LEGACY LEADERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER with notes from sessions added

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LEGACY LEADERSHIP AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER(with
notes from sessions added)

• LaRhae Knatterud
• Minnesota Dept of Human Services
• State Managers Conference
• October 28, 2009

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OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

• Definition of legacy leadership and knowledge
  transfer
• Why are these concepts important?
• Strategies for legacy leadership
• Strategies for successful knowledge transfer
• Questions and discussion

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Minnesota State Government Workers are Aging

• The number of state employees retiring annually
  has increased by 32 over the last five years
• Approximately 39 of state workers will reach the
  age of 61 over the next ten years
• The availability of skilled workers is projected
  to decrease in coming years resulting in
  increased competition for talent within the labor
  market
• State government must be able to attract and
  retain qualified workers from a shrinking
  workforce pool and increase productivity

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Definition of Legacy Leadership

• If you influence change in the lives of those
  around you, you are engaged in leadership.
• Your leadership legacy is the sum total of the
  difference you make in peoples lives, directly
  and indirectly, formally and informally.
• As a leader, you will have an impact on your
  staff and they will take what they learn forward
  into the future of your organization.
• The challenge is how to live in a way that
  creates a legacy that will make a positive
  difference in the lives of those around you.

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Why is legacy important?

• Leaders grow and nurture emerging leaders and
  create a living legacy
• The largest generation in history will soon begin
  leaving the workplace and are beginning to think
  about the legacy they wish to leave
• Very little planning for this change has been
  done

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Legacy Leadership Behaviors

• Key competencies and behaviors associated with
  legacy best practices
• Holder of Vision and Values
• Creator of Collaboration and Innovation
• Influencer of Inspiration and Leadership
• Advocator of Differences and Community
• Calibrator of Responsibility and Accountability

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Strategies forLegacy Leadership

• Commitment to develop human capital
• Identifying the next generation of leaders
• Lead and teach from your strengths
• Teaching and mentoring
• Training and development
• Pass on experience, values and passion and
  importance of inner resources

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Definition of Knowledge Transfer

• The act of transferring knowledge from one
  individual to another by means of mentoring,
  training, documentation, and other collaboration
• Knowledge management is closely linked to
  knowledge transfer

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Why do knowledge transfer?

• Competitive advantage
• Supportive environment
• Recruitment and retention
• External influence
• Exploitation and commercialization
• Collaboration and communication
• Equality and diversity, health and safety
• Ethical Behavior

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Strategies for successful knowledge transfer

• Distinguish between explicit and tacit knowledge
• Determine desired knowledge flow what and to
  whom
• Reduce barriers to free flow of information
  people want to share what they know and learn
  from others
• Structure formal and informal opportunities for
  information sharing

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Comments of Managers when asked What is your
legacy?

• I am helping to increase diversity within my
  agency this needs to be enabled in the agency
  or we will fail to be prepared for the future.
• I am bringing a more strategic focus into the
  work of my team.
• I am focusing on being a good coach for my
  employees helping them stretch themselves and
  giving them opportunities so they can advance in
  their careers.
• I have worked to develop a number of processes
  for how we do our work that I hope have made our
  work more effective. I look at that work as a
  lasting contribution to the work of our agency.

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Comments of Managers when asked What is your
legacy?

• I am instilling in my employees a standard for
  their work that I hope will be how we look at
  public service in the future, passing on a
  certain notion of public service as a proud
  legacy and career.
• I am putting in place a legacy of leadership
  behavior in my employees, through activities like
  leadership academy, offering opportunities to
  staff with potential as future leaders.
• I am identifying and supporting staff who have
  potential for future leadership, mentoring these
  individuals, giving them assignments that
  strengthen their leadership skills.
• I am working on setting up permanent ways for the
  agency to capture the knowledge of employees who
  are approaching retirement.

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Comments of Managers about Knowledge Transfer

• Write action plan for succession planning
  document the skill sets of staff close to
  retirement, then identify who else has these
  skills sets or could be trained (could be an
  opportunity for talented staff).
• How can we do this when we are dealing with a
  hiring freeze?
• There are no hard files anymore, so a trail of
  documentation is no longer available when staff
  retires.
• Provide a transition to retirement by using the
  Phased Retirement Option (PRO) if no one else
  can be trained, PRO is a way to retain staff
  until current projects are completed.
• Remember older workers have value after they have
  announced their retirement. Continue to include
  them in meetings and projects. This time is most
  critical - to actually transfer knowledge, they
  need to continue to be included in agency
  activities.

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Comments of Managers about Knowledge Transfer

• There needs to be much more priority on knowledge
  transfer across all agencies with stronger
  support and help from the top down.
• Cross training is critical because of
  retirement, medical leaves, H1N1, family leaves
  there should be at least one other person in the
  agency who can step into any job that becomes
  vacant for any reason.
• Have older staff getting close to retirement
  write books that capture their knowledge on
  technical or historical subjects, especially
  their knowledge that cannot be transferred to
  other staff in other ways, e.g., changes in
  specific natural resources in Minnesota over the
  last 40 years.
• Stress the importance of mentoring as a part of
  knowledge transfer through that relationship it
  is more natural to share the details of jobs, why
  things are done a certain way, stories that
  capture the culture and history of agencies.

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Comments of Managers about Knowledge Transfer

• Until the documentation of their
  job/responsibility is done, the work of the
  person retiring is not over.
• Teaming is very successful way to transfer
  knowledge from older to younger, younger to
  older, from more experienced to newer and newer
  to more experienced workers.
• Support and assistance/help with process of
  knowledge transfer has to come from higher ups
  senior management in each agency, cabinet level,
  workforce planning director, governors office.
• Knowledge transfer has to be part of agencys
  strategic plan.
• The current workforce planning process is helpful
  as a way to focus on assessing critical knowledge
  transfer priorities in each unit of state
  agencies as this information rolls up to the
  workforce planning director for the whole state,
  there should be recommendations made for
  statewide action.