Learning to Fly : Practical Lessons from One of the World's Leading Knowledge Companies

by Chris Collison; Geoff Parcell

• ISBN13: 9781841121246
• ISBN10: 184112124X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Capstone Ltd

Summary

Learning to Fly shows exactly how to put theory into practice, sharing the tools used and the experience and insights gained by two leading knowledge management practitioners. In Learning to Fly, Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell share their experiences from BP, one of the world's leading knowledge organisations. It is a practical, pragmatic workbook packed with hints and tips to help managers put knowledge management into action immediately.

Author Biography

Chris Collison leads BP’s efforts in knowledge technology and personal productivity. He has presented BP’s knowledge management story to audiences around the world, participating at major international conferences in five continents, as well as working with government departments and business leaders from other organizations. He has been the author or contributor to many articles in specialist knowledge management publications, as well as broadsheets such as the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph. Geoff Parcell is a practitioner. He has a wealth of experience gained from a diverse career in BP that has taken him from Vietnam to Brazil, from geophysicist to facilitator. A core member of BP’s knowledge management team during the late 90s, he now leads a company-wide initiative for excellence in operations, truly embedding knowledge management in operational activities.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xiii
Preface	xv
Acknowledgements	xix
Part 1: Overview	1	(54)
Setting the Context	3	(10)
What the book is about and how the book is set out to enable you to navigate the knowledge quickly
What is Knowledge Management?	13	(14)
It is about capturing, creating, distilling, sharing and using know-how
It's more than what's written down
The Holistic Model - it's More than the Sum of the Parts	27	(14)
The model describes how to turn business objectives into results by learning before, learning during and learning after
Getting the Environment Right	41	(8)
Setting the environment up so that it's OK to ask for some help from peers is key
Getting Started - Just Do It	49	(6)
We learned to just get started by working on something simple
Part 2: Tools and Techniques	55	(112)
Learning from your Peers - Somebody has Already Done it	57	(18)
Peer assists are a technique to apply early on in the doing phase, a kind of project design meeting if you like
Learning Whilst Doing - Time to Reflect	75	(12)
Learning from the last event so that it can be applied to the next
Learning After Doing - When it's All Over	87	(16)
At the end of a project sit down with all the people with a stake in the result and review what went well and what could have been done differently
Finding the Right People - If Only I Knew Who	103	(20)
Key to learning what others have done is to know who to ask and being able to reach them easily
Networking and Communities of Practice	123	(18)
People with common interests or discipline practices form networks or communities of practice to share their know-how
Leveraging What We've Learned - Capturing Knowledge	141	(26)
It is important to find a way of capturing what has been learned, in order that it can be reused by others, sometimes immediately and at other times after a distinct time lag
Part 3: Today and Tomorrow	167	(32)
Embedding it in the Organisation - Preparing to Let Go	169	(26)
You know when sharing knowledge has become an unconscious competence, when there are no longer people dedicated to knowledge management in the organisation, when the techniques are embedded in the core business processes
Review of the Book - What Did We Set Out to Do?	195	(4)
Our intent was to write a book that was both practical and pragmatic, to help people take their first steps to do something different in order that they could learn from that and adapt further
Did we achieve that, if not what was the difference and why was it different? What can we learn from that?
Appendix A	199	(4)
Appendix B	203	(2)
Resources 1	205	(8)
Resources 2	213	(4)
Index	217