1. The Power of Knowledge Sharing
A Practical Approach
Presented By:
Maureen Shaw
Supervisor, Workforce Planning
Portland General Electric
GreenPrints 2002 – Atalanta, GA
4/10/2019

2. 4/10/2019

3. What is Knowledge Management?
A range of practices used to identify, create, represent and distribute knowledge.
Managing knowledge is one of the critical issues organizations face as experienced workers retire.
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4. Objectives
Gain awareness of the state of knowledge management in your company / department
Begin to identify gaps and needs
Learn about practical knowledge-sharing tools
Ask questions of a panel of your peers
Resource list
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5. Two Kinds of Knowledge Organizational knowledge = explicit
Human knowledge = tacit
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6. Explicit / Organizational Knowledge
What we can put into words
What we can write about
Guidelines, procedures, instructions
What can be captured, stored, and easily accessed
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7. Tacit / Human Knowledge
What’s in our heads
What’s hard to explain
What we learn through experience
Insights and instincts
Unwritten rules of thumb
Hard to capture, store, transmit in a systematic manner
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8. Only they know what they know!
Knowledge Keepers
It’s not just the people who leave, it’s the crucial institutional knowledge they take with them
Only they know what they know!
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9. The challenge
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10. Ways to Promote Knowledge Transfer
Procedures
Instruction manuals
Schematics
Electronic databases
Work process flow charts
Recorded knowledge interviews
Videotaped interviews or processes
Knowledge mentors – peer experts
Internal networks – formal or informal
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11. More Ideas… Knowledge sharing events – brown bags
Peer mentors for new employees
Indexes of documents and supplies
Yellow Pages of “go to” experts
Establishing knowledge coordinators
Summer interns / Educator interns* / Retirees
Employee cross training
Electronic file sharing
Work duties lists
* Business Education Compact,
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12. How are you doing?
Self - assessment checksheet – compare results at your table
Each table identifies one best practice to share
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13. TVA’s Strategic Lessons Learned
There is a logical process.
Focus on critical positions – one job at a time
Lots of detailed work, analysis, planning, project management
No single solution
Everyone must do their part – management, human resources, process owners and knowledge holders
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14. Back to the Willamette
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15. Resources
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Workshops - Oregon Graduate Institute,
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring; Teach What You Know , Steve Trautman,
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management by Melissie Clemmons Rumizen, Ph.D.
Tennessee Valley Authority:
Harvard Business Review,
Business Education Compact -
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4/10/2019
GreenPrints 2002 – Atalanta, GA
4/10/2019