The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
Average customer rating:

This book Is The Best of The Best!

Effectiveness, honesty, simplicity

Overcoming Inertia - Uniting New Knowledge with Action

Packed with Knowledge!

Knowledge alone is a watseful Investment

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
Jeffrey Pfeffer , and Robert I. Sutton
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

Every year, companies spend billions of dollars on training programs and management consultants, searching for ways to improve. But it's mostly all talk and no action, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap. "Did you ever wonder why so much education and training, management consultation, organizational research and so many books and articles produce so few changes in actual management practice?" ask Stanford University professors Pfeffer and Sutton. "We wondered, too, and so we embarked on a quest to explore one of the great mysteries in organizational management: why knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge." The authors describe the most common obstacles to action---such as fear and inertia---and profile successful companies that overcome them.

Among the companies that Pfeffer and Sutton say do it right: General Electric, the Men's Wearhouse, SAS Institute, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and British Petroleum. The book, based on four years of research, is broken into chapters with titles such as "When Talk Substitutes for Action," "When Fear Prevents Acting on Knowledge," "When Internal Competition Turns Friends into Enemies," and "Turning Knowledge into Action." Each chapter contains tips on what to do and what to avoid, and provides examples of how a lethargic company culture can be transformed. The Knowing-Doing Gap is a useful how-to guide for managers looking to make changes. Yet, as Pfeffer and Sutton point out, it takes more than reading their book or discussing their recommendations. It takes action. --Dan Ring

Book Description

The market for business knowledge is booming, as companies looking to improve their performance pour billions of dollars into training programs, consultants, and executive education. Why, then, are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results.

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear-firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place.

The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.

Download Description

Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.

Customer Reviews:

This book Is The Best of The Best!.......2007-07-26

This book hits the nail on the head. It's straight forward, easy to read format makes it a must read for every business leader who wants to get out from under knowing what to do and move to DOING the things that need to be done to move their organization forward!

Effectiveness, honesty, simplicity.......2006-10-24

Certainly in modern hi-tech work people need to be skilled, and know how to do their work well. But with all that knowledge, and people and systems concerned with knowledge management (and management in general), one may wonder at times why more work doesn't get done sooner. The authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap address this question. If you see parts of yourself or your work environment in these examples, it may be time to discuss it with others so you can get more work done with what you know already.

Overcoming Inertia - Uniting New Knowledge with Action.......2005-11-08

Two stellar professors use their experience and research to address the problem of organizational inertia in spite of our wide-spread and prevailing knowledge.

The premise is that a gap exists between our knowledge and the application of that knowledge in business... and that it can be closed. It cites that every year 1,700 business books are published, 60 billion dollars spent on training, 443 billion dollars spent on consulting and 80,000 new MBAs hit the business landscape... and still businesses are failing to apply the latest well-known and most viable principles and practices.

The authors break down the causes of this gap into five main reasons. After backing-up each reason with facts and examples, direct solutions are given to its remedy. Eight guidelines for action are then presented to fix this problem in your company. Case studies of business that have made huge turn-arounds using this appoach really amplify the authors' message.

This book is a great guide and loaded with ideas to getting the ball rolling in your business, non-profit organization... and dare I stretch to say your personal affairs. Knowing what to do, by itself is not enough... in businesses, churches or homes.

Application of this book's guidelines will make all of your other books, training, consulting, and manpower pay off. The tendency to just 'intellectualize' this information will be offset by your exposure to the real reasons knowledge hasn't lead to action in your experience. At least, that is the goal!

Five Stars

Packed with Knowledge!.......2005-06-20

Comedian Bill Cosby once sang a metaphorical ditty about a man who sat on the railroad tracks each day, only to be hit by a train. He knew when the train was coming, but he just couldn't apply that knowledge to get out of the way. That circumstance will sound hauntingly familiar to corporate consultants. Consider the experience of two consultants conducting deregulation research for a Latin American utility company. They stumbled over an excellent 500-page report completed years previously by a prior consultant. The document had all the information and analysis the company was seeking, but it had never been utilized. Authors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton expose the alarming gap between what senior managers know and what they actually implement. After four years of intensive research into this issue, they uncover valuable lessons on how to make sure your organization doesn't talk itself to death. Today's companies are struggling to overcome inertia and become more nimble. That's why we strongly recommend this book for managers at every level; if nothing else, you'll know what you ought to be doing.

Knowledge alone is a watseful Investment .......2004-10-10

The only book on the very important subject I know off. The authors share their views on the their a well researched topic.
The key issues in Knowing Doing gap are 1. Top management 2. The culture 3. Aura of being knowledgable 4. Focus on sounding great with less emphasis on performance 5. Faulty Measurements 6. Fear.

They also cite exeample of companies that have less of this gap by focussing on simplicity, communcation that is imlementation oriented, simple plans that work rather than complex issues such as balance score cards. They indirectly bring out the fact that Top management gap in understanding of the ground realities, has a direct bearing on knowing doing gap.

Going by their own emphasis to help readers in reducing the knowing doing gap, they could have reduced the descriptive nature of the book. They could have inserted an overview chart, showing the various symptoms of knowing doing gap in one column, ccauses, remedies, good co examples in another column. Subsequesnt revisions of this book may consider this feedback.

The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things

Average customer rating:

As significant today as it was when first published
This Is a Great Resource!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !
Powerful Organizational Focus
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked

The Power of Alignment: How Great Companies Stay Centered and Accomplish Extraordinary Things
George Labovitz , and Victor Rosansky
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.

Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.

As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.

In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals

Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.

"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers

"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.

"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.

"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.

Customer Reviews:

As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26

After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.

This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10

I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.

One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!

Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03

Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.

Five Stars

Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28

Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.

In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.

The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.

The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.

The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."

Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13

I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.

Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.

For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.

Amazon.com

From the time our ancestors lived in caves to that day in the late '80s when Chrysler sanctioned unofficial "tech clubs" to promote the flow of information between teams working on different vehicle platforms, bands of like-minded individuals had been gathering in a wide variety of settings to recount their experiences and share their expertise. Few paid much attention until a number of possible benefits to business were identified, but many are watching more closely now that definitive links have been established. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, consultants Etienne C. Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William Snyder take the concept to another level by describing how these groups might be purposely developed as a key driver of organizational performance in the knowledge age. Building on a 1998 book by Wenger that framed the theory for an academic audience, Cultivating Communities of Practice targets practitioners with pragmatic advice based on the accumulating track records of firms such as the World Bank, Shell Oil, and McKinsey & Company. Starting with a detailed explanation of what these groups really are and why they can prove so useful in managing knowledge within an organization, the authors discuss development from initial design through subsequent evolution. They also address the potential "dark side"--arrogance, cliquishness, rigidity, and fragmentation among participants, for example--as well as measurement issues and the challenges inherent in initiating these groups company-wide. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy.

Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization.

In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable.

Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them.

Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them.

Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews:

Excelent Book.......2007-10-01

I have a project focused on communities, and this book seems right on what I needed. I haven't read it completely, so this is only a first sight review.

How to Thoughtfully Steward Knowledge for the Common Good.......2007-01-02

Cultivating Communities of Practice is a manual and guide created by a community of authors in order to help businesses and organizations more thoughtfully and intentionally steward the knowledge of the community for the benefit of the whole. They understand that energy and "aliveness" about any topic is not created or manufactured, but simply cultivated. Just like a farmer must cultivate the soil, plant the seeds, nurture the crop, and identify and deal with the weeds; the authors help us learn the in and outs of how to cultivate communities that learn to manage knowledge for the common good. In this guide they provide us with the three basic elements for communities of practice; the seven principles for cultivating these communities; the five developmental stages of these communities; the common disorders and treatments; and finally how to start communities of practice in such as way that these communities work for the benefit of the whole. This guide enables people to move from theory to practice.

The three fundamental elements of communities of practice.
While communities of practice have many forms - large and small, local and global, within or across organizational boundaries - they all have three common elements, each of which plays a vital role in the health and success of these communities. When one understands the three fundamentals of communities of practice - domain, community and practice - they are able to better help these groups evolve to their full potential.

* The domain is the specific sphere of knowledge or particular issues that identifies the heartfelt concern of this community. A well-defined domain gives focus and depth to the community and allows the community to be on the leading edge in a particular area of knowledge.

* The community is the people who embody and steward the knowledge in this particular domain. It is "a group of people who interact, learn together, build relationships, and in the process develop a sense of belonging and mutual commitment." (Pg. 34) While each community develops a unique ethos; trust and respect are key elements for any community.

* The Practice entails a shared set of practical resources, protocols, tools, frameworks and ideas that enable the community to perfect and develop their particular craft. "Whereas the domain denotes the topic the community focuses on, the practice is the specific knowledge the community develops, shares and maintains." (Pg. 29)

Because knowledge with human beings is a complex matter, the head (domain), the heart (community) and the hands (practice) each play a vital role in communities of practice.

This is a great book on how to thoughtfully steward knowledge for the common good.

Excellent seminal material.......2006-08-05

It is an esential book for organization leaders, since it points out the main issues that impact on performace, based on the true social knitting of communities.
It establishes clearly the structure of communities and discusses their stages of development, which by themselves are an excellent tip to develop communities within a company. The doughnut metaphor for the dynamics of performance and strategy is an excellent way of explaining the double fabric of relations in a company.

Making it happen.......2006-05-30

I have a great interest in how organizations, particularly those with Christian leadership, work and how they respond to change. This book is rich with the stuff that will help organizations develop in a globalized society. I asked many questions as I read the book. For example, "How does YWAM's Student Mobilization Centre, as a growing network of ministries internationally, develop community and create truly life changing learning spaces for students and leaders who participate in our ministries?"

How can I contextualize a Community of Practice within the framework of YWAM's ministries?
In recent years, our leadership has begun to weave our international conferences around points of passion, like water, women's issues, justice, and children at risk. Our mission has also begun to look at a new paradigm for global strategy called Project 4K wherein the map is divided into about 4000 geographic units highlighting those areas still requiring engagement. What is needed in YWAM is a new cross-platform, multi-disciplinary team focus to properly engage each of those geographic regions.

Our Student Mobilization Centre, a centre of the University of the Nation, needs to develop field leaders who can coordinate multi-disciplinary field project teams and who harmonize outreach teams to serve the long-term community development project goals with special emphasis on field based learning. The UofN operates with the same conclusion that Wenger, et al present in Communities of Practice; that is, useful knowledge is not a downloadable commodity. It requires participation. The best learning experiences are in the context of relationships, especially those experiences and relationships that at the same time unfamiliar and familiar. In my experience, students learn best when taken out of the familiar culture to serve and learn in a context that challenges their expectations and status quo learning experiences. They also learn best if put in a situation where they are challenged to work together with those who either share their skill set and academic training, or they share the same missionary goals.

The advantage to us if we follow this integrative field project model of ministry in the University of the Nations is that we will begin to share knowledge gained in the field. Wenger argues that we can "establish a common baseline" of curriculum for the training school outreaches of the UofN. We will also increase our ability and speed generating and implementing creative ideas for community development, evangelization, and training. These project teams will help us steward and share the knowledge gained. These long-term community development field projects could serve as "laboratories" for curriculum development as well as cross-disciplinary field project leadership development.

To accomplish this, we will need to form cross-platform, multi-disciplinary, communities of practice at field sites where school outreaches may be hosted and outreach staff leadership may be trained. The most essential element of this field-based learning community is the authentic cross-cultural ministry that must be the foundational intent and the fruit of the project. When these missionary communities of practice exist, the witness of the Kingdom of God will be evident in a much greater way, at that field site. These communities of learning and leadership equipping may in turn affect a change in the whole of our mission through an integrated development model of field ministry and leadership equipping.

How might I develop a Community of Practice in Madison, WI?
YWAM's campus ministry at the University of Wisconsin is going through a re-birth and re-generation since our recent inaugural School of University Ministries wherein key leaders in Madison have been given new insight, developed new international cooperation, and shared vision. I see now how the formation of a multi-faceted community of practice in Madison with strong links to field-based learning communities provides a context for a new model of Church engagement with the university community. This community of practice will be a new international study center at the University of Wisconsin.

This new community will not replace existing structures. It will build connections between these different structures including churches, families, professionals/professors, and student organizations. It will connect students, faculty, families, business and church leaders in the university community from many cultures and nations. For example, families have a reason for engaging the university students, because "God sets the lonely in families" and students need role models for marriage and family. However, families do not have much context or place from which to engage students. Therefore there is a need for this kind of community.

The key knowledge that may be shared in this context will come from the field-based learning communities; these communities will link problems and needs with solutions. The problems will always be relevant to today's global community. However, the solutions will not be presented from the ivory tower of the academy or from the expert in the field. Solutions will be discovered together in a multi-cultural, multi-discipline, cross-platform, international community of practice engaged in serving and learning at home and abroad. The challenge for us in YWAM is to "cultivate" this kind of community by removing barriers and encouraging participation. Wenger et al says, "You cannot cultivate this new community model in the same way you develop traditional organizational structures." Our aim will be to connect these pockets of people who have some interest in engaging students and issues relevant to today, especially in the cause of Christ. Our challenge is to create a space and coordinate these unconnected people at key events that will foster the development of a new community; we must cultivate a community of practice.

What can I do to develop our international network with the Communities of Practice paradigm?

The cross-platform project teams and field-based learning sites I have been referring to are the key to our international development in the Student Mobilization Centre. Internationally, we are equipping and releasing leaders to create network teams within their own context. A "common baseline" of terms and methods is forming as our new course, the School of University Ministries, begins to multiply internationally to equip this generation of YWAM campus ministry workers. What is missing is a field-based outreach practices training experience or a field assignment for the School of University Ministries. What must be done is the formation of field project teams at field sites to host, equip, and train outreach team leaders as they carryout the function of leading a student outreach team on an integrated development project.

