Documenting knowledge is one thing. Building a culture where knowledge is shared, improved, and actually put to use is another. Discover why the Borg from Star Trek might just be the ultimate knowledge managers, and why your organization should never become like them. Read the full story in our latest blog article.
Yes, I am a Trekkie. Yoda and the other Star Wars weirdos just can’t compete. And in case you were wondering what my favorite Captain is: Jean-Luc Picard. But of course, the best Captain is Benjamin Sisko. Tying these two captains together are the Borg – a cyborg alien group linked in a hive mind called “The Collective” that assimilates other species by injecting them with nanoprobes and surgically changing their appearance with cybernetic parts, with one goal only: to achieve perfection. Famously, Jean-Luc Picard is captured and assimilated into the Borg Collective (but, spoiler, is rescued and de-assimilated), his knowledge of everything Starfleet leads the Borg to destroy the entire armada, among which was the Saratoga, with Benjamin Sisko’s wife Jennifer on board, who died in this battle. A fact which makes him deeply resentful of Captain Picard.
You don’t need to remember these little factoids except for one thing: the Borg have developed the ultimate Knowledge Management Method. Technologically usurping knowledge from other species, storing and distributing it seamlessly to every Borg drone through the Collective so as to perfectly execute their missions.
Rather fortunately, I think, we as humans do not have our neural networks connected to each other and knowledge does not magically travel from one mind to another. Instead, we have to develop strategies to methodically make the implicit knowledge in each of our brains available to others in our organization for the benefit of all. Luckily, too, we have free will and are capable of critical thinking. Crucial characteristics the Borg lack, making them easy to steer in a slightly bad direction towards total assimilation of all species.
When embarking on the knowledge management journey you can easily get lost in academic treatises on how to best align technology with processes and human needs (TOM-Model). Or dissect whether you classify knowledge as implicit, explicit, tacit, intuitive or codified. Don’t go all Borg, don’t try to achieve perfection, instead strive for practicality.
Start by identifying your own knowledge gaps in specific areas. Let’s say you need to up your game in Gantt planning skills. First, find someone inside your organization who excels at this and schedule a call with them. Record that call in which you make the expert show you how to create a solid Gantt chart and use AI to transcribe the recording, turn it into an e-learning manual and store it directly in InLoox as a Knowledge page.
Rather than leaving it there to become yesterday’s knowledge, link it with projects or tasks. You have now made implicit knowledge available to your colleagues thus turning it into explicit knowledge.
IMAGE: Knowledge page “Gantt chart creation in InLoox” linked with the project task “Create time schedule”. ©InLoox, Inc. ©InLoox GmbH.
People skills are something notoriously difficult to teach as well as acquire, but it can make a crucial difference in projects involving various stakeholders. Again, don’t take the Borg’s approach who announce their arrival at a species doorstep with the proclamation that “Resistance [to assimilation] is futile” – their version of “my way or the highway”. Capture individual ways of interacting with different stakeholders as Best Practices pages in Knowledge. There are people who will ghost you if called but will happily respond to an email. Others prefer a personal meeting face-to-face while another set of people are happy to only receive a factual status update report once a week. How could you possibly keep all these preferences in mind if they were not noted down somewhere.
The best approach in this case is to make a list of stakeholders with their preferred method of contact, any personal “quirks” that may aid your communication with these stakeholders and make project communication as smooth as possible.
You may wonder how the Borg meet their ultimate demise. It is a rather slow process marked by some of them being liberated from the Collective and taking their knowledge with them. The most famous exit is of course that of Jean-Luc Picard, but others, such as Seven of Nine, Hugh or Icheb also leave with their bodies and minds intact. They all contribute to the fight against the Borg with their insider knowledge which empowers Starfleet to innovate successful tools to ultimately destroy the last Borg Cube. Key takeaway: Beware of expert knowledge exiting your project or, worse, your organization without a breadcrumb left behind.
Implement processes to continuously retrieve knowledge at useful stages during projects, such as Gate reviews if you work along a Stage-Gate® process or Lessons Learned after a project’s status is set to done.
Develop a short Lessons Learned template that can be reused for the concise recording of the most important insights from a project to better plan, monitor and execute similar future projects. Should your competent project lead not be available, you can resort to his Lessons Learned.
IMAGE: Knowledge page for Lessons Learned in InLoox as a template to be reused and linked to the task “Record Lessons Learned”.
If you are acing the onboarding of new personnel, why not also strive to ace your offboarding by establishing the practice of scheduling an exit-meeting between the person who leaves and those who will take on their responsibilities. This too, can be supported by a template stored as a Knowledge page in InLoox and reused whenever necessary.
IMAGE: Knowledge page template for an exit-meeting, linked to the task “Hold exit meeting and record knowledge” in the project “Offboarding Mr. Smith”
Also, a body of knowledge is only as good as its latest update. Make sure, to review your InLoox Knowledge pages regularly, add insights and edit outdated information. In order to prevent the uncontrolled sprouting of pages here, there and everywhere, designate the editing permissions for Knowledge to a group of people tasked with knowledge management. These can either be knowledge managers whose sole purpose is to identify, retrieve, store and make available individual information for the whole organization. Usually they are part of the PMO team. Or someone on your project team who is either designated as the project’s knowledge manager.
Image: InLoox permissions "Read knowledge pages" and "Create, edit and delete knowledge pages" as global user permissions for a person part of the group Knowledge Management Team.
In either case, it is advisable to have someone responsible for knowledge management and value their contribution to the project and the overall organizational success accordingly.
Collective knowledge is good, collectivism not so much. Critical thinking, open discourse and challenging other people’s ideas are at the core of our human experience, and we should make good use of it when it comes to knowledge management.
Don’t let knowledge be encapsulated by a chosen few either, as gatekeeping knowledge within an organization leads to resentment and bad outcomes. The Borg experience this too, when one small group of Borg drones rebel against the Borg Queen because they have experienced individualism and another Borg group forms a splinter faction as they prefer to work together based on choice and mutual cooperation.
A positive working culture where errors and mistakes are seen as – dare I say it – learning opportunities is a good antidote to groupthink, gatekeeping and knowledge silos. Everyone in your organization needs to understand why knowledge management is being established as a practice, how it is implemented and what tools are at everyone’s disposal. Keep in mind: You do not want to create another admin layer with knowledge management, you want it to be a useful process to achieve better project outcomes. It is crucial to communicate what the organization’s goals are with knowledge management.
There are several human-centered methods that together with useful digital tools help create bridges between knowledge silos. They are designed to foster collaboration, free exchange of ideas and a healthy debate culture. Knowledge management done right lets teams not only complete projects successfully but ensures that they also learn from each project for the improvement of the whole organization.
Knowledge Management (Part 1): Why Knowledge Is the Most Important Resource in Your Organization
Knowledge Management (Part 2): Why It Is Necessary to Manage Your Company’s Knowledge
Knowledge Management (Part 3): How To Become a “Smart Company” Step By Step
Knowledge Management (Part 4): How to Implement and Use Knowledge Management Systems Correctly