If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice

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.

Two acclaimed business leaders--who boast such impressive clients as AT&T, Price Waterhouse, and Xerox--team up to present practical, how-to strategies for transferring internal best practices with the principles of knowledge management.

Carla O'Dell is president of the American Productivity and Quality Center and director of the Center's International Benchmarking Clearinghouse in Houston, Texas. Dr. O'Dell is co-author with C. Jackson Grayson, Jr., of American Business: A Two Minute Warning.

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: A FRAMEWORK FOR INTERNAL KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

1. Definitions of Knowledge and Knowledge Management
2. KM in Action — The Transfer of Best Practices
3. The Barriers to Internal Transfer
4. A Model for Best Practice Transfer

PART TWO: THE THREE VALUE PROPOSITIONS

5. Find Your Value Proposition
6. Customer Intimacy
7. Product-to-Market Excellence
8. Achieving Operational Excellence

PART THREE: THE FOUR ENABLERS OF TRANSFER

9. Culture, the Unseen Hand
10. Using Information Technology to Support
11. Knowledge Transfer
12. Creating the Knowledge Infrastructure
13. Measuring the Impact of Transfer

PART FOUR: REPORTS FROM THE FRONT LINES: PIONEER CASE STUDIES

13. The View from the Top
14. Buckman Laboratories: Empowered by K'Netix®
15. TI's Best Practice Sharing Engine
16. Becoming a "Knowledge Bank
17. Sequent Computer's Knowledge "Slingshot"

PART FIVE: THE FOUR-PHASE PROCESS: OR "WHAT DO I DO ON MONDAY MORNING?"

18. Plan, Assess, and Prepare: Phase 1
19. Designing the Transfer Project: Phase 2
20. Implementation: Phase 3
21. Transition and Scale-Up: Phase 4

PART SIX: CONCLUSION

22. Enduring Principles

Appendix

The Knowledge Management Assessment Tool (KMAT)©

References

Index