I feel qualified to provide input here. Hopefully it helps. Ironically, it is quite verbose.

I position myself as

- Virtual Chief Knowledge Officer aas

- Virtual Chief Quality Officer aas

- Virtual Chief Information Officer aas

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Issue 1: "Knowledge and process is seen as a dichotomy, but shouldn't be".

All businesses that I have worked with, and all discussions I have seen or been a part of, draw a distinction between actual operations, and the workflow & guides that govern them.

The problem manifests as such:

- The business doesn't update info, as it is buried away (out of sight, out of mind)

- This fundamentally undermines the information immediately, making it even less likely to be used

- The information is therefore less likely to be updated, compounding the issue further.

Instead, these should be tightly integrated. For example - If a ticket/job is generated, the relevant guide should be proactively attached by the system as part of that ticket. When a human comes to that job, the information is there waiting for them. People aren't going to go out of their way to bring up information.

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Issue 2: "The Business Manual is verbose, not effective or up to date, and people don't like it"

Most business manual's aren't encouraging use anyway, in that they aren't relevant, are too constricting in areas, and are verbose.

1. Simplify (streamline the process, break the process down into procedures, break procedures down into atomic steps. Everyone in the organisation should know exactly what your processes are)

2. Automate (any steps that can be automated, should be)

3. Steer (Any steps that cannot be automated, should have a guide attached - But only to the extent that you need).

The last point is critical, as I often see strict, long instruction documents that stifle creativity, have a negative impact on job satisfaction, and don't cater for everything possible anyway.

Instead, guides should be curated to the extent required only, using the following attributes:

- Budget hours (if you exceed this let's regroup and decide whether to re-plan)

- Instructions (only where specific and accurate steps need to be followed)

- Considerations list (exhaust this before escalating, but allow creativity)

- Notes (general hints and tips / knowledge base that should be added to over time)

- Team (a section which shows who can train and undertake the task, and who is on the 'to-train' list)

- Reference (reference information or items)

- Tools (any potentially relevant tools)

This strikes a balance between paternalism and laissez-faire, and uses each where it is most effective.
It solves a problem in that business manuals tend to be 'ineffectually authoritarian', so people resent them anyway.

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Issue 3: Information gets stuck

The following should be standard practice (knowledge transfer is king):

1. An entity is generated in the system

2. Template auto attaches

3. The template has a list of people authorised to undertake that entity, and a list of people to induct to that procedure/task

4. One of those authorised people undertakes the task, along with someone on the 'to train' list

5. Repeat 1-5 until trainer can 'pass' trainee. Trainee's name added to the top of the authorised list

6. Trainer moves down the list of members as people are inducted and added to top of the list, therefore gets used less and less for that task and is freed up to move 'up the process chain'

This creates a moving machine within the organisation, where people are proactively provided information to complete their job, and proactively are able to pass that knowledge on and faciliate personal development within the company.

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Issue 4: Reactive thinking, lack of proactive thinking

The following should be deeply ingrained into the culture:

1. The business becomes aware of 'the system' no longer comprehensively and accurately reflecting reality

2. The interface node (user / system) that discovers this difference should log it immediately in or as a system entity (service ticket, general client, technical documentation update, client information change, new client user, data breach, potential sale, etc.)

3. All relevant information should be auto-attached

4. Whenever any entity is being closed off, the team member considers whether there are any potential follow ups that they can derive (including improvements to the template/guide), and triggers them

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"3 clicks away" is not good enough. "2 clicks away" [was never] good enough. Information needs to be a) in the user's immediate view along with their work, or b) a single click away (to hide peripheral information, so as not to overload the primary view).

Documentation is unfortunately often an afterthought, or at best is a follow-up task for a system that is not at the forefront of people's vision and mind.

As a final thought, here are two contributions to the suggested software so far (no affiliation):

- IT Glue (if you are in the IT industry) (www.itglue.com)

- Process Street (www.process.st)