Intellectual capital, although we said it before, increases with use, there are circumstances why it is not used, and if it is not used it is very common that it is lost in memory. This is known as corporate memory. Corporate memory is like a muscle in the body, you have to keep it in shape with exercises so that it becomes toned and does not atrophy over time.
Answers such as "we knew it, but the person responsible for that resigned", "Gentlemen from the marketing department: the same problem was already solved by the production department 6 months ago !!!", "We know that we have this knowledge, but We waste more time looking for knowledge within the company than buying it outside, so we hired an external consultancy to help us in this matter.
The previous sentences are common in organizations, although with the last sentence I am digging my own grave, I must assure that this is caused by what is known by the name of "corporate amnesia" and has a solution, (although it gives them the solution In this regard, I ask you not to let me consult if you need help, my income depends on that !!!).
Corporate memory has an enormous influence on the intellectual capital of companies, if the organization is worth in the market based on what it knows, and the knowledge it possesses, not remembering what it knows, or knows, is equal to nothing, In other words, it was useless to have invested in knowledge, days, months or years ago.
It's okay for me to be thinking right now: that's obvious. And you want me to tell you something: you're right. The reason why existing knowledge is wasted in organizations can have two reasons: one is intentional and the other is circumstantial, but in both reasons there is a cause.
Corporate amnesia can be intentional if employees, even if they have the knowledge, do not make it available to others of their own free will, that is, they pretend to be distracted and look the other way. They have the knowledge that is needed, but by removing it they become vulnerable since they become expendable, the task of the management or the knowledge administrator is to create environments of trust where people are not afraid to expose and transfer their human capital to a person specifically who needs it or to make it available to the organization in general by means of a document, database, Intranet, groupware, or other means.
This refusal causes the knowledge to be lost in oblivion over time and die in people's heads, and, if it does not die, it is likely that this knowledge will be taken to another company. It is important to achieve "put on the table" all the knowledge available in the company, this transparency and clarity of intellectual assets allows them not to be lost or forgotten in memory.
The case of one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel drums encouraged dozens of employees over the age of fifty to take retirement, what happened was that when they decided to design and build a future-oriented and gifted drum factory of the most modern welding techniques, they discovered that retired people were the only ones who possessed specific knowledge about welding techniques and were useful when comparing the effectiveness of new techniques. The result was that they had to be rehired by paying them a large sum of money for consultancy.
In some companies they are aware of the loss experienced in intellectual capital when an employee is laid off and for this they design reciprocal collaboration plans when people are laid off, this permanent post-employment agreement avoids, in addition to a kick in the end of the back and the recognition plaque, that disengaged people continue to contribute their experience and knowledge even when they are no longer employed. This alternative also serves to increase confidence, and therefore, the deposit of knowledge on the part of the people who stay.
At ABB Consulting in Switzerland, for example, to take advantage of the knowledge and experiences of the "older" people, instead of throwing them out, they are assigned the role of external consultants in offices in other countries where their international contacts and their experience in specific fields, in this way also gives the opportunity to promote the "younger".
On the other hand, the lack of corporate memory is circumstantial when in the organization there is a willingness on the part of people to seek and reuse knowledge, but there is a lack of an appropriate method for its selection, storage, administration and updating, in this way, those interested, not being able to find them, consider it non-existent. Let's take a closer look at these four aspects of corporate memory that make or break the value of intellectual capital.
Selection
NOT all the knowledge that structural capital generates contributes to intellectual capital. In fact, under circumstances it can produce the opposite effect, after all, the one that covers a lot does not squeeze. It is true !!!, the intellectual capital manager must make a selection of the knowledge that exists in the memory of the organization to avoid making a dough so thick that users cannot knead it and consequently cannot prepare their favorite dish.
To give you an idea of what I am saying about the selection of knowledge, look at what happens with the memory that exists on the internet, if we enter a search engine and put a word, it results in an endless series of links with pages that have nothing to do with the knowledge we are looking for. What we do is two things: either we search in each of the links and invest time in it, or we immediately abandon the search and consider another alternative.
The same thing happens with the memory of the organizations, then the selection of the knowledge that exists in the memory should be done in such a way that the interested party is offered the links, to documents or people as precisely as possible. And for this, the way in which knowledge is stored in memory plays an important role.
In the words of Tom Valerio, Executive Vice President of CIGNA, “Every company has a lot of information in its database, but the key to its benefits is not in giving access to every bit of important information, but in the way in which it is it determines what information is important and how it is adapted to the needs ”.
Storage
It is important because even if the selection is effective and efficient, if the knowledge is not correctly stored, it will have been useless to do a good job of selection. To be clear, it is like having the finest collection of management books and not knowing which library we put them in.
