Whether you are a novice or a seasoned knowledge manager, you are likely familiar with the challenges of content harvesting. Breaking through the mental barriers of employees who are accustomed to a certain way of working can be a daunting task when trying to encourage them to willingly share their knowledge and content.

To successfully transition employees to a knowledge management (KM) style of working, persistence and consistency are key. It is not about pressuring them to share content and knowledge through leadership or KPIs, but rather fostering a cultural shift where employees recognize the value of their knowledge and understand why, where, and how to share it.

While capturing explicit knowledge may be relatively simpler, capturing tacit knowledge – a crucial component of employee experience – presents a significant challenge. Creativity is essential in encouraging team members to share their unique insights, experiences, thoughts, and interactions with clients and customers.

This knowledge can change the game regarding employee onboarding, and offboarding from a project or organization. A new employee can easily refer to training and documents to understand the working of a project but it is tacit knowledge that can quickly bring him or her up to speed on the customer’s style of working, their weaknesses, and preferences, and this wisdom can only come from an employee who has been previously working with the customer.

Similarly, when an employee leaves an organization or a team, if the key experiences, insights, lessons learned, and best practices are not documented in a KM format, the knowledge directly proportional to the employee’s tenure is lost and gone forever

This is one topic that cannot and should not be taken lightly and should be on the forefront of any KM strategy design.

Let’s explore innovative strategies that can assist you in capturing both tacit and explicit knowledge from your teams while fostering a culture of knowledge sharing. To achieve sustainable success in knowledge management, it is crucial to focus on instigating a cultural shift within your organization.

This shift should encourage employees to recognize the importance of sharing their knowledge and insights and understand how their contributions can significantly impact the overall success of their team and the organization as a whole.

Ekta Sachania has over 15 years of experience in learning and talent development disciplines, including knowledge management, content management, and learning & collaboration with expertise in content harvesting, practice enablement, metrics analysis, site management, collaboration activities, communications strategy and market trends analysis. Demonstrated success in managing multiple stakeholder expectations across time zones and exhibiting good project management skills, by successfully developing and deploying projects for large audiences.  Ability to adapt and work in emerging areas with fast-shifting priorities.  Connect with Ekta at LinkedIn...

Other Featured Blogs by Ekta:

• How Knowledge Management Can Set up Organizations for Sustainable Success
• Creating Knowledge Through Storytelling