Sharing Knowledge Technology and Networking

This month on ASQ’s blog ASQ Influential Voices blogger Manu Vora started a discussion on sharing knowledge technology. Learning is the key to success—some would even say survival—in today’s organizations. Knowledge should be continuously enriched through both internal and external learning. For this to happen, it is necessary to support and energize organization, people, knowledge, and technology for learning. A learning organization values the role that learning can play in developing organizational effectiveness.

The value of knowledge sharing to an organization is well known, yet much of the knowledge within an organization remains unshared. Knowledge sharing is the process by which individuals exchange tacit and explicit knowledge in order to create new knowledge.

Even in a small company, silos emerge. A policy of more sharing will help everyone stay in touch with what others are doing, and create a collective expectation. Keeping everyone pointed in the same direction is hard; sharing more about what’s going on, how you’re doing things, reasoning behind decisions, etc. will help.

If you don’t share knowledge within your company, your customers will suffer. Many managers are unaware that the team that sits right next to theirs is doing some great work that that could help the business deliver a better service to customers, or open the door to a new market.

By engaging in the knowledge sharing process teams create a new unique knowledge resource that competitors cannot easily imitate. Knowledge sharing leads to superior team performance and is a source of competitive advantage for organizations.

Networking is the single most powerful approach to accelerate and sustain success for any individual or organization. It provides the most productive, most proficient, and most enduring tactic to build relationships. Personal relationships enable you and your organization to stand out, rise above the noise and remain top of mind.

The network I prefer the most is the blogging community. This is the single most powerful online resource for learning and sharing. A blog is a good platform for reaching out to others. Bloggers spend most of their time sharing their ideas and insights with their readers. But I have found that my readers share a lot with me, too.

If you’re looking for an incentive to keep up to date on all of the latest information on lean or quality, starting a blog is a great start. Your weekly quest to put up new content will lead you to always be searching for new information and sharing it with your readers. Every good blog helps its readers. The power of a blog to educate, inspire, and bring like-minded people together makes blogging a great way to help people.

Facebook is another favorite platform of mine.  I enjoy the ease of sharing information and the convenience of interacting with individuals and companies. Facebook has over 1 billion users and they are interacting on Facebook. These interactions provide a tremendous opportunity to engage with like-minded individuals. Done correctly, these interactions can create value.

LinkedIn is another good community but doesn’t offer more value than blogging in my opinion. It has the professional conation that Facebook doesn’t however it is a bit clunky. There are few useful groups but many are not managed well. The networking is more useful in job hunting than professional groups. I find it helpful in managing contacts and interacting one-on-one via messages.

Social networking sites allow us to communicate with others and express ourselves easier. These sites help you find people you have not seen in a while, chat without actually going places and learn things that are happening today. Social networking sites are basically joining us to the world apart.

Actively managing knowledge can help companies increase their chances of success by facilitating decision-making, building learning environments by making learning routine, and stimulating cultural change and innovation. Proactive knowledge sharing is one of the key ways to remain one step ahead of your competitors.

I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.