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If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice
written by Carla O'dell, C. Jackson Grayson
Studio : Free Press
by Free Press
Publisher : Free Press
Released : 1998-11-10
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780684844749
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 16 reviews)
List Price : $30.00
Our Price : $9.92
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Product Description |
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While 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. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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Responding to the familiar observation that what you don't know can and will hurt you, American Productivity and Quality Center leaders Carla O'Dell and C. Jackson Grayson Jr. have countered with a contention that the "hidden reservoirs of intelligence that exist in almost every organization" can, with work, be efficiently tapped "to create customer value, operational excellence, and product innovation--all the while increasing profits and effectiveness." If Only We Knew What We Know is their detailed examination of the resultant groundbreaking but common-sense methodology they have dubbed "knowledge management," along with their analysis of several companies such as Amoco, Arthur Andersen, Buckman Laboratories, and Xerox that are successfully employing it today. By studying the execution and evolution of this practice in over 70 companies involved with their non-profit management organization, the two have observed how top practitioners are turning internal information that's already selectively available into dynamic improvements that are apparent throughout the companies. They describe how to implement knowledge management in your own firm and describe the "enabling context" (including infrastructure, culture, technology, and measurement) that help or hinder the process. --Howard Rothman |
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Very easy to read and usefull KM book |
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KM is about People, IT, Infraestructure and Metrics, I agree with Carla on that. KM is the key of today business. |
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Good 'outside the box' thoughts on KM |
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This book offers useful 'outside the box' reasons that knowledge management is needed and helpful. People generally think of knowledge management as being internally focused (i.e. "didn't we solve that problem last year"), this book goes beyond that to deeper levels of knowledge management. An example is you hire a person with 10 years experience (read: KNOWLEDGE) but peer teams aren't made aware of past experience (KNOWLEDGE), they are only made aware of the current job position. Knowledge management from a technology stand point is both a searchable repository and a broker service that links people with questions to people with answers. Creating a knowledge management system is challenging and should always involve outside council, use a good consulting company that won't try and sell you software but will provide a well designed solution. [...] |
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Useful introduction to KM |
KM was a vague and fuzzy terminology for me, before i read this book. We had a KM subject as a part of the IT management course in Graduation and this book was suggested as a good reference to get insight and understanding. I found this book useful in giving a clear picture on KM - the concept underlying KM, the way to approach it, implementation methods, challenges, common pitfalls, lot of practical examples, success stories - all of this is covered. Another salient aspect is, the book is very easy to read - it doesn't thrown in too much of jargon or heavy-duty management stuff. This can be an easy read for anybody(the casual reader, the management junkie, student etc).
This book was written almost eight years ago. Much has changed due to the Internet revolution and the spawn of great IT tools. Even though the material of the book is still relevant (remember: IT is only a enabler and not be-all of KM), it would have been useful to have an updated version of the book with examples of implementation of KM in the current environment.
Here are some intresting excerpts from the book:
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-Knowledge is what people in an organization know about their customers, products, processes, mistakes and successes, whether that knowledge is tacit or explicit. It is dynamic - a consequence of action and interaction of people in an organization with information and with each other.
-Knowledge Management is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping "people share and put information into action" in ways that strive to improve organizational performance.
-It's guaranteed that exhortation to "Share more!" will not work. It takes systems and systematic approaches like internal benchmarking, mapping the knowledge terrain, creating new practices, which costs time and money. That's why having a clear business case and a value proposition is important.
-Culture is important, because learning and sharing knowledge are social activities. They take place among people.
-while new technologies are making the transfer of practices and knowledge more affordable then ever before, companies that think that simply by developing an intranet they will make sharing happen are dangerously wrong.
-Technology is a catalyst for KM but no panacea.
-Business Values Drive Transfer benefits
-Having the right culture is critical
-There is no conclusion to managing knowledge and transfering best practices. It is a race without finishing line
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Solid Theory, But More Execution Tasks Needed |
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This book focuses on making the case for a knowledge management system. If you're already convinced and need specific, measurable steps, try a different book. |
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Very Relevant and Excellent Read |
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This book provides a terrific introduction to knowledge management and so much more. The authors have gone well beyond the theoretical treatment that most have provided on the subject and provide real world examples and processes for implementing knowledge management in your own company. The authors did not spend much time talking about applications that support KM, since the market is still growing, instead they touch upon the concepts that the software applications address. Although it was written in late 1998, the information presented is very timely and still accurate. -- Highlights --
The first section of the book (3 chapters, 30 pages or so) get you up to speed on what knowledge management is and is not. It also addresses some barriers and benefits of KM. The second section of the book makes you think about the reasoning behind a KM initiative. This should be standard management-type thinking, but I've found it to be often overlooked in today's IT environment. Why are we doing this? The authors give you three reasons (customer intimacy, time-to-market, and operational excellence) and tell you the type of data to focus on for each of the three reasons. The third section talks about enabling the enterprise to effectively use a KM system. The authors note that it is vital for the processes to be aligned witht he strategy of the company and the job tasks people currently undertake. To that end, they look at the cultural, technological, infrastructure, and measurement requirements of the KM initiative. The fourth section gives some case studies of Texas Instruments, Buckman Laboratories, and Sequent. The text refers to these case studies throughout the earlier chapters of the book and now gives them each a chapter to overview how they went about building a successful knowledge sharing infrastructure. The fifth and final section of the book gives a framework for pursuing the sharing of knowledge and best practices. This is the "What do I do on Monday?" section, according to the authors. It gives a 40 page prescription for the planning, designing, implementing, and scaling phases of a knowledge management program. The next several years will be very interesting in the I.T. arena. These authors were somewhat ahead of their time in writing this book. Companies across the globe have been storing knowledge in their silos for the past decade as they have taken products to market, built disconnected customer information systems, and as employees have given feedback on internal business processes. The coming business intelligence revolution will seek to organize that information and put it in the hands of people who can create value and grow the business based on the intrinsic knowledge it contains. This book provides a great framework for those who have to conceptualize, design, and build information systems to meet those needs. |
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