Is your company spending knowledge or investing in it?
Companies that are knowledge investors end up saving precious time and improving efficiencies in their business.
Watch this 3-minute video to learn the difference. Then keep reading for tips on how you can become a knowledge investor.
Definitions: Knowledge spender vs investor
What is the difference between a knowledge spender and knowledge investor?
It has to do with your behaviors and habits surrounding managing and transferring knowledge in your business.
Knowledge spender
A knowledge spender is someone who always answers questions that employees or customers ask them. A question comes in and they answer it.
They never seem to run out of knowledge. But they do run out of time and energy. When all you do is answer questions, it is hard to get anything else done.
Knowledge investor
Knowledge investors think differently. When someone asks them a question they think to themselves, “How can I answer this in a way that I will never have to answer it again?”
Instead of answering a question a thousand times, they answer it once.
What constitutes an investment?
You might think that “knowledge investing” is just about writing things down or recording a video. It isn’t. An investment has to pay off. The payoff of knowledge investments is not the capturing of information, but the use of that information.
Unless someone in the future with the same question can find and follow what you wrote down or recorded, it isn’t really a knowledge investment. It’s just storage of information.
When you evaluate how you are answering questions and giving instructions you always have to ask yourself, “Will someone be able to find and follow these instructions again, without asking me for help?”
Signs that you are a knowledge spender
There are three common questions we all get:
- How do I do this? (could be a task or problem that needs to be solved)
- What is our policy on this?
- Where do I find this bit of information I need?
The most common channels people are asked these questions are:
- In-person, on a phone call, or a web meeting
- Messaging apps (MS Teams, Slack, or text)
- Support chat or ticketing system
Think of how you respond in each of these scenarios. If you write out a response or hop on a call to talk them through it, then you are a knowledge spender. Your efforts, while helpful, are not repeatable or scalable. The next time that person or anyone else has the same question you will have to answer it again.
Just because it was written down in your messaging system or your email doesn’t mean you invested. Remember, it is only when someone can find and follow information on their own that you have truly invested.
But if you can send them a link to a digital guide that they can follow to find their answer without needing any additional assistance, then you are a knowledge investor.
How to move from being a knowledge spender to a knowledge investor
Here are three steps to take to become a knowledge investor:
- Change your thought process when you are asked a question
- Write down the questions you are asked
- Provide answers that people can find and follow on their own
1. Change your reaction when you get asked a question
Your first response should be, “Does this answer already exist somewhere?” If it does, send the person a link to that answer.
Some people think this sounds impersonal or rude. If your attitude is, “I am sick of people bothering me,” then, yes, it might be taken that way.
But if your attitude is, “I want you to feel successful and confident doing this on your own,” then others will appreciate your interest.
But what if you don’t have those resources to send to someone yet?
Just think to yourself, “How could I answer this question in a way that I will never have to answer it again?”
Sometimes a checklist will work. Sometimes you may need to write out a decision tree. Other times you just need a bulleted list of instructions. Whatever it is, create it in a way that someone will be able to find and follow it without needing additional assistance.
PRO TIP: Put the question you are answering as the title of the document, help article, or digital guide you are creating. It will make it easier to write and easier to find later.
2. Write down the questions you get asked repeatedly
Your day may be so hectic that you don’t have time to create a new resource each time someone asks you a question. That is very common in organizations that traditionally have relied on knowledge spenders.
Here is a tip on how to start: Just write down the questions you get asked.
After you write it down, go ahead and answer it just like you always have, but at least capture the questions you are getting asked in a spreadsheet or note.
Later on, you can go back and review the list of questions. Notice which ones take the most time to answer and invest in creating a guide for that question.
By doing this you will start freeing small blocks of time during your day which will later lead to huge changes.
3. Provide answers that people can find and follow on their own
Simply writing things down won’t be enough. To be a true investor you need to write them in a way that someone could follow the instructions without needing additional help.
We work with many clients that come to us with thousands of pages of documentation that no one can follow. People have spent hours, days, and months writing things down but they have done it in a way people can’t follow.
It’s like a huge investment that pays no dividends.
Here is the process we typically take them through:
- We split apart big chunks of documentation into smaller parts that answer specific questions
- We separate foundational and actionable knowledge
- We use AI tools or human intervention to rewrite the guides to read more like a recipe or turn-by-turn directions instead of an encyclopedia.
- We add images, checklists, and decision trees to make the guides more followable and scannable
Check out this previous Knowledge Champion post for tips on how to make your digital guides Findable, Followable, and Scannable.
Ready to invest in your knowledge?
When you invest time into documenting your knowledge and making it accessible to your employees, you are investing in your future.
A knowledge investor:
- Empowers employees to be independent and confident workers
- Frees up supervisors' time so they can spend more time on other projects
- Decreases employee mistakes
ScreenSteps helps companies become knowledge investors. The ScreenSteps Knowledge Ops Platform makes it fast and easy for knowledge investors to capture knowledge and deliver it to their employees and customers instantaneously.
Schedule a demo with a ScreenSteps expert to see how ScreenSteps can help you become a knowledge investor.
