Knowledge Decay Series Part 2: The Role of Knowledge Management in Knowledge Evolution

Capturing and retaining institutional knowledge has been emphasized enough for organizations to maintain a competitive edge and increase their profitability. One aspect that is not mentioned enough is the need to continue evaluating and evolving existing knowledge in order to keep it relevant and prevent knowledge decay.

In the highly fast-paced and competitive landscape, knowledge constantly evolves. However, the fact of the matter is that it is the existing knowledge that leads to its evolution. Therefore, knowledge decay can be detrimental to an organization’s goals and profit.

Let us see below how organizations can prevent knowledge decay to stay competitive, innovative, and relevant to clients:

Make a cultural shift to embrace learning and sharing: Learning, knowledge sharing, and collaboration should not be limited to the L&TD and knowledge management teams. Organizations should cultivate a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing among their employees. A well-defined and designed knowledge management framework integrates learning, sharing, and collaboration into the everyday work of employees to prevent knowledge decay.

Enable cross-pollination of knowledge and insights: Information should be shared within an organization, not from one person to another.

Buddy and Mentoring program: By pairing up a new joiner with a seasoned employee, both tacit and explicit knowledge can be transferred smoothly without disrupting the work process.  New employees can also learn a lot from observation, thus gaining tacit knowledge that is not documented.
Similarly, when an in-house expert teaches a specific skill or subject, he or she also brings personal insights and experiences (tacit knowledge) to the training. Thus it is passed on from one experience to another leading to the continuous evolution of knowledge.

Creating knowledge repositories with search engines: Wikis and Communities are examples of knowledge repositories that you can use to document and share knowledge. It is important to revisit the knowledge repositories periodically to keep them fresh and relevant to prevent the knowledge from decaying.

Deploy collaboration and knowledge management tools: Employees can collaborate and share ideas and knowledge through tools such as teams, chats, and shared libraries. This makes it easier for people in different time zones to understand the context of the discussion, share their ideas, and brainstorm virtually without losing context.

Leveraging tools like Design Thinking and Storytelling: Leverage tools like storytelling to pass on organizational values and tacit knowledge, which can otherwise go unexpressed. Likewise, by using Design Thinking techniques, you can bring together collective intelligence to Innovate and improve employee as well as customer experience. As ongoing processes, these tools will continue to enhance current knowledge and evolve with the changing organizational priorities. 

In an environment of continuous learning and collaboration, institutional knowledge stays fresh, current, and relevant, and employees are equipped to perform their tasks effectively. In this way, the organization will be able to stay ahead of the competition and prevent knowledge decay.

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