Mastering your storage and retrieval

In a world of mass information, it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember everything you need. One moment you may feel you are on top of the world in what you need, then all of a sudden you can feel overloaded, smothered and very vulnerable.

During our school days, much emphasis was placed on developing our memories to get us out of trouble by trying to remember facts, principles and formulas. To do this we may have learnt a variety of techniques, including rote learning and mnemonics . Such techniques have been very helpful to us in the past, but in times of such rapid change we need to go one step further. We need to place greater emphasis on our storage, retrieval and access rather than relying just on memory. We each need to create systems to recall vital know-how (that is, principles, stories and facts) at a moment s notice.

We now see this in businesses where archives or databases commonly exist on help desks or web pages to point people in the right direction. A common example of this occurring is when you venture into a bank. The bank employee will often follow prompts and instructions to help you. Depending on the question, the employee will often go to an online help desk to find the answer. The difficulty arises, however, when the knowledge is not archived and the individual has to use his or her own resources or memory to craft an answer. This is commonly the case with the more complex types of knowledge where the situation is out of the ordinary and has not been documented.

To keep up to date each business needs to make a special effort to keep the right flow of knowledge by using good storage and exchange methods . Further to this you may well be aware of the now common capability of IT platforms such as Lotus Notes that allow business people the ability to retrieve and action the latest in e-mail and corporate knowledge either from their normal workspace or when travelling.

For the moment, however, let us concentrate on what you can do personally to store and archive your knowledge. Without a doubt, learning how to archive knowledge has been the turning point in my career. There was a time some years ago when I realized how confused I had become by the mass of information stored in my head and in my office. The result was that I was experiencing enormous difficulty in keeping a tap on the rich resources available to me in the form of office books, notes and files.

One day, instead of putting all my energy into marketing, I allocated a proportion of my day to archiving some of the knowledge I had collected. Then, over a few months, I started building a living archive of my knowledge in the form of stories, training exercises, latest facts, statistics, best practice organizations, great web sites and working smarter tips.

The result has been truly transformational! Instead of relying on my memory I now have a system that enables me to recall things at a moment s notice from my computer. Now, even when I am tired or am struggling for time, I can in most situations find an answer that has some merit. People often say they are impressed by what I know, but it is not my brilliance or my memory that has made a difference, it is how I store and access my knowledge. The great news is, this system is simply based on Word files and is not sophisticated. In time I will probably create new files using web browser technology, but for now the system is working fine. For example, when I decide to do a subject search, I do so by keying in a word or topic and ask the Find instruction in my software to retrieve what I have stored. This method has given me instant access to knowledge which is essential in my profession as a consultant, speaker and author.

The make-up of your personal archive will vary depending on your interests. For example, I break my archives into subcategories to aid prompt access and use. However, you do not need to get too clever, it is more important that your overall structure is simple, flexible and easy to use. As you would expect, your archive is never static so you will need to update your facts or remove outdated knowledge. To do this I keep a work in progress file that has all my latest discoveries; then every three to six months I incorporate these into the main database. By doing this I keep the process of maintaining the personal archive manageable and not too time-consuming .

To assist you to build your personal archive, here is an alphabetical listing of some possible headings:

• Achievements in past jobs and projects

• Best practice organizations or better practices you have noticed

• Discoveries from your learning journals

• Distribution lists of important contacts

• Excellent contacts (that is, mentors or advisers or coaches)

• Facts, statistics and trends

• Favourite quotes

• Personal mission statement and career goals

• Intranets and databases

• Professional associations and personal networks

• References and books and articles

• R sum

• Universal wisdom, including key reminders on what is important to you in life

• Vital procedures and checklists

• Web sites, e-zines, search engines, interest/discussion groups and learning portals

• Wisdom from past training courses and conferences.

Managing your personal knowledge archive is a discipline which gives you the foundation for longevity in your career, while also providing a solid grounding to any hobby or pursuit in life. I have found it to be the best safety valve I could have had in my profession. Of course, there will be times when your archive does not help you or you feel you need a second or third opinion; then you can go to the World Wide Web or contact someone for an answer or view. Either way, you cannot lose; you have an archive that will travel with you through life. The latest version of my knowledge archive is on my laptop computer, on my office computer and on my server at all times, and can be accessed within a moment s notice, wherever I am in the world.