Currently, the Nuclear Regularly Commission is going through a period of downsizing, and expects to lose employees with critical skills and knowledge.  Given the nature of the agency’s work, it’s extremely important that irreplaceable institutional knowledge does not leave with them.

Because of this, the NRC has put a premium on knowledge management, and has made great efforts to ensure that it’s able to capture the knowledge of departing employees. Because we’re such a highly technical agency, you can imagine how important it is to not have gaps in our employee’s skills and understandings of procedures and practices.

We can address knowledge management challenges in a number of ways. One is simply codifying an exiting employee’s knowledge through text, audio and video. Ideally this is done very systematically, and while my office is the conduit for knowledge management agency-wide, we encourage all of our offices to ensure they are performing this critical task. In an agency such as ours--a regulatory organization that is highly proceduralized—we need to make sure that all our experts, regardless of their field, share their knowledge and experiences and ensure they are documented and captured for historical reference. 

However, not all knowledge can be easily quantified. Often the knowledge we’re trying to capture doesn’t fit nicely into a manual or spreadsheet. For this type of qualitative knowledge, or tacit knowledge, shadowing and mentoring are some of the most effective means of knowledge transfer. Our goal is to be proactive with this approach, by identifying existing expertise and pairing them with new employees as they enter the agency. By sharing these experiences in a more hands on approach, a new employee will learn and grow while gaining a mastery of their new position.

Additionally, knowledge acquisition isn’t an exercise limited only to when an employee decides to depart. When there have been seminal events in the nuclear world, like the tragedy at Fukushima, we try to capture the knowledge of the individuals involved shortly after the event. Having this information archived ensures that if something like that were to ever happen again, we would have a repository of knowledge that will help us quickly and effectively navigate the crisis.

Agility is a bit of a buzzword these days, but it’s important in the success of any organization. One of the best ways to ensure an agency is as agile is possible is to implement sound knowledge management practices. In our agency, and in others, there is a growing need for individual employees to take on a variety of roles; knowledge management reduces the lag time these transitions create, and helps every member of the team act more effectively and efficiently.

In a perfect world, the processes of knowledge management would be constant and ongoing, but it’s not always possible to live up to this ideal. However, prioritizing it and starting before an employee decides to leave is the first step. The worst possible outcome is a 35-year expert leaving, and having to scramble to archive his or her knowledge in a matter of three weeks.

Bottom line: The knowledge management program at the NRC has been in place for 10 years. Not only is it integral to our agency’s every day operations, it is the responsibility of every employee. 

For a deeper dive into this topic, join me September 7 at the Government Workforce Conference.