KNOW-HOW MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Preserving the memory of what an organisation knows how to do and keeping it alive.
When someone leaves an organisation, they often take away much more than their individual experience.
They take away part of the collective history, the habits built over time, the ways problems are solved and the deeper understanding of situations gained through experience.
A significant part of an organisation’s know-how therefore remains invisible: it exists within the people who make the organisation work every day, but is not always identified, formalised or passed on.
Know-How Memory Management explores a way to build and keep this memory alive, without trying to document everything.
Distinguishing formalised know-how from living know-how
An organisation’s know-how has two complementary dimensions:
- Formalised know-how, which forms the common foundation of the organisation and ensures continuity of its processes.
- Living know-how, which is built on people’s experience, practices and adaptations, and evolves through human interaction.
Know-How Memory Management aims to preserve both dimensions: formalising what needs to be shared across the organisation and passing on what is built through experience and the way processes are applied in practice.
By deliberately limiting documentation to the essential foundation, the organisation creates a memory that is simpler, more accessible and genuinely usable in everyday work.
A method in incubation
Know-How Memory Management is currently being developed within the Prefix incubator.
This approach emerged from observations made within organisations: despite often well-structured processes, a significant part of their know-how remains difficult to preserve and pass on.
We are currently exploring a structured approach based on four steps:
- Orientation. Define the organisation’s strategic direction, purpose, values and strategic objectives.
- Identification. Map the processes and know-how required to achieve the strategic objectives.
- Formalisation. Build the formalised foundation of know-how, capturing what needs to remain consistent when people change.
- Transmission. Enable the transmission of living know-how through experience, exchanges and shared learning.
The model will continue to evolve through experimentation and feedback from organisations choosing to test it.
Want to contribute?
If this approach interests you, if you would like to experiment with it in your organisation or contribute to its development, we would be pleased to hear from you.