Accelerated Knowledge Capture

John, a key employee, is due to retire in three months.  You know John has a wealth of tacit knowledge in his head, and you’re going to need it after he’s gone.  You face two puzzles: 1) You’re not certain how to approach getting John’s knowledge out of his head.  2) Once you capture the knowledge, you need to put it into a format that’s useful for other people in the organization. 

With only 3 months left, what can you do?  

The solution: Accelerated Knowledge Capture (AKC) from Knowledge Harvesting and AboutPeople.

AKC is a low-tech, high-impact way you can elicit critical how-to and know-how from key employees who are leaving your firm, and then package it for use by other people in the organization.  Here’s how it works:

An expert team of Knowledge Harvesters spends several days with the key employee to elicit critical knowledge that is then organized and packaged into How-to Modules.  We document both routine and non-routine tasks and provide step-by-step guidance for completing tasks, resolving problems and making critical non-routine decisions.  

We identify the what, why, when, with whom and how-to of the job tasks and also the skills, talents, and emotional competencies that are key to effectiveness in that specific job.

For less than the cost of a typical recruiter’s commission, you get the following:

Tangible deliverables:	Which provide these benefits:
List of vital areas of expertise	Know the potential risks and rewards Highlights and aligns knowledge capture with organizational needs
List of existing resources and people	Helps to quickly identify work documentation and relationships which are related to the key employee’s work
Detailed work profile - The results and actions expressed in the key employee’s own words - Training, skills, knowledge, emotional competencies needed	Decreases the time and expense involved with filling the job Dramatically increases the odds you get exactly the right skills, talents and mentality “fit.”
An html-based process map and how-to manual for the job - Simple step-by-step procedure for routine tasks - Decision support tools for solving problems and making non-routine decisions	Makes it amazingly easy for someone else to step into the job and be immediately productive. Reduces the need for training.
Useful Feedback - Employee’s ideas for improvement - About People and KHi recommendations	Insight to help make important organizational improvements

 

Knowledge Harvesting is a mature process for converting expertise into knowledge assets that can dramatically improve corporate performance, competitiveness and valuation.  The organization can be protected from expensive personnel losses, defections, and from the unavailability of expertise when and where it is needed.

Work Profiling is an award-winning process which reveals: work actions, work results, work requirements, the process or processes that are impacted by the results of that specific work, the personal characteristics and qualifications of a person who would be well suited for the job, and the environment in which the work is performed.

The Accelerated Knowledge Capture service is delivered by Larry Todd Wilson and Pamela Holloway. Combined, they provide unmatched, unprecedented experience in capturing critical knowledge.

For more information, contact Pam Holloway at

pam@aboutpeople.com

509 465-5599

For additional articles on Knowledge Management, check out the About People Resource Room and the Knowledge Harvesting site - www.knowledgeharvesting.com