In my company we call information that is known but not
documented “tribal knowledge” and there is a surprising amount of this tribal
knowledge floating around; unaccounted for and essentially only recorded in the
mind and memory of existing employees. This information can disappear when an
employee leave and this means time and resources are spent trying to figure out
how to resolve an issue. There is also a lot of the
this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it-so-it’s-the-right-way mentality, where
change isn’t explored or embraced, which means we have outdated processes or
under/over qualified employees managing the process in an ineffective manner. These
two things seem to interfere with the culture of collaboration needed to
transform in to a learning enterprise. “Collaboration centers on the
relationships we have with people or the potential relationships we can build
with people. Right now there isn’t an effective way to match our relationships
to the work we do” (Morgan, 2012).
Sometimes it feels like employees don’t collaborate because
this tribal knowledge or information hoarding is perceived to provide some
sense of job security. Perhaps it does in some cases. But I’ve seen a lot of
restructure in the company lately, and some people that seemed above a reorg
are no longer working for my company. Collaboration is necessary for a company
to grow and the character and personalities of the individual needs to align
with the technology available to facilitate a better level of communication and
documentation.
I would like to see my organization shift towards a stronger
culture of collaboration, using technology and human resources to document and
revise current processes. This could be done with SharePoint, a wiki or even in
the cloud….as long as it gets people working together and not duplicating
efforts. “The future collaboration platform will be able to match the people we
are connected to with the work we do, or the people that we should be connected to with the work
that we do” (Morgan, 2012).
Morgan, J. (2012). The collaborative organization.
New York, NY. McGraw-Hill.