Capturing Tribal Knowledge

Ancient civilizations passed along tribal knowledge in a variety of ways - through storytelling, apprenticeships, rites of passage.

Some documented their history and beliefs in hieroglyphs or cave drawings or in sculpture.

Rituals were extremely important.

In ancient times, sharing knowledge was essential for survival.

In modern times, it seems we've lost the habit of sharing. Perhaps we don't see it as essential to our survival anymore.

After all, if we want food, we go to the grocery store. Want it prepared? Go to the Drive Thru at McDonalds. If we need shelter, we rent an apartment or buy a house. Need transportation? There are a dozen car dealerships within 10 miles.

The price we pay for convenience, is that we've lost our skills at capturing tribal knowledge. Skills learned within business tend to stay in our heads. We aren't taught on the job anymore, we learn on the job. The wisdom of the skilled craftsman isn't shared like it once was.

And we're all the worse for it. As our population ages, many businesses are facing the growing threat of losing their "tribal knowledge". The most experienced employees, who have long contributed to the company's success through their individual contributions, have never bothered to share their knowledge with others. In some companies, sharing meant losing power, leverage or stature and so it was actually discouraged.

So how do we go about capturing our tribal knowledge?

Start by starting. Recognize the need. Conceptualize the business benefits. Make it a priority. Implement a sharing tool and develop a sharing culture. Position sharing as a win/win strategy rather than a zero sum game.

Corporate intranets have tried to serve this purpose, but many fall short. Intranets are used like the Yellow Pages. They're there if you need them. But many times they're like a one way street - a reference tool. True collaboration requires that everyone contribute to communal knowledge. Effective intranets facilitate a two way dialogue. Ideas are gleaned from every corner of the company and are surfaced for discussion and evaluation by all.

For some, this is a painful endeavor. Documenting ideas, participating in discussion boards, blogging are all time consuming efforts. It is so much easier to pick up the phone and tell someone your opinion. But the problem with this is the fact that you're telling someONE. This process is inefficient and in larger organizations, one to one communication is never captured in the collective conscience.

Here are a few suggestions to try to engage your team in capturing tribal knowledge.

Provide an intranet where everyone can contribute. Co-locate access to business applications, reporting tools, news and discussion.

Position your intranet as the "Town Square" - the intersection of all your company's activities - work, play, recognition (parades), initiatives and news.

Encourage people to visit. Where you used to communicate via mass email, instead, write a blog post and email the link. Instead of printing and distributing reports. Create a framework where project participants update tasks and projects in real time. Then make it easy for anyone in the company to be easily informed (custom email alerts, RSS feeds etc).

Develop rich, plentiful, interesting and essential content.

Avoid, where possible, content approval management routines. This places publishing burden on some individuals and discourages the capturing of spontaneous ideas.

Nurture, coax, encourage. You're trying to create a new corporate habit. It will take some time.

But the journey will be worth it!