Trust in the Leader of Collaborative Process Design and Facilitation
SKILL SK-28 | Learning & Institutionalization
Knowledge Management
The systematic practice of capturing, organizing, and transferring the knowledge - relationships, informal agreements, community history, system nuances - that makes an SE-GRM system function, so that it survives staff turnover, phase transitions, and institutional change.
How to Develop It
1. Relationship register
For the 20 most important community and institutional relationships you hold, document: who they are, their role, the history of the relationship, outstanding concerns or commitments, and what they need to trust a new contact. Store where a successor can access it.
2. Knowledge transfer workshop
Before any staff transition, run a two-hour knowledge transfer session with the incoming person: community history, relationship sensitivities, outstanding concerns, informal agreements, and what the community is watching most closely right now.
3. Living documentation audit
Review your current SE-GRM documentation. Identify what is captured formally and what exists only in your head or in informal channels. For each informal knowledge item, create a simple record. Do this quarterly - not only when a transition is imminent.
Why This Skill Matters
SE-GRM systems that work often work because of specific people who hold specific relationships and knowledge. When those people leave, the knowledge leaves too - and a system that appeared functional collapses. Knowledge management makes systems resilient rather than merely functional.
Observable Behaviors
+ Documents community relationships, informal agreements, and cultural context beyond formal records
+ Maintains records a new staff member could use to rebuild relationships quickly after a transition
+ Creates and updates onboarding materials for SE-GRM roles at each project phase
+ Identifies which knowledge is held only by specific individuals and takes steps to transfer it
+ Treats knowledge transfer as an ongoing practice, not a departure task
Self-Assessment
Read each Reflective Question below and honestly consider how consistently you demonstrate this in your actual fieldwork, not how you think you should behave, but how you do behave. Then assign a score from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest):
(1) Not yet developed: Rarely demonstrated in practice
(2) Emerging: Demonstrated sometimes, but inconsistently or only under favorable conditions
(3) Established: Demonstrated reliably in most situations, including moderately challenging ones
(4) Adaptive: Demonstrated reliably even in high-pressure situations, and practitioner actively helps
Common Gaps & Pitfalls
! Treating knowledge management as a departure activity rather than an ongoing practice
! Documenting processes but not relationships - the relationship context is often what makes processes work
! Assuming institutional memory is preserved in formal records - most of what matters is in people
Connections
Related Tool
Staff Transition Continuity Protocol
SOP Builder
Phase Transition Handover Protocol
Reflective Questions Score from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest):
I maintain documentation of key community relationships and their history beyond formal records
I can onboard a successor to my SE-GRM role within a week using existing documentation
I regularly update relationship and knowledge records, not only when a transition is approaching
I have identified knowledge held only by specific individuals and taken steps to transfer it
Th shared to the public for free courtesy of the
THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION GROUP FOUNDATION
www.coregroup.org.ph * info@coregroup.org.ph
in partnership with SustainABILITIES Lab
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