Is your business built on tribal knowledge

Is your business built on tribal knowledge

In business, tribal knowledge is unwritten knowledge that is only known by a select group of people, or even just one person. In business, it refers to the collective knowledge and skills that are unique to an organisation and its employees. Tribal knowledge is usually undocumented and often unshared, except by necessity, allowing it to be easily lost when those in possession of it move on.

This invisible network of knowledge and expertise can be a key source of business risk for your organisation.

• Knowledge Silos: Tribal knowledge creates isolated pockets of expertise, hindering collaboration and knowledge transfer. New employees struggle to navigate the unspoken rules and hidden processes, leading to inefficiencies in onboarding, and poor integration of your team.
• Business Vulnerability: When key personnel who hold this tribal knowledge depart, the organisation faces a critical knowledge gap, potentially jeopardising operations, and client relationships.
• Erosion of Consistency: When knowledge resides solely within individuals, it becomes susceptible to human fallibility. Absence, or simply that a process is not carried out often can lead to critical information being lost, leading to inconsistencies in processes, jeopardising quality, and brand reputation.
• Innovation Stagnation: Tribal knowledge often relies on outdated practices and "workarounds," The cross-pollination of ideas and free flow of information is limited by the silos that tribal knowledge often thrives in This stifles innovation and hinders the organisation's ability to adapt to changing markets and new technologies and processes.
• Inconsistent Practices: With no central repository of knowledge, processes vary across departments and individuals, leading to inconsistencies in quality and customer service. As businesses grow, replicating tribal knowledge becomes increasingly difficult, hindering business growth and development.

By embracing technologies designed to promote collaborative working is the key to breaking down the silos of knowledge within your organisation. By creating a culture where dynamic knowledge exchange is built within the structure of a clear document and process management system, training and mentorship of new team members can be assessed and controlled at a high level, with evidence of acceptance and understanding built into the system.

Institutionalising knowledge capture by implementing structured processes for documenting tribal knowledge encourages employees to share their insights, building a culture of knowledge and transparency.

Using Policy Central as your Information Operating System will allow your business operations to be managed through access to business-critical policies, procedures, guidelines, and playbook. Interaction with multi-step automatic workflow routing forms collects and reports on the data that runs your business. From capturing compliance acceptance, through to gathering evidence of understanding and self-service guidance. Policy Central is your Operating Hub for information governance and compliance.

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Each customer needs something unique from Policy Central which is why we build the needs of your business into every stage of development. We become an extension of your team, using our software expertise to provide solutions that suit your business. Get in touch to discuss how Kbase Connect can help transform your business.