I’ve been thinking lately about what it takes to successfully share knowledge, and how this type of sharing can used to maximum benefit by anyone who needs to know something someone else knows better than they do.

Here’s some ways to do share knowledge better that I came up with:

1. Share failures as well as successes. If you only ever tell others what you’re successful at, it’s going to be impossible to improve what you do. Also, there may be a critical area that you or your team is deficient at that another person or team can help you improve. Don’t be afraid to let others know where you’re struggling — that’s one of the important steps to improvement.

2. Don’t oversell your own work. Don’t go into any knowledge sharing exchange with the intent of proving the greatness of your own work — that doesn’t make for a very useful or fair exchange of ideas. Be humble, but also make sure to give yourself and your team honest credit where you should.

3. Ask questions about others’ work. Don’t just be a bump on a log — actively ask questions about what someone is telling you. It shows an interest in what they’re saying, but more importantly, asking the right questions will always get you more than just passive listening will.

4. Ask before borrowing. No one wants to share something and be surprised when they find it on someone else’s website/in someone else’s book/in someone else’s report. It’s only fair to ask someone before borrowing something that’s belongs to them.

5. Give credit where it’s due. If you do borrow something (with permission of course), always give the right people credit. It also doesn’t hurt to ask the person who provided the information if there’s anyone else they want to credit.

6. Be genuine, avoid ‘networking’. Networking for the sake of networking is usually pretty transparent. Make sure that a knowledge sharing opportunity is really that — come to the table with something genuine to offer.

7. Don’t just connect with those doing identical work. It may seem like a great a great idea to connect only with those in the same field as you (knowledge management people, for some reason, seem to be especially bad for this), but in fact, the truth is exactly the opposite. The more you can get a sense of what is going on in other areas

8. Be prepared to provide documentation. While you can’t always share all the documentation around a certain project or endeavour, it’s always nice if you have something you can provide people to back up discussions. Even better if that documentation is something actionable, like a strategy document or a plan that can get them on their way with a similar .

9. Talk to people you already know as well. You might be completely surprised what people you already know are working on, and how useful it could be to you. And besides, people like it when you take an interest in what they’re doing.

10. Take lots of notes. You never know when something someone said to you is going to come in handy. Direct quotes are always good too — just remember to ask the person before using their words in anything.

11. Take the first the step. People are sometimes hesitant to reach out to others to ask for help (or simply someone else’s knowledge). Take the first step, and you’ll most often be surprised by how willing people are to share.

12. Learn more than you teach. This isn’t really about being selfish — it’s more about stopping taking the time to really hear what people are trying to say… which leads me to my next point.

13. Be patient and listen. Things that are difficult for people to explain often either mean a great deal to them (like emotions) or are valuable procedural knowledge. Don’t rush people through their explanations — be patient and try to ask helpful questions.

14. Talk to people about talking to people. The best way to find who knows what is talking to people. But not just talking to people about what they know — talk to other people who know what they know. For various reasons (some are modest, some don’t even know what they know), people are often surprised by how much they actually know about a topic.

15. Expect the best from people. We all encounter difficult people or situations sometimes — the key is to not let those negative encounters colour our perceptions about all situations. Keep in mind that everyone has difficult days — approaching knowledge sharing opportunities with a positive mindset will help guarantee positive results.

Have you got your own tip you think should be included here? Leave a comment or send me a message using the contact form, and I’ll try to include your idea (with attribution of course! )!