Dorothy Leonard-Barton – författare

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.

Where do the best creative ideas come from? Most managers assume that it's the readily identifiable "creative types" that offer the quickest route to out-of-the-box thinking. Yet, say Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, most innovations spring from well-led group interactions. The authors sweep aside conventional thinking about creativity and offer proven strategies for stimulating and directing the group dynamics that lie at the heart of innovative thinking. When Sparks Fly outlines and analyzes each step in the creative process and gives practical suggestions for managing teams. According to Fortune, "The insights in the lively book could turbocharge your team (and maybe even your career)."

Deep smarts are the engine of any organization as well as the essential value that individuals build throughout their careers. Distinct from IQ, this type of expertise consists of practical wisdom: accumulated knowledge, know-how, and intuition gained through extensive experience. How do such smarts develop? And what happens when people with deep smarts leave a particular job or the organization? Can any of their smarts be transferred? Should they be? Basing their conclusions on a multi-year research project, Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap argue that cultivating and managing deep smarts are critical parts of any leader's job. The authors draw on examples from firms of all sizes and types to illustrate the connection between deep smarts and organizational viability and continuous innovation. Leonard and Swap describe the origins and limits of deep smarts and outline processes for cultivating and leveraging them across the organization. Developing an experience repertoire and receiving strategic guidance from wise coaches can help individuals move up the ladder of expertise from novice to master.Addressing a topic of increasing importance as the Boomer generation retires, Deep Smarts challenges leaders to take a hands-on approach to managing the experience-based knowledge shaping the future of their organizations.