Description
Book SynopsisThe best thinking and actions in the fast-moving arena of collaboration and knowledge management The New Edge in Knowledge captures the most practical and innovative practices to ensure organizations have the knowledge they need in the future and, more importantly, the ability to connect the dots and use knowledge to succeed today.
Trade ReviewPraise for The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management is Changing the Way We Do Business
"You may think you know knowledge management, but this is new—how knowledge initiatives can incorporate social media, mobile technologies, and learning, for example. This book integrates the new knowledge management with the best of the old, such as communities of practice and measurement. KM still matters, and this book tells you why."
—Thomas H. Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of IT and Management, Babson College
"Over the last decade, knowledge management has emerged as a key success factor for the modern corporation, driven by tremendous advances in business analytics. This book studies the best practices in knowledge management and how leadership companies are applying them today."
—Virginia M. Rometty, Senior Vice President and Group Executive Sales, Marketing and Strategy, IBM
"APQC has been on the leading edge of knowledge management for almost two decades. O'Dell and Hubert have captured those best practices and created a road map to transform the way people work. Reap the benefits of their experience."
—C. Jackson Grayson, Chairman and Founder, APQC and co-author of If Only We Knew What We Know
"The New Edge in Knowledge is a useful how-to manual that takes best practice sharing and organizational capability building to the next level: Web 2.0, social networking, mobility, and communities of practice. National and international examples show how companies can create strategic alignment and systematic management to transfer knowledge rapidly and effectively."
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor and author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good
"What has made our KM program strong is sticking to the fundamentals -- that's exactly what this book outlines. It provides trusted advisor guidance on how any company or organization can take the concrete steps to create and implement a world class KM strategy."
—Dan Ranta, Director of Knowledge Sharing, ConocoPhillips
"Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert have written an amazingly down to earth, useful and practical book on knowledge management and its importance to modern business. Starting with the distinction between information and knowledge, they provide a viewpoint that leaves IT in the dust. Read it to prepare for tomorrow's world!"
—A. Gary Shilling, President, A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc.
"A practical business approach to knowledge management, this book covers KM's value proposition for any organization, provides proven strategies and approaches to make it work, shares how to measure KM's impact, and illustrates high level knowledge sharing with wonderful case studies. Well done!"
—Jane Dysart, Conference Chair, KMWorld & Partner, Dysart & Jones Associates
"This book is a tour de force in the field of knowledge management. Read every single page and learn about best practices from the leading firms around the world. All of this and more from the company that leads the way in the field: APQC. I highly recommend it for your bookshelf."
—Dr. Nick Bontis, Director, Institute for Intellectual Capital Research
"Food for thought from two of the pioneers. Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert have been in the trenches with many of the organizations that have succeeded in leveraging KM for business benefit. They recognized early the symbiotic relationship between knowledge flow and work flow and have guided practitioners in the quest to optimize and streamline both."
— Reid Smith, Enterprise Content Management Director, Marathon Oil Company
"Carla O'Dell and Cindy Hubert take knowledge management from vague idea to strategic enabler. In so doing, they clear up the not only the whats, but the whys and the hows. This book establishes knowledge management as an organizational discipline. The authors offer a straightforward set of execution steps, coaching readers on how to launch their own knowledge management programs in a deliberate and rigorous way."
—Jill Dyché, Partner and Co-Founder, Baseline Consulting; Author of Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth
"The authors and APQC have put together an excellent 'how to' manual for Knowledge Management (KM) that can benefit any organization, from those experienced in KM to those just starting. The authors have taken their years of experience and excellence in this field and written a masterful introduction and design manual that incorporates industry best-practices and alerts readers to the pitfalls they are likely to encounter. This book needs to be in the hands of every KM professional and corporate senior leader."
—Ralph Soule, a member of the US Navy
Table of ContentsForeword xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Chapter 1 Positioning Knowledge Management for the Future 1
What is Knowledge Management? 2
KM in a New Context 3
Primary Directives 10
Showcasing KM Leaders 12
Closing Comments 16
Chapter 2 A Call to Action 19
Determine the Value Proposition 20
Identify Critical Knowledge 23
Locate Your Critical Knowledge 24
How Knowledge Should Flow 29
Getting Buy-In 32
Closing Comments 32
Chapter 3 Knowledge Management Strategy and Business Case 35
A Framework for KM Strategy Development 36
The Business Case for KM 41
Closing Comments 43
Chapter 4 Selecting and Designing Knowledge Management Approaches 45
A Portfolio of Approaches 45
Selecting KM Approaches 48
Designing a KM Approach 52
What Can Go Wrong 53
Portfolio Example: Retaining Critical Knowledge 54
Closing Comments 59
Chapter 5 Proven Knowledge Management Approaches 61
Communities of Practice 61
Lessons Learned 68
Transfer of Best Practices 74
Closing Comments 78
Chapter 6 Emerging Knowledge Management Approaches 81
The Promise of Social Computing 82
Revealing New Facets of Information 84
The New Generation of Self-Service: The Digital Hub 85
The Digital Hub at Work 86
Challenges and Change Management 96
Our Recommendations 101
Case Examples 102
Closing Comments 107
Chapter 7 Working Social Networking 109
Guidelines for Enterprise Social Networking 110
Closing Comments 115
Chapter 8 Governance, Roles, and Funding 117
Governance Group 117
KM Core Group 119
KM Design Teams 123
Investing in KM 124
Balancing Corporate and Business-Unit Funding 125
Closing Comments 126
Chapter 9 Building a Knowledge-Sharing Culture 129
Lead by Example 130
Brand Aggressively 134
Make KM Fun 139
Closing Comments 142
Chapter 10 Measuring the Impact of Knowledge Management 143
A Portfolio of Measures 144
Measuring across the Levels of Maturity 147
The Power of Analytics 151
A KM Measurement System 152
Closing Comments 154
Chapter 11 Make Best Practices Your Practices 157
Above and In the Flow 157
Other Principles 158
So What Do You Do Monday Morning? 160
Appendix Case Studies 163
ConocoPhillips 163
Fluor 179
IBM 197
MITRE 210
References 227
About the Authors 229
About APQC 230
Index 233
