Building a knowledge base to open up access to organizational knowledge
Most of the issues faced by founder-dependent businesses are due to lack of accessible information for employees. In fact, critical processes, historical insights, and operational know-how are rarely documented, often remaining in the founder’s head, making them the only source of information. Therefore, the most important step in building a self-sustaining organization is to create a knowledge base where every important piece of information is easily accessible to those who need it. In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps to develop a well-structured knowledge base that will support the development of your workforce and lay the foundation for an agile and successful organization.
Why do you need a knowledge base?
Building a knowledge base is essentially a way of documenting, organizing and sharing information, ultimately making it easily accessible throughout the organization. But why is this important? In founder-dependent companies, which often lack effective information sharing processes between different teams, this can make the difference between a thriving and a failing organization. Here are several reasons why you should seriously consider building a knowledge base for your organization:
- It makes information readily available when needed.
- It distributes decision-making beyond the founder.
- It helps to standardize critical processes, minimize errors and oversight.
- This facilitates learning and collaboration across teams.
- This reduces onboarding time for new hires.
- This prevents the loss of knowledge due to employee exits, organizational changes, or the absence of a founder.
6 Steps to Building Your Knowledge Base
1. Identify the goals of your knowledge base
When deciding to build a knowledge base for your organization, it is important to understand the ultimate goals behind the initiative. Failure to set clear goals early can lead to information gathering and documentation or result in a knowledge management tool that is rarely used by employees, even if everything is done correctly.
The process of setting your ultimate goals begins with identifying current challenges. Consider ways in which your organization is currently underperforming. Do employees often waste time searching for information? Are mistakes repeated due to lack of established processes? Once you know what you’re struggling with, it’ll be easier to zero in on what you want to achieve, whether that’s minimizing errors, reducing time in productivity for new hires, driving innovation, or increasing learning efforts.
2. Decide what knowledge should be acquired
Not all information is equally important or worth documenting. Therefore, the next step is to create an inventory of all existing knowledge assets, whether they are already documented or just in the mind of the founder. The following are the principal categories that you should focus on:
- Operational knowledge (processes, checklists, templates, tools, workflows, quality standards, etc.)
- Strategic knowledge (vision, mission, key objectives, KPIs, success criteria etc.)
- Relevant knowledge (high value partnerships, stakeholder and client history, relationship management unwritten standard procedures etc.)
- Cultural knowledge (communication expectations, informal rituals, team structures, and collaboration habits, etc.)
- Product and service knowledge (information on features, benefits, key selling points, common customer problems, etc.)
Once you’ve completed this inventory, it’s important to identify where all of this information currently resides, if and how it flows between employees, and who is responsible for each process. Moreover, you should highlight knowledge gaps or redundancies, as well as important procedures that are not documented at all.
3. Choose the right tools
At this point, you’re ready to choose the right tool to ensure your organization stores, manages, updates, and shares effectively. Businesses use a variety of knowledge management tools, from simple learning databases and document management systems to more complex learning management systems, collaboration tools, and AI-powered knowledge management systems.
Whatever you choose, there are a few factors to consider. For widespread adoption and achieving maximum results, the ideal tool should provide features such as searchability, straightforward editing and collaboration, integration with communication and project management tools, as well as multi-device access. By carefully identifying the right solutions for your business needs, you can significantly increase knowledge sharing and employee development.
4. Knowledge of structure and form for maximum efficiency
The way you structure your knowledge base is critical, especially given the vast amount of information it contains. Establishing a logical and intuitive hierarchy will help employees easily find what they need, and thus make knowledge an integral part of their daily routine. To achieve this, you must establish clear categories and subcategories, tag consistently, decide on naming conventions for all files, and create links between related content.
Also, don’t neglect how you will format the information in the knowledge base. Employees should be able to quickly find answers to their questions, without having to search through large blocks of text. Therefore, it is best to use microlearning articles, video lessons, visual maps, checklists, playbooks, or scenario-based guides. You can also create templates for frequently used formats to streamline the development process. By following these steps, you can ensure that employees will consistently return to the knowledge base.
5. Establish a knowledge management system
It is not enough to simply create a knowledge base and then expect people to figure out how to effectively use, maintain and update it. You should establish clear workflows and assign specific responsibilities for all processes related to your organization’s knowledge documentation strategy. In particular, it should be clear what kind of knowledge must be captured, who will conduct regular content reviews, how quality will be assured, how sensitive information will be handled, whether there will be an authorization system, and how knowledge will be transferred after the employee exits. Addressing all these questions will help you transform knowledge management from a sporadic activity to an ongoing process.
6. Drive participation and engagement
At this stage, the knowledge base has been created, those responsible for it understand their roles, and a process of constant refinement is underway. All that’s left is to get employees to start using it. But how can you promote engagement? Convincing employees of the benefits of establishing a knowledge-sharing culture goes beyond a technological upgrade. It also requires cultural change. For this reason, it is important that managers and leaders encourage employees to not only use the knowledge base, but also report it with both positive and negative feedback. Reward employees who contribute to the knowledge base and highlight the resulting improvements. Additionally, incorporate the knowledge base into essential processes, such as onboarding, employee training, and decision making. Finally, encourage leadership to set a good example by using the knowledge base itself.
Constantly improving your knowledge base
A comprehensive knowledge base can help you let go of your past reliance on founders and embrace a future of agility and self-sufficiency. However, to ensure the success of your knowledge base, it is important to constantly review and improve it. Collect feedback from employees to identify areas for usability, improve ratings, or determine what information can be added in the future. Updating and replacing content will be a common occurrence, so it’s important to stay on top of your knowledge management system. You can also assess the progress you have made so far and compare it with your goals at the start of the process. By following these steps, you can ensure that your knowledge base grows and evolves with your organization, remaining as valuable as when it was first created.
