Tribal knowledge is a term that refers to any information that is not documented and exists only in the minds of certain employees within an organization. Over time, employees at most companies develop an informal business system, that parallels and supplements the formal official system.

The informal system often takes many forms, and tribal knowledge can consists of items such as:

• Personal spreadsheets stored on PCs
• Sticky notes that delineate process changes that differ from the engineered routing
• Notes on easier ways to accomplish tasks
• Hidden caches of inventory for use in “emergencies”
• Setup or specification changes that never make it to the formal documentation

While the information in the informal system is useful and pertinent, the result of relying on it rather than the formal system results in unexplainable cost variances, inaccurate inventory records and unpredictable delivery dates.

Here are a few ways to capture tribal knowledge and make it part of your formal system.

1. Get rid of the suggestion box

It sounds like a good idea, but a formal suggestion box is as likely to yield a wad of used chewing gum as it is a useful idea, because employees have learned that their ideas are not adopted or appreciated. Even if you have an award system in place, employees know that their ideas are rarely respected.

Replace the suggestion box with multi-department, multi-level round tables and an open door policy predicated on mutual respect and openness. You’ll soon find employees are more forthcoming with their valuable input when they trust you to respect their knowledge and insight.

2. Don’t reward bad behavior

When someone pulls a missing component out of a hidden cache in their tool box or desk drawer, management is often grateful that the gesture saved a big shipment or kept the shop on schedule. The result is often misplaced praise, when it should be something closer to a reprimand.

Yes, occasionally someone legitimately stumbles over lost inventory, but praising the find leads to deliberate stockpiling in the hope of being thought a hero again. The solution is gentle education about the importance of accuracy and the formal system.

3. Continuous improvement and observation

Employees don’t want to feel like Big Brother is watching their every move, but it never hurts to spend some time casually observing how work actually gets done and looking for variations from the formal process.

It’s even better to have a formal process for continuous improvement where input from everyone is welcome. Once employees know that you are genuinely open to their suggestions, they will be more willing to divulge their tribal knowledge so you can document it in the formal system.

The results

If you’ve noticed a common theme running through these ideas, it’s no accident. The real secret to avoiding dependence on tribal knowledge is mutual respect, openness to new ideas, willingness to listen and rewarding the right behavior while avoiding celebrating the bad.

It’s not likely to happen overnight, but little by little as the mutual trust grows, employees will come forward and share their knowledge. The result for your company will be more accurate inventory information, better processes, more effective scheduling, higher quality and lower costs. In addition, your company will never have to worry about an individual leaving the company and taking invaluable tribal knowledge with them, because the tribal knowledge will be centrally located and available to everyone, exactly as it should be.