Institutional Memory

In the "News from Lake Wobegon" today, Garrison Keillor tells the story of Fred, an 80 year old who plows people's gardens for them in the spring. He is laid up with a broken ankle and worries about his son charging the wrong people and charging people the wrong price. He has his price list in his head and has never transmitted it to anyone or written it down.

Fred is talking about institutional memory, even though he doesn't say it in those terms. Institutional memory is a huge issue for companies today. When people leave, very few companies make much of an effort to document the knowledge that person has in their head. It is important for managers and executives to evaluate the people who are leaving and what they k now about the company, or better yet, to document as they go along.

Wikis are a great way to document knowledge on the department level, because they are easy to use, easy to access and participants are notified automatically when there is a change. There are lots of different wikis, many of which are free and publicly available. There are also versions that can be loaded on a server for internal use only.

*You can download the podcast from the front page of the the Prairie Home Companion site or from Audible.com.

Call us if you need help documenting institutional memory or working with wikis.