The problem with that system is that it only takes into account official knowledgethe projects people and departments are (or have been) working on. But we all know that true corporate knowledge isnt always official: Heather in customer service is a grammar whiz, or Paul in accounting used to own a construction firm. If you didnt know them, though, you wouldnt know to ask Paul about the different kinds of PVC pipe, for example.

People know more than their job descriptions might imply. True corporate knowledge is more than whats in official documents and publications. The most useful information might not be related to what someone is paid to do, but instead to what that person does on the side. Companies have a wealth of knowledge in their offices, but not at their fingertips.

The Bright Idea
To access more of this undocumented corporate knowledge, consider creating a knowledge database that every employee contributes to either automatically or manually. For example, a corporate-wide Word macro might add documents to it by asking a user whether to add the current file to the knowledge base. If you use network drives for most data storage, simply index that. If not, and if privacy is not a concern, index the documents on users hard drives. (If privacy is a concern, have users keep all work-related documents in a specific folder that is then indexed.)

There are other ways to add data. For example, Tacit Knowledge Systems (www.tacit.com) offers KnowledgeMail, which captures and indexes all the e-mail sent by people in the company. If you need to know, for example, the effects of PCBs, you might find that Karen in your Cleveland office has been exchanging e-mail on the subject.

Users would have to understand exactly how the system works and why its there. You must establish a policy to never punish users for what they contribute, even if its an article on cat care (as long as it doesnt violate the law). In fact, you might consider some sort of incentive program, rewarding employees for every time someone outside their department accesses a bit of their knowledge.

Hopefully, employees would want to contribute. An added benefit of the system might be the possibilities for advancement it opens if, say, someone discovers that Jimmy in customer service is a statistical genius. It would be a way for people to show off what they know without looking like show-offs.

Done right, the end result of this is a relatively inexpensive storehouse of your companys knowledge that anyone could access by simply searching by keyword. A Web interface would cut down the learning curve; make it part of your intranet.

Obviously there are issues beyond privacy. You dont want sensitive material to leak into the system, and you dont want someone to spend time pouring their bad poetry into it. Storage space is cheap, but not free. Someone would have to spend time (that is, money) to set up and maintain the system. But the potential benefits are enormous: the freer flow of information throughout the company, the teamwork it might foster, and the knowledge thatunlike what they say about the human mind90 percent of your corporate brain trust isnt going to waste.