Trade secrets: a lack of internal knowledge is killing progress

In lockdown, work changed for everyone.

Some of us liked it. We got furloughed or sent to work from home.

Some of us didn’t. Nurses, doctors, front-liners –?they risked everything so we might live.

And some first-time home workers simply hated it. But that turned out to be a vocal minority when, in the aftermath of WFH orders coming to an end, we had the Great Resignation.

The knock-on effect was one of the greatest migrations of industry knowledge in history. Companies lost their collective brains, as knowledge and skills drained into their competitors who offered better deals, or into the freelance market.

But what exactly have companies lost? If they still hold all their own data, processes and documentation, shouldn’t it be easy for a new employee to pick up where their predecessor left off?

And here we hit issue number one: some businesses don’t know the difference between data, information, and knowledge.

The difference between data, information and knowledge

Data, information, and knowledge are not the same things – even though the words are often used interchangeably. Let’s break them down into their proper meanings:

Data is raw symbols and characters. Alone, they mean nothing. They only make sense when you give them context. For example, numbers in analytics software, the number of responses in a survey, or the line on a two axis graph –?none of these are meaningful without context.

When you give data context, it becomes information. Annotated, ranged axes on a graph make the line mean something, and it gives you information you can use. The questions and answer choices in a survey make the number of responses meaningful.

That leaves us with knowledge. Knowledge is a collection of information, and in the context of an organisation, it’s the big picture; it’s the entire history of the company, and the company’s collective memory. It’s anything that’s written down –?like process maps –?and anything that employees just know about the job.

Capturing and storing that collective knowledge for the future of your company is absolutely essential to your survival and success. Because when skilled team members leave, so does their knowledge. Avoiding this takes not just processes and tools, but a culture of knowledge sharing.

When skilled team members leave, so does their knowledge. It doesn't have to.

A culture of knowledge sharing is critical to success. And it must come from the top of the organisation; open, honest, forthright communication begets itself.

If you build knowledge retention into the company culture, it will be normalised as part of the job. Every employee should be actively encouraged to share and store knowledge –?and this needs to be led by example. Leadership, take the lead!

What it ultimately means is that instead of real-world, on the job knowledge leaving with your employees, it becomes company knowledge. It is permanent, ingrained, and transferable to the next generation.

Exactly how you capture and share that knowledge is up to you as a company. Many tools are up to the job –?like Google Docs – but few are really designed for it. But if you’re using Atlassian tools, then Confluence will be your best friend in knowledge capture and sharing.

Using Confluence to build an enterprise knowledge base that grows with your organisation

Think of Confluence as Wikipedia, but just for your organisation; the entire history and how-to guide for everyone in the company. It can store everything from your organisational structure, to the minutiae of completing a specific task.

We’ve even seen it used to store detailed instructions for cleaning a staff room coffee machine.

In Confluence, Knowledge Bases are key to capturing, storing, and using knowledge. They are commonly used by IT Support teams, but can be useful in any team. You can create a how to article or troubleshooting guide within Confluence, for any application.

Relevant team members can be notified when a new article goes up, or gets a change – and communication is as open or closed as is required. Users can comment or suggest iterative updates – or just make changes as they see fit.

Confluence and Jira work together perfectly –?and so, if a known issue arises within Jira, the solution can be recalled in Confluence and given to the user. This can be made even faster by adding Jira Issues macros.

No matter how you capture and store knowledge, make sure you do it

As we said before, what matters most is doing it –?and cultural enabling is the key to success, not the platform.

So, no matter if it’s a Google Doc or a Confluence Knowledge Base, the important thing is that it’s done.

And if you’re already using Atlassian products at your organisation, then Confluence represents the best value to you. Confluence can also be expanded and enhanced, and the Atlassian Marketplace is full of apps for Confluence. A common addition to Knowledge Base spaces is a survey or form tool, which enables you to get feedback on the usefulness or usability of your knowledge base articles.

And if your company needs help with Confluence, or an extra brain to get the knowledge flow started –?we’re here for you.

Atlassian Confluence Experts

ClearHub specialises in finding your ideal Atlassian Confluence expert – vetted, skills-checked and ready to work. To get started, call +44 (0) 2381 157811 or send your message to [email protected].