Capturing Tribal Knowledge in a Corporate E-Learning Solution

There may be some employees with tribal knowledge, who may be quitting your organization soon. Thus, there will be an urgent need to capture tribal knowledge so that it can be shared with remaining employees through a training purpose. 

But what would be the ideal way to capture knowledge and share the important tribal knowledge among other employees. One of the best ways to capture tribal knowledge and create a common platform to share the same is through a corporate eLearning solution. Before we understand how an eLearning solution can be useful to capture tribal knowledge, we need to understand what is TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE.

Understanding what is Tribal Knowledge

Unwritten knowledge is that which is only known to a limited 'tribe' of individuals. In business, it refers to an organization's and its employees' aggregate knowledge and abilities. Due to the fact that tribal knowledge is unrecorded and often unshared, it is readily lost when employees depart. It may be generally understood throughout a company or may be compartmentalized inside certain departments, teams, or people. Individuals who conceal tribal wisdom from outsiders are referred to as "gatekeepers."

What will happen if you do not successfully collect Tribal Knowledge?

In more ways than one, failing to identify and capture tribal knowledge may jeopardize your company's productivity. The apparent issue is that not having ALL of the necessary information to complete a job, operate a particular piece of equipment, or meet the expectations of an important client or customer may result in productivity interruptions and a detrimental effect on your company's bottom line.

A more subtle danger exists in failing to comprehend a full process or procedure inside your business or depending on someone who has always executed the job without the knowledge of others.

How can an eLearning solution aid in the acquisition of tribal knowledge?

Given below are some techniques employed by an eLearning development company like VK Creative Learning to capture and share essential information through a corporate eLearning solution. If you are attempting to elicit vital information in the form of tribal knowledge from certain sources, these strategies will also be beneficial to you.

Transferring Subject Matter Experts' expertise

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are questioned about their unique knowledge, and all pertinent data is fed into the eLearning platform.

Walk and discuss through a complete process and/or production with your SMEs, noting each point where instructions are required. Ideally, work from the start to the final step to assure that no stages are overlooked. You may opt to enter info into a corporate eLearning platform in chronological sequence to ensure full knowledge transfer.

Create learning content

The most effective method of capturing all phases in a process is to develop instructions and feed them into a department-specific eLearning platform.

Anyone who has never done the work (including explanations for any jargon or acronyms) may log into the eLearning platform to readily learn new approaches for doing a particular task, offered by another employee of the firm.

By using annotated images or diagrams, you may add the necessary degree of detail to create a virtual tour of the whole process.

You may either have the subject matter expert design the training materials or have him/her collaborate with a technical writer or training expert to understand the procedure and then record it on a corporate 'eLearning platform.'

Developing tribal knowledge content for the aim of cross-training

Create training materials using an eLearning solution, implement them, and validate their correctness by cross-training other workers in a job.

Cross-training may be accomplished using an e-learning platform, which has all of the training materials necessary to update an employee's expertise. Depending on the nature of your firm, you may choose to have employees share portions of their jobs on a regular basis.

Incorporating knowledge transfer as a component of the training process

Schedule training sessions for management and employees using the e-learning platform to make knowledge transfer/recording, and process optimization a regular feature of your corporate culture.

Advantages Of Getting and Storing Tribal Knowledge in an eLearning platform

If tribal knowledge is identified and captured in simple, shareable ways, a business may realize enormous advantages.

1. Productivity and creativity enhancements.

When tribal knowledge is broadly shared within an organization through the knowledge management process with the use of a corporate eLearning platform, all employees benefit from increased productivity. Additionally, with increased input options, you may be able to innovate, optimize, automate, or simplify established procedures and techniques.

2. Prevent the hoarding of information 

No employee works in perpetuity and hence, hoarding information for the sake of job stability will not prevent a person from retiring or relocating. The loss of a tribal knowledge person may cost businesses hundreds of dollars. By ensuring that no one individual has unique, crucial information, a business may mitigate the harm caused by the loss of a gatekeeper.

3. Cultivating the habit of sharing information

Businesses that value information sharing and cooperation are often far healthier and more enticing to existing and prospective employees. Employees who feel valued, rewarded, and interested in by their employers are more likely to remain committed and put more effort than those who feel isolated or insecure.

Conclusion

Tribal knowledge may be the special recipe that gives businesses an advantage over their competition. However, when it is held back by just a few individuals, it may significantly affect growth, productivity, creativity, and employee happiness.

Thus, it is very important that tribal knowledge is not retained by an employee and in the contrast, it could be shared with other employees. One of the best mediums of achieving knowledge transfer from one employee to many employees is by using an E-learning platform. 

The e-learning platform may help all employees to share the essential information or any unique information that they have gathered while working on a specialized task. 

VK Creative Learning (VKCL) has been creating such an e-learning solution which has helped many organizations to store vital information in corporate E-learning solution and pass it on to the other employees.

If you're one of those organizations that want to create a corporate e-learning solution for capturing tribal knowledge and sharing it with other employees, then you can get in touch with us.