PUBLIC SECTOR AMNESIA

As a growing number of state and local employees are heading toward retirement, the conversation generally focuses on how to retain them or how to recruit their replacements. Both are certainly important questions, but they leave out a critical issue that confronts entities from coast to coast: The loss of institutional memory.

From our vantage point, covering state and local government for decades, it repeatedly comes as a surprise to us when we interview someone in a reasonably high position whose knowledge of what has gone on in earlier years is lacking. Not long ago, for example, we were talking with an official in a big city who was proud of the fact that his office was – for the very first time – engaging in an initiative to bring performance management techniques to his community.

At risk of being snarky, we pointed out that, even though he thought this was the first time his city was entering this territory, the truth lies elsewhere. In fact, decades ago, we had publicly praised the city for great work in the identical realm. But after that effort was drastically diminished, the fact that it ever existed had been lost in the mists of time.

When memories are left to die as people leave government service, it’s a significant loss. There are many lessons that can be learned from successes of the past, as well as failures. When an effort was put forth at some time in the past, and it crumbled, it’s easy to make the same mistakes once again.

Though there may be various kinds of knowledge transfer that occur informally, according to research done by MissionSquare only 29% of communities it covered in a survey, had “planning/documentation for institutional knowledge transfer.” (See page 33)

There are many issues that crop up when important information isn’t handed off. As Shernica  Ferguson, Evaluation Specialist, Public Policy and Administration, at Jackson State University wrote in National Civic Review, “Without experienced staff who understand the historical logic behind existing protocols, new employees inherit a tangle of accumulated decisions that look arbitrary.”

It’s not easy to commit to the transmission of knowledge across work generations. For one thing, there are many factors involved in performing the tasks necessary to smoothly run a city, county or state. Some of them are written down in manuals or guides. But many others aren’t ever really recognized in a formal way, and when people do their jobs well, they often utilize information that they’d never even think about passing along. One solution here is to share that kind of instinctive information by encouraging newer employees to work alongside old hands. In that way they can pick up the knowledge they’re going to need some day.

There are, of course, other solutions, too, and we’re encouraged to see examples of governments that formally encourage information transfusion. For example, The state of South Carolina’s Department of Administration publishes a “Knowledge Management Guide.”  It acknowledges the difficulties in this discipline – including lack of time and resources – and includes some relatively easy approaches for agencies.

One of the easiest of all, mentioned in the Guide, is simply telling stories. “While storytelling can easily be dismissed because it may sound silly, it is one of the most robust, and easiest to implement, knowledge sharing techniques there is. Imagine the depth of knowledge gained from having your employees share the lessons learned from a real-life scenario experienced by the storyteller. Debriefing, case studies, after action reviews, whatever you want to call it, the knowledge gained and shared through storytelling is extensive. Employees may also find it easier to understand information presented in the form of a story rather than a bulleted list of facts.”

Meanwhile, New Jersey is using artificial intelligence to retain important information. As we wrote in a blog post for the IBM Center for the Business of Government, New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs has developed a program “called “Ask Claudia.”  

This is a tool that case managers have the option to use that replicates the knowledge of a real department employee named Claudia, who is close to retirement from state service and has accumulated a wealth of knowledge that can be used by others in the department. This generative AI tool accomplishes this through knowledge transfer input she has provided and through its ability to scan regulations and policies that help Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program employees in accurately answering questions that come from the public.”

South Carolina and New Jersey aren’t alone in emphasizing knowledge transfer, but it’s far from

common. And that’s unfortunate.

We were particularly fond of a June 9 blog post by Rick Barry, Director of Operations for Satellite Locations and Admin Services at NorthWest Arkansas Community College who spelled out the sad series of steps involved when a department doesn’t adequately educate the next generation with the knowledge their predecessors had. Here they are:

• The Departure: A key veteran leaves suddenly, taking decades of "tacit knowledge"—the unwritten context of city operations—with them.

  
  

• The Scramble: Junior staff try to fill the gap but lack the "soft knowledge" (the why behind the what), leading to inconsistent decision-making.

• The Service Lag: Permit review times slow down and public complaints increase as projects stall.

  
  

• Turnover Contagion: The added stress and "operational drag" cause mid-career "bridge" employees to seek remote roles in the private sector.

  
  

• Institutional Amnesia: The department is now staffed entirely by new hires with no connection to the city's historical policies or community relationships.

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