How to maximize accumulated knowledge – a chat with Pelle Garå

After many years of working close to organizations such as law enforcement and national security agencies, Pelle Garå at Griffeye has seen many of the challenges that they, and other organizations, face. We sat down for a chat about the need for organizations to gather, store and share vast amounts of information and the value of accumulated knowledge.

What is accumulated knowledge?

Each and every one of us carry around knowledge and experience that we have accumulated during our entire lifetime, and we use much of this knowledge effortlessly. For example when we speak – like we do now – that is an almost automatic, subconscious effort.

When we take this idea, and apply it to more than one person, it becomes even more interesting. As a group, we are able to accumulate far more knowledge and build on already existing knowledge from others. It is when we work together and build on each other’s experiences that we can achieve really great things. That is accumulated knowledge.

Ok, so how is that important to organizations?

Well, what we want to do – and what we’ve seen an increasing need for in over the years – is to transfer that concept over to an organization. It’s an opportunity to make sure that information is stored within the organization, and not in individuals that may leave the organization. It is also an opportunity to build on existing experience to achieve greater and more qualitative results.

For organizations, it is crucial to have an idea of how to transform what is essentially a human asset buried in the minds and hard drives of individuals working in its organization, into knowledge that others within the organization can access and build on.

That sounds great, and important, but how do you do that?

The foundation of building a knowledge-sharing environment is to create an organizational culture where people are willing to share their knowledge, and know that they will be rewarded for doing so.

The next step is to provide a structure where knowledge can be easily stored and accessed. Information technology, like Griffeye Analyze CS (Collaboration Server), is one very effective method for linking and supporting collaboration. Through storing knowledge centrally, it can easily be shared and accessed by everyone.

So what is the actual outcome for organizations that do this?

I’d say that there are great advantages. There is of course the advantage of reducing the risk of losing intellectual capital with employees leaving the organization, as well as speeding up productivity and shared access to knowledge and joint efforts. It also saves money by avoiding the risk of reinventing the wheel for each new investigation or operation. Accumulated knowledge helps investigators and organizations work together, optimize results and tackle challenges – with increased quality.