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Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers

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Knowledge worker is a term that is used loosely among executives and consultants alike. Everyone wants to be a knowledge worker or already is one, but few understand who they are, what they mean to the company and how do you manage them. Davenports Thinking for a Living is the best discussion of these central issues.

Davenport was co-author of Working Knowledge and the first half of that book is the clearest statement of knowledge management I have yet to read. Building on that work, Davenport offers practical advice backed by research and an understanding of what it takes to work in a knowledge environment. Davenport gives managers and leaders a set of tools to understand the different types of knowledge work and the management techniques to manage each. That recognition makes this a must read for every company.

In terms of the chapters:

Chapter 1: What is a knowledge worker anyway? Sets the context and provides practical definitions for the subject. This chapter is a little academic, but it does set a firm foundation for the rest of the book.

Chapter 2: How knowledge workers differ and the difference it makes. This chapter goes beyond routine descriptions of knowledge work to talk about four models of knowledge work: Transaction, Integration, Expert and Collaboration. This model is used through the latter chapters to help the reader understand and take action.

Chapter 3: Interventions, measures and experiments in knowledge work. This chapter tackles the hardest issues of managing knowledge workers -- how you motivate and measure people who work with their mind and their experience. Here, rather than offer theory, Davenport offers some practical and actionable advice on a tough subject.

Chapter 4: Knowledge work processes. This chapter makes the point that knowledge work is not readily re-engineered and requires a more sophisticated approach. If you are a knowledge worker facing the threat of re-engineering this is a great chapter to explain to the re-engineers what they need to do and more importantly what they should not try to do.

Chapter 5: Organizational technology for knowledge workers discusses the issue of IT and knowledge work which is an area fraught with hype and misinformation. Davenport discusses the types of technology tools knowledge managers need and what they do with them.

Chapter 6: Developing individual knowledge worker capabilities is for the knowledge worker and what they need to hone their skills and develop their careers. The list of behaviors and attitudes associated with effective knowledge workers in this chapter is very helpful.

Chapter 7: Investing in Knowledge workers networks and learning is the company response to how to build better knowledge workers. It discusses the personal, professional and other networks that lead to knowledge application, creation and improvement.

Chapter 8: The physical work environment and knowledge worker performance provides pragmatic advice on how to set up and run a knowledge worker environment.

Chapter 9: Managing the knowledge worker ties the other points together with eight strong points on how to manage this important class of workers. These are points that all managers and leaders should consider such as:

Putting the organization in context
Brokering and learning from dissent
Redesigning and improving knowledge work
Harnessing good intent
Enabling boundary spanning

These phrases may sound a bit academic, but Davenport puts them into actionable context.

Are there some shortcommings to this book, yes a few. Some parts are very centered on consulting which provides good examples of knowledge work. Davenport also tries to make this book more conversational in tone and that sometimes gets in the way of the point he is trying to make.

However, I picked this book up at the airport and finished it over two three hour flights with lots of notes in the margins and highlights.

A definate read if you are a leader, manager or a knowledge worker.

I've been thinking for my living for 30 years so I found it useful to get the perspective of a leading management consultant and thinker. Davenport has lived through business reengineering, been part of a large consulting organization and seen inside many corporations, so he knows the subject. His book is written in a conversational style, so it's easy to read. Its content is useful and it contains some valuable insights. In particular, it builds on and fully acknowledges the work of Peter Drucker, who coined the term "knowledge worker," as well as other thought leaders, which is refreshing, since so many authors do not acknowledge that they "stand on the shoulders of giants" and thereby deprive their readers of valuable context and background to their work.

Davenport's book doesn't, in fact, contain as much actionable advice as Drucker's, but it does have some important new findings and new ideas, and brings Drucker's advice up to date. The main conclusion is the same: if we don't improve the effectiveness of our management of people and knowledge, we will find our jobs going to low-cost competitors overseas. However the focus is different. Davenport focuses on knowledge management and particularly personal information management. The substance of his work is based on his consulting experience and particularly on a number of surveys, including one evaluating how 400 people in four types of organization found information and learned to do their work -- and another looking at how 400 individuals managed their personal information. In both cases, a smaller number of highly effective individuals were interviewed to understand in detail how they achieved their results.

