I attended a conference of associates yesterday run by Action Planning which was a useful and interesting day. One of the aims of the event was to build a more effective network of consultants and one of the action points coming out was to find ways of increasing knowledge sharing between the group of experts in the network. This is a familiar and much stated aspiration and a continuing challenge for many organisations.

Some bigger private companies invest hugely in knowledge management – not only in systems and processes to enable this to happen but also in people whose jobs and expertise focus on changing the culture of the organisation and removing the, often human, barriers to knowledge sharing.

Silo working is often identified as a problem in organisations where the individual teams are well defined and working effectively to fulfil their team objectives but not necessarily sharing a corporate responsibility for the overall success of the organisation. As people leave, the knowledge they have often leaves with them or, if it is still filed somewhere in the depths of the organisation, the newcomer doesn’t know of its existence or where and how to access it.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” describes very well how scientific knowledge moves forward – the world would be a much poorer place if every new discovery had to begin from scratch. Yet often in the world of charities “new” discoveries are being reinvented in different organisations, and by different teams, time and time again.

There is so much wasted energy and effort as well meaning people struggle to find solutions to problems which are being faced across the voluntary sector (and indeed across the other sectors too). Successful leaders keep well connected and hungry for knowledge by building relationships, attending conferences and linking in to the growing numbers of online forums and networks. They think about how their learning might be applied to their organisation and they encourage their staff and trustees to share their knowledge with each other.

Human beings work better in teams where they have a sense of social identity and shared purpose, and team building is an important part of management. The challenge is to build effective teams who are also interconnecting with others in the organisation and who think about how the work they are doing can enhance the work of others.

It would be great to find examples of charities which have succeeded in making this happen and if you know of any please do post the information in the comment box below. Some of the sector’s umbrella bodies and funders disseminate lessons learned to share knowledge across the sector and publish case studies of successful and (sometimes) unsuccessful innovation.

The wider use of social media and online discussion forums means that, at least in theory, people can share information, answer each other’s queries and solve problems previously tackled elsewhere. It happens very effectively in the IT world and we have a lot to learn from how special interest groups outside our sector share knowledge and work collaboratively together.

One way in which individuals can be encouraged to think of others whilst getting on with their own tasks is to measure their performance against a set of competencies which include those of working collaboratively and knowledge dissemination. Another way of mixing it up and creating an organisation which is greater than the sum of its parts is to create project groups made up of colleagues from different teams. They work together to a common purpose, find out more about each other and share knowledge – of course this brings with it a whole series of other management challenges but the benefits of more collegiate working are worth it.