My boyhood church sang hymns in four-part vocal harmony, sometimes six or eight. It wasn't a large church, but we had enough voices to be a choir unto ourselves.
Before my voice dropped in adolescence, I learned to sing the alto line with my mother simply by sitting beside her, reading the music alongside her moving finger on the page. As my voice changed, several men in the church, seated a pew behind me, offered to sing in my ear as I learned to carry the tenor. More than this, our choristers often took a moment to tell us about the song we were to sing and why it had its place in the service. They would also invite us to learn the parts of a new song we would sing. Their manner of doing so did not feel like an interruption to the worship but rather part of the essence of our gathering.
This is a favorite hymn I learned to sing, and with way more than 4 parts!
My generation learned to sing because a previous generation generously leaked its knowledge. They offered what they knew so that those of us growing up underneath them could carry these skills forward into our time. They cared about continuing a good work.
That memory gives me a picture of what it means to offer up what one learns for the benefit of others. Even more, I can feel the gift of that exchange each time I sing.
Knowledge leaks are underneath effective organizational learning within learning organizations. Research has shown that building and continuing what some call tribal knowledge* in an organization:
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provides a basis for ongoing innovation.
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significantly contributes to an organization's culture (tribal knowledge and culture mutually reinforce each other).
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provides leverage to reduce waste and inefficiency, which results in increased margin an organization can use to further its mission.
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significantly reinforces employee, customer, volunteer, and investor commitment to the organization's mission.
Tribal knowledge is what people come to know about an organization and its operations. All categories are involved here, including learning inefficiency and bad cultural habits from each other, perhaps even more easily than the good systems and regimens we want to build. Tribal knowledge includes production processes, who you must work around to get anything done, how to understand the menu of payroll benefits, and even what matters the most in a pinch: shipping on time or making sure invoices are sent. Anything an organization perpetuates fits in the tribal knowledge bucket.
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Let's illustrate this by considering what happens within many organizations when adopting an EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) or something similar. These approaches provide the necessary consistency and structure to operate, monitor, and sustain efficient operational systems. In addition, EOS is adaptive to what the organization learns. Most importantly, it provides a way to document the artifacts of problem-solving, decision-making, and what is known so that those coming along later have a repository of information to draw from. They won't start all over all over again. Briefly stated, the system is an intentional exchange of what has been learned. Knowledge intentionally leaked forward for those who come later.
So far, so good. But those informal exchanges of knowledge trump formal learning, either for good or for ill.
Examples of informal working for good.
One employee texts any of the following to another's phone rather than in the chat pane while they are in a meeting on Zoom.
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"You've documented that, haven't you?"
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"Can you show me how you frame your agenda for your team meetings?"
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"Let's make sure we add that to the list of issues for our next meeting."
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"Thank you for the great notes you captured so I could get caught up. I felt like I was part of the last conversation even though I was sick."
Examples of informal working for ill.
One employee says any of the following to another as they walk into the building from the parking lot.
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"I don't have time to capture notes when there is so much to do. Besides, I'm not a good writer."
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"I don't put anything on the agenda I might be held accountable for or that I haven't figured out already. I don't want to look stupid."
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"That system is too idealistic to be of practical use. It doesn't apply to our industry anyway."
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"Just say in the notes that we made a decision. We don't need to say more than that."
Process Consultants who engage this learning competency will ask Clients how they intend to reinforce the application of organizational learning over time when a critical issue has been addressed. Put another way, they will ask who will sing in the ears of others until they carry their part? And will those privileged to be mentored learn in such a way that they will care about passing their knowledge to still others?
Those folks who sang in my young ears were informally doing something formal. Or was it formally doing something informal?
I don't know which. That is the point.
Walking alongside,
Mark
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Dr. Mark L Vincent
Design Group International
Advisory Partner
*For more on this subject, see The Tribal Knowledge Paradigm, by Leonard F. Bertain and George Sibbald.
The core competencies of process consulting have been developed and are taught by the Society for Process Consulting. If you are interested in receiving your credential in process consulting please visit our website.
I walk alongside leaders, listening to understand their challenges, and helping them lead healthy organizations that flourish.
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