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14/07/2020 Christian Hindborg

The challenge is that there is only one person who can make payroll, one person who knows the IT system and one person who has some third specialist knowledge, which you as a manager barely have an overview of.

Then people go on holiday, some get sick, or they may have to attend a course. And suddenly, the company comes to a standstill in this area of ​​work, because no one can take over.

This is where knowledge sharing becomes enormously important. It is about knowledge staying in the business and not in the head of the individual employee. If you have key employees who only have important knowledge, then you face a big problem if this employee suddenly finds another job. You must not put your business in such a vulnerable situation. If this person stops and it's all in their head, then that knowledge disappears from the business.

Knowledge sharing is fundamentally about the fact that several people can and must solve the same task. Then one can also go on holiday and know with a clear conscience that there is someone else in the company who can solve the tasks.
It also means that the two can spar with each other and collaborate on improving work processes, so that more efficiency is created in the company.

In other words, knowledge must stay in the business.
It cannot be said clearly enough.

But how do you get the employees on board with this? After all, knowledge is also power, and an employee can use his knowledge to make himself indispensable. But here you have to work with team spirit.

If we have two employees who each have their own knowledge of the same task and they do not share this knowledge, then something is lost. The moment we share knowledge, it enables others to ask questions about the work process, and then you can start improving it.

But it can also be two employees doing something different. If the goal management is good enough and we know that, for example, we would like to get hold of X customer as a goal. So it is important that we can see each other's goals in a simple way. If the researcher in your R&D department might make another product aimed at the same company that the seller wants to get hold of, then they can contribute important knowledge. Or better yet, they have a contact into the business who may know someone who knows someone.

When it succeeds, it gives the manager and employees the peace of mind they need to make the right choices based on what is best for the team and the company.

This gives the manager peace of mind, as it makes the company less vulnerable.