Knowledge Transfer Made Easy…er

We should be using knowledge transfer (peer mentoring) to train our newer employees and duplicate our experts – but we don’t. Instead, we get distracted by the office fire of the day and rarely get around to training our employees in any real depth. Getting started would be easier if we could find someone who has already worked out a knowledge transfer system. Then, we could just take their approach, tweak it, and run with it. That’s where the Steve Trautman Company and their 3-step process for knowledge transfer comes into play. They’ve taken basic common sense, applied it to knowledge transfer (relentlessly), and prepared a process that’s ready to serve (complete with templates).

Step 1 - Knowledge Silo Matrix (KSM):  The first step in the Troutman process is the creation of a Knowledge Silo Matrix. A Knowledge Silo Matrix is simply a grid which lists your employees down the left side of the grid and the knowledge areas for your department across the top of the grid. (Knowledge areas for a sales department might be things like lead generation, first contact, presentation strategies, closing the sale, etc.) Then, each employee / knowledge area intersection within the grid is colored to show how well that employee knows that knowledge area. Purple means the employee sets the standard in your department for that knowledge area. Green means the employee is competent. Yellow means the employee needs to learn more and white (uncolored) means that the employee’s work doesn’t really overlap with that knowledge area. The result is a visual heat map which shows where your department’s expertise is at, which employees need to be trained, and which knowledge areas lack bench strength.

Step 2 - Skill Development Plan (SDP):  The second step in the Troutman process is the creation of the Skill Development Plans (plural). A single Skill Development Plan is a list of the skills needed to master a single knowledge area for your department. So, if you have multiple knowledge areas, you’ll also have multiple Skill Development Plans. For each skill listed, you also list a sequence number (setting the order in which the skills should be learned), a target date by which the skill should be learned, and specific resources that an employee can use to learn that skill. Each Skill Development Plan is then copied for each of the employees to be trained in each knowledge area, customized (sequence numbers adjusted and dates added) and used to track their learning progress.

Step 3 – Knowledge Transfer Workshop (KTW):  The third step in the Troutman process is the Knowledge Transfer Workshop. The workshop brings together the department managers, expert employees and employees to be trained and teaches them how the process works. Roles are defined and responsibilities are outlined. The department’s big picture is explained. Work on the Skill Development Plans is started and a number of other topics are covered such as communication strategies, learning styles, and communication preferences. That means everybody leaves the Knowledge Transfer Workshop understanding how the process works and pretty much ready to start their knowledge transfer meetings.

The Steps That Must Not Be Named: Once you're done with the Knowledge Transfer Workshop, you're still not done with the process - not by a long shot. However, for some reason the remaining steps don’t get to have step numbers in the Trautman 3-step process. Most importantly, the knowledge transfer sessions start between the expert employees and employees to be trained. Sessions between the two typically last between two and four hours each week and each learning employee’s progress is tracked in their customized Skill Development Plan. A Knowledge Transfer Process Owner (KTPO) is appointed to facilitate the process and track the department’s progress. Progress is then summarized in a scorecard and sent up the department food chain for management review. In addition, there are a number of touch base and follow up meetings which are meant to keep the process on track and managers informed.

In conclusion, the Steve Trautman Company 3-step process for knowledge transfer is not just some flavor-of-the-day business initiative. It’s the common sense work that you should be doing to train your employees and track your bench strength – all worked out for you. You simply have to follow through. For more information, visit the Steve Troutman Company website at www.stevetroutman.com. There you'll find more articles than you can shake a stick at, some templates you can use, and a free picture of Steve. If that doesn’t get you to your reading quota for the week, try Steve Troutman’s book "Teach What You Know" available on Amazon.

Let me know what you think.