The Article

Did you know there there's a source of information in your organization which could save you thousands of dollars a year, help your company grow and still give you time to concentrate on the aspects of your business that are going to be the greatest benefit to you ? It's called intrinsic knowledge.

Intrinsic knowledge is what you know without even realizing that you know it. It is the knowledge and thought processes that you take for granted that you think everyone knows but that they really don't.

By taking the time to work out what information you know, you can pass it on to someone that might be taking your place at some point down the line, or to new employees and contractors, etc.

Here are some benefits to creating your own knowledge base:

• If you want to take time of work for holidays or family you can, because you have a resource that other members of your organization can reference.
  
  
• If you get too overloaded at work then you can offload some tasks to your co-workers to help, without having to explain the details of how to actually perform the tasks. You can instead refer them to your knowledge base, and if they have any questions you can add their questions (along with appropriate answers) to the knowledge base too.
  
  Over time this can become quite a handy resource and can also give you the time you need to get stuck into the more important (or interesting) tasks at hand.
  
  
• This collection of centralized information can be a good start towards ISO9000 certification (http://www.iso9000council.org/ ) which can be used to improve the quality of your products and services.
  
  
• Creating your own knowledge base can be a good way to clearly document complex operations in a step-by-step process
  
• Your own knowledge base can speed up day-to-day work if you document repetitive operations in a copy and paste manner
  
• Documentation can show those external to your company that you maintain a professional knowledge management system at all times
  
• A knowledge base can assist in training new staff, saving you time and money that would normally be required to get a new person familiar with your operations
  
  
• Your own knowledge base can help identify trends and it can give you insight into new problems, as well as ideas of new things to try if you hit a dead end

There are lots of different way's you can choose to document your procedures, issues and solutions, including:

• The most basic form of documentation would be to use a pen and paper or post it notes
• You could send yourself an email
• You could create a simple text file, Word document or spreadsheet
• You could use a specialized desktop program designed for note taking
• You could setup a WIKI or a blog
• You could setup your own knowledge base

Each method has its own prose (such as ease-of-use) and con's (such as being hard to maintain), so the decision on which form you keep your in is really up to you and is very dependant on your situation.

Reasons to not document

• It's too hard - but what's harder? Making a quick note now while you remember what was going on now, or trying to remember how you fixed a problem 6 months later?
  
  
• If my entire job is documented then what happens if the company downsizes? - This is a valid concern but when it comes to downsizing, which type of employees are the company more likely to keep hold of? Ones who try to make things harder for everyone by hiding the details behind a veil of secrecy, or someone whose able to help everyone out, even when they're home sick or on holidays?

A Simple Example

John runs a small computer parts business. He is the sole proprietor but wants to hire 2 new guys to take over while he travels around the world for 6 months. Instead of John needing to train each of the guys, he can instead create a knowledge base where he can store step-by-step guides for each and every part of the business, such as:

• How to order new stock
• How to stock the shelves
• How to accept orders
• How to request bulk discounts from suppliers
• How to perform basic money management tasks
• How to open and close the shop
• Etc…