Where should you focus Knowledge Retention?

Knowledge retention can be a massive exercise if not focused. But which knowledge should you focus on retaining?

Imagine you are setting up a Knowledge Retention interview with a company expert. This expert has a lifetime’s knowledge which would take an eternity to capture – where do you start? Where are the highest priority areas for capture?

This Boston Square may help.

The first axis of the square is the routine/non-routine nature of the activity which the Expert knows about. The Expert often has something that the ordinary practitioner does not have, and that is an understanding of the non-routine activity – the “one in a thousand” occurrences that most people never see, but which an expert has either met, or heard of somewhere. Most practitioners, even the junior ones, understand routine activity – it is when they meet non-routine circumstances that an expert is needed.

The second axis is teh criticality of the knowledge. How critical will that knowledge be? Will it save lives and millions of dollars, or is it not particularly critical?

Obviously the focus for your retention is the critical non-routine areas. If you do nothing else, then capture the knowledge of these topics.

Then, if you have time, address the “critical and routine” (although most people will know this already, it may be good to have the experts viewpoint), and then the “Non-critical non-routine” (it will at least help people avoid reinventing the wheel).