If you add “robust knowledge sharing by default” to your organizational goals, pay attention to micro habits. Those habits by teammates if left unexamined and unmodified will sabotage a polished knowledge sharing workflow plan or policy. The knowledge sharing culture eats the strategy for breakfast (h/t Peter Drucker, supposedly).
Say I purpose to bike a century yet only continue training only one day a week and still consistently sleep six mediocre hours per night, that one hundred mile ride is likely doomed.
While imagining a future state knowledge flow ecosystem, map out the current flows and pay special attention to the individual and interpersonal habits — positive, restrictive — impacting exchange of knowledge. Attitudes, feelings, motivations, and values, as nebulous and unobvious as those might be, must be uncovered and named.
The resulting map of info flows identify technical components such as a digital communication tool (e.g., Slack) and interpersonal relationship issues (e.g., Mikel and Sharstra share coffee every Thursday and make decisions largely based on intuition). That is, the map surfaces digital and analog processes.
From that map, created during a design thinking exercise, explicitly call out the habits, how they impact flow, and suggest modified and new habits that open the gates for knowledge sharing. For both existing and future habits, interrogate the evidence and the proposals so that the habits are as micro as possible: decouple, disambiguate, separate distinct habits from a bundle of habits.
Warning: engaging a variety of system members is necessary. Conversations, interviews, table top scenario explorations help.
Layer the map with explorations of incentives and suggested value propositions. In the current state, corrupted incentives might impinge on open knowledge sharing. Find ways to reframe incentives for the desired future state environment. People want to know “What’s in it for me to alter my habits?”
The resulting policy and technological systems, informed by habits, have a greater chance of success having addressed people’s habits. Maybe that century ride is possible.
The knowledge of the elders is sometimes written.
As an institutional member of a consortia of international relief and development organizations, I catalyzed the creation of a new knowledge management community of practice (CoP). While serving on the steering committee of an existing CoP, I recognized the opportunity for a new km-specific peer learning group. With support from the consortia staff, I and others invited members into the new KM CoP group in 2025. I began as the single chair of the steering committee after recruiting five committee members. I then asked one of these five to work with me as co-chair.
As a librarian and knowledge manager, the "Information Steward" moniker grew out of information organization practices in academic libraries and international development nonprofit work. Examining who I am, what I believe, and my habits in vocational environments, I now recognize a broader scope of my work.
Knowledge sharing values lived out as habits. How individuals and teams practice knowledge sharing emerges from the values and culture embraced by those individuals. Rules, processes, and expectations succeed or fail based on the energy embodied in the culture. What is the knowledge sharing culture of your team or organization? The following activities may help illuminate the root of your knowledge sharing culture.
Stewarding information across work departments and teams necessitates links, relationships, visibility, and lines of communication at the highest level of the organization. Consequently, Information Steward co-leads will report directly to the organization's leader (CEO, President, Executive Director).
What could a Knowledge Stewardship team look like? Consider the foundational elements below from which a scenario is then briefly sketched. The new model may only be achieved over the course of a few years through multiple step-wise iterations.
As Knowledge Manager at a large international development nonprofit, I developed a knowledge mobilization strategy. As part of the first knowledge management-specific team within the organization, I developed a baseline strategy for people-first knowledge sharing habits. Leading with a set of key values and principles, the strategy included critical cultural aspects alongside the tactical, technical processes for success.