Rating: 
Summary: The FIRST book to put in your knowledge practices library
Review: "Where should our business unit start in our goal to use knowledge to create greater value?" I am often asked this question as a principal Consultant to the Corporate University of a Fortune 100 Company . The answer now is easy - and tangible - I hand them a copy of this book. O'Dell and Grayson have created a knowledge transfer book that is well researched, easy to read, practical and insightful. From the very first chapter where they report the key insight - that knowledge is both tacit and explicit - the book is a gold mine of information. Their clear explanations of what is and is not working in successful "knowledge transfer" companies makes the book immediately useful. Plain language descriptions of the six barriers that hinder transfer of know-how will strike a chord with all levels in the organisation. Showing people paragraphs like "We're different" and "Sorry - I'm too busy" generates an instant interest. The book presents lessons learned in the important aspects of people (culture), processes, technology and infrastructure. Pearls of wisdom like why a company should "understand first, measure second" are spread throughout the book. The constant references to other sources of information and to practices at well known companies make the book itself a best practice in explicit knowledge sharing. And O'Dell and Grayson have include one section that many of the best sellers do not - "Where to start Monday morning". I would like to have seen more on "tacit" knowledge sharing. Perhaps the book will inspire someone to build on a great foundation and publish something practical on that.
Rating: 
Summary: "A Model for Best Practice Transfer"
Review: "This is not the first book about managing of transferring knowledge and it is certainly not the last book about knowledge management (KM). There are many excellent books about knowledge management..., but we think our book is unique. Here's why: First,...It's a book about how to improve the performance of your organization...Second, this book is not based on theories or speculation. It is anchored in successes, mistakes, and real-life case studies. It is not a spiritual guide or a technology manual. The experiences, thoughts, insights, and conclusions herein are based on surveys, site visits, and design work with over seventy organizations of all shapes ans sizes...This book is primarily about internal transfer of best practices in organizations. That is, the transfer of best practices from one part of an organization to another part-or parts-in order to increase profitability or effectiveness...Finally, it is also a book about the transfer of knowledge, specifically, the effective management of knowledge inside an organization...This book will focus largely on 'internal benchmarking'-looking inside your own organization-and transferring best practices" (from the Preface).In this context, Carla O'Dell and C.Jackson Grayson,Jr., in Chapter 4, write that "the internal transfer of knowledge is about finding out what you know, and using it to improve performance. It is about leveraging the value of knowledge you've already got. Whereas different companies adopt different approaches to finding and sharing internal know-how, they all seem to pursue one single strategy with great vigor: the transfer of internal best pactices", and then lay out a model that will guide the rest of the book. It has three major components: 1. The three value propositions- Companies must transfer knowledge and best practices to create value, and value is created by translating knowledge into action. But exactly what 'value' are we talking about? Thus, the first step toward profitable management of your company's knowledge asset is choosing the right value proposition. * Customer intimacy- Increase revenue, reduce cost of selling, and increase customer satisfaction and retention. * Product-to-market excellence- By reducing time-to-market, and designing and commercializing new products more quickly and successfully, we will increase revenue, retain market lead, and grow our profit margins. * Operational excellence- Boost revenue by reducing the cost of production and increasing productivity, and raise performance to new highs. 2. The four enablers- The second step is creating the most supportive environment for transfer, by designing and aligning the enablers of transfer: culture, technology, infrastructure, and measurement. 3. The four-phase change process- The third step is change process would likely follow the following four phases: plan, design, implement, and scale-up. Finally, they write that "Sure, companies have embarked on change efforts before. This one is diffrent. It's different because the improvement work is anchored in real-life practical knowledge-the know-how and intelligence other people within your own company have developed and used. It has worked for others. It can work for you. The key for making this work is threefold: 1. You've got to have a clearly defined purpose: the value proposition. 2. You've got to understand and leverage various organizational enablers, from infrastructure to technology, from measurement to culture. 3. You've got to have an organized way for achieving it: the four-phase process. The reminder of this book is about these three components and the companies that illustrate their effective use." Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The FIRST book to put in your knowledge practices library
Review: "Where should our business unit start in our goal to use knowledge to create greater value?" I am often asked this question as a principal Consultant to the Corporate University of a Fortune 100 Company . The answer now is easy - and tangible - I hand them a copy of this book. O'Dell and Grayson have created a knowledge transfer book that is well researched, easy to read, practical and insightful. From the very first chapter where they report the key insight - that knowledge is both tacit and explicit - the book is a gold mine of information. Their clear explanations of what is and is not working in successful "knowledge transfer" companies makes the book immediately useful. Plain language descriptions of the six barriers that hinder transfer of know-how will strike a chord with all levels in the organisation. Showing people paragraphs like "We're different" and "Sorry - I'm too busy" generates an instant interest. The book presents lessons learned in the important aspects of people (culture), processes, technology and infrastructure. Pearls of wisdom like why a company should "understand first, measure second" are spread throughout the book. The constant references to other sources of information and to practices at well known companies make the book itself a best practice in explicit knowledge sharing. And O'Dell and Grayson have include one section that many of the best sellers do not - "Where to start Monday morning". I would like to have seen more on "tacit" knowledge sharing. Perhaps the book will inspire someone to build on a great foundation and publish something practical on that.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book, but with obvious conclusions