I desire to see the practical outworking of this vision within the context of my own life and ministry. The challenge to me is to deliberately form communities of practice in my ministry context. This book give me the tools and the principles to make it happen.

A good book but not for everyone.......2006-04-04

The authors have done an impressive work collecting best practices from industries. The book is a good textbook for all KM and OD practitioners to consider in learning about CoP. However, as one of the reviewers have noted, it does not tell you the steps in nurturing a CoP since human behaviours differ among (as well as WITHIN) organisations. The book does however provide a clear definition of how a working CoP would look like.
Readers who are keen on KM should read other works on social network to complement the learning. At the heart of any CoP is social dynamics. Understanding that will help to create CoP that is sustainable and useful to the organisation.

Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage

Average customer rating:

Excellent practical guidebook
thick clotted prose
Very practical indeed
A useful practical model
The Future is Here!

Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage
Hubert Saint-Onge , and Debra Wallace
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 075067458X

Book Description

How can you build a successful community of practice that is integrally linked to your company's strategic vision? Learn from the first-hand experience of Hubert Saint-Onge, recognized by Fortune magazine as a leader in the field of knowledge capital, and co-author Debra Wallace, the people responsible for a recent project to establish a community of practice for independent agents at Clarica Life Insurance Company voted one of the most admired knowledge enterprises in the world by practitioners and researchers.

'Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage' combines theory and practice to outline a model for developing successful communities of practice and proposes a direction for establishing communities of practice as an integral part of the organizational structure. Saint-Onge and Wallace relate what worked, what didn't, and why as they tell the story from inception through implementation to assessment. Whether you're developing communities of practice or want to learn how to leverage existing communities for strategic gain, this book provides you with everything you need to launch successful communities of practice in your organization.

* Hubert Saint-Onge has been recognized by Fortune magazine as a leader in the area of leveraging knowledge capital
* Clarica has been voted one of the most admired knowledge enterprises in the world by practitioners and researchers
* Combines theory and practice to outline a model for developing successful communities of practice

Customer Reviews:

Excellent practical guidebook.......2005-12-31

While there are a number of books with marvellous content about the theory of communities of practice, this is the one that I go back to over and over again for practical, step-by-step guidance.

I have used and recommended this book often. It is the manual I employed when I created my first formal community of practice in early 2004 - and that community is still going strong and growing, even though I am no longer working with that organization!

thick clotted prose.......2005-03-27

This book is comprised of the kind of writing Sockel calls "thick clotted prose". After decades of reading the clear, unadorned, precise and excellent English of The Economist, I have become intolerant of pretentious layered jargon. What, for example, does this sentence say, which could not be said in simple words: "The organization's objectives, responses, and business models should be calibrated on the basis of its capabilities." Perhaps it could have been: "Organizations should do things they are good at." If this thick clotted prose had coagulated into high scholarship, I might have bothered to read on. Alas, that was not the case. The authors write, in a gesture alluding to scholarship: "Evidence shows that customers are demanding clearer information from their solution providers..." What evidence? It was not given, nor references to studies showing it. Read this book to find out how not to write.

Better still, get yourself a good book on this topic. See "Cultivating Communities of Practice" by Wenger at al., from Harvard Business School Press. Here you shall find lucid expression, good English, thorough endnoting and source documentation, and a comprehensive treatement of the topic.

Very practical indeed.......2003-09-26

This book has proved very practical indeed with the developing of CoPs in our environment.

A useful practical model.......2003-02-19

The book describes the introduction of a virtual community of practice, the Agents Network, at Clarica Life Insurance, Canada's first and oldest mutual insurance company. The book offers a practical and detailed example of the establishment, implementation and evaluation of the virtual community, with examples of the tools used by the project team at Clarica.

The authors introduce the notion of communities of practice as a new strategy to leverage knowledge capital to create sustainable competitive advantage. By valuing communities of practice, by recognising the contribution of community members, and giving support for time and commitment) and providing an infrastructure (e.g. giving them a communication platform, active facilitation and information resources), the authors suggest that organizations can increase the speed of innovation and knowledge sharing.

The Community Development Process Model (p.137) provides an excellent 'roadmap' to the approach they undertook that is readily understood. Practical suggestions and tools about evaluating the value of the community are also provided. There is a good combination of theory and practice and, therefore, something for anyone interested in this topic. It has a balance between high-level strategic models, and detailed and practical examples.

The approach taken at Clarica was systematic and project-managed, with the organization playing a very active role in facilitating the conceptualisation, establishment, growth and expansion of the community. The organization obviously provided significant resources to undertake the project. Virtual communities of practice, like the one described in the book, clearly require strong organisational support and resources due to the technological infrastructure they require to be effective.

The authors do not purport to provide a recipe - rather, they tell a story about the introduction of a virtual community of practice in one organization - as such, the book offers an in-depth view of the process. The questions asked at the end of each chapter are intended to challenge readers to assess whether the approach described would work in their own organization.

Practitioners may be tempted to read more widely to find alternative approaches to developing communities of practice, and to select 'the best of the best'. The Clarica approach is only one way, but it does provide sound conceptual models that set the strategic context, as well as diving directly into the detail. There is a useful associated website.

The Future is Here!.......2003-01-25

Hubert and Debra, thanks, you two have written a monumental work, but in such a humble and mater-of-fact manner. The more I read, the more I became frustrated with the title, because although the book is about the strategic nature of "Communities of Practice," it offers so much more. For the last thirty years, people have been trumpeting the `end of the hierarchy,' but without anything to put in its place. Know we know the future, and it is here!

In Nonaka and Takeuchi's "The Knowledge Creating Company," there was the suggestive diagram of the "hypertext organization." It showed three layers, the hierarchy, the project team community and a third space, the knowledge community. A few years later Nonaka understood that this third space was what the Japanese call "Ba," a shared mental space. Is this not what you two are talking about in your "Reflective and Strategic - Communities of Practice?"

Please write your next book as quickly as possible and reveal the key to the "culture of leadership," a phrase that got short-shrift. Revisit the earlier work you did at The Mutual Group around "values." I am convinced this, more than any number of memos, meetings and check lists, was what made it possible to accomplish what you did at Clarica.

Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation
Average customer rating:

Documented and thoughtful

Knowledge Enabling not KM !!

Highly Recommended!

Sustainable advantage through knowledge enabling

Focus on knowledge creation, but what about integration?

Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation
Georg von Krogh , Kazuo Ichijo , and Ikujiro Nonaka
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation

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Working Knowledge

The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks

Knowledge Management (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series)

ASIN: 0195126165

Book Description

When The Knowledge-Creating Company (OUP; nearly 40,000 copies sold) appeared, it was hailed as a landmark work in the field of knowledge management. Now, Enabling Knowledge Creation ventures even further into this all-important territory, showing how firms can generate and nurture ideas by using the concepts introduced in the first book. Weaving together lessons from such international leaders as Siemens, Unilever, Skandia, and Sony, along with their own first-hand consulting experiences, the authors introduce knowledge enabling--the overall set of organizational activities that promote knowledge creation--and demonstrate its power to transform an organization's knowledge into value-creating actions. They describe the five key "knowledge enablers" and outline what it takes to instill a knowledge vision, manage conversations, mobilize knowledge activists, create the right context for knowledge creation, and globalize local knowledge. The authors stress that knowledge creation must be more than the exclusive purview of one individual--or designated "knowledge" officer. Indeed, it demands new roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization--from the elite in the executive suite to the frontline workers on the shop floor. Whether an activist, a caring expert, or a corporate epistemologist who focuses on the theory of knowledge itself, everyone in an organization has a vital role to play in making "care" an integral part of the everyday experience; in supporting, nurturing, and encouraging microcommunities of innovation and fun; and in creating a shared space where knowledge is created, exchanged, and used for sustained, competitive advantage. This much-anticipated sequel puts practical tools into the hands of managers and executives who are struggling to unleash the power of knowledge in their organization.

Customer Reviews:

Documented and thoughtful.......2004-04-16

This book made me discover knowledge management. It is very well documented, very thougthful, easy to read... An excellent starting point.

Knowledge Enabling not KM !!.......2002-06-18

I had a pleasant surprise when a friend of mine decided to gift me "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka. It forms a sequel to "the Knowledge Creating Company" co-authored by Nonaka and Takeuchi published in 1995 . The first book was a seminal work which has profoundly influenced my views on Knowledge Creation (Nonaka refuses to entertain the concept of KM , resolutely denying that Knowledge
can ever be managed!) along with writers like Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak. However, the first book was open to a lot of criticism saying that it was just too "theoretic", "vague" and "generalised" ...Nonaka et al try and get more hands on, and tool bookish with this book.

However, this book is likely to disturb people who have read and formed ideas about KM by reading works of the American thought leaders.

In the start of the book the authors try and make the difference explicit.

In a passage titled "what's wrong with knowledge management?" they spell it out :

Pitfall I: KM relies on easily detectable, quantifiable information.
Pitfall II: KM is devoted to the manufacture of tools.
Pitfall III: KM depends on a Knowledge Officer.

While the premises of Knowledge Enabling and Creation are:

Premise I: Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social, tacit and explicit.
Premise II: Knowledge depends on your perspective.
Premise III: Knowledge Creation is a craft , not a science.

The authors reiterate that organizational Knowledge Creation involves five main steps :

1. Sharing tacit knowledge
2. Creating concepts
3. Justifying concepts
4. Building a prototype
5. Cross-leveling knowledge.

To facilitate this the following 5 enablers need to be in place :

1. instill a knowledge vision
2. manage conversations
3. mobilize knowledge activits
4. Create the right context
5. Globalize local knowledge

The book is rich in case studies which show how different companies that follow these concepts are growing in leaps and bounds and innovating over others who remain stuck in the KM paradigm.

The authors note that in the Knowledge journey companies can be mapped in 3 phases, which might or might not be sequential.

1. The Risk Minimisers , whose focus is capturing and locating knowledge. The tools they use are data warehousing, datamining, Yellow pages, IC-Navigator, Balanced Scorecard, Knowledge Audits, IC-Index, Business Information Systems, Rule-based systems [these firms still view knowledge as a resource that needs to be collected and managed]

2. The Efficiency Seekers, who focus on transferring and sharing knowledge. The tools they use are internets, intranets, Lotus Notes/Groupware, Networked organization, knowledge workshops, knowledge workbench, Best Practice Transfer, Benchmarking, Knowledge-gap analysis, Knowledge sharing culture, Technology transfer units, Knowledge transfer units, Systems Thinking

3. The Innovators who enable Knowledge creation are typically those who embrace a knowledge vision, managing conversations, creating the right context, mobilize knowledge activists, globalize local knowledge, professional innovation networks, new organizational forms, New HRM-systems, new corporate values, project management systems, corporate universities, communities and storyboards.

Highly Recommended!.......2001-03-21

Dust off those liberal arts degrees before opening this challenging treatise on knowledge management, written by a trio of academics who call themselves "constructionists," quote Sartre and speak passionately of "post-modernism." Their work explains how to gain initiative and constructive input from workers by modifying traditional command structures - a grounded approach that is much more realistic than the revolutionary conversions called for by other experts. Managers who balk at the thought of granting autonomy or increased access to their employees may well be converted away from their hierarchical dogma here. We at getAbstract particularly recommend the lively knowledge-creation case histories and the wonderful section explaining how companies can create valid, imaginative futures. (What if IBM had imagined a world in which software was more important than mainframes?)

Sustainable advantage through knowledge enabling.......2000-06-05

In the many publications on Knowledge Management, the writings by Von Krogh and Nonaka (and, in this case, Ichijo) stand out in a number of aspects: 1) their emphasis of knowledge "management" as an essentially human and social process 2) their emphasis on linking knowledge management with strategic focus and business results 3) the inspiring examples and writing style.

This book is a clear showcase of these elements. It provides a profound yet pragmatic guidance on the road to becoming a learning organisation. Where capturing & locating, and transferring & sharing knowledge are essential in achieving competitive advantage through knowledge, the real source of sustainable advantage is, as the authors claim, the continuous creation of new knowledge, as a result of developing a strategic vision and an enabling organisation and culture to realise that (evolving) vision.

Being involved in implementing a number of the concepts in our organisation, I am convinced this book provides many ideas and tools that will help today's corporate world in reshaping our business for the knowledge economy.

Highly recommended!

Focus on knowledge creation, but what about integration?.......2000-05-30

The author's of this book are leading thinkers in the KM field. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is as a sequel to Nonaka's earlier 1995 book. But, we all remember what happened to Scarlett, again a much touted sequel. Although this book was a slight disappointment since Nonaka has set reader's expectations a little too high with his earlier groundbreaking title "The Knowledge Creating ompany" that, for the most part, defined KM as we know it. An academic reader will appreciate they theoretical insights provided and extensive references to supporting literature. But there are some aspects that this book underplays: 1. Knowledge creation is fine, but knowledge integration is perhaps as important---an issue to which the authors pay little attention. 2. Excellent ideas aside, this book underplays the significance of empirical evidence and most cases tend to be descriptive qualitative analyses. 3. The role of technology is highly underplayed. 4. The book has "sufficient" overlap with the authors' research papers in the uropean Management Journal. For academic readers who have read those, this might be a little disappointing. 5. The concept of KM and it's relationship with innovation at architectural and component levels is not described in much detail.

