Passing on Knowledge to Others

In a recent Wall Street Journal article a reporter asked a package-delivery courier whether it was more efficient to start at the top of the building and work down, or start at the bottom of the building and work up. "It depends on the time of day," he replied.

The comment offers a window into one of the modern workplace's most vexing problems, the issue of knowledge management. The courier believed he had figured out something useful about elevator patterns in my San Francisco office building. But what will happen when he moves to a different job or a different route? Will productivity at the delivery company decline until his successor learns the same lessons?

We're all "knowledge workers" now. But few organizations have figured out how to share knowledge among employees, or to pass it on when employees leave or change assignments. And what about those of us who own small businesses and need to know a lot about a lot of different things?

I am a part of a master mind group. We meet once a month and share the information that we've learned on a variety of topics. In today's world there is so much to keep up with that it takes a village to stay on top of it.

 

Read the complete story in the Jan. 23, 2006 Wall Street Journal titled Companies Struggle To Pass On Knowledge That Workers Acquire at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113797285013053145.html?mod=careers_left_column_hs

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