A Master Class of Institutional Knowledge

In many organizations, leaders presume that the collective knowledge that makes the organization effective will persist without a structured approach to retain it.

Because they undervalue the tacit knowledge, expertise, and experience that an organization accumulates over time, they allow team members to leave, retire, and switch roles without much consideration for the consequences.

Institutional knowledge is one of the key assets in any organization. Held by leaders and team members across the organization, this collective memory allows the organization to maintain standards, make informed decisions, and reinforce the enterprise culture.

With every team member departure, the organization has the potential to lose some of this institutional memory.

Current leaders and team members understand and practice the procedures, policies, customer preferences, processes, best practices, cultural norms, implicit rules, and values that underpin the organization’s effectiveness.

Any gap or loss of knowledge can significantly threaten the long-term viability of an organization and its success. That’s why the best leaders take perpetuating institutional knowledge very seriously. They know that knowledge transfer doesn’t happen on its own.

To preserve institutional knowledge, the best organizations invest in a variety of methods to ensure that gaps in knowledge from generation to generation don’t exist.

First and foremost, they are disciplined in how they document procedures and processes. In addition to process maps and outlines, the use of video to capture real people discussing how they execute processes is a best practice.

Quality organizations also institutionalize knowledge through cross-training programs. Having more team members who can slide in and execute equates to more knowledge transfer and sharing.

But if there is a differentiator regarding knowledge preservation, it is how the best leaders gather information before people depart or change roles. Even with short lead time, they insist on a structured approach to recording as much institutional knowledge as possible.

Asking departing team members to teach a Master Class on what they have learned and how they have gone about their work is a positive experience for everyone. Capturing the essence of this knowledge for others to learn from is the real Master Class.

The knowledge and experience of long-time team members and leaders form the bedrock of every organization’s success. Underestimating the value it provides is a risk that good leaders refuse to take.

Institutional knowledge represents the long-term health and currency of an enterprise. Good leaders never take it for granted.