Over the years, knowledge management practitioners have studied knowledge management (KM) and identified approaches such as mentoring, communities of practice, training programs, and methodologies for transferring knowledge within the organization.
Some practitioners looked at implementing KM from a system perspective using the correct mix of people, process, and technology to build an effective knowledge exchange system. They also defined numerous terms such as those that describe the intellectual assets of organizations and government agencies. Three important terms related to this topic are data, information, and knowledge.
In the book, Working Knowledge (Harvard Business School Press, 2000), Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak define these key terms:
- data: a set of discrete, objective facts about events
- information: a message, usually in the form of a document or an audible or visible communication. It has a sender and a receiver. Information is meant to change the way the receiver perceives something, to have an impact on his judgment and behavior.
- knowledge: a mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms.
Knowledge Versus Information
As I approached retirement within one federal government agency, I attempted to convey as much knowledge as possible to my colleagues. Within the last few months before retiring, I realized that although I had detailed methods for completing various tasks, there was a lack of the tacit knowledge that was being transferred. Then I asked the question, what happened?
The knowledge exchange is not an easy as one might expect. The easy part was the transfer of "information" as opposed to "knowledge." Documenting systems and demonstrating how they work are important steps in the knowledge sharing processes. However, a true knowledge exchange includes the major knowledge components, as well as tacit knowledge. It also requires that interested knowledge workers dedicate time and effort to interact and learn as much as possible from the departing expert.
About a month before I was scheduled to retire, I met with supervisors and managers in the departments that I serviced. Many of the managers who were accustomed to receiving quality service from our office emphasized the need to ensure that my successors could replicate my work so that services would not be interrupted. The culture at the agency was not a knowledge-sharing culture, and most managers never realized the importance of implementing an ongoing knowledge exchange program as we had done in my office. What they hadn't realized was that our office had been promoting this culture for several years.
Conveying Tacit Knowledge
My successors had learned many of the processes and had an understanding of the programs that were in place. However, they lacked an in-depth understanding of the thought processes that go into designing solutions. I had not effectively conveyed my tacit knowledge.
My job involved creating new applications that streamlined operations. The work was creative, required an in-depth understanding of the processes of the divisions and offices, and needed a high level of expertise in the area of database and code design. As I reviewed my work involving knowledge transfer, I identified two significant problems. First, work priorities often interfered with taking the time for co-workers to just sit down and review the work being done.
The second issue that became evident to me was that one's scholastic training, years of service, work ethics, discipline, and attitude—as well as their explicit and tacit knowledge—all play a very significant role in one's performance. When a person retires and another assumes the retiree's tasks, there is often a younger person that is stepping up to the plate. This new person will have to develop and mold his or her own characteristics over time.
For an organization that is about to lose a seasoned performer, here are my suggestions for implementing an effective knowledge transfer, in order of importance:
- The senior leaders of the organization must establish and promote a knowledge sharing culture.
a) Ideally, this should occur at the very top of the organization and be replicated down the management chain within the organization.
b) If senior leaders at the top are not ready to support KM, then individual offices that wish to create an effective knowledge exchange can establish their own knowledge culture. This effort requires the support of the immediate managers of those offices who wish to implement a knowledge sharing culture.
- A knowledge-sharing culture should begin early in the employee's career.
a) For current knowledge workers, that work should begin immediately. Asking a knowledge professional to spill his guts in the last few months before retiring is but a last-minute effort to leave as much information as possible behind. It's like the last Hail Mary of the football game where the team is down by one touchdown.
- Knowledge creation should be identified as a top priority within the work unit.
a) If the knowledge creation effort is not at the top of the priority list, it is not likely to happen in an effective manner.
b) When setting deadlines for a project, always include requirements for conveying the "knowledge" among the knowledge workers within the work unit.
c) Knowledge workers should be held accountable for their knowledge exchange efforts.
d) Knowledge workers should be rewarded for their contributions.
- Your staff should be trained on how to effectively share knowledge.
a) Some professional fields such as information technology (IT), investigators, and others often do not have professional training requirements. Within IT, we have seen some very creative knowledge workers but we also have knowledge workers with very limited expertise. Even though the IT field is so broad, many IT customers see all IT specialists as being equal. They often do not see a distinction among the talented workers who may have a college degree or certification in their profession compared to the workers who have learned IT on their own and may be lacking important concepts related to the profession. This is true of many professions. Managers must ensure that their reports pursue appropriate training and establish reward programs for those that openly share their expertise with colleagues.
- Methods for transferring tacit knowledge should be developed.
a) This task will require working with professional KM specialists who are trained in helping organizations develop and implement solutions.
Surely, a true KM program is much more than these five recommendations. However, managers who have a desire to capture the knowledge and expertise of their reports can use these suggestions as a foundation to create a knowledge-sharing culture within their work unit.