What is operational knowledge?
Operational knowledge is the practical understanding of how work really gets done — the activities, roles, systems, information and approvals involved, and the judgement needed to handle real situations. It is the everyday expertise that keeps an organisation running.
What is organisational knowledge?
Organisational knowledge is the wider body of knowledge an organisation relies on, including operational knowledge, decisions, history and lessons learned. Operational knowledge is the part that describes how work is actually performed.
Much of this knowledge is tacit: it lives in people's experience and is rarely written down in full. That is exactly what makes it valuable — and easy to lose.
Why operational knowledge is hard to capture
Operational knowledge is hard to capture because it is detailed, connected and constantly changing. A single task can involve several roles, systems and approvals, and the way it is really done often differs from the way it is officially documented.
Static documents struggle to represent these connections, and they drift out of date quickly as reality moves on.
How do organisations capture operational knowledge?
Organisations capture operational knowledge most effectively by working with the people who hold it, structuring the knowledge so the connections are clear, and maintaining it as work changes.
Ask The Gaffer™ captures operational knowledge by building a connected model of how your organisation works — activities, roles, systems, information and approvals — and maintaining it as a managed service so it stays true to how work really happens.
