Knowl·edge \'nä-lij\n [ME knowlege, fr. knowlechen to acknowledge, irreg. Fr. knowen] (14c) 2 a (1) : the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2) : acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique…
1trans·fer \tran(t)s-'fer, 'tran(t)s-\ vb trans·ferred; trans·fer·ring [ME transferren, fr. Latin transferre, fr. trans- + ferre to carry—more at bear] vt (14c) 1 a : to convey from one person, place, or situation to another : transport b : to cause to pass from one to another : transmit c : transform, change 2 : to make over the possession or control of : convey …
—Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
It is widely acknowledged that knowledge is a critical asset to businesses. However, it is an asset that is rather slippery and hard to measure—both in its impact and scope. Since, by its very nature, knowledge is learned individually, businesses must take special steps to take this, their most important asset, into account and plan to share it throughout their organization. To further understand the importance of this concept, ask yourself the following questions:
Is your IT organization moving at a faster pace than ever? Have you noticed an increase in reorganization within the company? Has IT employee turnover been a topic covered in recent meetings? Does your company use significant contract consultant resources in order to handle a growing or highly specialized project load?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, sharing knowledge within your organization takes on a special urgency. Are you taking steps to ensure that you are retaining this critical, though hard to quantify, asset?
For business purposes, knowledge in a business is job-, task-, or project-specific information that has been discovered and developed by the person(s) currently responsible for that job, task, or project. If that employee or contractor is promoted, reassigned, or leaves the company to take on a new position, he or she will likely depart with knowledge that is essential to the person who will next be performing that task. The key to making sure that employees have the information they need to best perform in their role is implementing a knowledge-transfer process—a process that ensures that important information is conveyed or passed from one person to others. Processes that institutionalize the transfer of that knowledge enable people to have the information that is vital to their roles, regardless of their tenure.
Re-establishing that information from scratch not only costs time in hours, but also inhibits progress in an organization. If lack of knowledge transfer is widespread in the organization, a company may ultimately experience loss of market share because the company may be unable to efficiently address changing needs in the marketplace.
Knowledge is the lifeblood of the companies that inhabit the post-industrial economy. To extend this analogy, losing knowledge is akin to human bleeding. Losing a little isn’t serious right away, but over time, a lot of blood is lost, and the body is in trouble. Retaining knowledge is key to the ongoing health of your organization.
What is Knowledge Transfer?
Briefly stated, knowledge transfer is a process that allows employees or consultants to share the knowledge they have gained with other individuals throughout an organization. These employees or consultants only temporarily conserve important knowledge that belongs to the enterprise as a whole. That knowledge must be shared or returned to others within the organization—or it will be lost.
Sharing the knowledge in this way also has many advantages. When companies reorganize or reassign responsibilities, knowledge transfer should be used to maintain the best practices as the company pursues new market opportunities. Knowledge transfer requires a conduit that passes important knowledge, information, and practices from one group of individuals to another within your organization. An effective knowledge-transfer process allows companies to reposition key employees into new areas—all while maintaining established information and practices.
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Is Knowledge an Asset at Your Company?
By implementing knowledge-transfer processes, companies stand to benefit in various ways. First, by sharing the knowledge within an organization, companies can avoid “insidious obsolescence.” Keeping up with new information and effective new practices allows a company to respond to new forces within the market and reposition effectively to deal with changing conditions—instead of falling behind newer, more nimble competitors. As companies change and adapt to meet new market forces or pursue new markets altogether, knowledge transfer can also help them keep the best practices that they already have in place. Companies that focus on new opportunities and move experienced, knowledgeable employees to focus on these areas face the risk of losing expertise in their core business. By employing knowledge-transfer processes, companies can ensure that the employees that are repositioned to focus on the new areas of business have communicated the best practices to their successors in the core business area. Therefore, the organization can gain strategic advantage in new markets, while remaining sharp in their core businesses.
Another advantage of sharing knowledge is increased productivity. By investing in a knowledge-transfer program, not as much time is spent re-learning best practices. Instead, employees that are new to a role will have received the required information, develop new information and practices, and have a method to document and pass those assets on to their successor. Also, by sharing knowledge throughout an organization, the most efficient and effective practices can result in a net gain of company-wide productivity.
Recognizing Your Knowledge Asset
Before looking at how to facilitate knowledge transfer, we must first explore why knowledge is such a hard-to-measure asset. Most organizations don’t already have an efficient knowledge-transfer process in place. The reason for this is simple. Since knowledge is obtained and stored on an individual basis, knowledge transfer only occurs incidentally. To disseminate the stored knowledge of a business and its employees, it must be planned for and be part of the process within an organization. Unless a process is in place and used, most knowledge transfer only takes place accidentally—passed from person to person on a “need to know” basis. This does nothing to ensure that important knowledge is retained within an organization and spread throughout. Sharing knowledge on a “need to know” basis can and does break down for any number of reasons because of the very fact that it is not formalized and documented. Even on those few occasions it does occur, its effectiveness is minimal, at best.