On the positive side, you will find that: 1) Lots of issues that were barely touched upon in Nonaka's preceding book are described in further detail. 2) The book is very well written and the tone is accsible to both academic and non-academic readers. 3) the concept of BA is elucidated in further detail Readers who do not follow academic research journals might find that an interesting extension. 4) A link between strategy and KM is well illustrated. For businesses, KM is of little value if there are no results. The authors describe how to look for those results (or in lay terms, ROI). Academic readers will also find Nonaka's recent paper in a recent issue of Organization Science (2000) to be of much interest. Academic readers must also realize that the approach here seems to be "post modern," and indeed quite qualitative in the European research tradition.

To sum my opinion, this book is a worthy addition to the bookshelves; but, it is not to be read without reading Nonaka's preceding book "The Knowledge Creating Company." A word of warning is in order: Academic readers will enjoy this title however, managerial readers might find it a little heavy and abstract. Indeed, this book stands out of the crowd with three authors who are well respected in the American research circles---consequently, its high overall quality comes as no surprise. Recommended.

Working Knowledge
Average customer rating:

Learning knowledge that works

Excellent book and user guide

Another great book about KM

Good Primer, Short on Technology and Case Studies

A Classic on KM

Working Knowledge
Thomas H. Davenport , and Laurence Prusak
Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1578513014

Amazon.com

When new-car developers at Ford Motor Company wanted to learn why the original Taurus design team was so successful, no one could tell them. No one remembered or had recorded what made that effort so special; the knowledge gained in the Taurus project was lost forever. Indeed, the most valuable asset in any company is probably also its most elusive and difficult to manage: knowledge. Authors Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak assert that learning how to identify, manage, and foster knowledge is vital for companies who hope to compete in today's fast-moving global economy.

Working Knowledge examines how knowledge can be nurtured in organizations. Building trust throughout a company is the key to creating a knowledge-oriented corporate culture, a positive environment in which employees are encouraged to make decisions that are efficient, productive, and innovative. The book includes numerous examples of successful knowledge projects at companies such as British Petroleum, 3M, Mobil Oil, and Hewlett-Packard. Concise and clearly written, Working Knowledge is an excellent resource for managers who want to better harness the experience and wisdom within their organizations.

Book Description

The definitive overview of knowledge management, now available in paperback

Drawing from their work with more than 30 knowledge-rich firms, Davenport and Prusak--experienced consultants with a track record of success--examine how all types of companies can effectively understand, analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets, turning corporate wisdom into market value. They categorize knowledge work into four sequential activities--accessing, generating, embedding, and transferring--and look at the key skills, techniques, and processes of each. While they present a practical approach to cataloging and storing knowledge so that employees can easily leverage it throughout the firm, the authors caution readers on the limits of communications and information technology in managing intellectual capital.

Download Description

This influential book establishes the enduring vocabulary and concepts in the burgeoning field of knowledge management. It serves as the hands-on resource of choice for companies that recognize knowledge as the only sustainable source of competitive advantage going forward. Drawing from their work with more than thirty knowledge-rich firms, Davenport and Prusak--experienced consultants with a track record of success--examine how all types of companies can effectively understand, analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets, turning corporate wisdom into market value. They categorize knowledge work into four sequential activities--accessing, generating, embedding, and transferring--and look at the key skills, techniques, and processes of each. While they present a practical approach to cataloging and storing knowledge so that employees can easily leverage it throughout the firm, the authors caution readers on the limits of communications and information technology in managing intellectual capital.

Customer Reviews:

Learning knowledge that works.......2007-09-20

This book was used in my introductory class of a Knowledge Management course and helped me understand the course very well. The book is easy to read even for a knowledge management subject matter book. You can even read this book in any order and still get the author's point of view explicitly.

Excellent book and user guide.......2007-05-14

An organization can benefit immensely from its knowledge capital asset through the implementation of various KM projects, this book explains how and provides a guide. As an enabler, KM practices can be used to achieve various organizational objectives leveraging on the simple and easy to grasp concepts in this book. I love the examples of organizations cited and how they overcame their KM project challenges and where some others failed.

For anyone interested in Knowledge Management, this book is an excellent buy. Working Knowledge does not only introduce one to the concepts of KM, but also gives indept examples of organizations that have made KM a culture and how they strategically take advantage of this process to achieve specific benefits. It guides the reader on how to implement KM, technologies, failure signs to watch out for and much more. In my opinion, it is a worthy guide towards implementation.

I am glad I bought this book and I recommend it to anyone interested in KM.

Another great book about KM.......2007-02-12

Nice work about KM, they are focus on what KM is. Nice KM reading.

Good Primer, Short on Technology and Case Studies.......2005-12-07

Thomas Davenport is a well know expert on the subject of Knowledge Management. His book, Working Knowledge, is a quick read excellent for passing time on an airplane or subway. Yet, it is a bit light on specific implementations of KM. In particular, it would have been nice to illustrate a case study or two. Given that his employer is Accenture, I would have expected a little more on the lifecycle of a KM implementation in a large corporation, even if it was at a high level.

Unfortunately, the text is also fails to describe the rapidly evolving KM technology landscape. In the boom years of the late 1990's, significant activity in the development of corporate portals, eLearning, and adaptive technologies occurred. Davenport fails to recognize any of these factors in his discussion of KM.

A Classic on KM.......2005-05-31

This is an outstanding book written by two well-respected practitioners. Davenport is the Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change; Prusak is the Executive Director of the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management.

This book is full of real-world examples and practical ideas. There are valuable chapters on knowledge creation, knowledge codification, and knowledge transfer. There is also a very good chapter on the pragmatics of KM.

Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Learning"

Process Think: Winning Perspectives for Business Change in the Information Age

Average customer rating:

Mature Organizational Change Ideas and Practices

Process Think: Winning Perspectives for Business Change in the Information Age

Manufacturer: IGI Global
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Essentials of System Analysis and Design (3rd Edition)
Introduction to Management Science
Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

ASIN: 1878289683

Book Description

"Process Think" is a managerial orientation to act proactively in identification of process opportunities, a capability to apply process concepts in problem solving, and a demonstrated willingness to transfer process thinking to fellow employees, customers and partners. Process thinking managers have the capability to intuitively see the implications of their actions across the company and project themselves into the situations of their customers.

Business process change today must be more personal, dynamic and seamlessly supported by new IT. New and far more sophisticated IT will test a company's ability to quickly modify the business models and corresponding processes, and in doing so, place renewed importance on process thinking.

Process Think: Winning Perspectives for Business Change in the Information Age reflects a diversity of perspectives pertaining to change management in the information age.

Customer Reviews:

Mature Organizational Change Ideas and Practices.......2002-06-19

This book is one of the best repositories of ideas and practical information about organizational change management that I've come across. While I've been heavily influenced by many of Thomas H. Davenport's books, I've found a wealth of fresh ideas in this book because each chapter is a paper written by one or more experts in a specific aspect of organizational change. I also like the way the book is organized into four sections that examine change and process.

