What is the concept of Intellectual Property (IP)?

In short, it means corporation owns the inventions of its employees. Employees can’t take it with them. And competitors can’t use it. Clauses governing IP appear in agreements that employees must sign, and trademarks and patents protect it from competitors. IP plays an important role in protecting companies and people.

But we sometimes take protecting our ideas and creations too far. Organizations that freely share knowledge internally are the ones that tend to bring new innovations to market faster. If early DNA research wasn’t shared within the scientific community, later discoveries related to DNA would never have been possible.

Interestingly enough, there are languages that lack a possessive form. Hopi is one such language. The Hopi people are a Native American tribe residing in northern Arizona. The Hopi people did not see themselves as the owners of the land where they lived and hunted and farmed. They would therefore say “the land where I live” or “the field where I grow corn.” Not “my” land. Not “my” field. The word Hopi means “one who is mannered, civilized, peaceable, polite.” Ponder that for a moment. How different would our workplaces be if ideas were more freely and easily shared.

Microsoft SharePoint is a tool built for knowledge sharing.

SharePoint improves communication and collaboration among businesses, colleagues, and customers. By using SharePoint, you and your team can set up Websites to share materials with others, manage projects from start to finish, and publish comprehensive reports anytime and anywhere. Sharing will transform the way you do business. It may even transform your world.

But it’s not as easy as installing software. Businesses that succeed with SharePoint start by building a plan, they setup governance rules to make it safe to share knowledge, and they execute change management strategies to get their teams to rethink how they work together.

Ready to share? Contact C5 Insight to learn more about knowledge sharing with SharePoint.