How to Turn Organizational Yellow Pages into a Living, Breathing System?
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Nov 1, 2000
- 3 min read
Many organizations have taken their first steps in knowledge management by developing an expert system, also known by its common name: organizational Yellow Pages. Such a system is easy to establish and avoids the non-trivial challenge of collecting, organizing, processing, filtering, and maintaining knowledge on an ongoing basis. Instead of managing knowledge, they manage the people who hold it. Organizational Yellow Pages contain important information about individuals who possess knowledge in various subjects within the organization, detailing their areas of expertise, experience, and skills. These Yellow Pages help knowledge seekers locate knowledge holders and contact them. The knowledge found in these pages is typically not stored elsewhere, so it is also important that knowledge seekers are aware of their existence so they can utilize them when needed. Seemingly wonderful. However, many Yellow Pages systems collapsed, leading to deterrence from the subject of knowledge management as a whole. And why is this?
The bottom line—people did not make (sufficient) use of the system. People often did not recall the existence of the system when they encountered a problem and needed help. In other cases, they found that the data already existed in the system, but it was either unknown or not up-to-date.
How can an existing system be improved?
There are several tips on this subject:
It is recommended to link the data update process to the employee evaluation process. Along with the evaluation form, it is recommended to send a detailed update form to be completed by the employee as input for the meeting or at its start. The manager should pass the updated form along with the evaluation data back to Human Resources, and they will ensure receipt.
It is recommended to establish an interface that links the course system used by employees to the expert system, allowing the generation of "experienced personnel" as an intermediate level (less than experts), such as those who have completed a course in the defined subject. It is also recommended to use the course list as a reminder to the employee when updating the expertise areas form (see section A above).
It is recommended to define milestones in work processes that utilize the expert system. For example, at the beginning of a project, before approving the first work plan, it is necessary to instruct a "passage" through the system to examine individuals who can be helped during the project at various stages, and/or additional individuals who are not directly related to the developed system. Still, it would be worthwhile to invite them to reviews. Additional examples vary according to the organization, but the purpose of all of them is to integrate the use of the system into the regular work process.
It is recommended to build the tool itself, with maximum emphasis on convenience and user-friendliness. For someone entering, there must be every reason not to despair before finding what they are looking for, while reaching relevant information with minimal effort.
It is recommended to integrate the tool with the organizational phone book to increase access to it, even indirectly.
Suppose the system is up-to-date and people become accustomed to using it in specific processes, deriving benefit from it in these processes. In that case, they will likely want to use it in additional processes on their initiative.
In any case, this is not a simple implementation. If you haven't started yet, one more small tip: don't start with an expert system as your first system; save it for later.
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