Section I

Establish strategic priorities

Chapter 1 – Identifying valuable knowledge

Chapter 2 – Making a comprehensive assessment of knowledge flows

In a rapidly changing world, current success and future survival depend on constantly learning to do things differently and better. Knowledge is both the raw material that is the foundation for learning and the output from it, offering new opportunities and new sources of revenue. Arguably this means we would be neglecting our strategic responsibilities if we did not review organizational priorities in terms of the knowledge available to the business and focus our management and leadership practices on creating the conditions where knowledge can be used productively.

What Do We Mean by Strategic Priorities?

Even when you accept the importance of taking a knowledge perspective on the organization, it is still a challenge to prioritize time, attention, effort, and financial resources to improve the way knowledge delivers results. Often people tend to be more drawn to immediate task requirements and don’t sustain the longer term perspective required to join up areas of knowledge activity smoothly and seamlessly. There is an additional challenge too: judging the returns on investments in knowledge-related initiatives can be perceived as highly subjective because the link between action and result can be very diffuse and slow to become visible in any measurable way. Unlike other resources which are consumed with use, knowledge tends to increase ...

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