Knowledge sharing is the practice of distributing expertise, insights, and information across individuals or teams to improve learning, productivity, and decision-making, with research showing it positively and significantly influences innovative work behavior. In a business context, it turns personal knowledge into organizational knowledge, helping teams move faster and work smarter together.

What Is Knowledge Sharing?

Knowledge sharing is the process of transferring information, skills, and expertise between people within an organization to improve collective performance and decision-making. It happens through both formal channels like documentation and training, and informal methods like conversations and collaborative work.

In its simplest form, it means making sure that what one person knows can be accessed and used by others when they need it.

What Is Knowledge Sharing in Knowledge Management?

In knowledge management, knowledge sharing is a foundational practice. It ensures that valuable insights and know-how are not trapped in individual silos but made accessible through systems, processes, or platforms.

A successful knowledge management strategy prioritizes knowledge sharing so that organizations can continually learn from themselves, adapt quickly, and avoid reinventing the wheel.

Types of Knowledge Sharing

There are different types of knowledge sharing depending on the format and intent:

• Explicit knowledge sharing: Involves sharing documented facts, processes, or data (e.g., a how-to guide). This is the most straightforward form and easiest to store and scale.

• Tacit knowledge sharing: Involves sharing experience, judgment, or skills that are harder to write down (e.g., mentoring or shadowing). It's often shared best through conversation or observation.

• Formal sharing: Scheduled and structured, like training sessions or team documentation. This ensures consistent delivery and often supports compliance needs.

• Informal sharing: Ad hoc, such as answering questions in Slack or explaining a shortcut to a teammate. These interactions may be quick, but they contribute to the team's learning.

A healthy knowledge-sharing culture values and supports all of these forms.

Why Is Knowledge Sharing Important?

Knowledge sharing helps organizations:

• Break down information silos: Teams work more efficiently when they have access to each other's insights and resources, a crucial factor when studies show that many collaboration failures are due to information silos. This helps eliminate redundant work and aligns cross-functional efforts.

• Retain institutional knowledge: Sharing knowledge prevents critical information from walking out the door when employees leave. It creates a lasting record that supports continuity and resilience.

• Onboard faster: New hires learn quicker when institutional knowledge is easily accessible. A solid knowledge base shortens ramp-up time and builds confidence early.

• Improve innovation: Diverse teams build better solutions when they build on shared learnings. When ideas flow freely, creativity and experimentation thrive.

• Strengthen collaboration: A culture of openness encourages mutual support and trust across departments. It helps build stronger relationships and promotes shared ownership of outcomes.

In short, it creates a more connected, resilient, and high-performing organization.

What Are the Benefits of Sharing Knowledge?

• Increased productivity: Employees can find answers quickly, saving time and reducing repeat questions, which can lead to a 15-25% reduction in time spent on tasks. This reduces interruptions and helps teams stay focused.

• Better decision-making: Access to relevant, up-to-date knowledge leads to more informed choices. It reduces guesswork and supports consistent, data-driven actions.

• Improved employee engagement: Team members feel valued when their insights contribute to broader success, and studies have confirmed a significant association between engagement and knowledge-sharing behavior. Feeling heard encourages future contributions and deeper involvement. In fact, a recent study found that companies that made knowledge sharing a priority are 4.5 times likelier to have engaged employees!

• Scalable learning: One person's experience becomes part of a shared resource that benefits everyone. Over time, this helps teams level up without formal training bottlenecks.

• Customer satisfaction: Support teams respond faster and more accurately when they have the right knowledge at hand, with organizations reporting 37% higher customer satisfaction when using effective knowledge management. That responsiveness builds trust and improves the customer experience.

These benefits make knowledge sharing a competitive advantage. As Stanley McChrystal noted, "sharing is power"—information only creates value when the right people can act on it.

What Are Some Examples of Knowledge Sharing?

Knowledge sharing can take many forms:

• A sales rep documents a successful pitch strategy for others to reuse. This saves time and helps standardize effective messaging across the team.

