Capturing the Lessons of Experience: Knowledge Transfer: By: Jitendra Singh Rathore

Capturing the Lessons of Experience: 

Knowledge Transfer: 

12 Strategies for Succession 

Management 

By William J. Rothwell, Ph.D., SPHR 

Presented by: 

Jitendra Singh Rathore 

 (PA 9022) 

Understanding the Problem 

• How

can

organiza,ons

store

and

transfer

the

lessons

learned

from

their

most

experienced

workers

before

they

re,re?

That

is

the

ques,on

of

the

moment

for

many

public

sector

employers.

Possible Strategies for Knowledge Storage and Transfer 

Strategy 1: Job-Shadowing Programs. 

•   A job-shadowing program is one strategy by which to transfer 

knowledge from one person or group to another.  

•  A less-experienced performer is paired up with a veteran 

performer. The veteran is asked to share knowledge (and 

perhaps hands-on practice) in dealing with the most difficult 

situations with which he or she has been faced on the job. 

Strategy 2: Communities of Practice 

•  A community of practice is a group that comes together to 

share information about a common problem, issue or topic.  

•  Such communities may meet in person or online.  

•  It is a way by which to store and transmit knowledge from one 

person (or a group) to another person or group. 

Strategy 3: Process Documentation.  

•  Popular as a result of ISO and the quality movement, process 

documentation involves flowcharting how work is performed.  

•  It may include special variations in what performers should do 

or how they should do it based on special circumstances.  

•  Clear process documentation, which may include flowcharts or 

procedure manuals, can be helpful in storing and transferring 

knowledge from a more experienced to a less experienced 

person. 

Strategy 4: Critical Incident Interviews or Questionnaires. 

•  A critical incident is a difficult(critical) situation (incident) 

•  By documenting the lessons of experience from the 

organization’s most experienced performers, the organization 

can capture the fruits of experience. Of course, by 

documenting such “difficult cases”—and how they were 

handled—the organization is also laying the foundation for the 

development of a manual or automated expert system. 

•   Critical incidents provide an excellent foundation for training. 

•   An example of a possible questionnaire that is designed to 

capture critical incidents 

Strategy 5: Expert Systems. 

•  An expert system, usually automated, is organized around 

problems and how to troubleshoot them.  

•  A simple example is the “context-sensitive help” on most word 

processing programs. (If you should ever call in to the help 

desk of a major computer company for help, the person on the 

other end of the phone is probably equipped with an expert 

system.) 

Strategy 6: Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS).  

•  It is the most sophisticated method for storing and transferring 

knowledge. 

•   An EPSS combines artificial intelligence, an expert system, 

real-time e-learning methods, and a computer-based 

referencing system.  

•  As a user encounters a problem, he or she can access all 

organizational policies and procedures through the referencing 

system, gain advice from past experience from the expert 

system, and even learn in real time using the training 

component. 

Strategy 7: Job Aids.  

•  A job aid is anything that helps people perform in real time. A 

checklist is a job aid.  

•  Knowledge can be stored in the job aid and accessed through 

low-tech methods by performers when the need arises. 

Strategy 8: Storyboards. 

•   A storyboard is literally a group of pictures that tell a story. 

•  Series of pictures placed on a wall or a poster that is intended 

to show how someone should perform in a specific situation 

and you get the idea.  

Strategy 9: Mentoring Programs. 

•   A mentor is an experienced performer; a mentee is a less- 

experienced one.  

•  Rarely is a mentor a supervisor, since effective mentors should 

usually have no selfish interest in the development of another 

person.  

Strategy 10: Storytelling. 

•   Most wisdom in organizations is passed on through 

storytelling.  

•  A story is a description of what happened in a situation. Most 

people have heard many stories about their organizations.  

•  It can be a most effective way of transmitting wisdom from 

one person to another. 

Strategy 11: Information Exchanges. 

•  The same basic approach can be turned to information 

exchanges.  

Strategy 12: Best Practice Studies or Meetings 

•   This practices occur outside our organizations. 

•   But it is possible that the organization has its own existing 

best practices.  

•  These can be shared in meetings