Knowledge Harvesting

Appendix B: Self Harvest

A well managed handover is the sign of a true professional and one who wants to create a legacy and reputation for excellence amongst their peers and management. The person who creates and participates in a well managed handover is perceived as;

  • someone who looks ahead and thinks of others
  • someone who continues to add value to their previous team by providing valuable insights and knowledge even after they have left that post
  • someone who receives less interruptions in their new post due to ‘where do I find this’ or ‘how do I do this’ type telephone calls.
  • Having done a ‘good job’ and a personal sense of closure on moving to the next post.

The checklist concentrates on what information you might think about passing on to your successors. It does not focus on how you might pass this information on; some of this information might be personal or ‘political’ and sensitive, whilst other information might be very open, so how you convey the information will vary. It also does not focus on whenthe information is passed on; in general, it will be better to pass this information on during a face-to-face hand-over, but this is not always feasible. Some ideas on how to use the checklist and when are given at the end of the document.

To monitor for trends it would be useful if a copy of the completed checklist and any documentation generated as a result of using it were to be passed to the DH Informatics Knowledge Management team.

An approach to using the checklist

Go through the checklist and, in the light of your knowledge of who your successor is, whether you’ve got a period of transition, where you’re moving to, etc., make a note of which aspects of the checklist you think it is worth capturing information on in some form.

Look in particular at the section on your specialist knowledge, and note down the areas for which you consider you would be a good source of knowledge and experience.

Based on the above, make your own assessment of how your attention to these should be prioritised, and make an outline plan of what you intend to produce and by when.

Have a meeting with your line manager to discuss the prioritisation and plan, and agree a hand-over plan. This plan should also include reviews of progress, and, in particular, a meeting close to departure with the line manager at which the draft document is reviewed and any last-minute additions or modifications can be requested. Agree at this time also the form that any hand-over documentation will take, and how it will be formally handed over and agreed. (Best practice is for there to be one principal hand-over document in electronic form, e.g. a word document, containing the information discussed in the checklist, i.e. Tips, contact names, calendars, history of events, etc.).

Checklist

Subject / What to pass on / Notes, prompts and questions
Your contact details
The main source of knowledge and key information about your previous role is probably you!
You should therefore ensure that your successors have basic information about you, so that they can contact you if required. / Your name.
Your new phone number.
Your new email name if it is changing.
(this should enable other details to be obtained) / If you don’t know these contact details yet, make a note to send these on once you know them.
Your role, objectives and targets
An understanding of your role, objectives and targets, and some history of performance against these will help your successors to define theirs and to gain a greater understanding of their new roles. / The main objectives and targets associated with your current roles.
See later on for further detail about role, objectives and targets.
Documents that provide further clarity on your roles and objectives and history of performance against these.
Names of people who have been particularly supportive to you in your roles, including how they’ve supported you and your views on why.
History of the post
Information about post-holders prior to you, where known and where appropriate, can help your successors to understand the relevance and context of older documentation - and may provide further sources of knowledge. / Details of previous post-holders, including names, dates and current whereabouts/contact information.
The business and the organisation
A newcomer’s understanding of your business and organisation may be minimal. What is it that they really need to understand about this business. Pointers to relevant background information and business context are likely to be well received. / General information about the business and the organisation, including:
  • principal documents and other sources of information, such as business brochures or pamphlets, business descriptions, organigrams, role descriptions etc
  • who to contact for more information.
/ Which documents about the business have you found really useful?
Look at the calendars you’ve produced; do these remind you of anything you’ve missed?
Your specialist knowledge / The subjects for which you would be a good source of knowledge and experience in the future. / What do people normally ask you about?
What are the work related things they ask you about when you return from vacation?
Where your knowledge and experience has been captured, including names and locations of reports, guidelines, and so on.
Tips and experience that are not currently captured and recorded, but which are worth capturing now.
See later for further details. / Could you tidy up your existing documents and filing? Is there an index that is understandable for the filing system?
Could you capture some of your knowledge and experience before you leave, to help your successors and to free you up later?
Think about:
  • examples of good practice;
  • some of the lessons you have learned;
  • your insights.

Further contacts for these subjects.
Names of and contacts for relevant networks/communities of practice. / Think about people in your team, business, site, elsewhere in The organisation and external.
History of events
Past events will be of interest to your successors, both because of their influence on future events, and because it will provide some background context to the job. / Key events (projects, etc.) in the last couple of years relevant to your roles, including timings and key players.
Ongoing projects
Your successors may need to take over your role within projects. / List of ongoing projects, including:
  • project leader
  • team members
  • your role - and possible roles for your successors - in the project
  • project documentation and its location
  • any other relevant information on the project that may prove useful
/ Put a copy of your notes on a particular project with any projectdocumentation
Problems and solutions
Your experience and knowledge of problems and solutions should be invaluable to your successors. / List of significant problems met over the last few years, including:
  • description
  • solution employed (if any)
  • your ideas about the problem and solution
  • documentation/reports
  • current situation, including
  • what is currently being done
  • who’s working on it.

