Thriving on Organizational Change: the Knowledge Sharing Advantage*

By Libby Trudell, Sr. Vice President, Information Professional Development, Dialog

*This is an excerpt of an article found on the Quantum² website - printed in summary with permission of Dialog.

Knowledge sharing is probably not the first thing most people think about in conjunction with surviving mergers and organizational consolidations. They may be more concerned with protecting their position than offering their valuable knowledge to others.

Yet, an understanding of and focus on knowledge sharing behavior can be the cornerstone of both a personal and an organizational strategy for success in such times.

Identifying leadership, constant communication and knowledge sharing are three factors that contribute to the success of major organizational changes. An understanding of the interaction between knowledge sharing and communications is a good starting point in building knowledge sharing competencies.

Examples of knowledge sharing behaviors include:

• Seeking ways to document and share knowledge
• Taking advantage of other people's experience when starting a new activity
• Re-using previous work from within your own organization or other sources

Actions that individuals at both the management and staff level can take to in dealing with organization change include:

1. Quantify and communicate your service offering
2. Focus on benefits not actions
3. Explain without defending
4. Increase connection points within the organization
5. Volunteer and seek out opportunities to contribute
6. Take action to make things better
7. Become known as a source of organizational knowledge

Specific projects that will facilitate knowledge sharing in preparing for a major organizational change include:

• Establishing collections of project reports
• Creating a directory of staff expertise
• Assembling an archive of product literature and communications
• Offering regular training on internal systems

Information centers key areas of knowledge

• Who your users are
• Where your users "fit in"
• Points of knowledge valuable to different users
• Internal shorthand for communication.

During a period of change, the organization will continuously ask these questions:

• Why did we/you do that project?
• Who knows about this technology?
• When did we/you make that change?
• How does this system (software, process, etc.) work?

Resources to make available

1. Collections of project reports
2. Directory of staff expertise
3. Product literature & communications archive
4. Training on internal systems

It's always best to embrace and, where possible, lead change- especially since it will happen anyway! You can increase your opportunities for personal development, and help your organization to succeed by keeping in mind during these periods that it is most clear that the whole can be greater than the sum of parts when knowledge is retained and shared.

Acknowledgements

KnowMap would like to thank the Quantum² team for sharing their knowledge with us through this article summary by Libby Trudell (full-text is available at the Quantum² website - see link below) and the article: Value and Vision: Business and Strategic Competencies for Leadership: The Dialog Quantum² Program by Betty Jo Hibberd, Liz Blankson-Hemans.

Quantum² is the leadership development program for information professionals offered by Dialog. The program is available to information professionals worldwide at no charge. For more information about this program and a special offer from Dialog, see KM Markets.

For full text of this article go to the Quantum² website

Read more about Libby Trudell

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