If Only We Knew What We Know

To reiterate a principle that underlies this entire blog, I believe the essential knowledge that can create competitive advantage for companies (at least in a round world!) is proprietary. I suspect that Seely and Hagel (in The Only Sustainable Edge) would say that it may not be wholly proprietary—it’s the ability to turn knowledge from inside and outside the company into new, distinctive capabilities. And the most important proprietary knowledge is locked in people’s heads, usually inaccessible and certainly not effectively shared and leveraged throughout most organizations.

If I sound disdainful of courseware from time to time (OK, always), it is not because I don’t think it has an important role in workplace learning—it does. But critical corporate IP usually doesn’t make it’s way into courses and mining that corporate gold should be our primary objective.

What brought this to mind again vividly was the opening chapter or two in a must read book (not new but very insightful) titled, If We Only Knew What We Know, by O’Dell and Grayson of the American Productivity & Quality Center. I’m still reading, but I wanted to share this great paragraph:

“Only those organizations that methodically, passionately, and proactively find out and transfer what they know, and use it to increase efficiency, sharpen their product-development edge, and get closer to their customers, will not only survive, but thrive.”

More later...