Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know [Hardcover]

Nancy M. Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2000

Breakthrough research on knowledge transfer reveals five proven methods for making knowledge sharing a reality - which are right for your company? While external knowledge - about customers, about competitors - is critical, it rarely provides a competitive edge for companies because such information is equally available to everyone. But internal 'know-how' that is unique to a specific company - how to introduce a new drug into the diabetes market, how to decrease assembly time in an automobile plant - is the stuff of which sustained competitive advantage is made. Nancy Dixon, an expert in the field of organizational learning, calls this knowledge borne of experience 'common knowledge', and argues that in order to get beyond talking about knowledge management to actually doing it, companies must first recognize that all knowledge is not created - and therefore can't be shared - equally. Creating successful knowledge transfer systems, Dixon argues, requires matching the type of knowledge to be shared to the method best suited for transferring it effectively. Based on an in-depth study of several organizations - including Ernst & Young, Bechtel, Ford, Chevron, British Petroleum, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Army - that are leading the field in successful knowledge transfer, "Common Knowledge" reveals groundbreaking insights into how organizational knowledge is created, how it can be effectively shared - and why transfer systems work when they do. Until now, most organizations have had to rely on costly 'trial and error' to find a knowledge transfer system that works for them. Dixon helps managers take the guesswork out of this process by outlining three criteria that must be considered in order to determine how a transfer method will work in a specific situation: the type of knowledge to be transferred, the nature of the task, and who the receiver of that knowledge will be. Drawing from the successful - but very different - practices of the companies in her study and providing compelling illustrative stories based on the experiences of real managers, Dixon distills five distinct categories of knowledge transfer, explains the principles that make each of them work, and helps managers determine which of these systems would be most effective in their own organizations. "Common Knowledge" gets to the heart of one of the most difficult questions in knowledge transfer today: what makes a system work effectively in one organization but fail miserably in another? Going beyond 'one-size-fits-all' approaches and simple generalities like upper management involvement and cultural issues, this important book will help organizations of every kind construct knowledge transfer systems tailored to their unique forms of 'common knowledge' - and in the process create the best kind of competitive advantage there is: the kind that can't be copied.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"The hope of 'knowledge management' will remain unfulfilled unless organizations learn how to tap into not just their employees' facts and observations, but their hopes, fears, dreams, and feelings. Nancy Dixon has studied the ways in which knowledge truly spreads, and she describes the practice in real-life detail, blending a keen feel for organizational design, in-depth research, practicality, and high spirits."
-Art Kleiner, Coauthor of The Dance of Change and Author of The Age of Heretics

"Common Knowledge is valuable to readers interested in understanding the practices by which knowledge is transferred. An important contribution to the knowledge management literature."
-Stephen Denning, Program Director, Knowledge Management, World Bank

"Nancy Dixon offers insightful case studies that identify the obstacles facing organizations that implement knowledge management practices, and outlines the techniques to overcome them. Her book reveals that by focusing on getting 'best demonstrated practices,' we can all improve and leverage what we already know in our organization."
-Jack W. Hugus, Ph.D, Vice President of Best Practices, Lockheed Martin Corporation

"Common Knowledge presents an elegant view of how knowledge is transferred and provides a simple framework to better understand the complexity of knowledge management."
-Gary Merriman, President, Exploration Production Americas, Conoco, Inc.

