In today's knowledge economy, too few companies use their intellectual resources to optimal effect, or even hold onto their expertise.
So how do successful knowledge-centric organisations harness their know-how and access it instantaneously, without reinventing it or enlisting the help of its originators? How do they stem the outflow of skills when a star employee leaves the organisation?
The classic approach to the problem is to implement enterprise-wide knowledge management (KM) software, force-fed to employees from the top down.
But that never works, says Steve Erlank, MD of Faculty Training Institute (FTI). "Good knowledge practices should prevail throughout an organisation. Knowledge is everyone's business."
Others go the opposite direction, placing too much reliance on people to play host to and serve up organisational knowledge.
"There is a widespread - and erroneous - belief that knowledge is inextricable from its practitioners. Little is therefore being done to prevent knowledge from walking out with an individual, or to extract, standardise and store knowledge for easy reuse. Instead, companies often resort to hiring new skills or training their existing staff."
But skills are in short supply, and training is expensive. "Instead, people, processes and technology have to work together. Good knowledge-management practices must be infused in the training of knowledge workers, and embedded into an organisation's processes."
Such practices may include storing knowledge in 'knowledge artefacts' like templates and electronic media such as intranets, and setting good knowledge policies, he continues. "Good policies could include regular networking sessions, exit strategies and project reviews."
Of course, he concedes, some organisational activities (or processes) are far too creative or ad hoc to be codified and stored. "An architectural design, for instance, is too once-off and original to deconstruct. The knowledge is too vast. But ordinary architectural processes, such as procurement of the materials needed, are highly repetitive and may as well be codified into knowledge artefacts, for use by anyone with the proper authority."
The bottom line to tapping into the brains of one's most prized colleagues and employees, Erlank concludes, is that it goes beyond the preciousness of people or the tyranny of technology.
"If the triangle of people, processes and technology works together optimally, organisations will see success from KM interventions. An organisation's processes - whether they involve repetitive tasks like issuing tender documents or highly creative activities like an architectural design - can benefit from being integrated with good knowledge-management practice and the use of knowledge artefacts."
He gives the example of templates. "Why re-write a customer letter in solicitation of, or response to a well-known problem? Companies must create repositories of knowledge to improve their productivity, and to increase and standardise the quality of their outputs. Too much of many organisations' knowledge is tacit. It has to become explicit, or you lose it."
Good knowledge practices include:
* Use less paper - to send an FYI memo, whether on e-mail or paper, is a waste of time. Information must have context to become knowledge
* Devise exit strategies, including exhaustive handovers accompanied by detailed written descriptions of the vacated job function, to mine departing employees for their knowledge
* Conduct and note down the result of project reviews as a matter of policy
* Use knowledge repositories, such as intranets and templates, to host intellectual capital including standards and methodologies, and encourage their use
* Use open-plan offices for easy access to colleagues, and encourage communities of practice and networking events to share knowledge
* Management should leave time for making mistakes and continuously improving the execution of tasks
Steve Erlank is MD of FTI, a private training company specialising in career-oriented training for professional knowledge workers. He can be reached at steve@fti.co.za.
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