Building on Knowledge: Developing Expertise, Creativity and Intellectual Capital in the Construction Professions

by David Bartholomew (De Montfort University)

• ISBN13: 9781444301410
• ISBN10: 1444301411
• Format: eBook
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This guide shows design practices and other construction professionals how to manage knowledge successfully. It explains how to develop and implement a knowledge management strategy, and how to avoid the pitfalls, focusing on the techniques of learning and knowledge sharing that are most relevant in professional practice. Expensive IT-based 'solutions' bought off-the-shelf rarely succeed in a practice context, so the emphasis here is on people-centred techniques, which recognise and meet real business knowledge needs and fit in with the organisational culture.Knowledge is supplanting physical assets as the dominant basis of capital value and an understanding of how knowledge is acquired, shared and used is increasingly crucial in organisational success. Most business leaders recognise this, but few have yet succeeded in making it the pervasive influence on management practice that it needs to become; that has turned out to be harder than it looks.Construction professionals are among those who have furthest to go, and most to gain. Design is a knowledge-based activity, and project managers, contractors and clients, as well as architects and engineers, have always learned from experience and shared their knowledge with immediate colleagues. But the intuitive processes they have traditionally used break down alarmingly quickly as organisations grow; even simply dividing the office over two floors can noticeably reduce communication. At the same time, increasingly sophisticated construction technology and more demanding markets are making effective management of knowledge ever more important. Other knowledge-intensive industries (such as management consultancy, pharmaceuticals, and IT), are well ahead in adopting a more systematic approach to learning and sharing knowledge, and seeing the benefits in improved technical capacity, efficiency, customer satisfaction and reduced risk.

Table of Contents

Preface

Foundations

Introduction

Paradoxical professionals

New context, new issues

What is in this book

Knowledge at Work

How we learn

What makes an expert

Varieties of knowledge

Putting the pieces together

Strategic Frameworks

Starting points

Frameworks for thinking

Finding conviction

The Challenges of Change

Why initiatives fail

Difficulty is normal

Leadership and Other Roles

Action starts where the buck stops

Practical leadership

Other roles

Knowledge-conscious management

Knowledge Audit and Beyond

Finding square one

Audit techniques

From audit to action plan

Putting plans into practice

Tools & techniques

The Knowledge-Friendly Office

Environments matter

Designing the knowledge-friendly office

Workplaces for teams

Expanding Networks

It's not what you know à

Help from IT

Designing networking tools

Learning from Peers

See one, do one, teach one

Mentoring in different contexts

Learning from Practice

Practice: the invisible lab and unsung teacher

Windows of opportunity

Foresight: learning from invention

Hindsight: learning from mistakes - and success

Choosing cases

Communities of Practice

Encouraging enthusiasts

Creating communities

Organisational Memory

The indispensability of writing

Deciding what to record, and how

Capturing knowledge

Documenting knowledge

Software frameworks

Personal Knowledge Management

Equipment for the mind gym

Developing personal expertise

Building a bionic memory

Synergies

IT-enabled synergies

Creating and sharing knowledge

Multiple synergies

Knowledge Management in Practice

Introduction to the Case Studies

Aedas

Arup

Broadway Malyan

Buro Happold

ECA

FCB

P&P

Whitbybird

WSP

Foresight and Hindsight

Epilogue: Where Next for Knowledge Management?

Further reading

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