You look at a guy in the next room and have no idea what he’s currently work on? You hear about mysterious CSA project and don’t have a clue what it’s all about? You are asked to help someone with emergency situation and don’t even know what technology is used there? If at least one of answers is positive it means your organization has a problem with knowledge distribution.
Once I was shocked when I realized that in team of 10 people it can happen. Now I’m not surprised even when I see problems with knowledge distribution in a group of three colleagues. It’s usually a company culture which reinforces this kind of situation. The source itself usually lies within management.
Managers of projects/people/tasks/processes/whatever are often tempted to keep some knowledge just for themselves. Reasons are different and that’s probably a subject for another posts. Nevertheless, when there’s a will to improve knowledge distribution within the organization, there’re several simple things which can be done.
• Meeting on regular basis. Not too rarely. Weekly, maybe once per fortnight. Say briefly what is happening. Let the projects names, issues, technologies fly across meeting room. Let people hear what you are doing. Let them assimilate the knowledge. It’ll come slowly but it’ll come.
• Make good atmosphere on meetings. Be witty. Let people laugh. Invite some jokes (by the way, the safest subject of jokes is you). When meeting is boring no one listens to the speaker. On the other hand when a person next to you is laughing loudly you always become interested what she’s just heard.
• Don’t keep too many secrets. For me personally it’s not so easy. Should I tell about every issue I know? Maybe some of them will be solved before anyone asks? Maybe. Maybe not. Not worth risking. No matter if we’re talking about a bug in the most important project or about a senior developer who decided to quit. Just tell that. With keeping it a secret you’ll end up with gossips spread in the kitchen and with opinion that you don’t tell anything to the team.
• Show the roadmap. From time to time invite bigger group for a half-day meeting and show what you’ve achieved last year or half a year. Tell what you’re planning for another. Don’t give marketing crap then. Remember, you don’t sell products – you sell a vision. Invite some VIP from the organization, but look for a reasonable one. Convince people that management knows where they’re driving the company.
• Talk, talk, talk. Talk with people often. You can share your knowledge with them. I guest that more than 95% of information you have isn’t confidential. You won’t hurt if you spread it a bit.
• Listen, listen, listen. Remember that it’s always two-way relationship. You can learn a lot from others. Especially from newbies, who are often underestimated as sources of knowledge. They look at everything with fresh eyes. It’s very valuable.
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