On Human and Organizational Memory

Two server racks with brain illustrations atop, set in an orange-toned room. The racks suggest a blend of technology and cognition.

If you begin to lose your memory, even in small amounts, you will discover that memory is the essence of life. Life without memory is not life at all. Memory is our binding material, our knowledge, and our emotions. Without it, we are nothing. Memory is undoubtedly one of the most important assets of a human being, accompanying one from infancy until departure from this world. Memory is not an exclusive human asset. Animals also possess some degree of memory, without which they could not exist for long periods. A baby, for instance, without basic memory, would not know how to grasp even a bottle. Even bacteria remember, such as the concentration of sugar they need at a specific time—a specialization for survival.

Memory is the tool through which we extract information about our past experiences to use in the present.

This week, I received an article about memory written by Dr. Ruth Solomon, a lecturer in neurology at Beit Berl.

When I read its contents, I couldn't help but draw a parallel between the human memory process occurring in our brains and the process we all try to recreate at an organizational level through knowledge management.

Below, I present the article's main points relevant to our discussion.

Remembering is a dynamic action of storing information and retrieving it when needed. It is essentially a change in personal knowledge resulting from personal experience. It includes three dominant basic processes:

Acquisition - capturing the information you want to remember, mainly through the senses.
Storage - encoding of the code—a personal cipher of information components in the brain.
Retrieval - decoding and reconstructing the stored information code and extracting it when needed—remembering.

Indication of storage is done through two actions:

Identifying stored information with the help of signs and assisting cues (for example, answering an American-style multiple-choice test where we need to choose the answer is remembering through identification; the correct answer is placed in front of our eyes, and we need to identify it).
Recollection from stored information and its reconstruction from the repository, without the aid of identification signs (for example, when answering an open question on a test, we need to retrieve memory items without cues). "Recollection" is more difficult compared to identification.

Human memory is diverse and classified along two axes:

Time axis - from fractions of a second to long-term memory—from weeks onward. In this context, Solomon notes: "The most important memory is 'working memory,' which is our ability to navigate and synchronize between a fresh memory item and old items, just like a computer desktop. Without working memory, we cannot live our daily lives!"
Content axis - divided into two:
- Declarative memory - conscious memory of facts, events, or experiences (for instance, I know that Paris is in France).
- Non-declarative memory - includes repetitive skills that constitute automatic conscious memory (for example, walking, cycling) and memory of unconscious actions like classical and emotional conditioning (test anxiety due to past exam failure).

How can memory be improved?

Using external aids: making lists, placing objects in fixed locations, effectively using the environment, and using aids such as timers and diaries.
Using internal aids: changing organization method: groups, keywords, acronyms, the connection between old and new, helpful imagery of pictures.

Many concepts here can provide excellent guidance when implementing knowledge management solutions. The challenge before us is to recreate the "R.A.S." process in the best and most efficient way at the organizational level, and it should guide us in any implementation of a knowledge management solution. Even when the organization acquires knowledge, it should consider when it will be retrieved and provide focused benefit to the user.

Insight repositories, virtual communities, and workspaces provide users with information along both axes. Solomon discussed:

Time axis - in knowledge management solutions, we document knowledge items created at different points in time. Proper documentation (automatic or manual) will give the user an indication of when the item was created. Thus, when all items are documented in the same repository, divided by context or content area, the user benefits from access to all organizational memories and can derive knowledge based on experience and information accumulated over time. In this context, it's important to note that properly managing archives and preserving knowledge items according to their validity on the time axis are important. It's important not to keep things that have become obsolete and are no longer correct because they are subject to the statute of limitations.

Another expression of memories on the time axis is dividing content between an information site/community into infrastructural and dynamic information. The site must be structured to ensure that the most dynamic information is one click away and that the user looks for infrastructural information that changes less frequently in fixed locations.

Content axis - building a knowledge repository and file management that includes declarative memory (what we know, we know) and non-declarative memory (what we don't know, we know).

