Knowledge and Your Team

There is a lot of talk out there about knowledge management because it is important. But what exactly is knowledge management? According to Enterprise Knowledge, “Knowledge Management involves the people, process, culture, and enabling technologies necessary to Capture, Manage, Share, and Find information.”

Build Relationships with Knowledge

Most people think of knowledge management in the technology arena as information we want to share with customers, partners, and even each other for internal knowledge. But knowledge can also be used for a leader to build better relationships with their teams.

As leaders, our goals should be to provide clear and consistent knowledge to the people we manage on a daily basis.

Capture, Manage, and Share

For the past two years, I have used emerging technology to help me capture the information my employees and I share when meeting one-on-one. Because the tools I use are collaborative in nature, we have the ability to see each other’s notes, comments, and details about each topic we discuss. There is no need for each of us to bring separate notes or email agendas back and forth. We do it all on cloud based tools that allow us to see information live.

Another benefit of using these tools is being able to manage the information. One particular tool we use allows us to bring in attachments, links, and applications we use. We can set due dates for review and follow up, and create checklists and labels for categorization. Basically it allows us to keep all of our information in one collaborative location.

Which brings me to sharing of information. Because we use cloud based collaborative tools, sharing information with one another has never been easier. This allows my team to know when something has been added, updated, or changed and by whom. I can share out team boards to all my team, individual one-on-one boards between just me and an individual person, all in one application with easy-to-keep-track-of functionality.

Find Information Easily

One requirement my team has of tools and technologies we use for this type of knowledge management sharing is the same of any knowledge management system. It has to be easy to find information. With the tools we use, we can find the information we are looking for by easy-to-use filtering, sorting, and search functions built into the tools.

Stay Connected

The goal of using a knowledge management solution for team building is to help people feel connected, know what is going on, and have the ability to communicate with you. Having a process that is easy to use and collaborative in nature will build a culture of trust, clarity, and transparency. Whatever tools you decide to use, make sure it works for your team.

Using a knowledge management solution for team building helps people feel connected.