Many
organisations that I come across seem to have one problem (amongst many) in
common and that is Knowledge Transfer (KT). People don’t want to share
knowledge and at times people don’t find the existing knowledge worth taking
(typical of the Gen X, who have just passed out of elitist colleges), or people
not being able to collate and ‘hand-over’ a clearly articulated body of
knowledge.
KT is the transfer of knowledge, expertise, skills
and capabilities. Is KT
a new subject on the horizon or is it just a new phenomenon due to insecurity
of the modern day workplaces? KT in its basic form has existed from time
immemorial in the form of Gurukuls, and then schools and colleges of present
day. Teachers have taught and passed their knowledge to students, some of who
have added to the body of work and passed it down to others in the subsequent
generations.
Organisations
too have seen such transfers earlier. Be they in the form of an Associate, an
Apprentice, or just a junior who goes on to learn the tricks of the trade and take
on the mantle one fine morning. Sons have been natural heirs, but others too
have been honoured with the knowledge and have moved on to start on their own.
But
transferring knowledge in an organisation is not as easy as it is in schools
and colleges or small set-ups. In a modern-day knowledge based organisations,
knowledge is critical. Besides managing knowledge which is in the minds of its
employees, transferring the same on their leaving is a critical aspect where
many seen to fail, and in many cases, the organisations are not even aware of
the failure.
So
how does KT become effective and a viable practise for organisations? How do
they ensure that nothing is lost or at least substantial is retained before an
employee leaves or retires?
KT
is effective when the receiver is aware
that there is knowledge worth accepting. When the leader is held in awe
because of the knowledge, then the transfer is effective. In the epic Ramayan,
Ravan was an able administrator. His rule was a golden period for his kingdom
(which figuratively was referred to as sone-ki-Lanka,
or the land of the gold). When Ravan was on his death-bed, he passed his
knowledge of able administration to Ram, which in future came to be referred as
Ramrajya. Ram who had dealt the
deadly blow to his enemy, accorded Ravan the position of a Guru, and sat down
to hear the words of wisdom from the dying asura-King.
Knowledge should never die with the person who either created it or mastered
it.
In
the epic Mahabharat, Vidur has been shown sharing his knowledge of
administration frequently with the Pandavs, which is also known as Vidur-niti. This is never done with the
Kauravas, since they were never found receptive. Bhishma too promises not to
die till he has imparted his knowledge of ethics, morals and values to Yudhishtir
and the same was meticulously done from his bed of arrows after the tenth day
of the war of Kurukshetra.
Knowledge
Transfer is effective, when it is done by
the person who is acknowledged to be in a superior position because of the
knowledge. His elevated position is because he has some skill, knowledge in
his possession. This is akin to the typical guru-shishya
parampara where people have gone to acquire the said art or skill. It could
be similar to Dronacharya, as a teacher who is willing to pass his skills to
all the students in return of some favour, or Parashuram who is willing to pass
down his knowledge to Karna in return of no favour.
Knowledge
transfer is very effective when it comes in the form of need-of-the-hour. Krishna in his epochal Gita had
transferred a huge body of knowledge at the right time to Arjun, which enabled
him to fight the war of Kurukshetra. This knowledge till date is translated,
interpreted and taught in different ways and the relevance of which seems to be
reinvented with changing times.
Knowledge
transfer is meaningful, when we know that the said knowledge emanates from reliable sources. The Vedas, Upanishads,
etc. are all troves of knowledge which have been recorded for use. Some say,
they were passed on by gods through seers for future use, while some say these
are learning of the past recorded for generations to come. Even the epic
Mahabharat is supposed to have been dictated by Vyas, but written by Ganesha –
where is the reason to doubt such an epic which has been written by a god with
his own piece of tooth?
Finally
what makes KT most effective is the
method of the transfer. Many a times, if it is passed down as tomes of
knowledge, it is ineffective. Let me tell you a story here. Once upon a time
there lived a king who had three sons and according to the king all his sons
were idiots and he wondered how could he ever leave the throne to any one of
them, when none of them were worth anything? His worry was solved by a person,
who promised to educate his sons and make them worthy of the throne. This man focused on the wisdom of the scriptures rather than the scriptures itself. He
created stories which would teach a lesson or a moral and make the learning
more interesting, instead of didactic or moralistic. Soon the Princes were a
Kings delight and each one of them was eligible to occupy the throne! This man
was none other than the famous Vishnu Sharma and what he wrote for the princes
is known to all of us Panchatantra!
The Panchatantra or the five treatise
cover all aspects of management, personal life and the cunning that one needs
to have to face life.
Just
as lessons are easy to impart, but not-so-easy to understand, so is the case
with Knowledge Transfer. It is easy to speak about it, even easier to lay down
the processes that govern the transfer, but very complex to execute. The
biggest impediment to the process is the fear of redundancy. In an ever
increasing competitive environment, ones knowledge is perceived as ones asset
acquired over a long period of time and to pass it down as a process does not
settle well with an individual who is feeling insecure in the first place.
Needless to say, that the same cannot be done overnight too, after all KT is
not a case of divine revelation!
Courtesy Dilbert.com |
KT
needs to be part of an organisational process from day one. Every process or
step in an organisation should aid the Knowledge accumulation leading to its dissemination.
It has to be a top-down approach. A Bhishma needs to be visible to the system
who is willing to share his knowledge or a leader like Ram needs to be seen in
all humility willing to accept knowledge from even his enemy.
The
day, sharing knowledge becomes a part of an organisations DNA, Knowledge
Transfer will be seamless and as normal as any other regular process of the
organisation!
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