Don't know that I know (Non-declarative)

Know that I know (Declarative)

Let's try to validate the model on the topic of knowledge production and its management in an insight repository:

The first stage - knowledge acquisition—extracting the knowledge in people's minds, whether it was born as a result of a directed process for its extraction (lessons learned, for example) or as a random product (the employee suddenly understood something, thought of an idea, had a successful experience, etc.). This process involves challenges from several layers:
1. Cultural challenges - change management and creating a culture of sharing and documenting knowledge belonging to the individual's "declarative" memory—what they know they know (for example, publishing new documents we created, solving a challenge, and sharing the solution with everyone).
2. Process challenges - supporting the individual in all matters related to "non-declarative" memory—translating things they are not aware of and do automatically into usable knowledge and documenting it. For example, you can identify with the employee when they succeeded in a specific activity compared to cases where they were less successful; what caused the success? Another example is institutionalizing and mapping the job transfer process to ensure that non-declarative information is transferred to the new employee. During these processes, the individual becomes more aware of the knowledge they possess.
3. Validating knowledge quality - Our memory is not always reliable in our personal lives. Sometimes, we remember what we want to and forget experiences that are not necessarily pleasant for us. Similarly, in an organization, it's important that the collected knowledge undergoes a validation process: Is it practical? Generalized enough? Is it agreed upon?
The second stage is storage. In the human body, information detected by the senses is converted into electrical and chemical signals that can be stored in our brains. Since, in everyday life, we need the integration of information from different sensory organs, all data must appear in the same language. In an organization, storage is the main challenge that mediates between knowledge acquisition and its later retrieval. We must transform static stored information and data, or "organizational memory," into dynamic information assets. The way information is preserved will ultimately determine its retrievability and later use. We need to invest much thought in how information is stored, with preference, of course, to smart encryption, where the information is also coded and characterized in a specific context. For example, similar values can be grouped under the same attribute, metadata can be preserved as additional information that can hint at the content and its position on the "time axis," and knowledge items can be tagged using content attributes derived from the organizational taxonomy. Let's take an example from the marketing world! Storing insights so that appropriate content attributes are attached to them will allow the user to search, for example, for all insights related to children and prizes. Solomon writes that what can help each of us remember is: "placing objects (information items) in fixed" and intuitive "locations," just as we can walk with our eyes closed in our homes. Similarly, when characterizing an insight repository or designing a site in an organization, it's important to create a unified and fixed navigation framework so that the user remembers how and where to search for items they were involved in creating.
Third stage - retrieval—we want each employee to retrieve knowledge in a focused manner according to their needs at any given time. Here, too, several challenges are involved:
1. The technological challenge is to create a good search engine that is sensitive to word inflections and allows advanced search by attributes.
2. The ontological challenge: we've learned that identification is easier than recollection. We need to think about where we can facilitate retrieval processes, for example, by providing several levels of depth for each knowledge item. For instance, at the first level, we allow the user only summarized information (such as the title of an insight or the name of a document); at the second level—the knowledge item itself (and it must be short and focused); at the third level, indicating the knowledge contributor so that additional information can be obtained from them; the fourth level is the level of additional information (expanding the content item through a document, linked information system).
3. The human challenge is convincing the employee to retrieve the information and use it. Here, too, we need to address the subjective feelings of the individual regarding their level of knowledge and convince even the employee who feels they remember and know everything to use the repository and revisit it from time to time. This can be done by tagging the information according to the level of innovation it offers the user.

I don't know that I don't know

Filtering information according to the employee's knowledge level - providing focused information to the employee

Knowing that I don't know

It's easier to direct to the use of a database/repository

In her article, Solomon writes that "we owe perception, movement, thinking, and ideas to memory. If the binding memory is not activated, everything will be lost." To act correctly, it is important, at the organizational level, to transform all knowledge solutions into integrative solutions that contain knowledge in several formats, for example, combining action (operational systems), information—all those knowledge items that have been stored, and people—connecting all human memories in the organization.

Sources:

Memory, Dr. Ruth Solomon