Systematic knowledge sharing at KMWorld 2023

The onboarding process for new hires has only gotten trickier as companies move to hybrid or remote schedules. Mixed with an influx of retirements, sharing knowledge from one outgoing employee to the next is more complicated than before.

At KMWorld 2023, Thais Colicchio, KM and information systems researcher, Technology Institute, Unicamp, and Innovation Consultant at Inventta, and Fernando Fukunaga, president and executive director, Brazilian Knowledge Management Society (BKMS) shared successful case studies from the Brazilian KM Society; learnings about their main challenges, practical solutions, implementations; and more during their session, “Systemic Knowledge Sharing.”

They shared current scenarios in their organizations using the systemic collaboration model, a framework developed to explain the collaboration environment of organizations based on knowledge sharing as a process.

“This is to boost knowledge sharing and collaboration,” Colicchio said. “Sharing is actually exchanging. It’s not as simple as it sounds.”

They discussed the systemic collaboration model and how it characterizes the knowledge-sharing interactions in organizations, the communication and facilitation technologies used as a catalyst of the knowledge-sharing process, and the use and adoption of innovation and social technologies that support knowledge managers in coordinating and boosting the knowledge-sharing process, as well as the challenges and solutions implemented in each organizational environment.

“We need to talk more about our tacit knowledge, how we are sharing, and what’s the flow in our organizations,” Colicchio said.

Creating a knowledge hub for collaboration has many layers, she explained. The systemic collaboration model is a flow of data, more information, sharing more knowledge, and building intelligence on systems. It is not a linear process.

“We depend on people, and we depend on their engagement,” Colicchio said. “Having more knowledge sharing in organizations leads to a better collaboration environment.”

The first step is to find the common goal and have it be an interactive process. The next is to motivate employees to participate and enable technologies to boost this process, she said.

“Technology is the enabler for this process,” Colicchio said.

Evaluating how the initiative is working within the organization is key. An assessment is made to gauge the knowledge sharing process along with how technology is impacting this move.

“What’s outstanding about technology is they are creating software that promotes knowledge sharing,” Colicchio said. “They are connecting to people that have certain knowledge.”

KMWorld returned to the J.W. Marriott in Washington D.C. on November 6-9, with pre-conference workshops held on November 6.

KMWorld 2023 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Enterprise AI World, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum.