Transferring the Knowledge

To be effective at carrying the organization forward, next-generation leaders will need all their own knowledge and skills as well as the knowledge of the Boomers. Wikipedia’s definition of knowledge management (KM) is this: “a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice.” When we refer to knowledge management inside an organization, we are typically referring to two types of knowledge:

•   Explicit knowledge: knowledge that an individual uses to do his or her job and is aware of and is capable of explaining to others. An example of explicit knowledge is knowing which manual, code, or process to use in a given scenario and is typically easily transferred to others.

•   Tacit knowledge: knowledge that an individual uses to do his or her job that is deeper, inherent, complex, and difficult to transfer such as how to work around the internal bureaucracy, put together an effective presentation, or deal effectively with a specific customer.

Organizations lose both explicit and tacit knowledge each time an employee leaves the organization. “Whatever the reasons for the lost knowledge, organizations are slow in reacting to the knowledge loss and protecting their intellectual capital…. To remain competitive, organizations need to examine their knowledge management practices and have the capacity to develop, organize, retain and use their human and knowledge resources. Customers now more than ever want better products and services. As we become part of the global village, many of the products and services that organizations offer have to be transformed to meet these challenges.”⁴

When it comes to the generational shift, knowledge management is crucial and “harvesting both the explicit and the tacit knowledge and then transferring it to the next generations’ leaders will provide stepping stones for today’s organizations to move into the competitive forefront. In our fast-food environment, it is easy to downplay the impact of building on the shoulders of our organizational forefathers. Just as a country cannot throw away all of its history and established systems and processes before the current generation, organizations that try to constantly build the new without learning from and implementing the best of the past will fall short of their ultimate capabilities.”

The director of the Institute for Research in Information Systems, Ramesh Sharda, Ph.D. at the Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business, leads a knowledge-harvesting initiative originally designed for the Department of Defense. It is designed to gain both explicit and tacit knowledge. Here is how it works:

•   An organization determines that it wants to harvest the knowledge of its employees. For our purposes, we’ll choose harvesting the knowledge of the exiting Boomers as an example.

•   The information that needs to be retrieved is established.

•   Subject matter experts (SMEs) in that specific area are identified.

•   A formal interview with the exiting Boomer is set up and videotaped.

•   A trained interviewer conducts the interview using predetermined questions.

•   Taping typically takes about 1½ hours.

•   Once the taping is complete, the interview is reviewed with a SME and a knowledge-harvesting–trained technologist to sort the wheat from the chaff.

•   Edits are made and the knowledge is cut and categorized for search protocol.

The end result is sort of like an organizational-specific You-Tube on steroids. The knowledge can then be accessed by employees both internal via computer and in the field via PDA.

So, if XYZ Company has an exiting Boomer who had an excellent relationship with a large client, the specifics of this client relationship both explicit and tacit can be harvested and provided to a Gen Xer or Gen Yer who is taking over the account. This detailed and important information along with a proper handoff from the Boomer to the incoming account manager can bridge the gap with an important client and prevent a rocky transition or even loss of the client. In the event of a sudden departure of the Boomer, having the information stored becomes even more important in establishing the new account manager.

For a more organic approach, Enterprise 2.0⁵ author Andrew McAfee says that knowledge management is creating an organization that knows what it knows. Instead of traditional knowledge management the organization can create a sort of Wikipedia for knowledge management where everyone is allowed to make corrections. It’s more about creating a platform that anyone can input at any time with no more pre-defined content.