Critical Knowledge Transfer

How to transfer your organizations most important knowledgebefore it walks out the doorWhen highly skilled subject matter experts, engineers, and managers leave their organizations, they take with them years of hard-earned, experience-based knowledgemuch 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 successionsnot to mention commonplace promotions and transfersall 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 smartsthe organizations critical, experience-based knowledgebefore its 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 firms 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 initiativesThis book is essential reading for anyone managing talent in todays volatile environment.