How to share 20 years of experience

If KM were truly embedded in the cultures of our organizations, would the following scenario ever happen?
An employee with 20+ years of experience in the company, and a vast amount of unique, experiential, vital knowledge retires. The company asks him to tell them where his files are, make a list of his projects, and requests, maybe, that he interview his replacement. They then hold an exit interview during which the employee is asked to identify why the employee is leaving (hmmm...the relevance of the answer is what?), what he liked or disliked about his employment with the company (OK, again, the relevance is what?), and what, in his opinion, could be done to help employees stay longer (do I need to repeat the question above?). And that, my friends, is the extent of the knowledge transfer. Perhaps there is a bit more, but nothing formalized.

Why is this? Because there is no process in place, and because they waited 20 years to do it. Sharing 20 years of knowledge is no easy feat. Yes, it can be done. I am working with a client group now in which we are sharing 35 years of unique, business critical knowledge from a group of people and it is going very well. However it would have been so much easier and effective to have processes to share this knowledge along the way.

Start with the small things-- ask people to share key learnings from meetings, invite both the newbies and the tenured folks to meetings you've already scheduled and get them to dialogue, question and tell stories. Have people share their key learnings and make constructive questioning a valued way of life. Let key milestones in projects or initiatives be a driver to do an honest assessment and lessons learned.

Waiting 20 years means many lost opportunities, lost knowledge and hard work. Don't make knowledge transfer more complex then it need be. And, most importantly, don't wait. By the time the knowledge is shared, those who could have applied it immediately are playing with their grandchildren.