Overcoming Knowledge Loss: Identifying Critical Knowledge and Knowledge Gaps

The majority of the best-practice partners in APQC's 2008 best practices report Retaining Today's Knowledge for Tomorrow's Work Force rely on core competency and capability information in conjunction with their communities of practice (CoPs) and subject matter experts (SMEs) to identify what knowledge is critical to capture. When determining who has that knowledge, the partners' focus shifts to a slightly more people-based approach that leverages interviews with SMEs and key employees, input from CoP members, and analysis from individual managers. The following are some specific examples from the best-practice partners who participated in our most recent research.

·         Rolls-Royce employs a number of approaches to identify critical knowledge and who has it. Essential knowledge is located via techniques such as structured knowledge audits, knowledge modeling, lessons learned reviews, and CoPs. To find out who owns this knowledge, the organization relies on lessons learned reviews, peer assists, knowledge modeling, and leaver's interviews (i.e., exit interviews).

·         The Aerospace Company holds its Centers of Excellence and CoPs responsible for stewardship of knowledge critical to their respective areas of the organization. Since these centers and communities focus on or support critical programs or initiatives, they are in a good position to identify essential knowledge and determine who owns it. The centers of excellence handle knowledge that resides within individual programs, whereas the CoPs manage knowledge that spans multiple programs.

·         Fluor Corporation identifies critical knowledge and where it resides as part of the organization's robust community deployment process. The process involves finding and collaborating with subject matter experts to refine the scope of the projected community and related content. A plan is then rolled out to begin collecting that content. This may take as long as a month, but Fluor will not deploy a community without first amassing the relevant content. In the words of one KM team member, "You can't launch an empty store."

·         Michelin North America's approach to identifying key knowledge is unique in that, after deciding that a particular piece of knowledge is important, the organization asks, "How well do we know it?" Using a business impact vs. quality of results process, Michelin's business areas determine what knowledge must be captured, retained, and transferred.