Part I is among my favorites because each of the five chapters build upon each other to provide a clearly defined map for defining and implementing change strategies. Part II's three chapters drill down into the mechanics of processes and how they fit within the context of a change management strategy. I especially like chapter 7, which covers gap analysis and a framework with which to identify, define and understand business processes at a level that allows you to see the dependencies and impacts of proposed changes. I also like chapter 8, which links IT strategic planning to enterprise processes. This is a major gap that I find in one consulting engagement after another and the information in this chapter will provide a clear--if briefly described--approach to closing that gap.

More advanced process management topics are covered in Part III, are each of the five chapters can be read as standalone papers. My favorite was "The New Waves of Business Process Redesign and IT in Demand/Supply Chain Management", which reflects professional interests. Other chapters that are equally valuable cover process innovation, reengineering effectiveness and business process impact case studies.

The final four chapters that comprise Part IV are predictions about the nature of IT and services in this century. Each are interesting and will contain ideas that can be incorporated into current projects or future plans.

Overall this book is invaluable because it provides the points of view of a large number of academic and industry experts, and all of the material can be put into practice.

Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know
Average customer rating:

A very useful taxonomy of knowledge transfer techniques

Read This Before Foisting KM on Your Org....

Cashing in on "Common Knowledge"

Useful Intro to KM

Common to Public Health, too!

Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know
Nancy M Dixon , and Nancy M. Dixon
Manufacturer: MCGRAW-HILL/ TAB
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Breakthrough Research on Knowledge Transfer Reveals Five Proven
Methods for Making Knowledge Sharing a Reality--Which are Right for Your Company?

While external knowledge--about customers, about competitors--is critical, it rarely provides a competitive edge for companies because such information is equally available to everyone. But internal "know-how" that is unique to a specific company--how to introduce a new drug into the diabetes market, how to decrease assembly time in an automobile plant--is the stuff of which sustained competitive advantage is made. Nancy Dixon, an expert in the field of organizational learning, calls this knowledge borne of experience "common knowledge," and argues that in order to get beyond talking about knowledge management to actually doing it, companies must first recognize that all knowledge is not created--and therefore can't be shared--equally.

Creating successful knowledge transfer systems, Dixon argues, requires matching the type of knowledge to be shared to the method best suited for transferring it effectively. Based on an in-depth study of several organizations--including Ernst & Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army--that are leading the field in successful knowledge transfer, Common Knowledge reveals groundbreaking insights into how organizational knowledge is created, how it can be effectively shared--and why transfer systems work when they do.

Until now, most organizations have had to rely on costly "trial and error" to find a knowledge transfer system that works for them. Dixon helps managers take the guesswork out of this process by outlining three criteria that must be considered in order to determine how a transfer method will work in a specific situation: the type of knowledge to be transferred, the nature of the task, and who the receiver of that knowledge will be. Drawing from the successful--but very different--practices of the companies in her study and providing compelling illustrative stories based on the experiences of real managers, Dixon distills five distinct categories of knowledge transfer, explains the principles that make each of them work, and helps managers determine which of these systems would be most effective in their own organizations.

Common Knowledge gets to the heart of one of the most difficult questions in knowledge transfer today: What makes a system work effectively in one organization but fail miserably in another? Going beyond "one-size-fits-all" approaches and simple generalities like upper management involvement and cultural issues, this important book will help organizations of every kind construct knowledge transfer systems tailored to their unique forms of "common knowledge"--and in the process create the best kind of competitive advantage there is: the kind that can't be copied.

Customer Reviews:

A very useful taxonomy of knowledge transfer techniques.......2003-01-23

Looking for in-depth case studies of KM in action at large organisations? This book offers a superb collection and analysis of knowledge transfer techniques at companies like Ernst&Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army.

The material is divided into 9 chapters, and the writing style is very focused and precise. Useful flowcharts and checklists make the material a must-read for KM professionals and management strategists.

Dixon begins by deconstructing some common myths ý such as ýbuild it and they will come.ý Knowledge transfer which is merely based on accumulating electronic databases will bring about neither appropriate contributions nor adequate retrievals; incentives, discipline, actionable results, alignment with objectives, and face-to-face communication are key requisites.

Going beyond broad generalizations of organizational knowledge management, the book focuses specifically on the issue of knowledge transfer, and identifies five key categories of lesson sharing in large companies: serial transfer, near transfer, far transfer, strategic transfer and expert transfer.

They differ in terms of who the intended knowledge receiver is (same or different from the source), the nature of the task involved (frequency and routine), and the type of knowledge being transferred (tacit/explicit).

One chapter each is devoted to the five kinds of transfer mechanisms, and two chapters tie all the material together in terms of guidelines for building knowledge transfer systems.

In serial transfer, the collective knowledge a team has gained from doing its task in one setting is transferred to the next time that the same team does the task in a different setting. The tasks are frequent, so meetings are held regularly and assessment questions are standardized.

In near transfer of explicit knowledge, the source and recipient teams are different ý but the tasks are quite similar. The tasks are routine; selected goal-oriented information is disseminated electronically, along with supplemental personal interaction; information usage is monitored and assessed.

In far transfer, the tacit knowledge a team gained from doing a non-routine task is made available to other teams doing similar work in another part of the organization. There is a reciprocal exchange of knowledge, and face-to-face meetings as well as movement of experts are involved.

Examples include BPýs Peer Assist (initiated in 1994, to share experience in challenging areas like deciding whether to invest in a new rig; the transfer includes a visit to rig sites by peers), Chevronýs Capital Project Management (with online forums as well as physical movement of project managers to spread learned lessons across the company), and Lockheed Martinýs LM21 Best Practices (to identify and eliminate redundant facilities, capabilities and structures across its 30 subsidiaries; assessments were made of performance and financial performance).

Other examples include Japanýs Dai-Ichi Pharmaceuticals, where researchers are expected to spend 20 minutes a day in ýtalk roomsý where anyone can dialogue with them. ýTacit knowledge can be transferred by moving the people who have the knowledge around. Calling on tacit knowledge is not just a memory task, it is as often an act of creation or invention,ý says Dixon.

Top-level commitment to the process is called for. Some companies like Ernst&Young designate certain knowledgeable people as ýshared resources,ý who spend a chunk of their time sharing their knowledge companywide.

Strategic transfer is called for when the collective knowledge of the organization is needed to accomplish a strategic task that occurs infrequently ý but is critical to the whole organization. The knowledge gathering is conducted during the actual operation; it can be expensive and resource-intensive, and also involves knowledge specialists who collect information, conduct interviews, videotape discussions, interpret the examples, and synthesise knowledge.

A useful methodology here is MITýs ýlearning historyý process, which results in a narrative document describing an event and incorporating quotes from multiple sources and even contradictory perspectives. The process should include subsequent reflective research and validation. These events need not have to be the ýbest,ý but will always have useful learnings.

