Overcoming objections to knowledge sharing
While knowledge sharing sounds simple on the surface, it can be difficult to encourage employees to do over time. Some people might not understand what information they should share to begin with. On the other hand, some employees may object to the idea altogether. Here are a few reasons why this may be the case:
- Lack of trust: Employees may hoard information in order to stay ahead of colleagues or receive recognition. This is likely if your organization is extremely competitive or if your GTM culture doesn't embrace teamwork. In order to overcome this objection, leaders need to engrain knowledge sharing in their team's goals and objectives so it's part of performance reviews.
- Time limitations: We get it — reps are busy. They may feel as though they don't have the free time to capture and share information when they already have so much on their plates. Therefore, leaders need to enable reps to access and share knowledge right within their workflows with a knowledge management system. This streamlines the process instead of requiring reps to stop what they are doing to share information.
- Don't see it as a benefit: Others may fail to understand what knowledge sharing really is or why it's beneficial in the first place. In this scenario, it's important for leaders to go back to sharing the basics of knowledge sharing and why it's beneficial in the long run.
How to make knowledge sharing happen
Knowledge sharing starts with each individual rep, so it's important to give your team an example of what good looks like. This is a great opportunity for managers to lead by example. Here are some other strategies:
- Solicit feedback from team members
- Ask questions
- Tell your team what you plan to do before you do it
- More importantly, tell the team why you're doing it
- Ask experts and high performers to share what they know
- Make the process easy
At the end of the day, your team members love to be heard and involved in the planning and launch of your organization's biggest projects, so make this process as open as possible. By democratizing access to knowledge, your organization will create a transparent and collaborative environment that will experience greater growth and success.
Up next
When it comes to enabling a culture of knowledge sharing across your GTM organization, we still have some helpful resources. And, in the spirit of knowledge sharing, we can't wait to share them with you! Stay tuned for our next blog which will focus on the tools teams need to effectively share knowledge. In the meantime, learn more about the benefits of knowledge sharing and read about our newest product, Seismic Knowledge, here.
