The preservation of institutional memory is the most important thing most utilities aren't conscientiously doing, and it's a looming crisis for the water sector.

1. PRESERVING INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY
IN A UTILITY
Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates, Inc.
March 10, 2020
Nebraska Rural Water Association Annual Conference
Kearney, Nebraska

2. What is "institutional memory"?

3. Books contain formal knowledge

4. The built environment stores knowledge, too

5. Institutional memory is different
It's what your organization knows because of its people

6. How institutional memory leaks out

7. Retirements

8. Illnesses and injuries

9. Employee departures

10. Entropy

11. Other losses

12. Test your individual memory
Answer these three simple questions

13. What's your license plate number?

14. What was your junior-high locker combo?

15. What color is your neighbor's front door?

16. If personal memory is that bad...
...then we have to do something formal
to capture institutional memory

17. Formal knowledge
I-235 goes from West Des Moines
to northeast Des Moines

18. Institutional knowledge
If you're going west past Windsor Heights,
get into the left lane before 42nd Street

19. Funnel of knowledge

20. Institutional memory is dynamic
Books and the physical world are static
Institutional memory is where knowledge is
synthesized with experience and becomes useful

21. Fixing problems of institutional memory
Organizations are no better
than individuals at remembering...
In general, they're even worse

22. Capture it in three parts

23. Study

24. Document

25. Use

26. Part 1: Study

27. Ask why

28. Do you know where the dollar sign comes from?

29. Nobody actually knows for sure

30. Method #1: Recruit most curious staff member

31. Method #2: Set up (or fake) a job shadow

32. Method #3: Prepare a new-hire orientation

33. Method #4: Prepare a process flow diagram

34. Method #5: Wear a glove & throw yourself off

35. Method #6: Wear a Go Pro for a day
* GoPro camera not included. Some duct tape required.

36. Method #7: Mark up your plans and specs

37. Every process you study has value
If you've never done it before,
you need it explained

38. Every process you study has value
If you do it infrequently,
you need to capture the best way

39. Every process you study has value
If you do it routinely,
you need to standardize and improve

40. Sometimes the study work is done for you

41. At least six notes posted on one machine

42. Studying alone doesn't end frustrations

43. Part 2: Document

44. Document your history

45. ...and ask why you do what you do

46. Document what works

47. Document what doesn't work, too

48. Demolition job gone wrong
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Source: BBC News, "Turkey demolition goes wrong"
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179857.stm
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Used with permission

49. Demolition job gone wrong
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Source: BBC News, "Turkey demolition goes wrong"
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8179857.stm
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Used with permission

50. Why is this the system we've decided to use?
Don't judge, just document

51. Revising is much faster if you know "Why?"
Knowing that a decision was
made for trivial reasons
is better than erroneously thinking
it was a deliberate choice

52. What do you need to know in an emergency?

53. Don't miss hidden indicators

54. Capture three types of memory
↹📅 🧭

55. Event memories
When did we do that?

56. Process memories
How did we do that?

57. Decision memories
Why did we do it that way?

58. Biographies as a model
📅
Most autobiographies are memoirs:
What happened when
↹
Some will seek to share the process:
How I got rich
🧭
The really useful ones share decision memories:
Why I did it
Biographies often introduce processes,
but rarely dive deeply enough into decisions

59. Event memory: History books

60. Decision memory: The Federalist Papers

61. Process memory: Recipe books

62. Why do you have to write it down?

63. Seek to conserve mental energy

64. Routine decisions are mentally costly

65. Save your mental energy for big problems

66. Supplemental media help, but don't store well

67. Blogs and wikis may help, but are on probation

68. You still have to get it on paper
These books are still around
from the 1920s...
but good luck retrieving files
from a Commodore 64

69. The writing process enforces clear thinking

70. Supreme Court decisions: Written for a reason

71. Decisions and dissenting opinions are valuable

72. Great teams have great playbooks

73. Documentation doesn't have to be perfect
It just has to be, period.
It gets perfected when we get to Step 3: Use.

74. Know the recipe for your plant's secret sauce

75. Keep a log of your vendors

And regularly ask for
updated linecards
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If they're competent,
they'll keep records, too
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They can provide
continuity of knowledge

76. Record why you bought what you did

77. Name your equipment
Numbers are for prisoners

78. Did you name your first car?
(Bet you don't remember the VIN)

79. Oval Office · West Wing · White House
Not "Suite 147C, 1st Floor, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"

80. Use humane names
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Adequate: Pump 1, Pump 2, Pump 3
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Good: East pump, center pump, west pump
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Better: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles
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Best (?): Sinatra, Oprah, Madonna

81. Naming things is a first step towards care

82. Part 3: Use

83. What can you build into a line score?

84. Test and measure with a purpose

85. Standards are the backbone of improvement

86. Standards require documentation

87. Employees feel valued when work gets better or easier

88. Test the manual

89. Document after every major change

90. Appoint a historian

91. Produce an annual report

92. Warren Buffett: Master of the annual report

93. Annual report
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Employees:
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Who worked here?
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Who started this year?
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Who left?
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Training: Who, where, and
when?
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Capital equipment and services:
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New equipment or
contracts? Why?
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Removed or canceled? Why?
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Repairs, changes, and
overhauls
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Performance:
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How much work was done?

Circumstances affecting the
work

Special events or conditions
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Customers:
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What customers did you
serve?
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New customers?
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Repeat customers?
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Lost customers?

94. Produce a yearbook
Even just a scattering of pictures
can trigger your recall

95. Highlight, underline, and bookmark

96. Minutes and reports are necessary
But they often aren't used
because they remain static

97. Book knowledge: Change oil every 3 months

98. Institutional memory: Change oil on events
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New Year's
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Spring thaw
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Fourth of July
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First freeze

99. Reward conscientious documentation

100. Develop documentation into an expertise
Just like
accounting,
maintenance, or
management

101. Documentation & standards built Japan Inc.

102. Honda motorized its first bicycle in 1947
And built its first car in 1962

103. Today, Honda builds jets

104. Documentation overcomes a slow start

105. It must be used to become valuable
Toyota is #1 and Honda is building jets
because they deliberately work
on building institutional memory

106. Start with a 3-ring binder and loose leaf

107. Note external sources of change
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New regulations
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New methods
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New state of the art

108. Read "The Checklist Manifesto"

109. Keep a second copy of essentials
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Parkersburg wasn't the first devastating tornado
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It won't be the last

110. Decisions last longer than you usually expect
Often long past the memories and careers
of those who made them

111. Utility decisions have unusually long durations

112. The weakest ink outlasts the strongest memory

113. Questions?
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Thank you for coming!

Call or email anytime
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Brian Gongol
DJ Gongol & Associates
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515-223-4144
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info@djgongol.com
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@djgongol on social media
(Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram)

114. References and credits
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Screenshots of Turkish demolition used under written permission from the BBC
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Alexander Hamilton portrait from the public domain:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96513526/
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"Bender" page screenshot from Wikipedia used under Wikipedia's open terms of
use: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use
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Honda history: http://world.honda.com/history/limitlessdreams/atype/index.html
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HondaJet image from press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/
20140519005444/en/Production-Progressing-Honda-Aircraft-Prepares-
HondaJet-Entry#.VUvS8vlViko
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"Checklist Manifesto" cover art from author website:
http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/
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Iowa DNR press release on creek signs:
https://www.iowadnr.gov/About-DNR/DNR-News-Releases/ArticleID/1394/
Iowans-creating-connections-with-creeks-with-signs
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All other photos are original work of and copyright reserved by Brian Gongol