Much like other factors of production, knowledge is now held by most countries in Asia to be a critical organizational asset and an important economic resource. Singapore, for example, has a goal to be a vibrant and knowledge-based economy. The Singapore Economic Development Board is aware that as technological advances and globalization speeds up, knowledge is bound to become a strategic asset. To succeed in an economy of rapid change and uncertainty, workers need to arm themselves with knowledge that goes beyond the explicit information contained in manuals and databases. There is an increasing need to tap into the experience, intuition and social networks of employees. More than ever, critical knowledge is about pattern recognition, social norms and relationships, which can be difficult to learn due to their tacit nature.
The problem is, tacit knowledge (or knowledge maintained in the memory of an individual or group) walks out of the door every time an employee leaves. This problem is striking at the heart of organizations across a wide variety of industries. The threat grows more acute as productivity and performance in today’s organizations become increasingly linked to the effective leveraging of organizational knowledge.
Eliciting Exchange
Many companies and government agencies have started to stem the erosion of their knowledge base. To prevent the loss of critical knowledge every time an employee leaves, organizations can adopt a strategy of knowledge elicitation and exchange.
- Knowledge elicitation techniques focus on working with individuals to take their tacit knowledge and transform it into a more explicit and tangible format. Formats can range from simple written documents to multimedia formats that combine audio and visual recordings searchable via natural language queries. In any case, the primary objective of knowledge elicitation is to increase both the visibility and retention of an individual’s knowledge by preserving it.
- Knowledge exchange focuses on helping individuals make connections with subject matter experts on a planned and managed basis. Knowledge exchange projects are designed to bring together knowledge seekers and sources, during which they can discuss experiences, engage in complex problem solving and, in some cases, observe actual work activities. Mentoring is a common knowledge exchange technique.
Another proven method, communities of practice, brings together individuals who are likely to have the common context to effectively preserve organizational memory. This technique provides group validation of knowledge through the vetting and evaluation of material. Participation is often voluntary and therefore more effective. While mechanisms for capturing knowledge may be used as part of an exchange effort (such as maintaining a repository to support a community of practice), the effort focuses on connecting individuals rather than on collecting material.
Knowledge preservation efforts need to be carefully planned and managed. While not meant to provide a comprehensive method, the following approach guides organizations through designing and executing a successful knowledge preservation strategy.Step 1: Prioritise knowledge retention positions
Given the time and effort it takes to preserve knowledge, organizations first need to identify key individuals, groups or positions that hold knowledge of high strategic importance. This discussion should involve a cross-functional team of executives who have a solid understanding of overall business objectives and marketplace needs, as well as some understanding of employee demographics. Intervention through initiatives that stem the loss of critical knowledge will be critical for those positions where the knowledge held is of high strategic importance and where the expected level of attrition is elevated. The next step is to home in on the specific types of critical knowledge these individuals possess. A simple brainstorming exercise, ideally involving the practitioner himself, should suffice. The discussion should cover knowledge that can be found in organizational operating manuals, database and documents, as well as knowledge that has a personal quality and comprises “rules of thumb”, intuition, relationships, values and opinions.
Step2: Identify extent of knowledge risk for each position
Next, organizations must examine the extent to which this critical knowledge is at risk. Common reasons why organizations face losing knowledge assets include:
- The labor market is competitive;
- There is a limited talent pool for this position/skill;
- An employee has recently exercised his stock options or pension benefits;
- An employee with important or “one-of-a-kind” expertise is reaching retirement age;
- An employee is taking part in an internal job rotation programme;
- There is high turnover for a particular position;
- The company is considering outsourcing or divesting a part of the business.
Step3: Building a plan of action
This is the final step in our “getting started” approach.
- Develop a comprehensive stakeholder analysis
For each knowledge preservation initiative chosen, a comprehensive stakeholder analysis will be critical. For each stakeholder identified, assess the current level of his/her support for the proposed initiative, understand why the stakeholder would be interested in the knowledge preservation project, and list the stakeholder’s potential objections to the initiative. In addition, a broad coalition of project champions should be built. Project champions can help by providing funding and other resources, as well as by providing linkages to other sources of support. In addition, a diverse group of champions can provide access to cross-functional input and targeted expertise. Finally, this group can improve visibility of the knowledge preservation effort throughout the organization, thus increasing excitement and the likelihood that success will be replicated elsewhere. - Develop a detailed statement of organizational need
- Examine “the cost of doing nothing”
- Create a plan to resolve potential barriers
The next step in building a plan for action involves a more robust assessment of organizational need. While a framework for identifying “at risk” knowledge was provided above, it is important to be able to answer the question, “What is the greatest source of pain related to knowledge retention within your organization?” Conducting interviews with key stakeholders and compiling demographic statistics to further identify hot issues will bolster your case.
Perhaps the most evocative way to call people to action is to tell a “war story” that demonstrates what has happened due to lack of attention to your organization’s knowledge retention problem. Where possible, it is useful to show a negative financial and/or productivity impact.
Finally, organizations must address any potential barriers. To start, it is helpful to brainstorm the top three potential barriers to success of the knowledge preservation initiative. A constructive way to begin to resolve potential barriers is to establish cross-functional working groups. By involving key stakeholders at this critical stage, you also will further strengthen their commitment to the initiative.
Most organizations are more prepared to launch knowledge preser-vation initiatives than they might think, and choosing projects that wisely leverage on current capabilities and infrastructure will improve the likelihood of buy-in from key stakeholders and success of the initiative.
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