Shared Intelligence is Not a SharePoint Site

You’ve seen the "Knowledge Management" graveyard.

It’s a dusty Confluence page that hasn't been updated since the 2023 reorg. It’s a Slack channel with 4,000 unread messages. It’s a SharePoint folder named "Final_v2_USE_THIS."

Most companies think they have an intelligence problem, so they buy a library.

But a library isn't intelligence. It’s just storage.

The Tool Trap

We have been sold a lie: that if we just "capture" enough information, we will magically become smarter.

Slack is for coordination, not intelligence. It’s a stream. If you aren't in the stream at the moment the water passes, the context is gone.

SharePoint is for compliance, not intelligence. It’s a vault. It’s where information goes to be archived, not where it goes to be used.

Wikis are for documentation, not intelligence. They tell you how a system works, but they rarely tell you why it was built that way or what happens if you change it.

These are Information Repositories. They are passive.

Shared Intelligence is active.

The Living Tissue

Shared Intelligence (SI) isn't a place where you store files. It is the shared mental model that exists between your people.

If your database is destroyed tomorrow, but your team still knows how to rebuild the system, solve the customer's problem, and outmaneuver the competitor—that is SI.

If your team is paralyzed the second the Wiki goes down, you don't have intelligence. You have a dependency.

Intelligence vs. Inventory

Think of it like a kitchen.

SharePoint is the pantry. It holds the ingredients.

Shared Intelligence is the chef’s "mise en place." It’s the intuitive understanding of how the ingredients work together, the heat of the stove, and the timing of the dish.

You can have a world-class pantry and still serve a terrible meal if the chefs aren't talking.

How to Build SI (Instead of another Wiki)

To move from "Storage" to "Intelligence," you have to stop focusing on the container and start focusing on the connection:

Ditch the "Capture Everything" Mindset: Noise is the enemy of intelligence.

Focus on Narrative: Intelligence is stored in stories, not spreadsheets. Why did we fail last quarter? What did we learn?

Optimize for Retrieval, Not Storage: If a junior engineer can’t find the "Why" behind a legacy decision in under 60 seconds, your intelligence has decayed.

The Hard Truth

You cannot buy Shared Intelligence. You cannot install it via an API.

You have to build it through deliberate rituals, intentional information architecture, and a culture that values context over volume.

Stop building libraries. Start building minds.

Is your company an archive or an engine?

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