Reading Lis Merrick’s article ‘Applied Wisdom’ (vol 8, issue 6, page 56) prompted some reflection on how knowledge is passed down through business generations. It is a staggering thought that most of the knowledge in a business “walks out of the door every evening – and it might never come back”.
Merrick identifies how mentoring can bridge gaps in organisations from business generation to business generation. She makes some compelling and practical points about how this knowledge transfer might happen.
The article highlighted the ‘good stuff’ that can be handed down through mentoring. Musing over mentoring schemes I have had involvement with, I started to think about the ‘bad stuff’ that equally can be ‘passed on’.
What is this ‘bad stuff’ that might also inadvertently be part of this ‘transfer’? Well, for example, a lack of creative thinking – the handing on of constraints and paradigms as ‘givens’. The preservation of unhelpful cultural norms around power, diversity, risk and reward, (un)sustainability, (a lack of) social responsibility… the list could go on.
Knowledge doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but in a complex cultural context. A little bit like a
Trojan horse, the ‘gift’ of mentoring around knowledge may bring with it an unexpected dose of something else.
I couldn’t agree more with Merrick about the benefits and the process – I’m just wondering whether there is anything like the ‘clean’ transfer of knowledge without communicating something about the mentor’s image of their organisation. Perhaps one way of guarding against these undesirable ‘transfers’, would be mentor selection. The “correct tacit/intellectual knowledge workers” also need to pass muster as cultural ambassadors – because whether they intend to or not, they will pass on a lot more than expertise.
Rob Kemp, Purple Patch Coaching & Training
Coaching at Work, Volume 9, issue 1