6 Tools for Knowledge Capture
I recently returned from a trip to a client’s site in the Andes just outside Cajamarca, Peru. We were there with an elusive mission…capture knowledge. Can it get more vague?
As we plow further into an economy centered around knowledge and the exchange of it, this exercise will become much more commonplace (I predict) but for us we needed to explain to our client that in order to facilitate the exchange of tacit knowledge, first we had to be able to show some of it.
Of course tacit knowledge, by definition, can’t really be adequately captured so we were looking for things that would serve as the catalysts of conversation, as indicators that people around the globe in similar positions were facing like challenges and developing complementary solutions.
To accomplish this I brought along six tools:
- Videocamera: probably the most important of them all. The power of video cannot be underestimated as a means for transferring tacit knowledge, building relationships/trust and just providing a consistent (and quick) means of getting others up to speed on complex situations.
- Camera: For situations where video wasn’t allowed or suitable a still camera was utilized. It has similar benefits as a videocamera…just a slightly different application.
- Audio recorder: This was used to capture the conversations we had with people. It was a great resource for us to go back later and revisit our conversations and hear verbatim what the person was saying as well as their tone when saying it.
- Flash drive: Not everything we encountered was tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge that was contained in documents and spreadsheets is certainly valuable as well and we were easily able to snag it via the USB drive.
- Laptop: While technically not critical for capturing, my laptop served as peace of mind that we could download our loot from the day and know it was safely saved for later use. It also allowed us to see our pics and videos from the day and refine our strategy for the following days.
- External hard drive: This was also for peace of mind as well as video storage. It’s a 500 MB durable drive that I dumped video into each night. It’s nice b/c it didn’t take up space on my laptop and it can take a beating.
This was a great trip because it yielded many tangible (or at least viewable) examples of the knowledge that people had as well as what they were seeking. This provided the foundation for several excellent conversations with our project sponsors – it’s nice to be able to transition from talking about things such as ‘knowledge workers’, the ‘knowledge economy’ and ‘knowledge transfer’ and show a video of real-life examples of this happening at one of their locations.
What tools have you used to capture the knowledge in your organization?
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