No, we're not talking wartime France here. We're talking your business. Today.

A recent study in Baseline magazine correctly notes that "most enterprises have a collective fount of knowledge and experience that is deep, rich and varied." Great. However, it also correctly notes that "until recently, businesses haven't been able to take full advantage of this wealth of knowledge."

In fact - let us know if this sounds like where you work - most companies "operate with a responsibility-and-task orientation, filling employees' days and to-do lists with constrained, prioritized duties that strictly delineate their jobs and work philosophies."

Baseline recently conducted a study of 342 managers knowledgeable about their company's usage of knowledge management and collaboration technologies, and came away convinced that new knowledge management techniques can help with this.

It's about time - "the emergence of what we're calling knowledge sharing,' which fuses knowledge management with collaborative and social tools," is producing new opportunities and real excitement, the magazine says.

And that means collaboration.

Baseline's survey "saw much greater success rates in organizations that strongly linked knowledge management and collaboration initiatives: Instead of only 33 percent approaching their knowledge management goals, the number rises to 58 percent."

If those numbers interest you, keep reading: "By adding collaborative features -- or by being added to collaborative applications -- knowledge management is expanding its capabilities and business value, sometimes dramatically," the study learned.

Fifty-eight percent of the enterprises use knowledge management technologies, and 75 percent use collaboration tools, the study found, as well as significant differences among those who did and those who didn't: "Among the organizations that adopted these tools, the sense is that usage rates are high: Two-thirds of those surveyed said that nearly all employees whose work could benefit from their use have already started using them."

Lots more good stuff in the study itself. Check it out.