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Methods for Making Knowledge Sharing a Reality--Which are Right for Your Company?
While external knowledge--about customers, about competitors--is critical, it rarely provides a competitive edge for companies because such information is equally available to everyone. But internal "know-how" that is unique to a specific company--how to introduce a new drug into the diabetes market, how to decrease assembly time in an automobile plant--is the stuff of which sustained competitive advantage is made. Nancy Dixon, an expert in the field of organizational learning, calls this knowledge borne of experience "common knowledge," and argues that in order to get beyond talking about knowledge management to actually doing it, companies must first recognize that all knowledge is not created--and therefore can't be shared--equally.
Creating successful knowledge transfer systems, Dixon argues, requires matching the type of knowledge to be shared to the method best suited for transferring it effectively. Based on an in-depth study of several organizations--including Ernst & Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army--that are leading the field in successful knowledge transfer, Common Knowledge reveals groundbreaking insights into how organizational knowledge is created, how it can be effectively shared--and why transfer systems work when they do.
Until now, most organizations have had to rely on costly "trial and error" to find a knowledge transfer system that works for them. Dixon helps managers take the guesswork out of this process by outlining three criteria that must be considered in order to determine how a transfer method will work in a specific situation: the type of knowledge to be transferred, the nature of the task, and who the receiver of that knowledge will be. Drawing from the successful--but very different--practices of the companies in her study and providing compelling illustrative stories based on the experiences of real managers, Dixon distills five distinct categories of knowledge transfer, explains the principles that make each of them work, and helps managers determine which of these systems would be most effective in their own organizations.
Common Knowledge gets to the heart of one of the most difficult questions in knowledge transfer today: What makes a system work effectively in one organization but fail miserably in another? Going beyond "one-size-fits-all" approaches and simple generalities like upper management involvement and cultural issues, this important book will help organizations of every kind construct knowledge transfer systems tailored to their unique forms of "common knowledge"--and in the process create the best kind of competitive advantage there is: the kind that can't be copied.
About the Author
IN THE LAST CHAPTER, I USED THE FLUTE-MAKING INDUSTRY AS an example of the competitive advantage that can come from an organization's common knowledge. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Nancy Dixon's book comes to the rescue of anyone faced with dilemma of needing to do something and not knowing what. It raises above all the hype and panic to give clear, practical advice. Professor Dixon defines five distinct types of knowledge and illustrates them with real life examples. She goes on to show that these types of knowledge need different methods of propagation. In other words the medium and the message must work together to deliver the goods. Some types of knowledge are indeed amenable to a database approach. But surprise, surprise - some are not. It all depends on why you want to transfer the knowledge and what kind of knowledge it is.
This book can help you work out what you need to achieve your objective in knowledge management. Whether you're charged with facilitating expertise passing to your bright young things; are determined not to reinvent the wheel or ensuring costly mistakes do not get repeated across the organisation - this is the book for you.
However, it is "lite" on some of the trickier parts of the field (eg the slippery nature of tacit knowledge) and makes no connection with some fundamental concepts and types espoused by senior writers and commentators on knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuichi, Blackler, etc). Perhaps a subsequent edition will give some validation to the 5 "knowledge types" postulated by the author.
I would recommend this as a good entry level book to be read after "The Idiots guide to Knowledge Management" (which is a great starter) but before Wengers "Communities of Practice"
The objective of Dixon's study of ten organizations (ranging from Bechtel to the U.S. Army) was to understand why some knowledge transfer systems are effective...and why others are not. Eventually, she concluded that "These organizations know a great deal about how...but much less about why." Moreover, "Organizations like the ones I have written about in this book, that are on the leading edge of knowledge transfer have been learning on their own, primarily through trial and error." To which I presume to add, that we must understand how to learn if any knowledge (about anything else) is to be gained. Moreover, there are also quite specific skills required when helping others to learn what we know. In her book, Dixon provides a wealth of information which includes cases and examples, a "synthesis that retains the separate voices of the examples", "stories" which preserve the emotions and values of people involved. general principles derived from the cases, and an "articulation" of the reasoning behind the various categories (eg absorptive capacity) inorder to reveal the WHY behind the categories. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and his more recent The Dance of Change.
The book is beautifully written. The clear examples and case studies illuminate and add depth to her materials. This book should be the first thing that anyone reads who is considering how to transfer the knowledge (both tacit and explicit) that already exists within a company to others in the company who need it. Dixon is careful to point out that she is not providing a "recipe book" ("one size fits all"); rather, she is giving guidance on what works in particular situations and then inviting readers to begin on their own exploration. Dixon describes that exploration as a necessary first step in creating a knowledge transfer system within a company.
Incidentally, her chapter dealing with how knowledge is changing (moving from the "warehouse" model to the "flow of water" model) makes me want to ask her to write another book -- soon -- to expand on her ideas.
A pleasure to read. I have already recommended it to two clients and I intend to tell others about it soon.
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