Tips for Knowledge Sharing in Teams
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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If you’re role is anything like mine, sometimes being a project manager can be a little bit lonely. We don’t spend much time with other project managers, because our focus is on the team and the people we work with there.
So how do project managers learn from each other? We’re great at learning from project experience: you’ve probably got retrospectives and project lessons learned meetings in the diary for the next quarter. But when do we get to hear what our peers are up to?
Here are some tips for fostering a culture of knowledge sharing in project management teams.
Use your team meetings
If there’s more than one project manager in your department, chances are you have team meetings. Make knowledge sharing a regular agenda item.
Have someone present about their current project. Or have someone share the top lessons learned from within a project. Have someone share about their experience of using a process or making a new connection in a different part of the business.
Use Shu Ha Ri as a way of packaging up your lessons.
Schedule project management coffee chats
Sometimes it’s nice to have chats with your peers. This can work well if you haven’t got many project managers in your direct department, so you can’t invite them to a formal meetings, but there are others doing the same role elsewhere in the business.
Build an informal community of practice. You don’t have to call it that, but you can set up a shared mailing list or have your own ‘directory’ of project managers across the organisation.
Share resources
Model the behaviour you want to see by sharing resources. If you’ve got particularly good feedback on a steering deck or a business case, share it with the team. Invite others to do the same, perhaps start a ‘good documents’ folder on your shared drive so that everyone can upload examples of docs that have worked well for their purpose.
If you don’t have a knowledge repository already, set one up. Establish a central location (e.g., a shared drive, intranet site, or dedicated software) where other project managers can store and access documents, best practices, lessons learned, templates, process flows etc.
Leverage technology
You’ve probably already got collaborative tools like wikis, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Confluence. Set up a channel for knowledge sharing and collaboration to support your community of practice. Make it a place where people can ask each other questions, so you can help each other out in real time.
Reward sharing
If someone is supportive of knowledge sharing, recognise that and thank them. You don’t have to be their line manager to nominate them for an internal recognition award. Drop a note to their manager and say how much you appreciated their input.
Feedback from conferences
This is something that has worked well for me in the past. If someone has been to a conference or some other kind of professional event, get them to do a short brief to the rest of the team. They can share their key takeaways, talks they enjoyed, thoughts and reflections on the event. It might encourage others to go next time.
If you hear about free webinars or other training opportunities, why not share them round with the people in your community of practice? Afterwards, meet up and discuss your key takeaways. You could even watch the webinar as a group – host a watch party!
How do you foster an environment of knowledge sharing in your team? Let us know in the chat below!
Posted on: October 02, 2024 08:00 AM |
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Elizabeth - I like the premise of scheduling project management coffee chats.
A study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed that communal coffee breaks can significantly enhance productivity (the research was carried out among Bank of America's call center employees). The investigation found that teams taking 15-minute breaks communicated 18% more effectively during work hours than those with staggered breaks. In addition, there was a notable decrease in staff turnover, with a 12% rate for groups taking breaks together versus 40% for others. This enhanced teamwork resulted in an estimated $15 million increase in annual productivity.
In Sweden, the coffee break is not just an ordinary break. It is a unique social event known as Fika, which originates from the old Swedish word for coffee, "kaffi". The tradition of Fika began in the 1900s when factories reported an increase in accidents at specific times: (at) 10 AM and 3 PM. In response to this issue, Fika breaks were introduced to help reduce the number of those accidents. Since then, Fika has become a part of Swedish culture and a popular way to socialize over coffee and pastries (by taking a collective break).
During this ritual, which occurs once or twice a day, colleagues gather over coffee, pastries, or snacks and put aside their phones, laptops, and work-related discussions. Swedish employees and their managers believe this practice helps improve well-being, productivity, and innovation by clearing the mind and fostering a sense of (psychological) togetherness among team members.
Would you be interested in diving deeper? This BBC video offers an engaging look at this cherished tradition:
https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0bmzygz/the-swedish-tradition-that-can-make-you-happier-at-work?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=exchange&tblci=GiBCqnk_yj9LkyCYu_0E8uV49qA_OUQdnTD0XHGH77nPhyCMjFQos6Ha1rL9hZdd#tblciGiBCqnk_yj9LkyCYu_0E8uV49qA_OUQdnTD0XHGH77nPhyCMjFQos6Ha1rL9hZdd
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/sweden-has-a-caffeinated-secret-to-happiness-at-work-ea938950?st
@Elizabeth
These are fantastic tips for advancing knowledge sharing!
One additional approach is setting up peer mentoring, where project managers can regularly exchange insights. Creating a “Lessons Learned Library” for easy access to past project experiences is also effective. Encouraging open discussions on both successes and challenges can further strengthen a learning culture.
Just curious, How do others handle sharing lessons learned from tough projects?
Thank you for this article! it touches on a lot of things PMs at my company do.
We currently present projects to one another after closure and share our Lessons Learned.
A new initiative is a PM Lunch and Learn. The 10 PMs in the PMO will meet monthly and share what learning or reading we have done in the past 30 days. It will be a nice way to establish good relationships, share ideas and earn PDU's!
And keep it simple. A one pager that contains links to all project related resources is easy and intuitive.
There are some great resources shared and tips here in the comments, thank you everyone!
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