Create a knowledge base to provide access to your organization’s knowledge
Most of the problems faced by founder-dependent businesses stem from a lack of knowledge that employees have access to. In fact, critical processes, historical insights, and operational know-how are rarely documented and often reside in the minds of founders, making them the only source of information. Therefore, the most important step in building a self-sustaining organization is to create a knowledge base where all the important information is easily accessible to those who need it. This article provides steps to develop a well-structured knowledge base that supports employee growth and lays the foundation for an agile and successful organization.
Why do we need a knowledge base?
Creating a knowledge base is essentially a way to document, organize, and share information, ultimately making it easily accessible to the entire organization. But why does it matter? Founder-dependent companies often lack effective processes for sharing information between different teams, which can be the difference between an organization thriving or failing. Here are some of the many reasons why you should seriously consider building a knowledge base for your organization.
Get information right when you need it. Decentralize decision-making beyond the founders. It helps standardize critical processes and minimize mistakes and oversights. Facilitate learning and collaboration between different teams. Reduce onboarding time for new employees. Prevent knowledge loss due to employee departures, organizational changes, or missing founders.
6 steps to create your own knowledge base
1. Identify your knowledge base goals
When deciding to build a knowledge base for your organization, it’s important to understand the end goal behind this effort. If you don’t set clear goals early on, you may end up with poor information collection and documentation, or even if you’re doing everything right, your knowledge management tools will be rarely used by your employees.
The process of setting your ultimate goal begins by identifying your current challenge. Consider how your organization is currently underperforming. Are your employees frequently wasting time searching for information? Are mistakes being repeated due to a lack of established processes? Once you know what you’re struggling with, it’s easier to focus on what you want to accomplish: minimize mistakes, reduce time to productivity for new hires, foster innovation, and enhance learning efforts.
2. Decide what knowledge to acquire
Not all information is equally important or worth documenting. Therefore, the next step is to create an inventory of all existing knowledge assets, whether they are already documented or exist only in the founders’ minds. The main categories to look at are:
Operational knowledge (processes, checklists, templates, tools, workflows, quality standards, etc.) Strategic knowledge (vision, mission, overarching goals, KPIs, success criteria, etc.) Relationship knowledge (high-value partnerships, stakeholder and customer history, implicit standard procedures for relationship management, etc.) Cultural knowledge (communication expectations, informal rituals, team structures, collaboration habits, etc.) Product and service knowledge (features, benefits, key selling points, common customer problems, etc.)
Once you have completed this inventory, it is important to identify exactly where all this information currently resides, how it flows between employees, and who is responsible for each process. Additionally, gaps and duplications in knowledge and critical steps that are not documented at all should be highlighted.
3. Choose the right tools
At this point, you’re ready to choose the right tools to effectively store, manage, update, and share information within your organization. Companies use a variety of knowledge management tools, ranging from simple knowledge bases and document management systems to more complex learning management systems, collaboration tools, and AI-powered knowledge management systems.
No matter what you choose, it’s important to consider several factors. To achieve widespread adoption and maximum results, the ideal tool should offer features such as search functionality, easy editing and collaboration, integration with communication and project management tools, and multi-device accessibility. Knowledge sharing and employee development can be greatly enhanced by carefully identifying the right solution for your business needs.
4. Structuring and formatting knowledge to maximize efficiency
How you structure your knowledge base is very important, especially given the huge amount of information it contains. Establishing a logical and intuitive taxonomy makes it easy for employees to find what they need, making the knowledge base an integral part of their daily work. To achieve this, you need to establish clear categories and subcategories, tag them consistently, decide on a naming convention for all files, and create links between related content.
Additionally, don’t overlook how you format the information in your knowledge base. Employees need to be able to quickly get answers to their questions without having to sift through large amounts of text. Therefore, it’s best to utilize microlearning articles, video tutorials, visual maps, checklists, playbooks, or scenario-based guides. You can also create templates for your most frequently used formats to streamline your development process. By following these steps, you can ensure that your employees keep coming back to your knowledge base.
5. Establishment of knowledge management system
It’s not enough to simply create a knowledge base and expect people to understand how to use, maintain, and update it effectively. Clear workflows should be established and specific responsibilities assigned for all processes related to the organization’s knowledge documentation strategy. Specifically, you need to be clear about what kind of knowledge needs to be captured, who will conduct regular content reviews, how quality will be ensured, how sensitive information will be handled, whether there is a permissions system, and how knowledge will be transferred after an employee leaves the company. Addressing all of these questions can help transform knowledge management from a sporadic activity to a continuous process.
6. Encourage participation and engagement
At this stage, a knowledge base has been created, those responsible for it understand their roles, and a process of continuous improvement is in place. All that’s left is for your employees to start using it. But how can you foster engagement? Convincing employees about the benefits of establishing a knowledge-sharing culture is about more than just a technology upgrade. A cultural shift is also needed. For this reason, it is essential to involve managers and leaders to encourage employees not only to use the knowledge base, but also to report it, including both positive and negative feedback. Reward employees for contributing to your knowledge base and highlight resulting improvements. Additionally, incorporate your knowledge base into important processes such as onboarding, employee training, and decision-making. Finally, encourage leaders themselves to use their knowledge base to set a good example.
Continually improve your knowledge base
A comprehensive knowledge base helps you leave founder dependence in the past and embrace a future of agility and self-sufficiency. However, to ensure the success of your knowledge base, it is essential to continually evaluate and improve it. Gather employee feedback to identify areas to improve usability, improve classification, or determine what information can be added in the future. Content is updated and replaced frequently, so it’s important to keep your knowledge management system up to date. You can also evaluate your progress so far and compare it to the goals you set at the beginning of the process. Following these steps will ensure that your knowledge base grows and evolves with your organization and maintains the same value it had when it was first created.