Typically, knowledge transfer is one-way, usually from employees to contractors brought in to solve highly technical problems. One-way transfer also occurs between full-time employees as a result of individual behavior. This one-way transfer is a one-way street out of the enterprise. Knowledge leaves, but does not return. Unless employees are responsible for and given the tools to transfer information, it's likely that asset will not be retained. Placing the onus of knowledge transfer directly on contractors encourages inconsistency and does not ensure that best practices are shared and that adequate standards are maintained. The solution resides in internal processes. Another advantage for relying on a set process rather than informal, individual sharing of knowledge comes from the fact that it is documented for all to use, rather than relying on the memory of key individuals. This documentation cements the knowledge as an asset that belongs to the organization—not the individual.
The intangible and segmented nature of knowledge as an asset does not pose the only challenge to a sound knowledge transfer program. Management often doesn’t appear to stand behind knowledge transfer, because it is not perceived as mission-critical. Therefore, such programs often lack momentum. High-level approval is also sometimes crippled by the costs in manpower and money.
Implementing Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer doesn’t just happen, except in random instances as described above. There must be organizational commitment to ensure the successful implementation and ongoing participation. The important question is how do you get to this point strategically. First, knowledge transfer must be seen as important at the highest levels, and it should be ingrained into the culture of the company. Once this is accomplished, a budget should be set to ensure that it occurs. Knowledge transfer must be continually measured, and in the best-case scenario, every project must measure and report on knowledge transfer, with no exceptions. Finally, the results of knowledge should be celebrated and rewarded. Such rewards provide an incentive within the organization to continue the knowledge-transfer process every day.
In a more tactical sense, knowledge can be passed in a variety of ways. It can be passed from one employee to another verbally or through a shared depository. One effective verbal program is a weekly “brown-bag” lunch where consultants or knowledge experts teach what they have learned to every IT employee who can attend. A more formal method is to build an “Electronic Technical Library” containing best practices and an avenue to find in-house knowledge experts. Whether developed as part of an intranet or through a shared-file system, the library must offer an easy process in order to overcome natural human tendencies not to participate. All departments must contribute to it, just as all must draw upon it in order to support its use. Importantly, consultants must be given the time to back-load information into it rather than be relied upon solely to perform tasks.
Organizations should not let themselves become overly reliant upon consultants for new technology. Employees should be required to define their training efforts on their annual goals and objectives, and they should be encouraged and rewarded for advancing their knowledge and skills. Knowledge transfer is a day-to-day activity aimed at continually improving processes in an enterprise. If a company cannot improve and adapt, it is likely that it will be left behind.
Potential Challenges
No matter how much you realize the importance of establishing knowledge-transfer processes, there will be challenges involved. Many of these deal with the perception that sharing knowledge is not part of someone’s job description or important as a day-to-day activity. Some of these challenges include:
· The cost may be perceived as too high. On the other hand, can your company afford not to engage in knowledge transfer? To answer this question, high-level buy-in must be obtained to make knowledge-transfer initiatives successful.
· Some may complain about the time that is involved. However, to be truly successful, knowledge transfer needs to occur continually.
· Another potential challenge is the format of the mentoring or coaching classes. These must be comfortable for all involved. They should be productive, two-way sessions, rather than pedagogical. Knowledge is not hierarchical.
· Along the same lines, mentors’ attitudes sometimes need managing. Mentors should share knowledge for the good of the entire organization. Knowledge transfer should be a two-way street: mentors are in turn being mentored by others.
Regardless of the challenges, a process for knowledge sharing must be established and followed, because if commitment to knowledge-transfer processes begins to wane, momentum for it will be lost. Once this commitment and momentum is lost, knowledge-transfer activities will become just a dreary chore that add nothing to the organization, because those involved have no stake in it.
Remember, knowledge walks quickly and can be hard to recover without a process in place to retain it.
Common Tactics
· Hold a weekly brown bag lunch where consultants or knowledge experts teach what they have learned to every IT employee who can attend.
· Build an “Electronic Technical Library” containing best practices and an avenue to find in-house knowledge experts. This can be part of an existing intranet or use a shared file system. All departments should contribute and not just draw upon it.
· Consider requiring employees or contractors that have attended conferences, industrial shows, or conventions to present the knowledge that was gained at an event once they return. The author has done this many times with great success.
Quick Steps
1. Plan for knowledge transfer. Get high-level parties to buy in to ensure commitment and the initiative’s success.
2. Prepare a budget for knowledge-transfer activities. This will ensure that knowledge transfer processes will occur and will not fall by the wayside as the idea is no longer fresh in people’s minds.
3. Make sure knowledge transfer occurs for every project and for every role. This will ensure that the entire organization begins to benefit from the effects of the processes you put in place.
4. Measure results of the knowledge-transfer processes. This will allow you to expand those processes that are working and change those that are less than effective.
5. Celebrate the success of the knowledge-transfer processes. By celebrating and rewarding success, those participating in knowledge-transfer activities will remain motivated—benefiting the organization as a whole.
About the Author
Prior to joining MATRIX, Joe Ruf's career spanned more than 30 years in the Information Technology field. As a professional Project Manager, Joe has been responsible for numerous large mainframe system implementations, and as an executive at BellSouth Information Systems, managed several conversions to client/server technology. He can be reached at Joe_Ruf@MatrixResources.com. |