Breaking down knowledge silos

[DavidBReynolds]

One of the biggest barriers to sharing knowledge is "siloing" or keeping information private: some teams will use easily accessible and sharable knowledge bases but a few groups refuse to participate. Instead, they use a different system, keeping their information behind locked doors so it is only accessible to a few people.

I gave up trying to persuade team to create and update articles on their product. I just recently became aware of a second team doing the same type of thing.

\Job security and fear of losing control are two of the biggest reasons why some groups don't participate.

My question is, being a writer and not a manager, what can I do? The lack of knowledge sharing hurts the entire company but nothing I've been able to share with my manager has made any difference.

How do you deal with teams or business units who aren't willing to adopt the knowledge base method of information sharing?

I need to use persuasion since I'm at the bottom of the organization chart. I'd like to use an argument or two that you used and worked in similar situations.

Thank-you all for your comments. 

[STREETFACTS]

Many great points and observations here, David! I'm still new to KM, but have been in tech for a while, and I'm finding myself genuinely intrigued by this topic. It's absolutely fascinating. Thank you for your valued input.

[ralvarez]

Great discussion! I just gave a talk at SNUG Swiss Romandie about this exact challenge.

Here’s a short summary in case it’s helpful (5 min read):

https://swissflowit.com/documate/news/snug-romandie-integrated-documentation 

Happy to connect if others are working on similar challenges!

[Chrislgarrett9]

This topic is unbelievably relatable in my position.

I am not management but a Knowledge Manager. I started a project to migrate all of our documentation into ServiceNow and went live. We sent all the communications, notified stakeholder, performed mass training, and had management on board with this, but still..... we have that resistance, we have others telling us they don't have time, and just flat out not responding to inquiries. 

How does someone go about making organization change in a non-leadership role? 

I found the following ways to help achieve this. Note this is not something that will drastically change overnight, but it will kickstart that maturity on where it needs to be.

1. Create use cases and user stories where other departments, divisions, and business units are having knowledge hurdles. Have these noted in a place where people can see them, and make sure to emphasize these during trainings you have. Speak to the peoples emotions. 
2. Meet - not only with your management, but other management to note the struggles people have and do your best to address them. If we have knowledge processes that are too manual and time consuming, how can they be automated to gain interest. While meeting with management use those users stories from point one as selling points. Yep, were not just knowledge managers, we are sales people now too, ugh....
3. Create effective and simple knowledge management policy, processes, and procedures. I know, especially in ITILv4, we step away from being process oriented, but people still need something to tell them what to do and and simple process guide/map/workflow (whatever you want to call it) can help. A policy can also support enforcing this. (Ive started creating videos btw).
4. This point will probably trigger some and cause some to cringe, but....... work with your Auditors! They know what needs to be documented for compliance and they will work with you to help get it documented. Other areas to work with include GRC and your HR department (in some cases).
5. Talk as much as possible. If there is a meeting with other teams mention knowledge as much as possible. Embed their minds to think about this.
6. Create fun ways to get people engaged. Create scorecards for submitters, teams, and feedback to create a friendly competition. The Knowledge Games!!

Hope this helps some!

[Beth Coleman]

Hi David, I'd like to recommend the book by Alex Pentland of MIT Media Lab, Social Physics: How good ideas spread - the lessons from a new science.  This was recommended reading in the Consortium for Service Innovation membership discussion on collaboration a few years ago. Still very relevant and offers excellent suggestions.