Last updated on July 3rd, 2020 at 09:47 pm
What is Institutional Knowledge and why does it matter to my swim meet? If you belong to a team which now hosts meets, you likely have key people without whom, you’d be lost. These key people have “Institutional Knowledge,” or knowledge about what it takes for your team to run a swim meet. It was probably gained by experience. Many organizations, work to keep and transfer Institutional Knowledge so they not only run, but run well, despite personnel turnover. What type of information should you save?
- Swim meet processes
- Organizational policies and
- Historical knowledge
Without a strategy to save and transfer this stuff, continuity, and perhaps even the capacity to host swim meets, is compromised. However, many swim teams barely have enough resources to meet day-to-day demands. Much less, the time and energy to document everything needed to run a successful meet. To add to the problem, many key people are volunteers. It’s hard to even think about asking them to spend even more time than they already do, to record all that they know. Here are a few ideas to help your team keep and share the “Institutional Knowledge” needed to host and run swim meets.
Contents for Institutional Knowledge: Keep and Share It
Ask current key people what they consider “critical knowledge” to help them do what they do. Ask others who work with them what critical knowledge they think the key person possesses. Next, create a way to prevent the loss of this knowledge and to share it with others when needed.
Use HostGreatMeets.com Materials to Help Document Processes
Instead of asking your key people to record everything they do to host or run a swim meet, try giving them a resource from HostGreatMeets.com and ask them to update it with specifics for your team. Often it’s easier and less time-consuming to “tweak,” instead of create. Here are some good places to start:
- Swim Meet “To Do” list
- Who Does What to Run Great Swim Meets?
- Swim Meet Awards: How To Do Them?
- Processing Swim Meet Entries
- How to Set Up A Swim Meet Hospitality Plan
- Swim Meet Workers: How Many Are Needed?
- Or any other post in the “Quick Start” category
Mentoring
Ask key people to mentor and train others to help them learn what they need to do a good job. Let them know how much you value their knowledge and understanding, and how vital it is to preserve and share it.
Specialized Training
Sometimes it’s worth investing in specialized training. The investment doesn’t have to cost money, although sometimes it does. Many governing bodies offer training for key positions or skills. Sometimes software or equipment manufacturers offer manuals, customer support or other forms of help. Their website is a good place to start looking. HostGreatMeets.com also has course and clinic resources as well as specialized tools to help others run swim meets.
Preventing Gaps in Institutional Knowledge
The loss of Institutional Knowledge, or critical information learned by experience, can be devastating to meet hosts. Fortunately, there are effective ways to combat this loss. HostGreatMeets.com can help by providing information for your key people to “tweak.” Save these files and build your own team meeting hosting resources. Your key people can also share their knowledge, understanding and skill by mentoring others. The important thing, is to start now. Pick one thing you can do to keep and share your unique Institutional Knowledge, and do it.