The bulk of the United States and much of the world is beginning to feel the effects of the
removal of veteran workers from their businesses. Some of this is caused by early baby
boomers reaching retirement age, some of it is caused by healthy boomers deciding to go
early and enjoy their active lifestyles and some of it is the result of recent events causing
some to re-evaluate their lives and what is important. Whatever the reason, seasoned
workers with a significant majority of the working knowledge, processes and lessons
learned will be leaving and creating a vacuum in their organizations. The consequences
of this will be varied and numerous; however, here are established methods by which this issue can be managed and its effects reduced
or eliminated. The methods for addressing this issue are not new and seldom involve high tech solutions
or tools. Many involve enhanced perspectives on human communication and
collaboration that are common in great organizations, but which are not present in most
firms or which have been eliminated in the name of efficiency, cost reduction, etc.
The basic tools discussed in this paper include:
stories - an organized system of communication of critical knowledge through
structured story telling sessions;
vectored tours - purposeful conduction of internal tours of processes and activities
for specific purposes of knowledge transfer and enhancement;
knowledge chaining - examination of knowledge dependencies of individuals and
groups to show which resources outside performing groups are needed to support
them;
respect broadcasts - aggressive recognition of contribution and value enhancements
gained as a result of sharing and mentoring;
continuation conduits - just as in responsibility succession, one needs a knowledge
succession planning method, this may not involve a one-to-one transfer;
de-structuring the culture - the major impacts of the loss of highly experienced
people may require a restructuring of the individuals, duties and knowledge caretaker
responsibilities in the remaining organization; and,
incentives - clear, tangible, consistent incentives to encourage individuals to share
what they know and proactively mentor their associates.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
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| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 7 |
