The Dynamics of Sharing Global Information

Chief Learning Officer Magazine's May edition ran a feature that asked 'Are you sharing global information' positioning the issue (and a possible solution) as follows

Organisational silos often inhibit employees from easily accessing global intelligence, and the larger the organisation, the more likely it is that critical information is not being shared. For instance, someone working in the office of regulatory affairs in Japan may be a local subject matter expert, but a colleague in another office who needs such information doesn’t know that expertise exists.

This is problematic because CLOs are now responsible for helping to drive globalisation in their organisations. There are multiple facets to consider: expansion into developing markets; an increasingly diverse and multicultural workforce; new joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions; headquartering functional groups in different geographies; and manufacturing in multiple countries, to name a few. The CLO has to manage all of the global knowledge coming in and make it available to those who need the information to succeed. Building a knowledge management process to promote global intelligence sharing can help. 

While modern technology and the ability to create knowledge management systems can undoubtedly help in sharing information and best practice across functions and geographies, the reality is that these systems will only be as good as the inclination of individuals and teams to input into them. In this context, FranklinCovey's focus is not on training people how they use these systems, but rather on engaging them in the value that diversity of perspective brings, the opportunities for synergies this provides and the transformational outcomes that can be achieved. By tapping into these beliefs and motivations, and connecting them to outcomes which are important to the individuals and teams involved, organisations can really start to leverage the power of global information.