How to Capture Wisdom With Technology

Capture employees' wisdom to boost organizational performance.

Technology enables organizations to capture the wisdom of expert employees, store it and share it with other employees to improve overall business performance. Organizations use the technique to capture best practices, specialist knowledge or knowledge from employees who are leaving. Social networking techniques also enable organizations to capture wisdom from people outside the organization.

Instructions

1. Decide the type of wisdom you want to capture. Wisdom can include: best practices in carrying out business processes; expert technical or business knowledge; historical knowledge that only older employees have; and specialist knowledge that an organization would lose if an employee leaves. Identify areas of the business where wisdom can add value. These include customer service, product development, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and administration. Focus on wisdom that will deliver measurable results. Capturing wisdom for practices or processes with high impact will quickly enhance organizational performance.

2. Identify the employees who will provide the wisdom. Look for top performers, highly-qualified employees, employees who have held a position for a long period or employees who are the only individuals to hold a specific type of wisdom. Ask the experts' permission to capture their wisdom and explain how you will use their information within the organization. Use knowledge capture software to acquire the wisdom. Ask experts to explain the processes they use to make decisions. Use structured interview techniques that reflect the experts' decision-making processes. Record the experts' contribution using portable audio or video equipment.

3. Set up a community on your website and encourage employees to submit ideas, tips, best practices and other wisdom. Alternatively, ask employees to submit their suggestions via social media such as Twitter. Monitor social media to capture items of wisdom. This represents a less formal way to capture wisdom and may provide information of which you were not aware.

4. Invite suppliers, customers and business partners to submit wisdom on the community page. Talent Management reports that Ford Motor Company set up a forum to capture support knowledge from customers. More than 10,000 customers posted more than 1 million support messages.

5. Categorize captured wisdom by type of knowledge or departmental interest. Provide wisdom in a range of formats including text, video or audio. Make captured wisdom available to authorized employees on your organization's website or intranet. Let employees know what is available and encourage them to use it. Provide examples to illustrate how employees can use the wisdom to improve their personal and business performance.

6. Assess the benefits of the wisdom capture program. According to services company Computer Aid, the potential benefits include: improved use of critical information; cost reduction through faster resolution of known problems; protection of strategic knowledge assets; and reduction in training requirements.

References

• Leadership Beyond Limits: Implement Best Practices
• "Talent Management"; Emerging Methods of Knowledge Capture; David Wilkins; March 2009
• Computer Aid, Inc.: Application Knowledge Capture