{"id":5309,"date":"2025-05-02T11:09:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coachmentoring.co.uk\/articles\/?p=5309"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:35:49","slug":"knowledge-management-how-to-transfer-know-how-when-a-colleague-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coachmentoring.co.uk\/articles\/2025\/05\/knowledge-management-how-to-transfer-know-how-when-a-colleague-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge management\u2014how to transfer know-how when a colleague leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Know-how\"Know-how is crucial and is a major part of the capital of all organisations, including the non-profit sector. It has three main components:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Expertise and experience \u2014 the knowledge,<\/li>\n
  2. Methodological skills \u2014 the ability to apply knowledge,<\/li>\n
  3. Social skills \u2014 the \u2018necessary\u2019 \u00a0soft skills that enable this application to achieve the desired outcome.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Many organisations limit themselves to knowledge management, which is the easiest part. But methodological and social skills are equally important, though they\u2019re often tied to individuals who can apply these processes and have the necessary skills. And when someone leaves the organisation, this part of the know-how disappears with them. However, this doesn\u2019t have to be the case!<\/p>\n

    By developing coaching<\/a> and mentoring<\/a> skills within the organisation, people have the relevant social skills to transfer know-how more effectively and naturally.<\/p>\n

    How to manage successful know-how transfer<\/h2>\n

    Managing the transfer of a person\u2019s know-how can create value for the organisation, the successor, and the departing person. Here’s an example of when a long-serving major-donor fundraiser resigned, it was clear that the organisation needed to retain the leaver’s expertise and network, so they quickly found a successor. The fundraiser’s know-how was pure gold and so the organisation put in place a comprehensive handover programme to avoid a collapse.<\/p>\n

    Things were different when an experienced campaigner had to leave another NGO. There was a significant gap until a successor relaunched the campaign a few months later \u2014 as if the lessons learned from the previous campaigner, weren’t as valuable. So, was this the case, or was the know-how transfer process not in place?<\/p>\n

    Sometimes, there is little know-how to be transferred<\/h3>\n

    Of course, there are many cases where a departure doesn’t need a handover programme. For example, when the leaver has no organisation or sector specific skills. Like jobs where the necessary skills can be found on the job market. For a change in junior IT, a standardised exit process is usually enough: filing documents in an orderly manner, updating the database, and ensuring there\u2019s some overlap with the successor (if this isn\u2019t possible, the line manager can act as an interim store<\/em>: taking over from the person leaving and handing over to the successor).<\/p>\n

    Extending the knowledge transfer timescale<\/h3>\n

    Often, it is quite straightforward when someone leaves and their know-how has been openly shared in advance. But if someone\u2019s been with the organisation for a while and has deep expertise in its core activities, it\u2019s more effective to take longer to share their know-how in order not to lose any important insights.<\/p>\n

    When the communications team changes, for instance, we need to add organisation-specific skills like media contacts, or knowledge of which stories to tell and how. This becomes even more crucial when key skills providers like the aforementioned fundraiser leave. In such cases, we need to ensure that the organisation doesn\u2019t lose too much expertise with each departure.<\/p>\n

    So, what should we do when someone leaves?<\/p>\n

    Three types of knowledge, explicit, implicit and tacit<\/h2>\n

    The are two well known types of knowledge:<\/p>\n