Creating a Knowledge Management Initiative for Ongoing Team Success

Libraries employ skilled practitioners who, throughout their work, accrue experience and develop troubleshooting techniques that exist outside of workflow procedure and training documentation. These are the things that individual staff deeply know from experience, but that aren’t typically part of institutional documentation or team best practices. Yet capturing and sharing these forms of tacit knowledge can improve outcomes for onboarding, continuing education, and succession planning. A successful knowledge management process reduces departmental stress when long-tenured, experienced staff move on, take an extended leave, or retire.

Implementing knowledge management strategies requires team trust and a shift towards a sharing and learning culture, which can be new or scary to some colleagues. In addition to walking through the design and implementation of a tacit knowledge capture and sharing initiative—including examples highlighting failure—we will discuss how you can create the conditions that shift your team or organizational culture to one that is unthreatened (or less threatened) by change and that celebrates the work and innovations of every team member in every role. The time to begin thinking about knowledge management is now, and not wait to get that resignation letter from an employee you were secretly hoping would never leave!

Learning Outcomes: 

By the end of the webinar, attendees will: 

• Gain an understanding of team tacit knowledge and how an intentional knowledge management system can capture employee knowledge for stronger teams and successful work;
• Be able to identify opportunities within their own teams or organizations to begin exploring a knowledge management strategy; and
• Learn strategies to capture and share team knowledge in a manner that strengthens trust and celebrates team members.

Who Should Attend: Leaders who directly manage or oversee workgroups of varying sizes.

 

Presenter:

Amy Koester has been an active public services librarian for her entire career, starting as a branch children’s librarian and, in her eleven years at Skokie Public Library, progressing to her current role as Director of Public Services. She oversees the departments responsible for advisory, hands-on learning, information, public programming, teen, and youth services, and she's energized by supporting staff work to serve community needs. Learn more about Amy at https://amyeileenk.wordpress.com/

Adam Sonderberg has worked with books his entire professional life, from bookstores to libraries, in numerous capacities (frontline to management). He has been at Skokie Public Library for over four years focused on Access Services – formerly the Materials Handling Supervisor, currently the Technical Services Supervisor – and a light smattering of Collection Development. He is a huge fan of interdepartmental collaboration. 

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