Tacit Knowledge Retention
Knowledge Management Systems have existed in organisations for a long time. They successfully capture organisational knowledge and help the organisation expand as well as evolve as new ideas flow in and get adopted. However, there is a kind of knowledge that is tacit, i.e. that is not written down and is carried by the most experienced people. Tapping into that knowledge and getting it transferred to new employees is crucial in having new ideas implemented, using the wisdom gained through experience. To do this, the following are important:
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Right Type of Leadership
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Employee Discretion
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Organisational Culture away from 'Projectification' and 'Fine Tuning'
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Quality Control
Leadership
Leadership in the organisation and succession are important in making sure that the right leader profile is emerging based on the needs of project delivery.
The correct mix between task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviours need to be set and preserved.
Employee Discretion
Across organisations, employee engagement is crucial, especially when critical projects are to be delivered within budget and on time. Learning from company champions within a complex organisation is an important part of making sure organisational knowledge is preserved.
Employee discretion brings learning to a new level where tacit skills are passed from one generation of employees to the next.
Organisational Culture
The increasing adherence of organisations to regulations and best practices give rise to 'fine tuning'. Past successes and acclimatization alter decision-makers' beliefs about probabilities of future success. Engineers and managers pursue partially inconsistent goals, while trying to learn from their experiences.
An Organisational Culture within the Reflective Practitioner framework where continous learning is combined with a critical view of processes and practices is what is required for the organisation to survive a rapidly changing environment.
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Quality Control
Performing Benchmarking and Quality Control across silos, business units and projects of strong interdependence is often addressed by ad hoc metrics that have been developed in circumstances other than the current state of the organisation.
Relevant statistical metrics are often taken out of context and within completely different classes of industry. There is cost to achieving quality, effective, synchronised teamwork, and continuous improvement. However, there is an unforeseably high cost not to have quality control in place.