Knowledge transfer within organisations has always been a prominent topic in our current knowledge economy. Many leaders, practitioners and employees in different industries seem to have their own angle of understanding and interpretation on this particular issue.
But I can say with no doubt that most organisations have centered their Knowledge Management practices only on technology and they are relying on tools such as portals and other automated systems as the core of their Knowledge Management processes and solutions. There’s no doubt that technology is an essential component that complements and enables our knowledge management processes, but when it comes to tackling issues such as knowledge transfer in organisations, portals can only assist to a certain extent.
Perhaps one could ask: what does an organisation have to do to encourage and support knowledge transfer within itself? Well personally I believe that knowledge sharing should be an embedded culture within any organisation in this knowledge economy. Less experienced, or junior employees should be able to effortlessly tap into the “know-how’s” of experienced employees. The “experts” in an organisation should also have some sort of platform in which they are able to transfer their expertise to members of their team.
Most organisations do understand the importance of a knowledge sharing culture and many have also centered their values around this as well. Yet the facilitation of knowledge transfer within organisations is one of the common issues under the umbrella concept of “Continuity” that most organisations are still struggling with. This is because this issue could involve complex problems, for example the issue of generational gaps in organisations hindering learning and knowledge sharing because of the different values possessed by employees of different age groups. Basically, knowledge sharing is mostly hindered by the lack of innovative ways in which leaders could ensure the facilitation of knowledge transfer in their organisations. Because of this, organisations are typically facing challenges such as: the inability to harness the knowledge of their “aging workforce” or “grey-beards” and transferring that ‘wisdom’ to less experienced staff; the inability to create continuity when new staff join the organisation and establish an effective induction plan; and also succession planning is often hindered by ineffective knowledge transfer.
The solution that most organisations are crying out for is an innovative way to ensure the facilitation of knowledge transfer and by doing so secure their business continuity. The pressure to remain competitive means that we do not have the luxury of time to allow younger, inexperienced staff decades of tenure to gain the requisite experience to become experts. We somehow need to create knowledge continuity in quicker, effective ways.
The Narrative Lab offers of a product called Wisdom Continuity – a narrative-based offering that helps individuals, teams and organisations harness their knowledge and co-creates novel and engaging ways of transferring that knowledge through the power of stories and conversation.
We invite you to join us as we host a discussion (TWEETCHAT) around the issue of: The facilitation of knowledge transfer in organisations.
Date: 3rd July 2013
Time: 12:30 – 13:30
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