Just like humans, members of a tribe of elephants communicate expressively and meaningfully with one another. Elephants’ memories can span up to 50 years. For example, they can remember the locations of watering holes hundreds of miles away—which is very useful in the savannah. Think of your organization as being like a tribe of elephants, with valuable knowledge to capture and share.
Organizational knowledge is the sum of all knowledge contained within an organization that can provide business value. It may be gained from intellectual property, product knowledge, lessons of failure and success, conferences, or customer communications, just to name a few sources. Knowledge is always learned, preserved, and transmitted by people, so it’s the key responsibility of Human Resources (HR) to help manage this knowledge.
