Tribal Knowledge

 

I spent the last few days in the Uintah Mountains fishing and camping with my family. As we sat around the campfire each night, telling stories about each other, I couldn't help but think about the "tribal knowledge" our family likes to share at times like these with in-laws and other family guests.

Now that I'm back and in front of the computer for the first time in five or six days, I can't help but think about the tribal knowledge that exists within our project teams and the organizations we work with. Although my daughter-in-law might find the stories about her husband's childhood amusing, the tribal knowledge that impacts our project teams is more than amusing, it's critical for a team to successfully work well together.

I was very fortunate when I entered the workforce that an older (and more experienced) colleague took me under his wing and shared with me the unspoken order of things within our organization. I'll admit that some of them were pretty obvious, but there were others that were vital to helping me keep my foot out of my mouth. His serendipitous mentor-ship and the things he taught me have helped my career many times over the years.

What is the unspoken order of things within your organization? Is there any kind of established vehicle for sharing that information with those new to you organization, or do you leave it all up to chance?

Here are a few suggestions for sharing tribal knowledge that might help new members of your project teams get up to speed quickly. Of course, these are just suggestions, please feel free to share any successful approaches you might have.

1. Meet together regularly as a team to share stories. This could be part of a quarterly planning meeting or other team get-together. Stories are a great vehicle for learning. And, sharing stories about team successes and failures could be a great way to share the "unspoken order of things" to your team.
2. Assign a more experienced mentor to a younger (or newer) team member. There's a reason that the trades are so successful with an apprenticeship program. It just makes sense to me that a more experienced colleague take a less experienced team member under his or her wing. This isn't necessarily to make sure that they know how to do their job (we should be able to assume that), but someone to help navigate the nuances of working within the organization is a good idea.
3. Spend one-on-one time with team members on a regular basis. Once a month or once a quarter it's a good idea to sit down with team members for a one-on-one conversation about goals and objectives along with individual and team performance. This is also a great time to share tribal information.

Regardless of how you choose to share tribal information, I look at it as more of an ongoing process than something you eventually finish. If you are doing something to successfully share this type of information within your organization, what are you doing? Do you think it helps your project teams?