Photo by Leslie Holder on Unsplash
Where does critical knowledge reside in your organisation? In a database? In SharePoint? In people’s heads?
I remember Glen Carlson of Key Persons of Influence saying that –
the gap between where you are and where you want to be – is often knowledge
It’s an empowering statement.
So where do you acquire and keep this knowledge?
We live in a world where knowledge is plentiful and there are many knowledge capture systems inside and outside of our organisations.
But do we use them? Are you able to find the knowledge that we need when we need them or do we spend hours trawling through websites and data bases?
I’m not here to advocate for any particular knowledge capture system, though I’d be interested to learn what you use. Rather I wanted to remind you of how important knowledge capture systems are. A great deal of our knowledge is evergreen as new ideas seed from old knowledge. Cue song by Peter Allen …
When everything old is new again.
I’ve been thinking about the importance of knowledge capture systems for creativity and innovation. If you’ve ever visited Leonaro da Vinci’s museum in Florence you’ll note that he was a prolific scribbler and builder of models. Many of his ideas, such as those for the helicopter, were centuries ahead of their time. It was therefore a wonderful gift to those who came after him that these ideas were documented and preserved.
Increasingly, we need great knowledge capture systems to support mobile ways of working. I was interested to read in Inc that Sid Sijbrandij, Cofounder of GitLab attributes their success to their knowledge capture systems. GitLab has a 100% remote working organisation with 850 employees located around the world. They document everything online: all meetings and presentations are uploaded on YouTube and the company has a massive online handbook. There are a couple of other reasons why they are successful, such as a culture that focuses on results over hours spent and a valuing of using challenges as learning opportunities, but it’s interesting to see their focus on knowledge management.
So what are some things you can takeaway from my musings …
Capture knowledge as you go – after a conversation, meeting, phone call or web search record what you’ve learnt and what you plan to do next.
Store your knowledge somewhere in a digital format if possible – because it’s cheaper to store, easier to find and reuse and you can back it up offsite.
References
https://www.inc.com/cameron-albert-deitch/gitlab-tips-remote-workforce.html?
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/leonardo-da-vincis-notebooks
Tracy is an innovation consultant and co-author with creativity expert Barbara Wilson of
Creativity Cycling: Help your team solve complex problems with creative tools