How to capture and manage knowledge is something that organisations have long been struggling with. Expensive IT systems often disappoint because no matter how good the system is it will not yield any benefit if people don’t use it. A common objection to using such systems is the time it takes to enter in the data. I remember when I was at The Economist Group and we installed salesforce.com, one of the toughest challenges was finding ways to encourage busy sales people to use it.

A few years back, looking for ideas and inspiration, I visited Euan Semple who was at that time leading knowledge management for the BBC. He was doing some very inspiring and impressive work including introducing wikis and blogs. At that time use of these technologies was uncommon in business. His advice to me however was that unless you could be sure of having enough of a critical mass of people to engage with these new ways of working it was pointless. Three people in the editorial department may well be excited by this (then) newish technology but only three people in an organisation of 1000+ would do nothing to help with knowledge sharing and ‘management’. I remember leaving my meeting with Euan feeling disheartened that this exciting technology would probably stay exciting but be absolutely useless because of the difficulty in convincing people to use it.

Five or so years later I am heartened. My friend, a 26 year-old high flyer started a new job in January in a medium-sized consultancy. I saw him last week and he has already been promoted and was telling me how much difference he has been able to make already. ( I smiled at this, he is a Gen Y and making a difference if something that is very important to Gen Ys).  So I asked him to show me what he had been doing that was making such a difference. He showed me a wiki that he had designed to capture data about problems reported by customers and solutions to those problems. There was masses of content in there. "When did you introduce this?" I asked. "Two weeks ago" came the reply.  And already a huge amount of valuable data had been captured and was being used.

Let’s just have a think about this. In the space of two weeks, a new employee of less than 4 months has introduced a new system that has transformed the capture and use of valuable data. Not only that but everyone is using it and it is improving the quality of service to customers and shortening response time.   What are we to deduce from that? Well, having questioned my friend closely on this, here’s what I conclude:

1. The (Gen X and Boomer) leaders in his company are committed to promoting people on merit and supporting them to do whatever needs to be done to make a difference.
2. The interests of the customer take priority.
3. The workforce are predominantly Gen Y and therefore took no persuading to use wikis.
4. A good idea is a good idea and will be listened to irrespective of the length of service and seniority of the person who comes up with the idea.
• This company gets it. The leaders in this company clearly see Gen Y as an opportunity and not a threat. My friend had tried to introduce a wiki into his last company. He told me he gave up because he got fed-up of trying to convince his colleagues (aged 35 to 70) that it was a good idea. This talented young man eventually got fed up himself and looked for a company that would "appreciate and use his talents".

Gen Y vote with their feet. If they are not being appreciated they will leave.  Contrary to assertions that Gen Y are flighty and don’t want to stick at a job, our research shows that if they are getting what they want they will stay, and they will be loyal. My friend has every intention of staying in his company, he has had a flying start there and in a short period of time has been recognised, valued, been given the freedom to contribute and show what he can do.  Other organisations would do well to take a leaf out of this company’s book.

Sally Bibb

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Tagged as: Generation Y, knowledge management