Overview
Establishing and maintaining a culture of knowledge management and sharing is vital to the success of any program.
Plays
Lightweight Tools
Rather than focusing on buying new software to start, evaluate what tools are readily available to get the ball rolling. Does your organization use Google Docs or Microsoft 365? If so, start by compiling information into one or a small handful of documents. At this point, perfection isn’t the goal- you simply want folks entering information and collaborating. Once the team has embraced a lightweight solution, you can brainstorm around needs that may be addressed by knowledge management-specific tools.
Start Within Your Team
Big bang process roll-outs rarely work so we recommend starting small within one’s branch. Start by discussing the current challenges faced by team members and assign content to members of the team who have knowledge in a given area. If a lot of knowledge is concentrated with one or a small handful of individuals, have members of the team shadow and document processes. Doing so reduces the burden on the knowledge holders and cross-trains staff. Once documented, another team member should follow the guide and identify any stumbling blocks. When one is defined, the content should be updated by the team member performing the operation.
As members of the team become familiar with the knowledge management system, opportunities for collaboration with other teams will arise. This is a great way to share your current system with the other team and encourage them to utilize the tool as well. When starting to engage the new team, grant editing privileges from the get go- doing so ensures that both groups have a sense of shared ownership.
Integrate Knowledge Management into Orientation
A great way to expose new team members to your knowledge management solution is to expose them to it on their first day. Team members should receive access to the KM solution immediately on day one and be told to review and leverage it in the days to come. One of the first instructions should remind the team member that the documentation is not static but a living resource and that they are responsible to update content as needed. For instance, if the link to a form or resource is incorrect, the new team member should update it within the system. Likewise, if instructions are not clear, they should attempt to clarify the instructions.
The on-boarding checklist should provide new team members a clear understanding of their first few days in the office and highlight which actions they are responsible for and any dependencies on their manager or other team members. An example on-boarding checklist is below:
Welcome to Team Renegade, we are excited to have you aboard. This system is our central knowledge management repository where you will find information on repeatable processes, on-boarding guides, and other documentation. Everyone on the team is responsible for it’s upkeep, including you. The checklist below will describe your first few days in the office. As you go through the checklist, do the next new team member a favor and update unclear instructions, fix broken links, and remove legacy content.
- The team lead is going to introduce you to others in the office- grab some coffee and say hi
- Submit ticket for access to our chat client. To do so, login to our ticketing system ALT (ALl the Tickets) and click Create > System Access > System: XYZ > Access Type: team member. If you do not have access to ALT, reach out to the team lead.
- Read team chat guidelines here. We use the chat client a lot and encourage you to become familiar with it.
- Read team technical guidelines here.
- Setup your development environment, instructions here.
- It should just about be lunch time, perform a quick search and find a place you’d like to go- it’s our treat.
- etc…
Refer to it Constantly
Knowledge content that goes unused becomes stale. As such, the team should refer to the content constantly. Within the team, it should not be perceived as a slight or rude to point someone to the documentation when asked “how do I do X?” If the documentation is incomplete and the team member is stuck, that is a good time to collaborate and fix the issue at hand.
Referring to the documentation on a regular basis also shapes the way folks think about the challenges they face at work. Dependencies on knowledge hogs go down and team members feel empowered to complete a broader variety of tasks- thus becoming a cross functional team.
Validate Your Process
Companies like Etsy1 and Hootsuite2 have new developers push code to production on their first day. Doing so allows the new personnel to quickly familiarize themselves with the deployment process and overcome any fears related to software changes on day one.
This is a constraint. The Day 1 boundary forces us to work backwards and examine everything that is necessary to make a deploy. Just keep the critical steps, and eliminate unnecessary tasks or delay them to a future date, like filling in tax forms or office tours.2
Lunch n Learns
Over time, processes, technologies, and practices will change within the team. A good way to disseminate or discuss proposed changes or new technologies is through a lunch n learn. Any team member shall be empowered to host a lunch n learn to share knowledge amongst the team. The best lunch n learns are hands on and require that developers or users perform actions throughout the meeting. For instance, a developer wants to teach folks about a new javascript library. Rather than producing a demo, the lunch n learn should result in the production of a widget or ‘Hello World’ example.
Lean Coffee
Within large organizations, problems can be easy to identify but pinpointing the causes or ways to fix it can be perplexing. Rather than trying to solve everything by ones lonesome, leveraging the larger group can produce steps in the right direction. Hosting a Lean Coffee(tm) meeting can be a way to gather input without hosting a “brainstorming session” which often fail to produce actionable results.
A Lean Coffee(tm) is a type of meeting where the agenda is set at the start and discussions are time-boxed. Lean coffee meetings can be organized to discuss a given topic and the group will determine the exact sub-topics. Some basics of a Lean Coffee meeting are below. For more information, we recommend LeanCoffee.org.
- A lean coffee is an agenda-less meeting which means that the group will set their own agenda in the first few minutes. This meeting format relies on active facilitation by the organizer but also active listening by the group to ensure that everyones voices are heard.
- Everyone will write out ideas or questions on a sticky note one idea or question per sticky note
- Everyone gets 10-15 seconds to pitch their ideas or questions
- Once pitches are complete, individuals can vote by placing a dot or star on the sticky note
- Topics with the most dots are at the top of the board
- We will pick the first topic and start a 5 minute timer
- The facilitator and will work to make sure that everyone can provide input. If you’re having trouble jumping into the conversation, make eye contact or signal to the facilitator.
- At the end of the 5 minutes, the moderator will put their fist out to indicate that the 5 minutes are up. Attendees will give a or to denote whether or not they want to continue the discussion. If there are a majority of thumbs down or no response, we will jump to the next topic. If the conversation is lively and we have thumbs up, the facilitator will reset the timer and we’ll continue for another 5 minutes.