Besides the effectiveness and efficiency in storage, one of the main and perhaps most important aspects is that knowledge can occupy an explicit space in the memory of the company. With storage work you are doing much more than saving knowledge. The work that is being carried out, almost without knowing, is to make explicit the implicit knowledge of human capital and structural capital, constituted not only by individuals and the company, but by specific work groups, departments, subsidiaries, ad-hoc teams, etc.
In other words, once the knowledge we want to store has been selected, a structuring and decoding is needed to document it and put it in the memory of the organization, for this it is essential to bring it to the surface. Therefore, this "excuse" serves for people to make explicit what they know and once it is documented in memory, it can be used by another interested in that experience.
The place in the corporate memory where said documentation is stored (intellectual assets) must be accessible and practical for each person who wants to access them. It is true that technology has compressed the spaces and multiplied the benefits, however it is important not to trust that technology solves everything, because if we think like this, we will find that we invest monstrous sums of money in technologies that are not useful and accessible to extract selected knowledge.
The 11,000 employees of Tándem Computers use email to solicit the help of colleagues and responses with suggestions, which can include additions, solutions, and modifications that are stored in a public file, so that everyone else can have access.
The technology used must be common to all users of the company and also the results that come out of the search for requested knowledge must be as clear, synthetic and concrete as possible. It is useless to look for knowledge in memory and when we find it, visualize a fifteen-page document with strange and little related words.
For this, the way in which knowledge is stored in corporate memory goes beyond technology itself (although it is still important). The way in which we structure the stored documents will make the user return or not, it depends on it.
Administration
It will also make the user return or not the correct corporate memory management. The main function of the administrator is to ensure that the memory remains useful and usable by the members of the company.
Just as we are the managers of our memory selecting which images, memories, sounds, etc., should remain, the manager of organizational memory fulfills a similar role, he is responsible for its functionality. Perhaps the task becomes more complex for the reason that there are many minds more than one, but the concept of the task is the same.
The administrator's profile, among other more obvious aspects, should include technology and publishing. The technology to choose which is the best technological system to use. This technology, as we said above, should be familiar enough, not for most, but for everyone. It is a very difficult task, but for that you are going to pay, so: work, that is what they pay you for !!!
Documentation editing is also a critical aspect that corporate memory management must consider. It is likely that you will find that knowledge depositors do not have time to summarize a document or make it attractive to interested parties, for this the administration must collaborate with people in the editing of the documents, decoding them and summarizing them to the most important aspects.
We must take care of the language of the documents or the information that is deposited in the memory, since it must be common for all those interested in that knowledge, when knowledge is exchanged between employees of the same area they use codes and a language that is common to them, but it is not related to the others, this is a task to be carried out by the administration.
The criterion of the administration is also the one that determines what knowledge deposited in the memory can be removed and made known and what not. There are reports or knowledge that should not be deposited for various reasons, but mainly for security reasons, for which the administration fulfills the role of judge.
Upgrade
Updating the knowledge assets stored in memory is what keeps companies' intellectual capital vigorous and vital.
The knowledge that exists in the memory if it is outdated not only that it may not be useful, but it also diminishes the credibility of the interested parties, “why am I going to look in the corporate memory if what exists is out of date and does not serve me to apply it today in day". If this type of comment multiplies among users over time, it will no longer be useful to have it active.
The way to update the knowledge that exists is to invite people for this purpose through open events, training sessions, informal meetings, communities of practice, or through virtual circumstances when the geographical location and budget so determine, this is It can be carried out through virtual forums, chats with moderators, video conferences or some other technological means. At Accenture, for example, the way in which knowledge assets are kept up to date in memory is through online forums in which consultants from different continents participate. At HP Laboratories, a Human Knowledge Resource Guide in Labs has been released that includes a "reprimand" to encourage all employees to update their knowledge in the database.
Keeping the memory updated also serves to avoid the loss of knowledge in the event that an expert separates or goes on vacation, having the experience and updated knowledge avoids resorting to external knowledge providers, such as consultants, trainers, advisers and other piranhas external.
In relation to external knowledge providers, they are an important source of updating existing knowledge, what happens is that their knowledge is not kept within the company, if we pay for knowledge from outside the company it is important that they do so as a Investment and investment materializes when the intellectual assets remain in the company, so as I pay, save and / or update the knowledge you have in memory.
© Pablo L. Belly All rights reserved. You can redistribute, forward, copy, print, or quote this article as long as you do not modify its content and do not use it for commercial purposes. You must include this note, as well as the name of the company Belly Knowledge Management International and its author: Pablo L. Belly, the email [email protected] and the address www.bellykm.com
