The motto of my all-girls junior high school was “Knowledge is no longer a fountain sealed” – the line adapted from the Lord Alfred Tennyson poem The Princess. The phrase referred to the springing of the intellect. In a more literal interpretation, imagine handing someone a fountain pen, that person becoming enormously creative writing calligraphy, sharing their skills with peers, then creating magnificent scrolls and selling them for great profit. Call it institutional knowledge that sprung from a fountain pen.
With this calligraphy collective top of mind, it was with great interest that I read the article “Managing Institutional Knowledge in Distributed Teams” on Giagaom.com recently.
The article notes that, in organizations where information used to be shared, say at the coffee bar or the water cooler, when an employee goes virtual (or the entire organization does), the risk of losing information is very high. Typically, you don’t know you need the information until you’ve lost it. You need a knowledge bank because you want your employees to be able to benefit from the experiences of others. 
I found it curious that the article didn’t give any examples of institutional knowledge, so I’ve included some here that could apply to your business and that you might consider recording: preferences of high-value clients; nicknames given to important databases with suppliers’ information; how to make parts; where to find art, brochures, brand guidelines; who is Mr. Fix-it; crisis management information, employment records, historic presentations and speeches.
Another point the article makes is the importance of updating and maintaining institutional knowledge i.e. consistently adding to the databases you deem important. I’d add that in a virtual office situation, when someone new joins the team, it’s important to have real training and not just a few sheets that are emailed over to the employee in a welcome packet. Off-site employees need to be schooled in many things: the basics, such as how to access databases and add information to them; the tricky stuff, like which business silos overlap with their division and, therefore, their job.
I know it’s a busy world and employees are expected to come onboard and sink or swim, but step back and think about this for 90 seconds. When you enter the office environment you have the advantage of observing physical and verbal cues. You can wander into a colleague's office and ask for advice after a meeting. This applies if you’re an executive, middle manager who travels 70% of the year or work in the mailroom.
I firmly believe that just three days of in-person training will save your employees weeks of frustration before they return to their virtual office. It doesn’t matter if they held a similar job at the competition. This is a new environment and, in many ways, they’ll feel like they’re working in oblivion for a long time – that is until they begin to understand the ebb and flow of the virtual team.
Once your new employee is fully meshed with the team, she’ll start contributing to the institutional knowledge database (just as veteran employees have been doing on an ongoing basis). Which raises another important point – a single person shouldn’t be responsible for the information, because if that staff member leaves the company, they’ll take the information and how to access it with them. As the article puts it: “maintaining institutional knowledge has to be a habit.” A habit for all employees. A habit you don’t want to break.
Amber Nasrulla is an ex-pat Canadian writer based in L.A. who specializes in profiles from business leaders and scientists, to Hollywood celebrities. Her work has appeared in North American and British publications including L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Magazine, ELLE Canada, Chatelaine and London Weekly Times.
Does your company have guidelines in place to help flexible teams share information and keep databases current? Share best practices here.
