Introduction

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The ability to make informed decisions is crucial for any organisation seeking to achieve ongoing growth and success. And the decisions made across teams can have far-reaching consequences - affecting everything from revenues to employee satisfaction. 

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Bringing your existing knowledge into every decision is critical to ensure that your strategy is rooted in data, not opinions. Adopting a data-driven approach to decision making ensures that each new decision is moving your team and business forward in the right direction.

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One key factor that can influence the overall effectiveness of an organisation is the extent to which employees are able to access and leverage existing insights, to help inform their decision making process. 

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In this post, we discuss the importance of leveraging existing knowledge to inform decision making across an organisation, and suggest 5 practical tips for how to do this efficiently, so that you’re able to start turning your existing insights into a competitive advantage.

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The value of your organisation’s existing knowledge

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Existing knowledge and insights help decision makers understand the background and potential outcomes of the different choices they’re presented with. By revisiting what we already know, we’re able to understand the knowledge that’s been used to drive previous choices, and use this to inform the best next steps for our organisation.

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Through revisiting historical research, decision makers can avoid repeating previous mistakes and identify any new questions that need to be answered ahead of making the next key decision. This helps teams to avoid wasting time and resources on executing a strategy, or commissioning new research studies, which are unlikely to be impactful or successful.

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Leveraging existing knowledge also helps people to stay up-to-date with the latest discoveries, trends, and debates across their organisation and the wider industry. Research is constantly evolving, and by staying current with the latest findings, the decision makers within an organisation can ensure that their choices are informed by the most recent data.

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Not only is having access to existing knowledge critical for today’s decision makers, it’s also important for new joiners. By providing new hires with access to everything your organisation already knows around a particular topic, they’re able to onboard more efficiently and start adding value to the organisation far more quickly.

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5 practical tips for leveraging existing knowledge

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1. Start by establishing what you already know

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Pulling together a consolidated view of what your organisation already knows about your current customer and business goals is a powerful way to start highlighting any gaps and opportunities in your existing knowledge base.

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Most organisations start by centralising their existing research documents – providing decision makers with the ability to quickly search artefacts for existing and relevant insights. Simply having your key research reports centralised in a searchable and filterable place, is a valuable first step towards better leveraging your existing knowledge.

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2. Bring together a variety of research sources

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Relying on a single source of research limits your ability to realise the bigger picture surrounding your customer and business goals. Instead, decision makers should aim to combine a variety of sources, including internal research reports and external industry white papers, as well as any other supporting data provided to them by their wider teammates.

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Combining qualitative and quantitative data helps to build the richest understanding around the ‘what?’ and the ‘why?’ surrounding your customers. And leaning on secondary research can be a cost-effective way to gather knowledge by minimising the need to always commision new internal discovery to answer questions in areas of lower confidence.

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3. Build upon your existing knowledge base

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Existing knowledge provides a foundation upon which new understanding can be built. But the strength of an insight can decay over time unless new evidence is discovered to support it, which is why decision makers should look to regularly challenge their pre-existing knowledge.

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Revisiting previous knowledge presents an opportunity to use new research to validate if a particular insight still holds true. By comparing old and new findings, we can ensure our knowledge base is up-to-date and that confidence in the insights used to drive our decisions remains high.

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4. Share access to your existing knowledge

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Improving the visibility of your existing knowledge isn’t just helpful for yourself and your immediate teammates. Sharing this with others also helps wider teams make better decisions, all whilst improving stakeholder relationships through demonstrating resourcefulness.

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You’ll not only help other decision makers to take into account a wider range of perspectives when making decisions, but also help to increase the collective intelligence of your organisation. Additionally, sharing existing knowledge helps new joiners quickly hit the ground running, avoid common mistakes, and ensure a smoother transition into their roles.

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5. Combine insights to unlock new opportunities

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Perhaps the most important (and often overlooked) reason to revisit your existing knowledge, is the ability to leverage it strategically. Combining existing insights is the key to unlocking new opportunities for yourself and your wider organisation. By consolidating and synthesising multiple data sources, you can gain a more comprehensive view of your business operations, customer behaviour, and wider market trends.

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This allows you to validate assumptions and identify the most promising areas for growth – helping you to maximise the impact of the decisions you’re making for the organisation. Furthermore, combining insights can help you challenge the current direction of the business, identifying new areas for improvement and highlighting any potential risks or threats to the current goals that your company is working towards.

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Conclusion

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By leveraging your organisation’s existing knowledge when making decisions, you can contribute more effectively towards the ongoing growth and success of the business.

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Consolidating existing insights can help teams to discover previously unseen opportunities and also challenge areas of uncertainty, enabling you to play a pivotal role in keeping your organisation moving in the right direction.

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So perhaps it's time to start delving deeper into your existing knowledge base, and begin witnessing the expansion and acceleration of your decision-making abilities, as well as your contributions to the overall success of the organisation.

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About Dualo

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At Dualo, we understand the value of leveraging existing knowledge to make better decisions, which is why we’ve developed a product that helps you do just that.

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Our platform allows you to effortlessly deep search across all your existing research reports – providing you and your teammates with access to valuable insights in seconds. 

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So if you're ready to start fully leveraging your existing knowledge, request a demo today and a member of our team will be in touch.

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