If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best PractiWhile companies search the world over to benchmark best practices, vast treasure troves of knowledge and know-how remain hidden right under their noses: in the minds of their own employees, in the often unique structure of their operations, and in the written history of their organizations. Now, acclaimed productivity and quality experts Carla O'Dell and Jack Grayson explain for the first time how applying the ideas of Knowledge Management can help employers identify their own internal best practices and share this intellectual capital throughout their organizations. Knowledge Management (KM) is a conscious strategy of getting the right information to the right people at the right time so they can take action and create value. Basing KM on three major studies of best practices at one hundred companies, the authors demonstrate how managers can utilize a visual process model to actually transfer best practices from one business unit of the organization to another. Rich with case studies, concrete examples, and revealing anecdotes from companies including Texas Instruments, Amoco, Buckman, Chevron, Sequent Computer, the World Bank, and USAA, this valuable guide reveals how knowledge treasure chests can be unlocked to reduce product development cycle time, implement more cost-efficient operations, or create a loyal customer base. Finally, O'Dell and Grayson present three "value propositions" built around customers, products, and operations that could result in staggering payoffs as they did at the companies cited above. No amount of knowledge or insight can keep a company ahead if it is not properly distributed where it's needed. Entirely accessible and immensely readable, If Only We Knew What We Know is a much-needed companion for business leaders everywhere. |
Contents
The Barriers to Internal Transfer | |
A Model for Best Practice Transfer | |
THE THREE VALUE PROPOSITIONS | |
Customer Intimacy | |
ProducttoMarket Excellence | |
The View from the | |
Empowered by KNetix | |
TIs Best Practice Sharing Engine | |
Becoming a Knowledge Bank | |
Sequent Computers Knowledge Slingshot | |
THE FOURPHASE PROCESS OR WHAT DO I | |
Phase 1 | |
Phase 2 | |
Achieving Operational Excellence | |
THE FOUR ENABLERS OF TRANSFER | |
Using Information Technology to Support Knowledge | |
Creating the Knowledge Infrastructure | |
Measuring the Impact of Transfer | |
REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINES PIONEER CASE STUDIES | |
Phase 3 | |
Phase 4 | |
CONCLUSION | |
Enduring Principles | |
Appendix The Knowledge Management Assessment Tool KMAT | |
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Common terms and phrases
Amoco applications approach APQC Arthur Andersen Bank’s benchmarking best practice sharing best practice transfer Bill Lowrie Buckman Laboratories capture Chevron chief knowledge officer CIGNA collaboration communities of practice companies company’s competitive corporate cost create culture customer intimacy databases documents e-mail electronic employees ensure example experience expertise facilitators firms focus focused global groups identify implementation improvement information technology infrastructure internal intranet K’Netix know-how knowledge and best knowledge bases knowledge management knowledge sharing knowledge transfer launch Ledet leverage Lotus Notes managing knowledge measure networks operational excellence organization organizational percent performance product development reuse says scale-up SCEL Sequent Computer Sequent Computer Systems Shared Learning sharing knowledge strategy structure success tacit knowledge Texas Instruments TI’s transfer efforts transfer of best transfer of knowledge transferring best practices USAA users value proposition World Bank