The Link Between the Health of the Corporate Brain and Culture
Those offering insights into ways to make the corporate brain function more effectively suggest that the corporate brain may be as complex as its biological counterpart. Respondents alternatively focused on learning, constant usage, and memory.
Where learning was the primary concern, the orderly introduction of new talent into an organization, perhaps by periodically identifying and letting the lowest performers go, was applauded. One of the comments reflects this view: "What is really important is that companies continue to invest in knowledge management practices but at the same time remain flexible enough to source new expertise and knowledge from outside the company." The planned termination of the lowest performing employees was characterized as a way "to forget things we no longer need to know," a process "too often ignore[d]."
Charles Carroll pointed out "Corporate brain cells, like their biological counterparts, must be used to be valuable." A part of this usage involves getting employees to share knowledge they possess with the organization. Or as Varun Sahay said, "Intellectual capital that belongs to employees has to be transferred into the corporate brain," a formidable task in many organizations.
Those stressing the importance of memory placed the greatest value on the retention of talent in the organization. As C. J. Cullinane put it, "If employees are the brain cells, then long-term employees are the long-term memory of the corporate brain."
Most respondents, in one way or another and without mentioning it explicitly, suggested strong linkages between the health of the corporate brain and the organizational culture of which it is a part. For example, will individuals be more willing to share their "intellectual capital" in some cultures more than others? What are the characteristics of such cultures? How can they be nurtured? What do you think?