Critical Knowledge Transfer - by Dorothy Leonard-Barton & Walter C Swap & Gavin Barton (Hardcover)

About the Book

Addressing the critical issue of knowledge transfer within an organization, this book offers practical advice on how to structure the transition of documented information and the even more valuable non-documented knowledge that outgoing staffers have-before it leaves with them.

Book Synopsis

How to transfer your organization's most important knowledge--before it walks out the door

When highly skilled subject matter experts, engineers, and managers leave their organizations, they take with them years of hard-earned, experience-based knowledge--much of it undocumented and irreplaceable. Organizations can thereby lose a good part of their competitive advantage. The tsunami of "boomer" retirements has created the most visible, urgent need to transfer such knowledge to the next generation. But there is also an ongoing torrent of acquisitions, layoffs, and successions--not to mention commonplace promotions and transfers--all of which involve the loss of essential expertise.

Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap first addressed this acute loss of knowledge in their groundbreaking book Deep Smarts (2005). Since then, managers have repeatedly asked them for practical, proven techniques that will help transfer those deep smarts--the organization's critical, experience-based knowledge--before it's too late. Now, with coauthor Gavin Barton, the authors share a comprehensive approach to doing just that.

Based on original research, numerous interviews with top managers, and a wide range of corporate examples, Critical Knowledge Transfer provides a variety of practical options for identifying your firm's deep smarts and transferring that intelligence from experts to successors. Critical Knowledge Transfer will enable managers to:

- Determine the seriousness of their knowledge loss
- Identify the deep smarts essential to their business
- Utilize proven techniques for transferring knowledge when its loss is imminent
- Identify and implement long-term transfer program apprenticeships
- Set up individual learning plans for successors
- Assess the success of their knowledge transfer initiatives

This book is essential reading for anyone managing talent in today's volatile environment.

Review Quotes

"In today's workplace, knowledge is power--but only if you can capture, preserve, share, and use it. That's where Critical Knowledge Transfer: Tools for Managing Your Company's Deep Smarts comes in. This book is highly useful for anyone concerned with the loss of organizational knowledge and the costs associated with it." -- TD magazine (Association for Talent Development)

ADVANCE PRAISE for Critical Knowledge Transfer:

Teresa Roche, Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, Agilent Technologies--
"An outstanding and comprehensive field guide for anyone who really cares about talent in his or her organization. Leonard, Swap, and Barton outline the foundations of knowledge transfer and provide practical applications to help you reflect thoughtfully and act effectively on critical knowledge transfer issues. A pragmatic and compelling book."

T.J. Elliott, Vice President and Chief Learning Officer, ETS--
"When those in our organizations with 'deep smarts' leave, taking their knowledge with them, what do we do? The techniques in this book, with their insightful specificity and proven practicality, will benefit the leader who wishes to solve this critical dilemma."

Richard Gross, Vice President, Learning and Development, Cargill, Inc.--
"Critical Knowledge Transfer provides a thought-provoking, comprehensive, and practical guide for transferring critical, experience-based knowledge. I highly recommend it for business and HR leaders alike."

Steve Phillips, Chief Information Officer, Avnet, Inc.--
"With the speed of business today, companies can't afford to lose the deep, experience-based knowledge of departing employees and leaders. Critical Knowledge Transfer provides profound insight into this challenge, along with concrete tools, techniques, and examples that businesses can apply immediately to prevent this hard-won knowledge from walking out the door forever."

About the Author

Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration Emerita at Harvard Business School and chief adviser of the consulting firm Leonard-Barton Group. She is the author or coauthor of three Harvard Business Review Press books: Deep Smarts, When Sparks Fly, and Wellsprings of Knowledge.

Walter Swap is Professor of Psychology Emeritus, former Chairman of the Psychology Department, and former Dean of Colleges at Tufts University. He is the coauthor of Deep Smarts and When Sparks Fly.

Gavin Barton is managing director of the Leonard-Barton Group and a principal of GB Performance Consulting. He holds a doctorate from Boston University.