• A developer explains a new process during a team lunch-and-learn. Others gain clarity and confidence in adopting the new approach.

• A support agent updates a help article after solving a tricky customer issue. That updated content prevents the same issue from escalating again.

• A product team shares a project retrospective in a shared workspace. Colleagues learn what worked (and didn't) to guide future initiatives.

• An HR manager publishes a guide to navigating benefits enrollment. Employees can reference it on demand without relying on one-off conversations.

Whether verbal or written, structured or spontaneous, the goal is the same: make useful information available to others.

Knowledge sharing barriers and how to overcome them

Even with the best intentions, organizations face common barriers to knowledge sharing:

• Cultural resistance: Team members hoard knowledge, fearing reduced value—counter this by rewarding contributors

• Lack of time: Sharing feels like extra work—integrate it into daily workflows instead

• Technology silos: Information scattered across apps—centralize with an AI source of truth

• Fear of being wrong: Hesitation to share imperfect information—create verification workflows for expert approval

Who Should Share Knowledge?

Everyone in an organization should be encouraged to share knowledge—regardless of role or seniority. However, certain roles have more responsibility in setting the tone and ensuring knowledge flows smoothly.

• Team leads and managers: Should model good sharing behaviors and create space for others to contribute. When leaders share transparently, others feel safe to do the same.

• Subject-matter experts (SMEs): Bring deep insights that others rely on to solve problems and make decisions. Their knowledge is critical to maintaining accuracy and depth in content.

• New hires: Offer fresh perspectives and can highlight gaps in existing documentation. Their questions often surface unclear or missing information.

• Support and customer-facing teams: Constantly learning from real-world use cases and feedback. They're often the first to spot recurring pain points or product gaps.

What Is an Example of Knowledge Sharing by a Team Leader?

A team leader might share lessons learned from a recently completed project—what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently next time. By sharing this in a meeting or documentation hub, they help other teams avoid the same pitfalls and replicate success.

How to Share Knowledge: Best Practices

To encourage effective knowledge sharing, follow these best practices:

• Make it part of the workflow: Sharing should happen where work is already taking place—not in a separate system. The closer it is to daily activity, the more likely it is to happen.

• Use templates and standards: Structure helps others understand and reuse shared content more easily. It also makes documentation quicker and more consistent for contributors.

• Recognize contributors: Publicly thank those who document or teach—recognition drives repeat behavior. It also helps build a culture where knowledge is valued, not hoarded.

• Encourage feedback: Let users flag unclear or outdated content to keep shared knowledge relevant. Feedback loops keep content fresh and useful for future readers.

• Lead by example: When leaders and managers share openly, others are more likely to do the same. Role modeling creates psychological safety for team-wide participation.

• Keep it lightweight: Avoid bureaucracy—encourage quick updates, simple formats, and short writeups. When knowledge sharing feels easy, it becomes habitual.

The easier it is to share, the more likely it is to happen.

Tools for Knowledge Sharing

A variety of tools can support knowledge sharing across teams:

• Knowledge management platforms like Guru, Notion, or Confluence. These tools provide structured, centralized spaces for documentation and collaboration.

• Communication tools like Slack, Teams, or email. These are useful for informal sharing and quick answers in real time.

• Project management tools like Asana or Trello, when used for documentation. Adding notes or resources to tasks ensures knowledge stays tied to execution.

• Internal wikis and intranets for company-wide visibility. These help consolidate policies, playbooks, and best practices in one accessible place.

• Video libraries or LMS platforms for recorded training and walkthroughs. This format is helpful for onboarding and complex process explanations.

The most effective tools integrate directly into your existing workflow, allowing teams to access and contribute knowledge without switching between applications.

Start building your trusted layer of truth

When knowledge flows openly and consistently, teams work faster and make better decisions. The goal isn't just storing information—it's creating systems where knowledge moves as quickly as your team does.

Watch our demo to see how Guru builds knowledge-sharing cultures that work within your existing tools.