Other knowledge, information and data
Any important knowledge, information or date not already covered! / Sources of data, information, knowledge and experience to carry out your current role, including:
  • brief description of the subject/content;
  • why it is used or needed;
  • what type of document it is/what medium it is in;
  • how to access the content;
  • who to contact;
  • relevant networks/communities of practice.
/ Could you do any tidying up to help your successors?
Give pointers to relevant paper documents, databases, Web sites, Public Folders, etc.
The right contacts are critical. Think about people in your team, business, the wider site, elsewhere in The organisation and external.
Possibilities and opportunities
Help your successors by letting them know what you feel could be achieved in the future. / Two or more great opportunities that could be delivered in the future with the right support.
Your learning about your job and your approach to it
A chance to take an overview of your job rather than focus in on the detail. / Things you feel have gone particularly well, and that you’d recommend your successors to do.
Things you think could have gone better, and suggestions for doing them differently. / Try to think of at least three successes that your successor should try to repeat…
… and at least three things to do differently.
Key relationships / Names, roles and any contact details of those people with whom it is important to develop a good relationship in order to perform your current roles and deliver your objectives. / Think about people in your team, business, the wider site, elsewhere in The organisation and external, e.g. suppliers, manufacturers, contractors and consultants.
In particular, think of names you haven’t mentioned elsewhere.
Why not go through your business cards - select appropriate ones, photocopy them and make notes on the photocopy about them.
Essential business processes and systems
Your successors may be unaware of many of your local or wider business processes, such as expenses claiming, incident reporting, and getting authorisation for plant modifications, AFE (authority for expenditure). / List of key business processes necessary for performing the roles, together with:
  • name of any supporting system;
  • process/system purpose and description;
  • contacts for process and system - and for training with them;
  • documentation;
  • your hints and tips about these processes and systems.
/ You will not normally be in a position to provide your successors with detailed information on these yourself.
You should therefore give pointers to information and knowledge owned by others. If this doesn’t already exist in easily accessible form, why not take the opportunity to prod the owners to make it available?!

Further considerations if you’re moving within the organisation

If you’re moving elsewhere in The Informatics Directorate, it is likely that you will still want to have access to some of the electronic information you currently use. You may well find that when you have moved, certain aspects of your IT details will have changed, and you will no longer have access to existing files on shared areas, on Public Folders, or on databases.

Before you leave, keep a record of all the folders/areas/databases you will still want or need to have access to, together with details of the owners or administrators (you may not be able to access them to look afterwards!) so that when your IT facilities have been set up in your new post or location, you can contact the owners/administrators to set your access rights up.

Role, objectives and targets

1) To help you hand over a good understanding of your role, objectives and targets, try to record answers to the following questions:

Which 5 objectives do you think are key, and why?

What are the 10 key task deliverables in your role?

What are your top 5 successes against deliverables, and why?

What are your next 5 targets against deliverables, and why?

What does your current boss and the business,really care about - priorities?

What do you think it takes to be really successful in the job?

2) To help your successor(s) plan their work, and to understand the activities they may be involved in, develop and hand over calendars for a typical day (a day in the life of), week, month and year (as appropriate) showing regular activities and meetings. This will also help them your successors to determine any training needs in advance.

Consider both activities and meetings associated with your core discipline or role and also others for which someone will need to be your replacement.

So, a weekly or monthly calendar might include regular team meetings, project meetings, and phone conferences, while a yearly calendar might include performance reviews, appraisal meetings, objective setting, budget setting and other team or site events.

Your specialist knowledge and experience

The following is intended to guide you towards capturing and recording some of your experience and knowledge.

  • for each of the key areas or subjects that you consider you have good experience of, or particular skill and competence in, record your Top 10 Tips;
  • get your line manager, and maybe a colleague, to name 5 processes or other aspects of your work that they would consider you to have specialist knowledge about. Record your Top 10 Tips for each of these if they’re additional to the ones you’ve thought about.
  • where appropriate, ask your successor to say which areas of the work he thinks he will need most help with, and record your Top 10 Tips for any of these that are additional to the above ones.
  • select a number of key activities (e.g. using your schedule or the history of events from the checklist) that have taken place in the last couple of years, and record what went well, and what you would recommend others to do next time to repeat your success, and what could have been improved, and what you would do differently next time.

Knowledge Management Team, Policy and Planning Division, DH Informatics Directorate Page | 1