3 Ways to foster a knowledge based organization

In one way or another, organizations today have realized that to confront the cut-throat competition in international market environment, it is essential to become a knowledge based organization. However, only a few rightly comprehend what it means or how to achieve the modifications necessary to transform into a knowledge based organization.

What is a Knowledge based Organization?

A Knowledge based Organization (KBO) is an organization that depends on the capability of employees to produce, acquire and apply knowledge to create products or services.

Why should you become a KBO?

Here are a few key benefits of becoming a KBO:

• In a KBO, all employees are well-equipped with knowledge and expertise required for activities such as problem-solving, dynamic learning, strategic learning and policymaking
• It provides less experienced employees with opportunities to work with veteran peers, thereby, increasing their knowledgebase
• With a reservoir of knowledge available 24/7, your employees can perform better, deliver exceptional customer service, and complete projects in a timely manner.

What makes it so challenging?

While it is advantageous for companies to become a KBO, it can be a huge challenge because developing a knowledge sharing culture requires resources such as time, dedication and appropriate tools and technologies.

Moreover, knowledge is mostly intangible in nature. Therefore, unlike any production process, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of knowledge sharing strategies and their outcomes.

Ways to transform into a KBO

A KBO is primarily facilitated by two things: information exchange among employees and knowledge management. Therefore, employees in such an organization exhibit better productivity, ingenuity, and improved work quality.

Want to boost your corporate productivity? Fostering a KBO could be your ultimate solution! Here’s how you can transform your company into a KBO:

1. Develop new knowledge:

In the cutting-edge environment today, businesses survive by developing new knowledge that is based on imaginative ideas, the exploration of previous mistakes, and day-to-day processes and experiences.

Unlike ordinary organizations where employees focus on personal development and create resources for their individual needs, a KBO thrives when everyone shares his/her knowledge and resources for the entire team. For instance, through one-to-one sales training, only individual sales reps are facilitated but by sharing demo feedback in a team, all sales reps can improve together.

Here’s how you can encourage your employees to create new knowledge:

• Generate a suitable work environment -an environment that allows new knowledge to be produced through communication, practice and trial and error
• Provide ample opportunities of brainstorming, experimentation, and unstructured communication
• Incorporate sharing knowledge into routine performance evaluation
• Invest in tools and technologies that motivate employees to generate knowledge and encourage adoption by offering rewards

3. Improve knowledge accessibility by consolidating new and past knowledge

Information that has a discrete basis must be made as available as possible for the collective use in a company. Instead of being dispersed, collect all these individual assets in a retrievable place.

Moreover, safeguarding the corporate knowledge against any possible losses such as employee turnover and attrition, and prospective inaccessible documents is also essential. Therefore, knowledge consolidation should be supported by appropriate strategies such as corporate memories, information exchange programs, job rotations etc.

Together with employees contributing content, KBOs have an efficient way of sharing valuable content with their stakeholders and workers. Having all corporate resources and knowledge assets in one place allows for greater accessibility and intensifies the impact of the knowledge being shared.

The bottom line is that consolidating scattered knowledge sources will improve efficiency, and productivity of employees by empowering them with the information they need whenever they need it.

3. Share knowledge actively:

‘Sharing is caring’ holds true here as information must be dynamically disseminated to those who can make full use of it.  Performance in numerous areas of the business can be improved when employees transfer knowledge, operative practices, discernments, past experiences, as well lessons learned from their successes and failures.

While setting up help desks and using intranet are two most common options, successful KBOs leverage the power of knowledge sharing tools to foster learning and knowledge communities within their organizations.

Such tools greatly simplify the process of knowledge distribution among employees. With a single click, an employee can access any information at any time, from any location and using any device. Moreover, many knowledge sharing platforms support discussions and feedback that facilitate in breaking the ice among many new employees and averting information hoarding among other employees.

In order to encourage knowledge sharing among employees and break down corporate silos, companies need to devise strategies such as offering incentives in the form of bonuses, promotions or appreciation letters.

Final Word

The turnaround time of information in a corporation is progressively critical to corporate procedures. Therefore, fostering a KBO emboldens information exchange and generation in the companies so as to empower employees with the right information, at the right time.

While it seems to be a daunting task, companies today do not require managing large knowledge databases manually. In fact, with the advent of technology, many organizations employ dedicated tools such as BoostHQ for this purpose.

With these three basic steps and a simple and intuitive knowledge sharing platform you can transform your company into a KBO in no time!

If you are have started to become a knowledge based organization, corporate silos is one problem organization’s face during their process. Click here to learn more about corporate silos and how to break them down.

Create Your Knowledge Sharing Community Today!