Find the knowledge
When you’re hunting for the data you need to help make a difficult decision, you should explore every resource available to you.
However, there may be an underutilized, valuable resource right
under your nose — your own organization’s institutional knowledge.
“If you have an understanding or an experience that is sitting out
somewhere and you’re not drawing on it, that’s an organizational
failing,” Beale says. “Calling on them should be your first port of
call. You are calling on experience; you’re calling on like situations.
In an organization that has been around as long as we have, there
is a lot of experience.”
In many organizations, you are unlikely to find a situation that
someone, somewhere in the organization, hasn’t been through.
The key is finding that source of knowledge and flushing it out.
The larger the organization, the more difficult this becomes.
Beale says the first step to finding the sources of institutional
knowledge is creating an environment that is welcoming to them.
If you are encouraging communication throughout the organization and sharing your vision, then you’re already on the right track
to bringing these people out of the woodwork.
“You have to dig and open up the organization and get people
talking and communicating,” he says. “That’s a real challenge
because there is a lot of knowledge out there that you need to
bring to the forefront and apply and know how to source it.”
Beale says you can increase your chances of finding the employees who hold this knowledge by keeping your management structure flat. By adopting a simpler management structure, you can
eliminate several barriers to communication between the leadership team and the employees whose knowledge and experience
could make them very valuable resources.
Of course, for some worldwide organizations, a flat management
structure might not be practical. Another way to draw out the most
knowledgeable employees is to simply get to know your peers.
Talk with them about their skills and capabilities, and then involve
them in any decisions that concern their area of expertise.
“Whoever in the organization is most in touch with a particular
initiative or project or market is going to be involved in those types
of dialogue — and probably will be leading it,” he says.
In most organizations, the knowledge is out there. It’s simply a
question of leveraging it. Beale says if you think you are facing a
crossroads with a decision, your starting point should be your
organization’s sources of institutional knowledge.
“Unless your team is communicating, and you know who your
peers are in other parts of the organization, you know who your
counterparts are geographically, you know who has what skills
sets, it will probably never emerge,” he says.
