Well heck yes! I’m aware that the mind meld thing is not actually occurring in this photo. But the wise one is entrusting to the young one his deep smarts and legacy.
Wrapping up my Major Projects Knowledge Hub guest book choices for the month. Today I offer Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company’s Deep Smarts.
Ha! See what I did there? This week’s title builds directly from last week’s Deep Smarts, was also written by Leonard and Swap. Keep that thread going.
The super sped-up scenes from the last episodes flash by now: business mandates to explicitly transfer and retain deep expertise; newer thinking about best approaches in fostering a knowledge exchange and continuity culture; what are those deep smarts? Caught up? Now back to today…
Dorothy Leonard, Walter Swap and Gavin Barton wrote THE book on knowledge transfer and – get excited – this is it! How could I not bring it to you?
Leonard, et al. set out the basic challenge with these questions –“Why would you spend resources on the transfer? What exactly do you need to transfer? And who must be involved? Why transfer knowledge? These questions can seem deceptively simple to managers. But these issues must be addressed with care before you will know which tools and techniques fit your particular situation.”
We’re not talking about building another knowledge base. We’re not talking about another intranet. We’re talking about soft-skill approaches to bring together experts, nextperts and aspirationals in conversational, organic exchanges where know-how and why is surfaced and applied to solve complex challenges.
Critical Knowledge Transfer includes brief case overviews, papers and stories of approaches in diverse sectors and organizations. “ConocoPhillips 2012 MAKE Finalist”, Baker Hughes Integrated Operations, Monsanto, US Military to name a few. Check out the “notes” section starting on page 201 for some clear and compelling references and examples of approaches.
Here’s a super visual that tells you more. Leonard, Dorothy. Critical Knowledge Transfer (p. 8). Harvard Business Review Press. Kindle Edition.
Liz McLean on Twitter @knowsaic on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/efmclean/
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