Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

‣ Implicit or Tacit Knowledge encompasses know-how, rules of thumb,
experiences, insights, and intuition. This type of knowledge is sometimes
difficult to capture because it resides in a person’s head, and not on paper.
Companies in general do a l ess effective job in capturing this type of
knowledge, and yet it is just as important to retain as Explicit Knowledge.
In order to begin this process, Organizational Effectiveness (OE), has prepared an
outline and questionnaire to assist managers in identifying, capturing and
retaining the specific system and process knowledge that is critical to our
operational success. Beginning in 2007, LWC System Certification Reviews will
include an assessment of progress made by the business system on capturing
and managing operational knowledge in their respective functions. Specifically,
OE will be looking at what has already been accomplished, and what kind of
action objectives remain to be completed throughout the remainder of the year
and perhaps into 2008. We acknowledge that systems that are evaluated in the
latter part of 2007 should be farther along on this process than those evaluated in
the early months of 2007.
Do not make this process more difficult than it needs to be. What you may discover upon
going through this process is that your system is doing a solid job in capturing
and retaining critical operations knowledge. If that’s the case, then document the
procedures that you have in place and continue your success. O n the other
hand, what you may discover is that some critical operations knowledge has
been captured and retained, while other operational knowledge has not. In those
situations, most likely the knowledge is “in the head” of one of your key
employees, and there is the potential of losing that knowledge if and when the
employee chooses to retire from or leave LWC. If that’s the case, then continue
to follow through the steps provided in this document and create your action plan
to address the issue.
OE employees are available to answer questions and assist all managers through
this process. I n addition, this outline and questionnaire provided to you is not
“carved in stone.” We welcome ideas and suggestions for “Knowledge
Management Best Practices” to share with others throughout the year. We
encourage you to design your own tools and resources that best fit your
business system. What works best for one system may not work well for another
system. Thi s outline and questionnaire are simply designed to help you get
started on this journey.
Finally, the process of Knowledge Management is not a “one-time deal.” T he
ultimate goal is for each system to have an ongoing process in place to
consistently identify, capture and store critical operational knowledge and make
it available to our future employees who will serve our internal and external
customers for decades to come.
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