I just went to a great presentation from some local knowledge management folks in Boeing and Microsoft. The presenters gave some very concrete, actionable ways to enable knowledge-sharing in your organization. Many libraries are facing the same issues of aerospace and other technical firms, namely baby boomer retirement and the knowledge gap that will leave. Boeing’s knowledge management program attempts to address this brain drain issue by setting up communities of practice, mentoring programs, a technical expert locater (with facebook-like social features), and other activities that I wasn’t able to capture in my notes. Microsoft rewards knowledge sharing as part of their employee performance reviews, a top-down way of creating a knowledge-sharing culture.

The key activity that enables knowledge sharing? Social connection.