Review: As other books that talk about knowledge management (KM), this one starts with good definitions and examples of knowledge and management knowledge. The theoric estructure and the questionnaires that were sent to the companies as a way of evaluating the current situation of the organizations relating to these subject are the stongest points in this book. Besides the conclusions that, as many others studies about KM, are about the problems in the organizational culture, and that the tecnology alone is not enough to develop a KM project and that the top-level support is a must, authors make a very deep and important study about the transfer of best pratices ("the best KM strategy") and the way that KM must be woven into the corporate infrastructure
Rating:
Summary: An effective approach for consultants
Review: I think the best recommendation I can give for this book is to show how it has helped me. As a consultant one of my biggest struggles is efficiently extracting information from clients. Although this book is about finding, aggregating and disseminating internal knowledge, the approach has proven invaluable to finding where my clients' pools of knowledge are and using this to efficiently craft solutions that are based on best practices that have been developed by my clients. I have too often dscovered that my clients have best practices and other knowledge artifacts that are not known throughout their organization. An example of how difficult organizational knowledge is to ferret out is shown by one consulting engagement where the client needed problem management processes. All of the "identified" stakeholders and points of contact claimed that there were no written definitions of severity levels, which are an important part of the process. After developing a complete set of definitions and circulating them for stakeholder review out of the blue an unidentified stakeholder emerged and produced a set of definitions that was written years before. Had I read this book before this particular engagement I would have approached it differently and would have identified the *real* stakeholders and pools of knowledge using the cultural enabler of knowledge transfer described in chapter 9. I would have also saved a significant amount of billable hours to the client in the process because what they already had (but just didn't know they had) met their exact requirements. I gained a whole new perspective on analysis from this book. I now approach this task by identifying (or eliciting) value propositions from clients, and employing to the extent allowed by each consulting engagement the four enablers of knowledge transfer. This book woke me up to some refined techniques and has influenced my thinking and approach on a number of levels. While it provides organizations with a valuable tool set with which to find and collect the valuable knowledge within, it is also a valuable tool for consultants who are always under pressure to gather data and information from clients as a prelude to findings and recommendations. I cannot emphasize strongly enough its value to both audiences.
Rating:
Summary: An effective approach for consultants
Review: I think the best recommendation I can give for this book is to show how it has helped me. As a consultant one of my biggest struggles is efficiently extracting information from clients. Although this book is about finding, aggregating and disseminating internal knowledge, the approach has proven invaluable to finding where my clients' pools of knowledge are and using this to efficiently craft solutions that are based on best practices that have been developed by my clients. I have too often dscovered that my clients have best practices and other knowledge artifacts that are not known throughout their organization. An example of how difficult organizational knowledge is to ferret out is shown by one consulting engagement where the client needed problem management processes. All of the "identified" stakeholders and points of contact claimed that there were no written definitions of severity levels, which are an important part of the process. After developing a complete set of definitions and circulating them for stakeholder review out of the blue an unidentified stakeholder emerged and produced a set of definitions that was written years before. Had I read this book before this particular engagement I would have approached it differently and would have identified the *real* stakeholders and pools of knowledge using the cultural enabler of knowledge transfer described in chapter 9. I would have also saved a significant amount of billable hours to the client in the process because what they already had (but just didn't know they had) met their exact requirements. I gained a whole new perspective on analysis from this book. I now approach this task by identifying (or eliciting) value propositions from clients, and employing to the extent allowed by each consulting engagement the four enablers of knowledge transfer. This book woke me up to some refined techniques and has influenced my thinking and approach on a number of levels. While it provides organizations with a valuable tool set with which to find and collect the valuable knowledge within, it is also a valuable tool for consultants who are always under pressure to gather data and information from clients as a prelude to findings and recommendations. I cannot emphasize strongly enough its value to both audiences.
Rating:
Summary: An excelent blueprint to the future of business.
