When long-term employees leave the business, they take much knowledge with them.
Most businesses have their processes documented and filed away for use to safeguard this.
That’s explicit knowledge.
It’s the implicit knowledge that’s harder to record.
- Lessons learnt.
- Tricks of the trade.
- Secret entries, hidden exits.
- Who in the business knows what.
- ……
Most knowledge managers focus on gathering explicit knowledge, but it’s the implicit knowledge they need to get hold of.
How’s the health of your company’s Knowledge Management System?
How does it stack up?
Here are some questions that will help you evaluate.
• Our leadership recognises the value of knowledge as a strategic asset.
• We have a clear vision for how KM will benefit our organisation.
• Workers are willing to share their knowledge with others.
• We have a culture that values continuous learning and improvement.
• We have formal processes for capturing and sharing knowledge.
• Our current workflows allow time for knowledge sharing and reflection.
• We have the necessary IT infrastructure to support KM initiatives.
• Our team is comfortable using digital tools for collaboration and information sharing.
• We have a system for organising and categorising our knowledge.
• We regularly update and maintain our knowledge resources.