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"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." -- Immanuel Kant.

Whenever your employees leave for any reason -- even just to go home -- they take all or most of your company's most valuable assets with them.

Every time they walk out your door, you say good-bye to:

* your trained employees who possess... * your intellectual capital and conduct ... * your proprietary business processes.

And when you l'ose any part of those three assets, you risk losing customers.

I'm sure this is not news to you.

============================================================ But, question is: What can you do about it? ============================================================

You can protect yourself from this Triple-Threat by slaying one of your company's worst enemies - undocumented (tacit) employee knowledge (your intellectual capital).

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: I recently met a couple in a restaurant.

Sam was in real estate, and Betty worked for PeopleSoft. Betty was losing her job due to Oracle/PeopleSoft merger.

Betty's boss asked her to go to India to train her replacement!

Well, I suppose her manager had nothing to l'ose by asking. But, you can imagine her answer.

OK,n0w multiply this problem by 5,000 employees! (As I recall, that is how many will be laid off in merger.)

Baaaaad timing! As a manager, you must not wait until your employees are packing to leave to ask them to document their positions and tacit knowledge.

MURPHY'S LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS "Things get worse under pressure."

============================================================ Too busy to manage knowledge? ============================================================

I have helped companies that were moving all or part of their company out of California. Some employees were moving with company, some were being "let go."

The employees who were moving to new location were "too busy moving" to document their work. Besides, they already "know their job."

Worse, most people being laid off were uncooperative to-the-max when it came time to document their (lost) positions!

They had virtually nothing to gain and little to l'ose - except maybe a good recommendation (except management couldn't really make that threat).

Really, during good times, it is difficult to get employees to document their positions and divulge their tacit knowledge - unless management provides an incentive. In fact, I recommend that you make it part of their position contract.

"Even in best of times, it's a battle to convince employees to participate in knowledge management programs. But in tough times, tendency is for employees to horde what they know." -- Lauren Gibbons Paul

Who was this voice yelling at me? It was my nemesis – Shrew who lives in my head.

We all get annoyed at ourselves from time to time; it is only natural. But for some of us, it can become an unrelenting bother. There can be no contentment when Shrew is on scene!

Some call it a gremlin, others an inner critic, others negative self-talk. I call her Shrew. No matter what you call yours, you know who I mean. She's fierce, she's damning and she's quick to pounce on every mistake you make, turning them into capital offenses. The Shrew exaggerates our flaws, smashes our self-esteem, ruins our confidence, distracts us from what we are doing and makes us miserable.

I am choosing not to live with it anymore! I invite you to do same. There is a force which can tame Shrew: The Buddha in Your Back Pocket*.

Think of a time when you witnessed a stranger being scolded and felt badly for them. Perhaps it was a worker being accused by an angry boss of "screwing things up" for something you knew wasn't their fault. Did you wish you could go up to that worker and say, "Don't pay any attention to them. I saw what happened and I know you are a doing a good job!"

This softer side of you is anti-Shrew. It is empathy and compassion. The Shrew is afraid of it because she fears you might offer it to yourself. It is a skill to learn to apply this loving, tender, supportive side of ourselves to ourselves. Many of us, me included, are not in habit of it.