"Nancy Dixon brings her unique blend of insight and lucidity to the business of knowledge management. By pointing out the fundamental shifts that are taking place in our view of knowledge, she shows us why the knowledge management systems that work do work, and specifies the design principles that could make such systems work in your organization."
-Mike Pedler, Revans Professorial Fellow, Revans Centre for Action Learning & Research, University of Salford, UK

About the Author

Nancy M. Dixon is an Associate Professor of Administrative Sciences at The George Washington University. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875849040
• ISBN-13: 978-0875849041
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #507,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our best guide to knowledge transfer, May 4, 2000

By 

Henry Lindborg - See all my reviews

This review is from: Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know (Hardcover)

This is the best book available on knowledge transfer. Based upon the author's deep understanding of organizational learning theory and her careful examination of the practices of major corporations, it offers clear definitions of five types of knowledge transfer, along with criteria, design guidelines, business drivers and potential barriers for each. Examples of each transfer type (from teams reviewing their actions in order to perform better together in a new setting to strategic learning and sharing of expert knowledge) are employed less to bolster a thesis than to illustrate how classifications were evolved and tested. Intelligently crafted categories based upon similarities of tasks and contexts, the nature of tasks, and knowledge type provide a framework for organizations to build a system for employing "common knowledge" for business objectives. Written with clarity and grace, this volume explores the power of metaphor and of the values of sharing, listening and trust, while developing our most practical guide for integrating effective knowledge transfer into organizations' strategic architecture. Highly recommended.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All of Us Know More Than Any One of Us Does, November 26, 2000

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know (Hardcover)

Dixon does indeed explain HOW companies thrive by sharing what they know. (She apparently agrees with Derek Bok, former president of Harvard, when responding to irate parents after a tuition increase: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.") In her Introduction, she identifies three myths (or assumptions about the idea of knowledge sharing: (1) build it and they will come (the so-called "Field of Dreams Syndrome"), (2) technology can replace face-to-face, and (3) first you have to create a learning culture. "Many of the organizations I studied started with one or more of these assumptions and then had to make corrections to get back on track." She then explains why each myth or assumption is either wrong or inadequate. After that, she observes: My major goal in writing this book is to broaden readers' thinking about how a company might share knowledge. Therefore I discuss many ways in which real companies have successfully transferred knowledge....Another goal is to help readers figure out which of these many systems [subsequently analyzed] would be most effective in their own settings -- how to tell whether BP's Peer Assist would be more effective than Ford's Best Practice Replication." All this in the Introduction (!) which serves as the first of the nine chapters within which her material is organized.

The objective of Dixon's study of ten organizations (ranging from Bechtel to the U.S. Army) was to understand why some knowledge transfer systems are effective...and why others are not. Eventually, she concluded that "These organizations know a great deal about how...but much less about why." Moreover, "Organizations like the ones I have written about in this book, that are on the leading edge of knowledge transfer have been learning on their own, primarily through trial and error." To which I presume to add, that we must understand how to learn if any knowledge (about anything else) is to be gained. Moreover, there are also quite specific skills required when helping others to learn what we know. In her book, Dixon provides a wealth of information which includes cases and examples, a "synthesis that retains the separate voices of the examples", "stories" which preserve the emotions and values of people involved. general principles derived from the cases, and an "articulation" of the reasoning behind the various categories (eg absorptive capacity) inorder to reveal the WHY behind the categories. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and his more recent The Dance of Change.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read Book on Knowledge Management, April 13, 2000

By 

G. Thompson (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know (Hardcover)

This is a very important book and (I predict) will have a long-lasting effect on the field of knowledge management. Dixon organizes the field, providing a vocabulary and a framework for what is emerging in leading edge companies around the globe as a strategic advantage.

The book is beautifully written. The clear examples and case studies illuminate and add depth to her materials. This book should be the first thing that anyone reads who is considering how to transfer the knowledge (both tacit and explicit) that already exists within a company to others in the company who need it. Dixon is careful to point out that she is not providing a "recipe book" ("one size fits all"); rather, she is giving guidance on what works in particular situations and then inviting readers to begin on their own exploration. Dixon describes that exploration as a necessary first step in creating a knowledge transfer system within a company.

Incidentally, her chapter dealing with how knowledge is changing (moving from the "warehouse" model to the "flow of water" model) makes me want to ask her to write another book -- soon -- to expand on her ideas.

A pleasure to read. I have already recommended it to two clients and I intend to tell others about it soon.