Continuity Management: Preserving Corporate Knowledge and Productivity When Employees Leave

Chapter 10. Developing K-Quest: The Knowledge Questionnaire

As the members of the Dream Team reconvened, our spirits were high. All of us, however, felt the need to pause and review what we had accomplished in relation to where we were going. The more we worked with continuity management, the more its principles, steps, and techniques became clear, and the easier it was to fit them into the larger framework that was developing. Now it was time to reassess that framework, to see the big picture into which these emerging elements fit. So we turned to Sarah, whose digital mind could create a conceptual photograph of any management model, theory, or process—from any desired perspective, angle, or distance. Wide-angle shot of the concept from beginning to end? No problem. Close-up of a single component? You bet. Telephoto shot of the end result? Any time you want. So we asked Sarah for the big picture of what we had done and where we were going.

"Here's the deal," she said. "There are four major knowledge processes in continuity management, and each process is implemented through an instrument designed specifically for it. If you understand these processes and how they are implemented, you understand continuity management."

The four instruments and their corresponding processes are:

• Knowledge continuity assessment for assessing knowledge continuity in the organization

• K-PAQ (knowledge profile analysis questions) for analyzing operational knowledge

• K-Quest (knowledge questionnaire) for harvesting ...