Every month we organize tech talks in our office. This is an opportunity for us to share knowledge and exchange ideas.
Why tech talks?
When we focus on an individual, the result is a much richer conversation.
There are many things you cannot get out from other communication channels or tools we use today.
Confirmation that someone is listening or/and receiving live feedback.
Or getting a clear vision of each other’s ideas.
You get to share your collective resources, knowledge, and ideas right here and now.
We can choose from a number of tools that aim to encourage knowledge sharing (among employees), but no tool can fully entice the need to share knowledge.
Every second Friday we organize a tech talk in our office enjoying an hour of exploring specific subjects our colleagues choose to present and explain.
Why?
Having the right channel to communicate and share ideas is crucial, but our wish to share and acquire new knowledge is certainly recognized as the most important factor. However, this isn’t to say that knowledge sharing tools don’t empower sharing ideas and resources, on the contrary.
But if you have an opportunity to gather together and listen to your colleagues’ experience and opinion, it can only be beneficial and a great advantage for everyone.
So, why not use that opportunity?
People need to stop preserving their knowledge, seeing it only as an individual advantage.
The premise for effective knowledge sharing is when people understand and value knowledge and see its importance for company’s performance.
You cannot force it, or push it.
We create this appreciation and understanding through our values and our company culture. When you bring in new team members, he or she should not only fit in the company’s culture, but rather fit in and challenge it, and by challenge I mean actively working on making it better, contributing and empowering. You also cannot accomplish good results if you underestimate open communication.
An individual is a universe of experience.
People commonly look upon the experienced colleagues as the best source of information and knowledge, but high skilled professionals are usually busy with their work. They have less time to answer each question which can result in keeping people waiting and thus affecting the overall productivity.
Even if that’s not the case, people learn differently, some prefer a verbal explanation, others are visual types, and some need to see the solution to a problem in action.
Then, there’s the situation with people who show no interest in learning new things either because they feel they are not improving their performance, or they don’t leave their ego at the door.
Sometimes people give the impression of being too busy to talk to while others feel uneasy and not bold enough to approach and start a conversation or spark interaction.
Reasons are many.
Whatever the reasons are, they should not stop you from getting all on the same page. Share your knowledge and create opportunities for others to do the same.
Each person is the wisdom and knowledge database, but only when shared – knowledge is of value to others. The somewhat magic ingredient is trust.
Trust builds strong ties and empowers knowledge sharing.
Tech Talks are team building activities
As we were growing in numbers, along with working on more exciting projects, we soon realized we should create an opportunity for our knowledge and new skills to be shared. We share knowledge differently, but we also organize tech talks in our office as we have a need to gather together and talk about the things we do or currently work on. These tech talks are also a great opportunity for our team building activities. Moreover, activities for creative and open-minded discussions and transfers of knowledge.
But can we do more to encourage people to share what they know?
There is not the best way to share knowledge; there’s the best way that fits YOUR company culture.
You can start with bringing together people who want to share knowledge and give them an opportunity to share it. You will see that ground-breaking ideas aren’t merely possible – they are inevitable.
