Independent Banker - July 2024 - 27

PORTFOLIO LEADERSHIP AT ALL LEVELS
Next: Protect every area of the bank branch 
Practical tips for
knowledge transfer
By Lindsay LaNore, ICBA
Video can be a
great channel
for imparting
information.
Job shadowing is another great
tool for knowledge transfer, and
it's especially eff ective for visual
or verbal learners. As it is more
of an immersive, back-and-forth
opportunity, creativity is needed to
fi nd the best ways to leverage this
process. You should still think about
starting it sooner rather than later.
Learning via YouTube or TikTok is
commonplace today, so consider using
video to create content that has longterm
value. It's like job shadowing
that you can pause, rewind and share.
It may feel a little awkward at fi rst,
but the camera can capture a lot of
processes. The key is to have someone
who is great at asking questions help
make the videos. (Pro tip: Be careful
not to capture private personal
information on these videos, or you'll
need to fi nd appropriate ways to store
them for privacy purposes.)
hen community bankers
with decades of experience
retire, they take with them a precious
commodity: their knowledge. But
it doesn't have to be that way. By
being purposeful and deliberate
about knowledge transfer, a bank can
minimize disruption and confusion,
while also creating a culture of
mentorship and learning.
Start by taking a look at your
written procedures. Banks do a pretty
good job of having procedures in place
for certain processes, but details can
be missed, not updated or not written
completely. How long has it been
since your written procedures were
reviewed and updated? An annual
review is advisable, and since crafting
W
the best written procedures doesn't
come naturally to everyone, lean
on your risk, audit and compliance
offi cers. They tend to think in those
very detailed ways, and it makes sense
to leverage that skill set.
Documenting tasks is another
eff ective tool. Put simply, this
means creating a list of a person's
responsibilities, and it goes
beyond what is written in their job
description. It's a chronological list
of what a person does each day or
week on the job. Ask the retiring team
member to keep a diary during their
last year with the bank, noting all
tasks big and small. This ensures that
actions which happen less often don't
get forgotten.
Repurpose teambuilding
One fi nal tip to consider is
repurposing the traditional " teambuilding
question. " At meetings,
throw out a prompt that gets more
people sharing the intricacies of their
specifi c roles. What is the hardest
aspect of your job? What steps did you
take to complete this report? This is
the fun part! Get your team talking,
sharing stories and exchanging ideas.
Learn from others. Be curious.
All of these tools can be used to
share the knowledge of subject matter
experts-whether they are retiring
imminently or not-and building
knowledge transfer into the bank's
culture is a great way of avoiding a
last-minute scramble.
Lindsay LaNore (lindsay.lanore@
icba.org) is ICBA's senior
executive vice president and chief
learning and experience off icer.
independentbanker.org // 27
Photo by Charlize D/peopleimages.com/Adobe
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - July 2024

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