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The key role of social interaction in the knowledge economy

The key role of social interaction in the knowledge economy

The strength of knowledge community networks to transform ideas into business: embracing the challenge

25 November 2021
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We’re living in the age of speed, technology and change. Whenever this era calls on us to measure ourselves against these challenges, it becomes clear that we need professional, qualified support to enhance our potential and help us achieve our goals.

To respond to this call-to-arms in an effective way, it is becoming increasingly important to embrace collaborative training and development models where knowledge is shared by the parties in a two-way process. Exchanging knowledge and information in fact needs to work both ways:

subverting traditional top-down development processes where a single teacher/trainer imparts information and skills while others simply receive and absorb without contributing.

Corporate training is one of those environments where it is all too easy to fall into traditional modes. You just need to say the words and an array of associated concepts such as courses, training programs, classroom, e-learning and more instantly spring to mind. These concepts, however, are nothing more than tools and processes to put knowledge, and knowledge sharing, in action. They form an integral part of a much broader, more complex system that we like to call Knowledge Management, but they in no way exhaust it or define it. Knowledge Management is not a technique but a strategy to grow skills and information sharing in a way that also embraces the emotional, psychological and social needs of everyone involved in the process.

Since Knowledge Management is not a technique but a process, it is by very nature dynamic and social, this means that in order for it to function properly and provide the desired outcomes it needs to draw on daily work practice. This way knowledge becomes “participated” and is dynamically created, modelled, tweaked, managed, nurtured, used and grown by each team member. The result are more efficient processes, faster, more accurate decision making and a greater propensity to trial and test in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. All these elements form the foundations of competitive advantage that in turn, when developed and expanded across a business, forms economic advantage for companies and personal professional growth for the team at the same time.

Knowledge, when it is correctly conveyed through strategic and contemporary training models, serves to create social and economic value.

It is now an acknowledged fact and the economic development that took place at the end of the second millennium has firmly entrenched its role as an essential part of any successful business model.

Extracting the most out of Knowledge Management is therefore one of the biggest and most important business challenges to ensure all-round success. If knowledge becomes the fundamental value for the growth of society, we must commit to facing the complexities of organizational structures with the help of knowledge management which plays a key role in cementing the innate social nature of people and teams and driving it to a collective positive outcome.

Training is one of the tools for creating knowledge, however, what leads to innovation and success in a company is the knowledge that comes from internal communities, from cross-functional team meetings and from free intellectual resources and best practices. Making sure these are activated and free to roam is one of the challenges we face.

In this moment of economic, hopefully post-pandemic, recovery, the strength of knowledge community networks has emerged with even more disruptive force, transforming ideas into business. Even they cannot find fertile ground and grow, however, unless the organization they are born in truly values them.

With these objectives in mind, I wholeheartedly advocate initiatives and activities aimed at nurturing and sharing new technologies, creating networking moments, sharing and disseminating know-how as well as nurturing the commitment and involvement of everyone to actually make sure they take advantage of this creative humus: managing complexity, adapting to increasingly dynamic and changing demands and contexts, is a challenge to embrace!

Olga Cursoli - Fincons Group Olga Cursoli

Fincons Group

Hr Director Italy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-cursoli-9458a64/