If you don’t write it down, it never happened

When you work for an organization that has a systematic process for creating, capturing, sharing and leveraging knowledge, overhead costs plummet.

Everything the team does becomes simpler, easier, faster and clearer. It’s the ultimate operational efficiency gain. Once the fruit of people’s knowledge takes root in the organizational soul, now anyone on the team can squeeze some juice out of it whenever they’re thirsty.

Instead of wasting time rooting around in archived folders from seven years ago, they can actually spend time focusing on the task at hand.

There’s a mantra that’s guided my career for the past twenty years.

If you don’t write it down, it never happened.

There are numerous applications of this principle, not the least of which relates to knowledge management.

For example, I worked at a startup that was less than two years old when I got hired. But despite their youth, the advantage they had was, these guys documented everything. And I mean everything.

From internal projects to product requirements to training modules to brainstorming sessions to executive memos, there was nothing they knew that wasn’t written down somewhere.

Best part is, anyone could find it within ten seconds.

That was music to my ears. Because it’s easier to add new people to old knowledge management processes than new processes to old people.

I remember my new boss telling me on day one:

If you have a question, go search the wiki first before asking someone directly. We have a rule at this company where if somebody is asked the same question more than twice, then they have to make a document for it.

Doesn’t that sound soothing to you? Wouldn’t you love to be part of a team that directed attention in such a conscious manner?

It’s kind of like reading with a pen. It’s not so much the note taking itself that’s valuable, but knowing you will have to take notes makes you read that material much more carefully. You pay closer attention to what might be worth noticing and writing down.

That’s why it was always so infuriating to me when I worked for a company that didn’t embrace knowledge management. All of the fresh insight, wisdom, perspective and processes just lived inside people’s heads. And you either had to pry it lose from their cold, dead brains, or just go into the work blindly.

Both of which required more time and energy than was necessary. It just felt so selfish to me. Coworkers being cagey about their knowledge seemed like the antithesis to collaboration. That mindset was rooted in scarcity, rather than generosity. The energy felt more like still water trapped in a pond, versus rushing water flowing down a stream.

It’s one of the reasons I spend so much time and get so much joy from making internal tools for my team. Because the more things that I write down, the more I wonder, who else might benefit from using this knowledge besides me?

Remember, a tool is simply a device used to carry out a particular function. And so, if I spent thirty minutes putting together a database of research and insights that helps me do my job faster, I always share it with my team. Usually I’ll make a short demo video or a screen grab to explain how it works.

Compare that documentation process to a company that just uses a cloud storage app where all their folders were haphazardly dumped like a bunch of firewood in a condemned house. Everything just feels so convoluted and slow and confusing.

When a new initiative kicks off, you don’t hear signs of relief, only groans of additional work. Because everyone knows they’re going to have to start from scratch, yet again.

There’s a lovely book on knowledge management that summarizes this point perfectly.

The problem is, too many companies view knowledge management as a laborious shore to be managed, rather than a core part of their operations. Which means the push almost certainly has to come from the top.

The executive team needs to believe that everything people know needs to be written down somewhere. And many progressive startups will organize doc days, which are hackathons where employees devote their entire schedule for one day update their docs.

It’s a practice of evangelizing and normalizing knowledge management as a practice. Doing so nurtures environments for creating and sharing knowledge.

Proving, that if you don’t write it down, it never happened.

What tools would help your company identify, use or transform your knowledge more effectively?