In this article, Charnell Havens and Dylan Haas explain how knowledge management initiatives can support different types of collaboration. Great accomplishments are most likely to occur in collaborative environments. The fundamental urge to organize and collaborate derives from people's innate sense that they can accomplish much more together than apart. For an organization to foster collaboration it must shift from a culture where hoarding knowledge is power to one where sharing knowledge is power.
Sharing is the basis of collaboration among people.
The following are four modes of collaboration which offer different benefits to the organization and require different manners and measures of organizational support. A successful KM system will address all four. Two people meet, they recognize value in each other, and they resolve to keep in touch. Collaboration at this stage is all about potential. Over time, they trade stories and backgrounds, compare acquaintances, unearth eachother's skills, interests, and areas of expertise.