Empty Files – Why we need Knowledge Management
When I started my job at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, I was excited for this new opportunity. My position was Director of Board of Governors & Society Relations which meant I worked directly with all the local and state otolaryngology groups. As a Chapter Relations Professional, I was thrilled! Since it was a health care association, an area I have worked in throughout my career, I was doubly happy.
I had a cute little office with a beautiful skylight window. Even though I was a department of one, I felt like anything was possible. Until I opened the file drawers.
To my astonishment, each and every file drawer was empty. There were not even empty file folders, only empty hanging folders where the files SHOULD have been.
It turned out that my predecessor, who had created the position, worked alone and independently. She didn’t even come to the office most of the time (this was well before remote work was a “thing”). The other staff thought she was renting her office space and didn’t even realize she worked there. Yikes!!
Despite having a job description, no one knew what exactly I was supposed to do or how to do it. It took me six months of interviewing senior staff and volunteer leaders to figure out the program. I started from scratch and had to build a system, department, files, and processes.
In the long run it worked out fine because I could do it in a way that made sense for other people. But this was a glaring example of a lack of knowledge management and its importance for smooth transitions. By the time I left the organization, not only was the department up and running, but I had also integrated its work into the overall work of the organization – no one thought I was a renter anymore!
Now that we live in a digital world, the challenge becomes creating and implementing digital file management and information collection. Often, we find that things are saved on individual hard drives rather than on a shared server, or hard copies are not scanned and uploaded. We also don’t have processes in place for collecting the information that people keep “in their head” that directly relates to their work, how they manage it, and why they do the work the way they do.
Staff are the most valuable asset any organization has for the following reasons:
1. They have historical knowledge based on experience.
2. They have built and maintained relationships over time.
3. They have insights into the “why” we use the processes we use.
If we don’t have systems in place to capture this valuable information, we are in a deficit position every time a staff member moves on to a new position or retires. We can end up in the situation I was in: empty files and no idea how to fill them.
We must make time for knowledge management or we will always be chasing what we need to succeed.
More on this topic: Check out the Second Wednesday series webinar on “Creating a Knowledge Management System” presented by Cecilia Sepp, CAE, CNP, Wednesday, November 8 at 9 am ET. More info on our education website.
