The Loop Approach Is What Makes Tomorrow’s Companies Future-Proof
Stagnancy is fatal for businesses. Constant change is an integral part of a successful corporate culture. Yes, flexible structures and the courage to break new ground are fundamental — but not enough. In addition, companies must bridge the gap between the management of existing knowledge and the hidden potential of their resources.The Loop Approach is the right tool for that.
In the non-fiction book “The Loop Approach” Sebastian Klein and Ben Hughes describe a convincing way for companies to optimize working with their internal knowledge pools. Never-ending email chains, double efforts in research, and outdated articles can be avoided by making use of the approach. More independence, active use and expansion of the Wiki through input from specialist departments are the goals.
Follow Your Purpose
When a company grows, its fundamental objective can get out of sight. This is the rule rather than the exception: Habits take over, work processes are carried out as a matter of routine.
The first step of the Loop Approach is to ask the following questions: What is our goal? What is the purpose of our business? What strategy do we want to use to achieve our goals? By the way: only those who know the exact direction can introduce a guideline to regularly update and maintain a Wiki.
Show Responsibility
Next to that, responsibilities need to be set and specified. To be clear: flat hierarchies do not oppose the Loop Approach, but the responsibilities must be assigned.
This aspect plays an important role in the development and maintenance of your Wiki. Only if the know-how and knowledge are contributed by the appropriate department specialized in a certain field, the highest quality of content can be ensured.
Work on Your Effectiveness
Once the responsibilities are clear, and each employee is informed about the competences of the different areas, it must be ensured whether the previous step of the Loop Approach worked out.
Discussions and exchanges within teams and between departments are a necessity to generate maximum effectiveness in performance and output. In the best case, costs are reduced, as external services and agencies are no longer required as the internal knowledge flow is now optimized. The in-house expertise provides impetus in the right places.
Adjust to the Market
Once internal structures have been modernized and the goal has been defined, your company must continually prove itself on the market with a fresh breeze. It is fundamental to be open to the changing needs and circumstances of your industry.
A constant look at the company’s internal Wiki is a good starting point — to both see beyond partial short-term interests and to recognize important turning points. What new topics need to be discussed? What is relevant in the long term? Appropriate guidelines enable a quick overview of the fast-moving market.
Take Advantage of Criticism
Not every change is good. Accepting constructive criticism and transforming it into new projects is also part of the Loop Approach, as it creates fertile ground for upcoming decisions. With a lived feedback culture, ideas find their way into project developments easier.
In order to constantly integrate the advantages of the Loop Approach into the company, a permanent repetition of the individual steps is necessary. Only by keeping the loop permanently in motion, the results will remain future-proof. Keeping in motion is the only way to ensure that the concept pays off with all its benefits.
Let us know if you have any further questions about setting up your knowledge management strategy and say hi to: mail@skara.io.
Skara is currently in the beta phase. Sign up now!
