A Basic Necessity for Success - Part 2

Capture and share knowledge before staff depart

We have all been in a situation where our predecessor left no information about the job they had done.  In this circumstance, the new person must spend a lot of time solving the mystery of  how to successfully perform the required job tasks.  They must look for clues in the paper and network file drives.  They must interview other staff who have minimal availability since they are busy doing their job. New staff may try to perform a task, fail, and learn from it.  You can see that in this scenario, time is spent looking for information, having conversations with other staff who do not know the exact details of the job, and trial & error.  This is mostly wasted time that did not have to be spent in this way.  Much of this time could be saved by having a standard  Continuity Protocol followed. 

Don't let knowledge walk out the door!  

The Continuity Protocol involves taking intentional steps to capture and share knowledge before the person departs.  All staff should be documenting and sharing information about how they perform their job tasks just as a matter of doing their job. A Continuity Artifact is routinely updated to become a reflection of the critical knowledge necessary for the job.   This artifact is completed and perfected at the Knowledge Continuity Team Meeting. Before they leave, departing persons must participate in a Knowledge Continuity Team (KCT) meeting. A KCT meeting is a facilitated meeting with the departing person and several members of their team.  At the KCT meeting, essential knowledge-based questions are discussed, answers recorded, and further explored through Q&A.  At this session, knowledge is transferred to the other persons who will be remaining on the job after the departing person leaves.     Additionally, the departing person's knowledge processes are examined, transferred, and renewed for continued use. After the attending their KCT, departing staff have expressed that the KCT meeting gave them a sense of completion and satisfaction that the "baton was passed"  before they left the job. This process documents  their legacy! Each staff member must be aware of and comply with this responsibility.  This process builds a knowledge base containing tailored information about how to successfully perform the job tasks - the perfect resource for the successor of the departed person!  A Continuity Protocol is basic necessity for success.

In Part 3 - Invest in Your Staff

A Basic Necessity for Success - Part 1

Managing organizational knowledge is a basic necessity for success.  You may get hung up on what "Knowledge" means, but you will be bypassing the point.  In any endeavor, knowledge is continuously evidenced in ideas, ingenuity, problem solving, email explanations, standard operating procedures, planning activities, white papers, brainstorming, collaboration, and conversations.  Knowledge is used in  all efforts, assertions, tasks, actions, inactions, detours, creation, and dismantling taken to achieve goals.  Knowledge is the organization's most valuable resource.

We use our knowledge so much that we do not even realize it.  That means that we are not thinking of how we could be using it better.  Bill Kaplan of Working Knowledge says that "Knowledge Management is a process of continuous renewal".   This renewal mindset welcomes a culture of innovation, unexpected benefits, and trust.  Organizations need to be embracing continuous renewal to manage their knowledge transfer.  This series details a knowledge transfer framework for organization success.

Provide knowledge to new staff

Whenever someone starts working at a job the first thing they need to do is figure out how to be successful. They need to know how things are done, the rules imposed by the organization, and the expectations of the job.  The quicker they figure these things out, the better it will be for the new person, their department, and the organization as a whole.

This is why the organization must invest in the resources to provide new staff with critical information on how to perform the job they were hired for.  Often "New Hire" notebooks are given to new staff, or even better, an intranet site tailored to new staff.  In addition to an up-to-date resource about the organization and job, organizations must set aside staff time for coaching, explanations, and conversation. Each onboarding session is an opportunity for reviewing and improving the processes being explained.  Providing knowledge to new staff members renews the knowledge because new staff will now be using it, referring to it, improving it, and taking it to the next level.  Having a comprehensive Onboarding program to orient new staff is a basic necessity for success.

In Part 2,  Don't let knowledge walk out the door!