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If Only We Knew What We Know : The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice
by Carla S. O'Dell, Nilly Essaides & C. Jackson Grayson, Jr.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Pt. 1. 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

Pt. 2. The Three Value Propositions

5. Find Your Value Proposition

6. Customer Intimacy

7. Product-to-Market Excellence

8. Achieving Operational Excellence

Pt. 3. The Four Enablers of Transfer

9. Culture, the Unseen Hand

10. Using Information Technology to Support Knowledge Transfer

11. Creating the Knowledge Infrastructure

12. Measuring the Impact of Transfer

Pt. 4. Reports from the Front Lines: Pioneer Case Studies

13. The View from the Top

14. Buckman Laboratories: Empowered by K'Netix

15. Tl's Best Practice Sharing Engine

16. Becoming a "Knowledge Bank"

17. Sequent Computer's Knowledge "Slingshot"

Pt. 5. 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

Pt. 6. Conclusion

22. Enduring Principles

App. The Knowledge Management Assessment Tool (KMAT)

References

Index

Book Description
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.

Synopsis
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 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.

Reviews
Amazon.com
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

From Bookist, October 15, 1998
O'Dell and Grayson are, respectively, the president and the founder and chairman of the American Productivity and Quality Center, a 300-member, nonprofit organization in Houston, Texas. In 1992, when the Center's International Benchmarking Clearinghouse began to search for best practices among its members, it discovered to its surprise that many of its members had found numerous examples of "unknown and unshared knowledge" in their very own organizations. This finding led to research on why knowledge and practices failed to transfer even in organizations that were noted for innovation. The authors report on this research and offer recommendations for taking advantage of internal best practices. They identify three barriers to internal knowledge transfer, explain which three value propositions are best-suited for harnessing internal knowledge, and describe the four "enablers" that facilitate transfer. They also provide case studies and offer a detailed methodology for "making best-practice transfer and knowledge sharing a mainstay of your company." David Rouse
Copyright© 1998, American Library Association. All rights reserved

A reader from Mexico City , October 4, 1999 
Un nuevo paradigma: El Conocimiento como Ventaja Competitiva
Un buen libro que nos induce a la reflexion sobre el valor del conocimiento en las organizaciones y su trascendencia para generar ventajas competitivas sustentables a partir de un nuevo paradigma: el conocimiento organizacional.

A reader from São Paulo, Brazil , October 1, 1999 
A very good book, but with obvious conclusions
As other books that talk about knowledge management (KM), this one starts with good definitions and examples of knowledge and management knowledge. The theoretic structure 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 strongest 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 technology 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 practices ("the best KM strategy") and the way that KM must be woven into the corporate infrastructure

A reader from Boston, MA , April 29, 1999 
One of the best knowledge management book I've ever read
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.

A reader from aol.com , March 30, 1999 
UNBLOCK THE STALLS: REALIZE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW!
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.

A reader from Houston, Texas, USA , March 2, 1999 
The FIRST book to put in your knowledge practices library
"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.

A business book writer from Boston , February 17, 1999 
DEFINITIVE WORK ON INTERNAL BENCHMARKING FOR LARGE COMPANIES
For large organizations, there is a tremendous opportunity to improve by sharing internally-developed choices. These choices will almost always work, and will have great credibility. Based on the experiences I have seen as a consultant on improving management processes, the lessons of this book reflect much of the learning that I have observed. The main things that are missing from this excellent book are the needed perspective of adding external benchmarking and outsourcing to make advances over what the internal best practices are. The authors should plan to write another that will integrate those perspectives, as well, to this one. In our work, we also find it helpful to encourage people to surpass the current best practices (wherever found) by assembling pieces of best practices in new ways, and using analogies to situations where human organizations are near perfect to create "ideal" practices that no one has done before. In some brief comments on how to expand creativity, the authors find themselves at odds with books like CREATIVITY IN CONTEXT and CORPORATE CREATIVITY. Be cautious how you apply those lessons. I would have found it more helpful to have had the cases developed earlier in the book. The World Bank case is the most interesting one, because it comes closest to using internal and external benchmarking. You might want to read this part first, to provide a good context if you have never read or experienced this kind of process before. Be sure to buy, read, and apply this work (especially if you are a large company or organization). In using this book, be sure to remember the main sources of organizational stalls: traditions that have outlived their usefulness; inappropriate disbelief about new ideas and technologies; misconceptions about the facts concerning your situation based on false assumptions; communications that are not received or understood properly; delays when the situation will deteriorate without prompt action; unnecessary costs and steps associated with bureaucracy; and avoiding opportunities because they are found in unattractive circumstances.

A reader from Detroit, Michigan , November 10, 1998 
An excellent blueprint to the future of business.
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: trainers 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 philosophical 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 advantage 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.