Organizations create lots of files. Plans, budgets, procedures, marketing pieces, grant applications, reports, timelines, proposals, memos, newsletters, meeting agendas and summaries (I hope), and on and on. You create, save, and share hundreds of files each month.
As I pointed out in my last post, how we name, edit, and save theses files determines how useful they are when it comes to preserving and sharing knowledge. Messy shared drives cost organizations in wasted time, effort, and knowledge because you spend time searching for or recreating files, re-doing work that was lost or never shared, and working in the wrong versions.
Your Folder Structure
One common tip in discussions of knowledge and file management is to create folder structures to organize files. For example, files may be organized by department, functional area, audience, creator, or topic. If we are really good at creating and using these folder structures, we can find what we need pretty easily. If we over-build our folder structures, with too many levels/layers and too many folders, we actually make our lives harder. It’s a Goldilocks situation.
At The IllumiLab, we organize our internal files first according to business operations (e.g., marketing, business analysis and improvement, plans, content, etc.) and then according to file types (e.g., meeting summaries, research, plans, reflections, evaluation, etc.). And, we have a document defining each of those operations and types so we know what files should go where. Very tidy. Very consistent.
But, the way we organized our files was not supporting our learning! Our tidy shared drive was a problem!
Your Thought Processes
Let me illustrate one of our team’s common thought processes. Each time we consider launching a new product or service or changing the way we operate, we follow the same general steps.
- Ideation – Articulate the pain point, opportunity, or idea.
- Research – Research options and/or best practices.
- Discussion & Decision-Making – Discuss our findings and make a decision.
- Planning – Plan to implement our decision.
- Reflection & Evaluation – Gather and reflect on data and experience to identify opportunities for improvement and decide next steps.
- Improvement – Make changes and improvements and start all over again.
Aligning Folder Structures and Thought Processes
Each step in the process was documented, but in a different place! Ideas, discussions, decisions, and reflections were documented in meeting notes – but in different meetings, so different sets of notes. Plans were saved with plans. Evaluations were saved with “business analysis & improvement.” Reflections were in another set of meeting notes. You see my point?
We felt the impact of this file folder structure each time we got to the end of our cycle of learning. When something didn’t work as we’d hoped, we’d say, “Why didn’t we do X instead? Why did we choose to do Y?” Well, to answer that question, I’d have to figure out during which meeting we discussed it and look up those meeting notes to find our rationale. And/or, I’d have to remember where we stored our research on the options and best practices and then pair that with the meeting notes to get the full picture.
I wanted to be able to see the whole thread in one place, to see the continuous thought process, the evolution of ideas, and the roots of decisions. I wanted to document our knowledge in cohesive cycles, not discrete activities or efforts.
So, we are experimenting with a new folder structure. Rather than organizing files by business function or file type, we are organizing them according to topic, project, or thought process. One file will contain research, decision rationales, plans, and reflections. A to Z. Soup to Nuts. A continuous golden thread.
The Bottom Line
Do you create files just to store them, or do you intend to use them? If you intend to use them, give some thought to who will use them, how, when, and why. Then, organize the files in ways that lend themselves to being (found and) used.
Can you find the research and rationale you need to remember and revisit your choices and decisions? Does the organization of your files support continuous and cohesive cycles of learning? If not, play around with a new folder structure!