Definitions of Knowledge Sharing Practices

Example of Techniques and Tools	Description
Annotated Template/Guidance Document	Templates, outlines, or other content/format guidelines to provide guidance on items for inclusion and how to go about writing and documentation.
Communities of Practice	A group of people who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting with each other over time and who share that collaborative knowledge with others in the organization, but not a formally constituted work team
Critical Incident Review/Lessons Learned	Capture lessons of experienced employees’ approach to problem solving. Creates a database and allows for discussion of what worked, what did not work, and why. Focuses on finding root causes and process issues
Expert Interviews	Skilled interviewer asks questions of employee to make tacit knowledge explicit.
Job Shadowing	Veteran employee shares knowledge with a less experienced employee and provides hands-on practice in dealing with everyday problems and the most difficult situations
Knowledge Maps	Used to discover the location, form, ownership, value and use of knowledge and people’s expertise to make better use of knowledge and identify barriers to knowledge flow
Last Lecture/Story Telling/Oral History	Retiring employee or employee with expertise is encouraged to give a presentation in a staff meeting and/or lunchtime talk. Event can be face-to-face or via a video. Description of what really happened to give context, engage feelings and minds, help listeners see relevancy to their own situation
Mentoring Programs	Training for specific situations or developmental needs, effective for transferring organizational cultural information, relationships outside units, develop higher level of proficiency
Peer Exchange	Peers from state DOTs, or regional and local governments, meet to exchange ideas and best practices on a specific topic to benefit research, development, and technology transfer programs.
Process Documentation	Flow diagrams that illustrate a process and identifies roles and responsibilities of various parties, including process, participants and products at each step in the process.
Research	Research advances innovation and contributes to broad implementation of specific processes and procedures.
Tech Talk Events	SMEs present information on specific innovative initiatives or research findings at lunchtime talks or half-day events
Training	SME conducts training session on specific topic
Videos	Illustrates how a job or task is done or innovation is achieved. Documents model or innovative practices.
Webinar	SMEs conduct online training that can be accessed live or reposed for on-demand usage.
Workshop	Half-day or full-day event including practical application of knowledge transferred.