The resulting documentation from strategic transfer can be disseminated on Intranets, and should have guidelines, checklists, people profiles, contact information, colourful overall narratives, records, and artifacts. Once created by KM specialists, the product is handed over to a community of practice that has the responsibility of keeping it current.

Expert transfer involves the transfer of explicit knowledge from an expert to someone who faces a problem beyond their current scope. Knowledge is pulled from the expert on demand, via threaded electronic forums to which support is dedicated for monitoring, escalation and support.

Examples include Buckman Labýs TechForums (started in 1992, monitored by librarians and sysops, and supported by editorial help in producing weekly summaries of discussions), Tandem Computerýs Second Class Mail (for tech support), Chevronýs Best Practices Resource Map (a yellow pages of employee resources), the World Bankýs internal help line, and Ernst&Youngýs Knowledge Stewards. Online infrastructure is critical here for multinationals, and there can be infrastructure problems in developing countries.

In terms of RoI, Ford reportedly claims that US$34 million were saved in just one year by transferring ideas between Vehicle Operations plants; Texas Instruments saved enough from transferring knowledge between wafer fabrication plants to pay for building a whole new facility.

The books shows how each organization can have multiple ways of transferring knowledge, involving databases, response systems, monitoring, meetings, and dedicated KM staff. Appropriate audits of knowledge assets, knowledge gaps, existing knowledge flows, and critical processes need to be conducted, sometimes with external assistance.

As for branding knowledge transfer initiatives, Dixon observes that they often donýt even mention the word ýknowledgeý ý the emphasis is on words like peering, assistance, team building, and networking.

In sum, this book provides an excellent view of knowledge practices right from the trenches of companies at the cutting edge of KM. The inductive analysis and roadmaps for implementing knowledge transfer are essential reading for knowledge professionals in all manner of large organizations.

>>>>>>>

Madanmohan Rao is the author of "The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook" and can be reached at madan@inomy.com

Read This Before Foisting KM on Your Org...........2002-02-08

In presenting alternative systems of knowledge sharing, and their strengths and weakenesses for the types, times, and range of knowledge, Dixon's best contribution is to guide the reader from following certain dead-ends, though not necessarily ensuring a success down the right path.

This book, though incredibly well-written in clarity and focus, is not so practical for the working manager faced with creating a "KM Solution" that will stick, as it is for those task forces and executives thinking about KM solutions and wanting to avoid mistakes - oh so common in today's organizations!

So, if you are looking for high-level descriptions of the various systems of knowledge sharing, their strenghts and weakenesses, the cases in the book are lively, thought-provoking, and interesting to follow along.

Cashing in on "Common Knowledge".......2001-11-02

The author focuses on only one type of the many possible types of knowledge that reside in a workplace: the knowledge that employees learn from doing the organization's tasks. She terms this kind of knowledge as "Common Knowledge" to differentiate it from book knowledge or from lists of regulations or data bases of customer information.
The author puts high value to this type of knowledge because it is unique to a specific company. This specificity in turn gives the knowledge gained from experience the potential to provide an organization with a competitive edge. The author points out that although other types of knowledge - such as, customer information and competitor intelligence - must be made widely available; they have less potential to provide a competitive advantage because the same knowledge is equally available to competitors. It takes a certain amount of intention, the author points out, to create common knowledge out of an experience. This involves a willingness to reflect back, a postmortem, on actions and their outcomes before moving forward to another project. This allows a team to build knowledge on what worked well so that the successes are replicated while the failures are avoided.
The author spends less time on organization and storage of information and concentrates her efforts to knowledge transfer. One of the myths the author dispels regarding the organization and storage of information is the myth that if management builds a "warehouse" of knowledge, the worker's that need the information will come and take out what they need. Apparently the notion of knowledge being documented and located in a central place offers a comforting sense of control and manageability. Most organizations therefore build a central electronic database, a perfect fit for the warehouse image but to their dismay, having spent a lot of money to create the database, find that very little in the way of contributions and retrievals occur with much enthusiasm.
Most companies will attempt to "fix" the lack of contributions by offering an incentive system that offers rewards to workers who contribute and retrieve knowledge. Although the incentives work to some extent, the do not deliver the hoped for results. The author contends that the answer is not in better incentives but rather in altering the powerful originating image of a warehouse that places the focus on collecting and storing of knowledge instead of placing focus on reusing it. The reuse of knowledge is the ultimate goal.
The author spends a considerable amount of time on the issue of exchange (leverage or transfer) of knowledge in the workplace. Again two myths are dispelled regarding the exchange of knowledge. One is that technology can replace face-to- face exchanges. Although technology allows workers to share knowledge without having to be in the same place it cannot replace face-to-face interactions. Technology has to be married with face-to-face interaction to create the most effective knowledge transfer systems; one does not replace the other although one can greatly enhance the other.
The author also dispels the myth that one has to create a learning culture first in order to have effective knowledge exchange. She contends that it is really the other way round, that is, if people begin sharing ideas that they see as really important, the sharing itself creates a learning culture. The exchange therefore imparts positively on the learning culture. She contends that people are generally willing to share knowledge in an organization if they are acknowledged and respected for their expertise. If they share their knowledge, then the knowledge is held in common - common knowledge that is shared throughout the organization and gives that organization a competitive edge.
The author notes that regarding the transfer of knowledge, "one size doesn't fit all". Unless the transfer system is appropriate fit for the kind of knowledge and task, it may be ignored and eventually abandoned. What knowledge exchange method is used in a specific situation depends on three criteria:
· Who the intended receiver of the knowledge is in terms of similarity of task and context.
· The nature of the task in terms of how routine and frequent it is.
· The type of knowledge that is being transferred.
Once the criteria above are identified for each situation then the knowledge exchange mechanism is devised. The author discusses five categories of knowledge transfer, each of which requires different design elements to make the transfer work. The five categories are Serial Transfer, Near Transfer, Far Transfer, Strategic Transfer and Expert Transfer.
The author discusses the design of an integrated system for knowledge transfer based on the needs and resources of an organization. She points out that the design of a knowledge transfer system should be based on the thought of knowledge as dynamic and that conduits to enhance its flow should be designed rather than warehouses for its storage.

Useful Intro to KM.......2001-11-01

This is the first and only book I've read about knowledge management, so my perspective is limited. Nonetheless, I found it helpful in organizing my thoughts about processes already in place in my organization that are within the scope of KM (but not formally labeled as such), and in considering how our team might use these systems more effectively. Our organization-wide KM program is still in the planning stages. After reading Common Knowledge, I was able meet with out KM program leader and not sound uninformed.
The author's most important point - that KM solutions cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach - is clearly and convincingly supported. No book is perfect for every reader, however. After a few of the book's case studies, the rest had diminishing returns for me. I also didn't get much value from the author's comments on learning theory, although this might be of interest to true KM aficionados. Overall, I would still recommend the book to managers who are already involved or expect to be involved in implementation of their organization's KM programs.

