Law firms continually grapple with the challenge of harnessing the knowledge contained within their firms. This has led to investment in sophisticated IT systems to capture knowledge for profitable recycling. However, my research has highlighted that, at best, with everyone in an organisation participating, only 15%-20% of the codified knowledge is captured (hard copy documentation). This has meant that a lot of the IT work carried out in the past is unlikely to achieve the return on investment promised by the software vendors.
Lawyers in progressive firms are looking at ways of identifying and capturing the knowledge that is hidden ‘below the waterline’ in their organ-isations. This is called ‘tacit’ knowledge and resides in the people who work for you and walk in and out of your office every day, carrying with them the future success of your organisation. Tacit knowledge is the most difficult to identify but also the most important; this type of knowledge works best in context and comes from experience gained over the years.
