Lost Knowledge Does Not Have To Be Lost
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Within the last six months, I have had conversations with two different friends who have "retired." Both people worked for Fortune 500 companies in different parts of the country. I was intrigued with some of their comments and I could relate. In fact, I wrote an article about lost knowledge Download BR Knowledge Walking Out Door last spring and they were reinforcing much of what I wrote and actually how I also felt making my transition.
Both of these friends had worked for the same organization for several decades and both had been successful. I will call them "Dick" and "Jane" to protect their confidence. Jane worked in a bank and told me that so much of her effectiveness was based on relationships she had developed with clients over the years. When she left, she was surprised that no one asked her for advice, tips, or trade secrets. She had records and files kept on clients and no one asked her anything. Does this make sense?
"Dick" told me that when he decided to leave, he could not believe that no one really asked him anything. He had been making significant decisions for many years and much of this was based on close relationships with customers and clients. Again, no one asked for his advice or asked him to write standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Likewise, I had spent 30 years trying to perfect the art of teaching. Even after writing a book on teaching and learning and attending professional conferences for years where the focus is on how to become a more effective teacher, I was still tweaking courses based on student feedback. I would have been so willing to conduct a workshop for newer faculty members on what I had learned from three decades of experience, but no one asked. I almost felt as though I owed it to the institution since my expenses had been paid to learn, yet no one asked.
I plan to continue to attend the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference (OBTC) because of the emphasis on teaching and learning. It has been the best conference for me to learn about facilitation, student engagement, and interaction. It would have been so easy to put together a faculty workshop, regardless of discipline, for anyone who is committed to enhancing learning. In fact, it would have been nice to either have the faculty members who were "retiring" to each conduct a workshop (if desired) or to have a panel discussion where we share best practices.
But this did not happen. Knowledge was lost when Dick, Jane, and I walked out the door. What continues to amaze me was that no one seemed to care about the lost knowledge. I know I was a better teacher as I gained more experience, attended teaching conferences, and learned from others.
Are you better at what you do now?
What have you learned that you could share with others?
What do you know from which others would benefit?
How could your knowledge be shared?
It seems so logical that we would want to capture the knowledge in some way. Instead, it seems that the common practice is to let the knowledge walk out the door and this makes no sense to me. If I were one of the leaders in the organization, I would change this practice. I would make people realize how important they are to the organization and I want them to share their insights, advice, and wisdom with everyone else who would benefit.
What do you think? Doesn't everyone win if we try to listen to the wisdom of the sages?
