knowledge sharing methods: assessment and implementation

Paper number

IAC-10.D5.2.12

Author

Ms. Roberta Mugellesi-Dow, European Space Agency (ESA), Germany

Coauthor

Mr. Siegmar Pallaschke, Consultant, Germany

Year

2010

Abstract

Knowledge sharing looks into the question of routing the knowledge to the appropriate place and ensuring the proper usage. Sharing of knowledge does not mean that everyone has to know everything. Knowledge sharing is not a global distribution of the entire knowledge set including all confidential data. It is the process of helping people to get access to the existing knowledge, encouraging them in use and reuse and training them the use of the knowledge management tools.
Knowledge sharing can be supported by:
a) quick distribution of knowledge to a group of employees,
b) removal of barriers (organization, power, distrust),
c) simultaneous sharing within communities of practice and teams.
As knowledge and experience is mostly in the heads of the people knowledge sharing has primarily to take place between people supported by procedures and ICT. It is obvious that ICT alone would not be able to maintain knowledge sharing. Hence the above three items (a-c) could be represented in a different categorization:
a) people: teams, Communities of Practice, creation of new networks, coaching, job rotation, master-student, partnerships, discussion forums, etc
b) procedures: yellow pages, knowledge maps, lessons learned, recording of best practices, trainee programs, corporate university, etc
c) ICT: handbooks, E-learning, etc.
 The proposed paper will include three parts:
a) general overview of knowledge sharing methods following the above structure, their importance and their barriers;
b) assessment of three individual methods/ aspects, i.e. 
- Communities of Practice (with respect to people) which are informal groups who organize themselves. They meet on a voluntary basis in order to discuss various topics, to exchange views and to look for solutions. The members could belong to different domains and hierarchical sections. 
- Enhanced Lessons Learned Workshops (with respect to procedures) could be conducted at certain milestones but at least towards the end of the project. The methodology is somewhat similar to the knowledge capture (expert debriefing, interviews) for leaving staff members. In fact, at the end of a project most of the members are leaving their posts in order to take up new duties. 
- ICT usability: as it is easier to ask a colleague rather than to apply (new) ICT tools certain requirements must be fulfilled by them. Aspects of easy-to-use or ready-to-connect are very essential. 
c) examples of knowledge sharing methodologies applied within industry outside the space area.
d) guidelines for the implementation of knowledge sharing within ESOC.

Abstract document

IAC-10.D5.2.12.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-10.D5.2.12.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.