Review: In 1913 Henry Ford changed the economic and business paradigms of his time when he introduced the world to what became known as Mass Production. Within a decade the productive capacity of the economy skyrocketed. Firms that understood the fundamental change that Ford had unleashed profited, those that did not (or refused to change) faded from the scene. What Henry Ford did, though, did not come out of the blue. Ford built on a body of work and breakthroughs in thinking which had evolved over the previous half century. Today we are on the cusp of an equally fundamental economic change as the introduction of Mass Production. This change has been building over the past four decades. It goes by different names: trainiers call it the Learning Organization; planners refer to it as the Transformational Organization; the manufacturing community refers to it as Agile; the quality community refers to it as Six Sigma; and, the Information Technology community refers to it as Knowledge Management. What all of these communities are referring to is an economic paradigm that is based on the use and leverage of knowledge as a primary economic driver, and which is based on the organizational and philosphical concepts embodied in TQM. In order to take advantage of the value creating power of knowledge organizations are going to have to restructure themselves and fundamentally challenge many of their core operating beliefs. Carla O'Dell and Jack Grayson, from their vantage point at the American Productivity and Quality Center (and its sister organization, the International Benchmarking Clearinghouse), have been among the leading observers of this critical paradigm shift. In their book,If Only We Knew What We Know, O'Dell and Grayson provide a cogent blueprint for transforming organizations to position themselves to take advanatage of this critical shift in business paradigms. As the authors point out, it makes no difference if you are in a hi-tech industry or the cement industry, knowledge will be the basis for competitive advantage. Senior executives and managers should heed the authors' advice in this well laid out book. Failure to do so will only imperil their organization's future prosperity. The future is there for those willing to take it. Mark Sullivan, Manager of Strategic Analysis, General Motors
Rating:
Summary: The Invisibility of the Obvious
Review: One of the exercises I conduct for consulting clients is quite simple but extraordinarily valuable. Here's how it works. I ask to meet with 5-10 key executives, with or without the CEO included. Each of those present, in rotation around the table, says to each of the others (one at a time): "Here is what you and your people could do to make my life much easier." The exercise continues until each executive has spoken directly to every other person. All this takes about 60-90 minutes. Invariably the response is, "I had no idea. No problem. We'll be glad to do it. Why didn't you mention this before?" Everyone is involved, either asking for specific assistance from everyone else, or, learning how she or he could provide it. I mention this basic exercise to suggest what probably motivated O'Dell and Grayson to write this book. They focus on what they call "beds of knowledge" which are "hidden resources of intelligence that exist in almost every organization, relatively untapped and unmined." They suggest all manner of effective strategies to "tap into "this hidden asset, capturing it, organizing it, transferring it, and using it to create customer value, operational excellence, and product innovation -- all the while increasing profits and effectiveness." Almost all organizations claim that their "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each business day." That is correct. Almost all intellectual "capital" is stored between two ears and much (too much) of it is, for whatever reasons, inaccessible to others except in "small change." O'Dell and Grayson organize their material as follows: Part One: A Framework for Internal Knowledge Transfer Part Two: The Three Value Propositions [ie Customer Intimacy, Product-to-Product Excellence, and Achieving Operational Excellence] NOTE: Part Two will be even more valuable when read in combination with Treacy & Wiersema's The Discipline of Market Leaders. Part Three: The Four Enablers of Transfer Part Four: Reports From the Front Lines: Pioneer Case Studies Part Five: The Four Phase Process: Or, "What I Do on Monday Morning" In the Conclusion, the authors assert that "there is no conclusion to managing knowledge and transferring best practices. It is a race without a finishing line." They are right, now and especially in years to come. In the concluding chapter, the authors share ten "Enduring Principles" which should inform and direct the formulation of any plan by which to manage knowledge and transfer best practices. During implementation of the plan, everyone involved must be willing and able to make whatever adjustments may be necessary. Perhaps the authors would agree with me that an 11th "enduring principle" affirms that change is the only constant. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Senge's The Fifth Discipline and The Dance of Change as well as Isaac's Dialogue. With regard to the exercise briefly explained in the first paragraph, one of its many value-added benefits occurs following the completion of the exercise when most (if not) of the participants begin to offer unsolicited suggestions as to how they can do even more to assist their associates. Four of the most powerful words in any organization are "I need your help." But first you have to ask for it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best knowledge management book I've ever read
Review: The authors of this book will not try to seduce you with another 'management recipe' or fad. Knowledge will ultimately become the only sustainable advantage for companies of the future. Unfortunately, most companies do not realize that they internally possess unexplored knowledge on their own human, customers, and structural capital. This book will clearly demonstrate on how to extract out and share our internal knowledge and best practice, so we can use them to create our value propositions. In addition to rich case analyses and stories, this book will also guide you to start your own knowledge program. Read this book and put it into action. Also recommended: The Knowledge-Creating Company by Nonaka and Takeuchi.
Rating:
Summary: UNBLOCK THE STALLS: REALIZE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW!
Review: The key idea is powerful - that there are pockets or business activities within every corporation that have already figured out how to do something well, and no one else in the company knows if or where that knowledge resides. With knowledge management, as described in this book, that knowledge can be found and transferred to those who need it when they need it. The case histories make the process and the benefits come alive. The six barriers to knowledge transfer remind me of the seven "stalls" in THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION: The Communications Stall - we're not getting the message across; The Disbelief Stall - you mean you don't already know that!; The Tradition Stall - we've never shared that before; The Bureaucratic Stall - I'd have to complete too much paper work to document that for others; The Misconception Stall - I don't think anyone else needs to know this; and The Unattractiveness Stall - If I share it with them, we won't look as good. I urge you to read IF ONLY WE KNEW WHAT WE KNOW, one of the best books out on this increasingly important subject. Then read THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION. With your increased access to knowledge, you will develop 2,000 percent solutions for your business to make progress at 20 times the standard rate, get there 20 times more rapidly or gain 20 times the benefits.
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