know how immediately their departure can impact your team’s productivity. Employee turnover can result in the loss of valuable experience and knowledge, negatively affecting team performance.

A healthy knowledge-sharing culture is, in a way, employee retention insurance. When workers hoard their expertise, the company is setting up a culture in which people can take what they can from their time there and leave. 

In contrast, a company with knowledge management tools and a pro-sharing culture makes for happier, more loyal employees and ensures that teams can withstand a teammate’s departure without massive disruptions to workflow or quality.

Knowledge sharing increases overall productivity

Knowledge-sharing initiatives and a culture that promotes learning and collaboration can boost overall employee productivity and satisfaction. When employees participate in a knowledge-sharing culture, collaboration and shared expertise become the norm, resulting in fewer bottlenecks and information silos.

Learn how Slack can help your organization with knowledge sharing and management for better productivity and employee engagement.