A lot of energy is invested in the why and the how of knowledge sharing and how to set up a knowledge sharing culture within an organization.
This gets sometimes so much attention that we forget why this sharing of knowledge was in the focus in the first place. Sharing knowledge should not be a goal in itself. The real (and only) value of sharing knowledge is when it is used, reused and replicated.
KM practioners should foster knowledge replication. This can be incorporated in business processes, reward systems and target/objective settings.
When reviewing the proposal for a new innovation process or any project, a specific point in the proposal should be about : what sources have been consulted; what did we learn, extract, steal and reuse from previous projects, … This will force project leaders to dive into the company knowledge.
I do not like rewards systems, but when you have one, it should not be about rewarding people for contributing knowledge, but about rewarding the proven use (reuse) of existing knowledge.
A BU which outperforms on a specific KPI should get a as target for the next year to upgrade low performing BU, giving both a measurable, specific (shared) target.
This creates a shift from knowledge capture, creation and sharing into knowledge use, reuse and duplication … resulting in tangible value creation.
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