Knowledge Sharing: Best Practices to Break Down Barriers
Course Description
APQC’s Knowledge Sharing: Best Practices to Break Down Barriers provides practical strategies and tools to identify and tackle the most common barriers to knowledge sharing in organizations. Drawing on APQC’s research, this course explores ten key barriers—from cultural resistance and lack of awareness to misaligned measures and trust issues—that can hinder the flow of knowledge.
You’ll learn through real-world examples, interactive activities, and practical strategies, how to assess your organization’s culture, engage stakeholders, and build knowledge-sharing habits into daily routines.
This course is ideal for business leaders, KM practitioners, content managers, process owners, HR professionals, and change agents. By the end, you’ll be ready to drive knowledge-sharing in your organization and help create a more collaborative, innovative, and continuously improving workplace.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify the ten most common barriers to knowledge sharing
- Assess cultural and structural factors that impact knowledge-sharing
- Differentiate between structural and mind-set barriers
- Apply targeted strategies to address barriers
- Recognize cues that signal common barriers
- Understand how knowledge flow integrates into business processes to remove barriers
Audience
This course is designed for professionals who shape how knowledge flows within organizations—whether leading transformation or supporting it from within.
- Business leaders who drive collaboration and knowledge sharing
- Knowledge management (KM) leaders and practitioners
- Content management specialists
- Process owners and stewards
- HR professionals focused on culture and engagement
- Change agents
- Learning and development experts
- IT strategists
- Anyone responsible for breaking down silos and fostering a connected, knowledge-driven workplace
As an IACET Accredited Provider, APQC offers between .4 CEUs for this course that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.
Syllabus
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- Definition of knowledge
- Definition of knowledge management
- Current opportunities for knowledge management
- Threats to knowledge management right now
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- Best practices to identify and address barriers
- Know and understand your culture
- Benchmark and Assess
- What motivates knowledge sharing?
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- Top 10 Barriers to knowledge sharing
- Structural barriers
- Mind-set barriers
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- Top 10 barriers to knowledge sharing
- Awareness
- Communication is a 2-way street
- Types of messages
- Sponsorship
- Cross-functional oversight is crucial
- Time
- Productivity Gains
- Standardized KM Approaches
- Distance
- Create KM roles in the business
- Measures
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- Culture
- A strategy for change
- How an aerospace organization manages change
- Experience
- Understanding your end user
- Knowledge hoarding
- Why organizations map their knowledge
- Knowledge mapping example
- Relationships
- Communities build knowledge sharing skills
- Trust
- Using Lessons Learned
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- Recap of barrier definitions
- Activity 3 - identify the cues
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- Recap - techniques to address structural barriers
- Recap - techniques to address mind-set barriers
- Summary
- Making it stick