observe, and practice your craft under the gaze of an expert until
you’ve become skilled enough to actually do the job on your own.
Although this may seem more applicable to coppersmithing than
to corporations, the structure of work in most corporations provides
plenty of opportunities for apprenticeship experiences. Staff junior
people on projects, task forces, committees, and the other machin-
ery of corporate life. Let them interact with the experts to gain
knowledge from their more experienced colleagues and exposure to
a broad range of experiences. Make them accountable to listen and
learn and to participate where warranted. Provide them with clear
objectives for what they’re supposed to learn, give them the time
to do it well, and measure whether the requisite knowledge has
been acquired.
- Anoint Experts and Set Expectations
Some people know more about certain things than others. Recog-
nize that people like having a “go to” person, and hold your subject
matter experts accountable to serving as this resource. Let every-
one know who has expertise in certain areas (finally a good use for
that database!), and include in the expert’s performance measures
the responsibility to proactively share this information. If the
experts can convey their knowledge face to face, then actual
knowledge, not just information, gets managed.
- Rely on Human Interaction
You know all those company conferences and sales meetings you so
efficiently moved to videoconferencing? It’s time to start getting
people back together, face to face, to actually share knowledge. The
highly predictable answer you get from professionals evaluating
nearly any conference or group get-together they have attended is
that the unscheduled, interpersonal “networking” time was the
most valuable. It’s the interaction at venues like these that actually
results in knowledge being shared.
NEITHERKNOWLEDGE NORMANAGEMENT 47