Documentation has maintenance costs, so it's OK for now if we just know 'who the expert is' within the company
At some anime viewing party, Naoya Ito taught me about “Transactive Memory,” and I sometimes shared that content directly in internal daily report emails, so I’ve extracted parts of it to make into an article.
The following is a partial excerpt from daily report email content.
Me)It’s great that a good culture of sharing know-how is taking root in the sales department too!
Mr. H) Yesterday, I was also talking with someone about this, but I think there are so many patterns where precedents aren't used as references. Even if it's summarized in Google Documents, there are cases where people don't search or can't find it... If the development team has any know-how for information sharing, I'd like to learn from you!
Me)The concept is not for the entire organization to “remember the same knowledge,” but to “understand ‘who knows what’ within the organization”
There’s this way of thinking.
A while ago, Naoya Ito, a famous person in the engineering community, taught me this, and that’s the article below.
Since documentation has maintenance costs, it’s OK for now if we just know “who the expert is within the company,” and ideally frequently asked questions would naturally get documented by either the person being asked or the person asking.
I also document content that I get asked about frequently.
I think the sales department has started using Trello, so I’d be happy if you could consult with me about operational issues as you go. If I know about it, I think I can share the know-how!
After that, Mr. H read “World’s Most Advanced Management Science You Can’t Learn in Business School” which was mentioned in the article, and shared that content with us.
It seems to be a good book.
He told me “Besides Transactive Memory, the content about ○○ was also very helpful!” but I forgot the crucial keyword. Well, that person knows it, so I can just ask them.
That’s all from the Gemba.