The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action [Hardcover]

Jeffrey Pfeffer (Author), Robert I. Sutton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Every year, companies spend billions of dollars on training programs and management consultants, searching for ways to improve. But it's mostly all talk and no action, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap. "Did you ever wonder why so much education and training, management consultation, organizational research and so many books and articles produce so few changes in actual management practice?" ask Stanford University professors Pfeffer and Sutton. "We wondered, too, and so we embarked on a quest to explore one of the great mysteries in organizational management: why knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge." The authors describe the most common obstacles to action---such as fear and inertia---and profile successful companies that overcome them.

Among the companies that Pfeffer and Sutton say do it right: General Electric, the Men's Wearhouse, SAS Institute, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and British Petroleum. The book, based on four years of research, is broken into chapters with titles such as "When Talk Substitutes for Action," "When Fear Prevents Acting on Knowledge," "When Internal Competition Turns Friends into Enemies," and "Turning Knowledge into Action." Each chapter contains tips on what to do and what to avoid, and provides examples of how a lethargic company culture can be transformed. The Knowing-Doing Gap is a useful how-to guide for managers looking to make changes. Yet, as Pfeffer and Sutton point out, it takes more than reading their book or discussing their recommendations. It takes action. --Dan Ring

Review

"...brash, fiery in its opinions...Pfeffer and Sutton close the knowing-doing gap; open their book and you can too!" -- Management General, December 2000

"Every once in a while a great book starts to fall below the radar screen. This is one of those books:go out of your way to find a copy and read it!" -- Management General, Spring, 2000

"The authors never leave a topic without prescribing seven or eight steps that companies can take." -- The New York Times, June 25th, 2000

"This volume will quickly assume a place among the classic, frequently cited managment books." -- National Productivity Review, Winter 1999

"Why can't we get anything done? Pfeffer and Sutton [answer this question]in their useful book." -- Fast Company, June 2000, Story by Alan Webber

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 314 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578511240
• ISBN-13: 978-1578511242
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Teams
  • #88 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Information Management

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide for linking strategy to action January 4, 2000

By Susan L Jackson

Format:Hardcover

As a consultant working with various companies, I found the content of this book very useful in providing a framework for strategic planning sessions. One of the biggest challenges for executive leadership teams is to move from smart talk to action. Using the principles from this book, I've found leadership teams now focused not only on strategic thinking but also on translating that thinking into action. In addition, the Harvard Business Review article, "The Smart Talk Trap", was excellent pre-reading for executives prior to the strategic planning session. The case studies provided real life examples that leaders can relate to. This book is a must read for anyone struggling to implement new strategies! I intend to continue to use it with executive leadership teams.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars ...And then the penny dropped.... March 12, 2000

By Perpetual Skeptic

Format:Hardcover

I think it was the late Frank Zappa who once said that the most plentiful element in the universe was not hydrogen, it was stupidity. Followers of Dilbert will know that the corporate world is full of stupidity, but how does it get there? For me, this book went a long way to explaining why seemingly smart people do such stupid things in business and what to do about it.

If you have ever been frustrated by the way people in your company act or by yourself and your inability to get anything done, read this insight into what causes the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.

It all comes down to fear. If you follow the advice in the book and drive out fear, both within yourself and in those around you, things will get done. Deming, it seems, was right.

I read this at the same time as reading David Schwartz' excellent "Magic of Thinking Big". Put the two works together and the penny will suddenly drop for you, as it did for me.

From that moment forth, you will see how knowing things just isn't enough. Unapplied ideas are simply worthless vapour. What counts is getting stuff done. Results are everything.

Follow the advice in this book and you can get things done too.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The virtues of clear thinking March 23, 2000

By Prof. David Owens

Format:Hardcover

It seems like a straightforward question: Why aren't we doing what we know we should be doing? The answer to this question, it would seem, should be both simple and complex; this book's main virtue is that it provides both. Their unblinking examinations of so many obvious and ridiculous screw-ups and mess-ups of all kinds makes the simple foolishness of it all so completely apparent (this collection of examples alone is well worth the cost of admission). But then again (thankfully), they don't oversimplify their discussion of the full range of the "human and organizational frailties" that we've all learned to know and love, and that are at the source of these kinds of problems.

If you want a hand-holding spoon-feeding checklist, look elsewhere. The authors show specifically why this kind of "checklist" attitude is a BIG part of the problem (notice how the summaries they provide at the end of each section pull together their main points nicely without oversimplifying them). However if you're looking for a guide to help you to actually think your way through these kinds of problems, as they beset you in your organizational life (and possibly in your personal life), then this is a definite "must read."

For these reasons (and both because of and in spite of its critique of MBA education practices), this book will become definite required reading in our core management course.