Common to Public Health, too!.......2001-11-01

Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know, by Nancy M. Dixon (Harvard Business School Press, 2000), provides valuable insight into the idea of common knowledge, differentiating the types of knowledge transfer, and providing strategies to achieve the types of knowledge transfer described in the book. Her work is largely business focused, the author having looked at major corporations such as Chevron, Ernst and Young, Ford, Bechtel, and British Petroleum. However, she also uses a successful model developed by the U.S. Army. I read the book from a public health perspective, focusing on examining the relevance of each knowledge type and strategies to my own perspective in public health programs. In this paper, I will present the book's perspective, and intertwine the potential application in the public health arena, which was quite abundant in the book.

The author defines common knowledge as the knowledge that employees can learn from doing organizational tasks. It is the know `how' of a company verses the know `what'. It applies to information that is unique to a company or corporate culture. (Page 13)

The author's goals are to 1) broaden the reader's thinking about how a company might share knowledge, not only the `how', but the `why', as well, and 2) to allow readers to determine which system(s) would be most effective in their own settings. Her focus is on teams, not individuals.

The book begins by dispelling three myths about knowledge sharing:
1. "Build the technology and they will come" mentality. A common mistake made is that a knowledge transfer system is put into place and lays largely dormant or improperly used.
2. Technology can replace face to face encounters. She uses experiences from the Ford motor company as her model example here. Several years ago they began sending key staff to overseas Ford plants to exchange ideas, which ended up saving tens of millions of dollars to the corporation. They have a built in mandate that each year a given plant will increase efficiency by 5%, no small task year in and year out!
3. That you must first develop a learning culture. It is believed by many that successful corporations greedily hang on to information to maintain a competitive edge. The author found quite the contrary to be true in the successful corporations she examined, at least from within a complex organization.

Personally, the `knowledge is power' mentality has prevailed at times in our own public health professional environment. When I began in public health the motto of many of my superiors was `keep your cards close to your chest', get as much information as you can without divulging much; however, that thinking has largely changed as public health systems have changed from direct service orientation to linkage to service and collaboration. Also, an anecdotal observation is that a sharing mentality is healthy and that withholding information breeches the trust of the public health and creates divisions within an organizational structure.

The author distinguishes between two important types of knowledge, explicit verses tacit. Explicit knowledge is knowledge that could be directly transferred to the learner in the form of a recipe or manual. If you follow the directions, then you will achieve the same product. Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that a highly trained, or technically complicated, situation occurs. There is a tacit knowledge base in the expert, but at each decision node, there is a complicated array of possibilities, not easily conveyed in a simple manual. Examples of tacit knowledge would be: a cardiologist examining a heart patient. In this scenario there are numerous factors to consider, such as patient history, blood chemistry, vascular and stress tests, genetics, age, race/ethnicity, gender, smoking history, etc. To make the correct decision, the physician must look at many facets of the patient, using his/her accumulated wealth of knowledge about the subject. The idea of tacit knowledge is important in public health in that, where national and state agencies are involved, best practices and experiences, if properly conveyed to a receiving organization, can benefit that organization or jurisdiction. Often, it is tacit knowledge that is needed to best determine what the best fit for an agency is, and what formula or recommendations might work best.

"Tacit knowledge is not only the facts but the relationships among the facts - that is, how people might combine certain facts to deal with a specific situation" (Page 94). Some organizations have begun to designate certain knowledgeable people as "shared resources", with the expectation that a portion of their work time be spent sharing their knowledge company-wide, leaving the other 90 percent for the project.

In chapter 2, the author argues that, in order to create and leverage common knowledge an organization must:
1. Determine effective ways to translate ongoing experiences into knowledge, and
2. Transfer knowledge across time and space.

Many organizations fail to allow for time to debrief a project team or review a recently completed event. If some analysis of the process does not occur, an organization may achieve extraordinary success along the way on a given project and not be able to replicate that knowledge in future projects.

In the author's view, one size does not fit all, (Page 21-22). To determine how a knowledge transfer method will work, one must consider:
1) Who the intended receiver is, in terms of task and context? What is the receiving team's aborptive capacity? In other words, the team receiving the knowledge transfer must have a level of understanding already to `absorb' new knowledge (i.e., you can't learn division until you understand multiplication!). Being able to function as a team increases the absorptive capacity to implement knowledge transfer.
2) The nature of the task, i.e. whether it is routine/non-routine and how frequent the task is.
3) The type of knowledge being transferred - tacit or explicit.

Types of knowledge transfer:

1. Serial Transfer: A team performs a task and then repeats the task in a new context. Examples given were the U.S. Army's After Action Review (or, AAR), that examines what was supposed to happen, what happened, and what accounts for the change. Some private corporations have adopted a similar model.

The receiving team (which is also the source team in this case) does a similar task in a new context. The nature of the task is both frequent and non-routine. It may involve tacit or explicit knowledge.

An example of serial transfer in a public health context might be: A syphilis elimination team engages in a syphilis blitz in Birmingham, then, later in Miami - similar tasks, but different contexts.

Meetings are held regularly and are brief. Everyone is involved in action participation. There are no recriminations. Reports are not forwarded to other levels, though notes are retained for local use. Meetings are facilitated locally.

Some of the barriers to this strategy are that team members won't take the time to meet and discuss. Team members may lack the proper skills to have knowledge producing conversations. Also, staff may disperse prior to the end of the project period. This can be especially true at the local public health level, where staff may be young, underpaid, and trying to advance their careers.

To successfully implement serial transfer, the following should be in place:
q A standardized format of questions
q A team facilitator
q Basic norms of truth telling
q A no recriminations policy

2. Near transfer: Transferring explicit knowledge from a source team to another team doing a similar repeated task in a similar context but in a different location or context. In this context users specify the content and format of the knowledge being transferred.

Knowledge is `pushed', meaning that the information appears automatically, rather than users searching for the knowledge. In the modern context this could be through emails or electronic bulletins. The information is actively disseminated, with brief, not lengthy, explanations. The context of the messages being pushed is very specific. The author points out (page 72) that comprehensive systems usually fail, there's just too much information, so nothing ends up being important. Targeted databases work better.

The goal of Near Transfer is not to share knowledge, but to meet a specific business goal established by management.

Barriers to near transfer are based in people's fears of little-used data-bases, or a frustrated attempt to get teams to use a new or innovative practice or process. Some organizations have cultures that are resistant to outside successes. "If it wasn't invented here we won't use it." Finally, some people are `too busy to share' successful approaches.

Public health example: During the Global Smallpox elimination effort, prior to the electronic age, initial efforts involved attempts to vaccinate all people; however, there wasn't enough vaccine to do this worldwi

People-Focused Knowledge Management: How Effective Decision Making Leads to Corporate Success
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Karl Wiig
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