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4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

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Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#11

Post by Avernar »

_m8fo wrote: post #8

I read somewhere that a great employee is one that makes themselves unnecessary, that is, they document everything they do, automate key processes they (used to) complete and so forth. I wonder if "institutional memory" is just a symptom of a poor process. --- For example, say you work at CoolCorp. At CoolCorp you're a sales engineer and you notice that many engineers and sales people alike constantly ask you questio…

Great Employees drive themselves to extinction. They documented everything so well that their jobs were offshored somewhere with a lower standard of living. That's why they're so hard to find. The ones that survived learned their lesson and won't make that mistake again.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#12

Post by _m8fo »

Avernar wrote: post #11
_m8fo wrote: post #8

I read somewhere that a great employee is one that makes themselves unnecessary, that is, they document everything they do, automate key processes they (used to) complete and so forth. I wonder if "institutional memory" is just a symptom of a poor process. --- For example, say you work at CoolCorp. At CoolCorp you're a sales engineer and you notice that many engineers and sales people alike constantly ask you questio…

Great Employees drive themselves to extinction. They documented everything so well that their jobs were offshored somewhere with a lower standard of living. That's why they're so hard to find. The ones that survived learned their lesson and won't make that mistake again.

This is a great point. Like you imply, I don't think the incentives are there. After a certain level of "greatness" your compensation will almost never be commensurate with your value.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#13

Post by ThatGeoGuy »

cydonian_monk wrote: post #10
im_nullable wrote: post #7

I believe the number one problem you will run into is what happens to every wiki in the world. Knowledge goes stale and discovery is hard. Especially when you don't know what to look for. Making content is never the answer to passing on institutional knowledge. This problem was actually solved very effectively a long time ago by trade unions such as the masons. Start by having an apprenticeship program. Shore up any…

I don't disagree with your main point, and I think the apprenticeship model could work wonders in many tech environments. Harder to implement when you have a very migrant worker population, even at normal rates of turnover. There is however some merit to writing down details to critical or seldom-used processes in a communally-accessed place such as a wiki. Keeping it up to date and having someone review it regularly…

Build instructions, and dependency assumptions for starters.

Sometimes the hardest part is just figuring out how to get a project running, or learning what kinds of settings need to be enabled on deployment.

As for craft and actual in-code understanding, I think the masonry example can fit well (see pair-programming as a more fluid example of this). Granted, if you have an API, you probably want to at least document the interface with an example of how to call it. The complex bits of "how is this architect-ed can be better taught by 1:1.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#14

Post by Avernar »

_m8fo wrote: post #12
Avernar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great Employees drive themselves to extinction. They documented everything so well that their jobs were offshored somewhere with a lower standard of living. That's why they're so hard to find. The ones that survived learned their lesson and won't make that mistake again.

This is a great point. Like you imply, I don't think the incentives are there. After a certain level of "greatness" your compensation will almost never be commensurate with your value.

Exactly. For the knowlege they contain I'd bet they get the standard cost of living raise and will probably have to fill out some stupid self evaluation to justify even that.

It's only when the companies are going to loose that employee do they start trying everything to keep that employee. By then it's too late. Always reactive and never proactive seems to be the corporate motto these days.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#15

Post by cakebrewery »

ryandrake wrote: post #6
cakebrewery wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harder than it sounds. Specially in companies where only a few are "tech" employees

I worked in a small place where this was a huge problem: There were only one or two software engineers working on the (multiple) products at any given time through the company's history. So when one person left, that could mean anywhere between 50-100% of the company's tribal knowledge of their own software is lost. Getting up to speed meant diving into the source code (if someone knew where it was) and stumbling upo…

That's exactly what I mean. Sometimes management doesn't understand what the documentation is supposed to look like or even the importance of it. They might not be aware of the complexity of their infrastructure that's been worked on by a single developer for a span of many years.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#16

Post by dugditches »

While this isn't a 1:1, the Trades are getting hit hard by this.

With the massive shifts in them(technology)you're losing the generation of TradesPeople that had both the old and new. And were able to draw off the old to work better in the new.

However there isn't the equipment/chance/time to spread that knowledge to the new Apprentices who only get to see the new without building a more solid foundation.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#17

Post by Drrobbob »

To preserve institutional knowledge one needs to create business processes and an organizational culture that promotes the "capitals" - transforming employees (those who know) intellectual capital(ideas and experience)into structural capital (captured in digital form) in an environment where it is shared across boundaries (relationship capital). Knowledge and experience becomes an organizational asset vice an individual asset that goes out the door when people leave the organization.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#18

Post by JBlue42 »

im_nullable wrote: post #7

I believe the number one problem you will run into is what happens to every wiki in the world. Knowledge goes stale and discovery is hard. Especially when you don't know what to look for. Making content is never the answer to passing on institutional knowledge. This problem was actually solved very effectively a long time ago by trade unions such as the masons. Start by having an apprenticeship program. Shore up any…

Isn't there a catch, at least in the US, that companies don't want to invest in training/mentoring because they believe once they reach a certain level the people will just leave and employees that don't feel like they're being trained/growing in their role will also start to look to new pastures, esp. if pay is keeping up with their skills?

I was recently laid off from my job. I was #2 in a two-person IT team (#1 had been there for 20 years). I came wanting to be mentored and to learn but the string of broken promises and lack of any sort concrete plans left me adrift so I continued to self-train. After expressing this sentiment to the boss, thinking an open and honest dialogue about where I hoped to be and that I felt neglected in terms of the company investing in me (whereas the other users received an educational stipend, paid for professional study and exams, etc.), I was told we'd come back to it after our office move earlier this month. Well, we did, and I was let go.

Re: 4 Ways to Avoid Institutional Memory Loss When Key Employees Leave

#19

Post by pgeorgep »

inopinatus wrote: post #9

I'm thoroughly sick of advertising masquerading as content. Not that it this anything new, but I still wish ill on those who waste my time so. And it seems to be on the rise in recent years. This is a puff piece for their LMS and on that basis is not necessarily good advice. Where it is good advice, it is a mixture of motherhood statements, commmon sense, and the bleeding obvious. Edit/addendum: I'm starting to flag…

Wow, bummed this got flagged. Considering HN shared it on FB & Twitter - I think that may have been uncalled for.
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