Knowledge Management

The Secure Group knowledge management strategy enables our organization to create, apply, and share information, breaking down silos and increasing the usage of valuable data.

It's a no brainer that knowledge enables us to grow and innovate. But, it's a fact also that this is easier said than done. Before we reached our ideal Knowledge Management strategy, we faced some problems:

• It was inefficient when serving only individuals: Information needed by many was often shared from individual to individual in conversation or email.

• It was repetitious and time-wasting: Often a few Subject Matter Experts are heavily relied upon to verbally provide information, and they spend their time repeating the same information rather than doing value-added work.

• It was impermanent so ineffectual: Research shows it is difficult for people to retain information, especially when it is transferred verbally.

• It had no accountability or control: When no one was held accountable, the data shared could be inaccurate and out of date, and this was a problem that was difficult to fix.

• It was a self-fulfilling prophecy that recurs: The knowledge transfer process stopped when the information was shared, but the knowledge gap still existed in the wider organization, leading to problem recurrence.

And after learning from our past mistakes, we then decided where knowledge should NOT be:

• In inaccurate published content: Information may be published in manuals or on the intranet, and this may be outdated, inaccurate and hard to find, wasting time. 

• In somebody’s head: Information only held in someone’s head is only of use to that person. Worse, they will be interrupted frequently with questions about it.

• In the cloud: Information may be recorded informally such as in emails, but this too is hard to find and often badly explained.

We also knew that each of the generations has a different way of learning, advancing and collaborating. We recognized this by sharing knowledge in two formats. These are reading and face to face courses with a practical application.

Knowledge sharing is also built into the Levels in our Framework. To progress, individuals must demonstrate the capability of sharing knowledge in a structured way and the capability of applying Tech Sessions.

We share knowledge through our internal wiki Confluence. Our wiki acts as a single source of all knowledge for our organization which can be created, edited and modified by any employee. Confluence functions as a central repository for managing and distributing all company knowledge and information. Here, all co-workers can store internal documentation about company policies, processes, how-to guides, projects or products they are building, common workflows, procedure checklists, and more.

Tech Sessions & Challenges

The Tech Sessions and Tech Challenges are part of our Learning Day which is our new knowledge-driving initiative, and it occurs on the 1st Tuesday of each month. It's a whole day dedicated to Learning. We apply Tech Sessions in which we discuss and present technical topics such as IT knowledge, tools application, products, and concepts. After the completion of a session, employees receive a Tech Challenge to prove they are capable of completing tasks relating to the Tech Session. They are usually short exercises to test the knowledge they have learned.
Any manager or employee can request a Tech Session if they feel there is a lack of knowledge in a specific topic, and it will be included in the following month's agenda. After the session, a Feedback Form will be handed to the employees to evaluate the training and the instructor. The Tech Session is also a good way to have a quick and effective onboarding. We do not want you to sit in a room with endless PowerPoint presentations that you will most likely forget in the next days and consider this training.

Knowledge Accountability Index

We already established that we keep “good” processes that promote accountability. The same applies to knowledge. In order to measure, manage the existing knowledge in the company and to promote accountability we created a Knowledge Accountability Index aka. KAI.
The KAI is an instrument used to view everyone’s ability and competency in a specific occupation. It also measures all the technical skills and knowledge sets a person needs to progress. The KAI is divided into four categories: General Knowledge, Specific Knowledge, Secure Group Knowledge, and IT Knowledge.
The index captures a wide range of abilities and organizes them into five grades. These range from “Fundamental Awareness” to “Expert”. The index can be used by an individual to compare their current level of proficiency to top performers in the same occupation and it enables us to:

• Centralize effort to understand technology trends from a holistic view
• Define knowledge as a key component in high performance
• Anticipate and adapt to changes in external/internal environments to obtain/retain a competitive advantage in a quantifiable structure

In Secure Group, the effective management of knowledge aids competitive advantage. When people are accountable for knowledge it can be shared more efficiently and productively. We have put in place systems and good processes to achieve this so armed with knowledge, our employees are better able to innovate in their work.