Need some ideas for activities to get people sharing? See below for tools and techniques to support the exchange of knowledge, both face to face and online.
The Internet provides many opportunities for knowledge exchange both formal and informal. Many online tools enable people to form groups to share experiences and support one another. Among the best-known examples are Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The Sharing Knowledge page provides information on several tools and how to use them.
The Knowledge Sharing page has lots of suggests for activities which help people to share information in face to face situations, depending on the purpose (scroll down on the Communities page). For example:
Peer Assist Reviews - when a team invites an expert to share his or her experiences to help them to solve a problem.
Knowledge Cafe - try running one of these to stimulate conversation and engage colleagues in a particular topic. A Knowledge cafe is ideal for building on one another's ideas, revealing new insights into questions or issues that are important to everyone.
Lack of understanding is a common cause of poor health. Patients are often confused by information given to them by health and social care staff, even when they say they have understood. This is often due to poor health literacy.
Health literacy is about people having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate the health and social care systems.
As health and social care professionals, when we share knowledge and information with patients, we have a responsibility to support health literacy.
People need staff and services to operate and communicate in a way that makes it easier for them to understand and empowers them to be active partners in their care.
Health Literacy Place provides information about how you can support communication and understanding. The tools provided in The Health Literacy Place are intended to help health and social care practitioners avoid jargon, give clear and understandable directions, and ensure understanding. You can join this network of supporters from across Scotland to help improve health literacy nationally.
See also:
An excellent way to benefit from the experiences of those you work with, or to share your own, is to engage in mentoring or coaching programmes.
Mentoring
Mentoring creates an opportunity for you to use your experience and insight to support another individual to work towards their full potential.
Similarly, working with a mentor should challenge you to play to your strength and encourage you to reflect on new ways of thinking and working that will support your development.
Coaching
Coaching often focuses on specific skills and goals, but similarly provides an opportunity for constructive reflection and professional development. It can also contribute to service improvement and performance.
Check out this Infographic from GoodPractice for more on the differences between Mentoring and Coaching.
Visit GoodPractice for further advice and information on Coaching.