Observatório de Gestão do Conhecimento

One of the major knowledge management initiatives in organizations today revolves around the notion of knowledge sharing, networking or collaboration. Working together is often identified as one of the key strategic priorities in all vertical industries, in public and private sector companies as well as in the non-profit sector. What fuels this interest? The benefits of collaboration include:

• 1 - bringing together individuals, groups and even organizations that may not otherwise ever interact;
• 2 - information and knowledge resources can be pooled together, including both tangible resources such as tools and technologies but also intangible resources such as expertise and innovative ideas;
• 3 - there can be a coordination and optimization of complementary expertise, resources and services where everyone has greater access;
• 4 - there is an ever-present opportunity for synergy, serendipity and peer-to-peer learning.

For example, Canada is following the lead of countries such as the UK in looking at policies to promote the sharing of research infrastructure and expertise amongst universities and private sector companies. The idea is to stem the current practice of funding research where the same piece of (expensive) equipment is purchased by individual researchers, each at a separate university. Instead, any government-funded research should share existing equipment and resources.

This government-mandated collaboration will reduce costs in the short-term and promote a greater degree of collaboration among researchers in the long term. However, effective collaboration, where each participant benefits from the mutual interaction, does not just happen spontaneously. In fact, it is all too easy for collaboration to fail, as a number of critical success factors must be present.

The first factor is that all participants agree upon a shared goal. This goal must be clearly articulated and written out. It is important to ensure that everyone shares the same understanding of these goals. Collaboration then is not in itself a goal but rather it provides a mechanism for achieving organizational goals. Knowledge management studies have shown that in addition to a shared goal and clear communications, members need to have mutual respect, understanding and trust. They need to acknowledge a leader who will facilitate compromises and mediate any conflicts that may arise. Last but not least, there must be explicitly stated and agreed upon roles, rights, responsibilities and procedural guidelines.

This last point is often overlooked, especially in the informal knowledge networks often found in organizations, as there is an erroneous belief that structure will somehow suffocate any fruitful interactions. In fact, the opposite is true: in successful collaborations, a new culture is created that is separate from that of any of the component organizations’ cultures. This means there is organizational change that takes place and this change must be planned for and successfully managed. Conflicts will often arise during this transition period due to work delays, decreasing commitment and/or trust and the pursuit of individual rather than collective goals. Collaboration requires patience, perseverance and a great deal of work to ensure that everyone benefits.