Knowledge Disposal

The way we let go of knowledge will depend on the content and context of the situation. However, there are two consistent variables that will impact upon the strategy you might follow in the disposal process. The first is the extent to which the need to lose knowledge is either a forced or voluntary action; the second is the extent to which the disposal is unplanned or planned. A combination these two variables will produce the table shown .

Submit - The forced-unplanned disposal process is one where knowledge has to be disposed and the owner has little advance warning or choice in the matter. This happened in large numbers during the sudden corporate urge to downsize the organisation. One day you might be contentedly managing a process, product or project and then along comes the process reengineering culture and bang, your out of a job. This change left many people in the position where they had to undertake a rapid reorientation of their knowledge base. Often, in this situation, the pain of forced disposal can be painful, but the ability with which people can erase the past is enhanced by their personal motivation to acquire knowledge in order to get a new source of income.

Surprise - in this segment, the disposal process is voluntary and under control of the individual, but the timing is not known. This can be akin to the situation where someone has bid for a place on a training course, but they don’t know what date they will be allocated. Although the timing of the disposal process may be fluid, the fact that they have made a personal choice to dispose of old knowledge does make the process easier – to both erase the content and the ability to acquire new skills and ideas.

Shift - this is a forced, but planned knowledge disposal. This might be the case of someone who finds that they have an illness, which means they can no longer work under the same pressure they have been running for recent years. So although they now that the current knowledge base will be redundant, they still have time in which to dispose of the current platform and create a new knowledge base that will enable them to earn a living, but at a more relaxed pace.

Strategy - This type of disposal can be seen when someone knows they are about to make a significant career switch. Imagine the money broker who decides to give up the life of banking and become a mushroom farmer. She knows that at some point the knowledge will be redundant and so she has time to prepare for the shift and space to develop the appropriate strategies that will allow her to forgo the current knowledge platform.

Although the disposal process will often be unplanned and forced, we should always try to shift it to the strategy box. To achieve this we have to do two things. The first is to make internal decisions that other ‘people will not force me to change’. Although they might initiate the stimulus or manage the environment, ultimately I will choose to go through the u-loop and I will understand the consequences of my action. The second is to stay attuned to the market. Don’t accept that the way life is – is the way life is. Embrace and welcome the notion of change and wherever possible become it's master.

To become a master of change, you must know its nature. There should be an acceptance that control, conformity and consistency are things of the past and turbulence, trauma and transition are in effect the new natural state. In understanding this nature of change, it is important that you appreciate how this shift from equilibrium to turbulence will affect your current knowledge and to have a clear picture of how you might react where change rears its head. In this way, few disposal actions are likely to be unplanned as you will be forewarned and forearmed.

In maintaining the disposal stage, a sense of change mastery can be achieved - with this comes a new type of comfort and protection. Imagine that rather than disposal being a threatening and disrupting process, it can be regarded as a new form of security.[i] In the more traditional organisation, security is based upon the acquisition of power: the power to hold resources, discipline people, control the finances and build personal empires. In organisations that value knowledge, your ability to let go off and acquire new knowledge will ultimately offer a greater degree of influence and control than the ability to accumulate hierarchical power.

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(c) Mick Cope

	Submit - The forced-unplanned disposal process is one where knowledge has to be disposed and the owner has little advance warning or choice in the matter. This happened in large numbers during the sudden corporate urge to downsize the organisation. One day you might be contentedly managing a process, product or project and then along comes the process reengineering culture and bang, your out of a job. This change left many people in the position where they had to undertake a rapid reorientation of their knowledge base. Often, in this situation, the pain of forced disposal can be painful, but the ability with which people can erase the past is enhanced by their personal motivation to acquire knowledge in order to get a new source of income.
	Surprise - in this segment, the disposal process is voluntary and under control of the individual, but the timing is not known. This can be akin to the situation where someone has bid for a place on a training course, but they don’t know what date they will be allocated. Although the timing of the disposal process may be fluid, the fact that they have made a personal choice to dispose of old knowledge does make the process easier – to both erase the content and the ability to acquire new skills and ideas.
	Shift - this is a forced, but planned knowledge disposal. This might be the case of someone who finds that they have an illness, which means they can no longer work under the same pressure they have been running for recent years. So although they now that the current knowledge base will be redundant, they still have time in which to dispose of the current platform and create a new knowledge base that will enable them to earn a living, but at a more relaxed pace.
	Strategy - This type of disposal can be seen when someone knows they are about to make a significant career switch. Imagine the money broker who decides to give up the life of banking and become a mushroom farmer. She knows that at some point the knowledge will be redundant and so she has time to prepare for the shift and space to develop the appropriate strategies that will allow her to forgo the current knowledge platform.