From these studies and Davenport's consulting experience come the following conclusions:
- Knowledge work is extremely diverse and it's necessary to classify the various types of knowledge work and manage them differently
- There is no universal measure of output, but any measure needs to include both the quantity and quality of work -- in other words, billable hours is not a sufficient measure in itself
- To improve work it is important to take more account of current practice ("as-is" model) than is generally done, in addition to focusing on designed process ("to-be" model)
- Individual information management is poised to take off, but technology to support it is unproven (other than email and spreadsheets)
- Highly effective workers get most of their valuable information from their social networks
- The work environment is important to productivity, and people should be given some choices, but there are no easy answers. For example, people prefer closed offices but communicate better in open offices

These conclusions should be considered by any manager or individual who wants to be effective and improve productivity, but they don't constitute actionable advice. In fact, all the pieces of advice in the book are more guiding principles than actionable programs. For example, here is Davenport's advice for improving work process:
- Involve the knowledge workers in the design of the new process.
- Watch them do their work...Devote as much attention to the "as is" as the "to be."
- Talk to knowledge workers about why they do the things they do.
- Enlist analysts who have actually done the work in question.
- Exercise some deference. Treat experienced workers as real experts.
- Use the Golden Rule of Process Management. Ask yourself, "Would I want to have my job analyzed and redesigned in the fashion that I'm doing it to others?"
As someone who has managed process reengineering efforts, I'm sure that these recommendations were hard-won and embody considerable thought as well as pain. Davenport's recommendations make as good a checklist as any, but the job of designing productivity improvement program is left squarely to the reader. This is as it should be, because surely knowledge work is too diverse for any universal improvement process or measure to be applicable.

Overall, Davenport does a good job of capturing his knowledge and passing it on. The book is thought-provoking and contains some useful ideas. It makes a good case for the need to get better performance at work and provides recommendations at the end of each chapter that are a useful summary of the content. However, the book is lacking in specific, actionable recommendations and ends inconclusively without tying all the information together. Its conversational style is easy to read, but it makes the book too long and repetitive and actually obscures some of the thinking. I'd recommend the book, but if you can only read one book, I suggest you first read Drucker's timeless work, "The Effective Executive," on the art of effective management, which I found just as relevant and more inspiring.

Graham Lawes

In a sense, everyone must "think for a living" in response to questions, problems, opportunities, etc. Davenport focuses his attention on "how to get better performance and results from knowledge workers" and I presume to suggest that everyone involved in an organization's operations should be or helped to become productive "knowledge workers," whatever their specific duties and responsibilities may be. Those who have read any of Davenport's previous books -- notably Working Knowledge and Information Ecology co-authored with Laurence Prusak, The Attention Economy co-authored with John Beck, What's the Big Idea?, Mission Critical -- already know that Davenport is among the most perceptive and eloquent business thinkers on the subject of knowledge management. In my opinion, Thinking for a Living is his most valuable contribution to that subject thus far.

He carefully organizes his material within nine chapters. Throughout his lively and informative narrative, he responds to questions such as these:

* "What's a knowledge worker, anyway?"

* How do knowledge workers differ from others?

* So what?

* Which interventions, measures, and experiments in "knowledge work" are most effective?

* Which are the most important knowledge work processes?

* Which organizational technology is most appropriate to knowledge workers?

* How to develop their individual capabilities?

* What must be invested in knowledge workers' networks and learning?

* Which physical work environment will help to maximize knowledge worker performance?

* How best to manage knowledge workers?

Of special interest to me is the matrix of four knowledge work types (illustrated in figure 2-1 on page 27) which Davenport identified during a research project on knowledge management in which he was involved with Jeanne Harris and Leigh Donaghue. He offers a classification structure for knowledge-intensive processes which range from individual actors to collaborative groups: Integration Model (e.g. systematic, repeatable work), Collaboration Model (e.g. improvisational work), Expert Model (e.g. Judgment-oriented work), and Transaction Model (e.g. routine work). Of course, different kinds of knowledge work require different kinds of knowledge workers. Effective managers are those who get the most appropriate worker in alignment with each task.

As Davenport explains, "A job in which knowledge is created should be treated very differently from one in which it is applied." For example, "Those who find existing knowledge need to understand knowledge requirements, search for it among multiple sources, and pass it along to the requester or user." Other workers create new knowledge. Still others ("packagers") put together knowledge created by others. Knowledge workers can also be distinguished by the types of ideas with which they deal. "My view, however, is that the organizations that will be most successful in the future will be those in which it's everyone's job to be creating and using both big and small ideas."

With regard to high-performance knowledge workers, they tend to be more effective and efficient experiential learners, seeming "to get more learning out of a single experience and continually updated their skills, expertise, and social awareness as a natural part of their work." Also, many high-performers attributed problem-solving abilities to the acquisition of a broad base of knowledge. Moreover, the high-performers Davenport and his associates studied "often had unusual, and often somewhat illogical, career paths. However, they repeatedly told us in various ways that these different jobs provided them with unique perspectives and expertise in solving problems." They characterized themselves as "calculated" risk takers but "when they do make a decision to pursue a given area of expertise, the high performers invest heavily, and seem to have a `compass' for personal learning. They often described themselves as highly focused on the domains they decided to pursue." High performers retain knowledge in domains already mastered while "screening out" irrelevant information.

Obviously, high performers are the most valuable of all knowledge workers. Therefore, the highest priorities for knowledge managers is to hire and then develop those who are either high performers or seem most likely to become one. How? Recognize and accommodate their needs for (a) important personal relationships, (b) accomplishing worthwhile tasks in a timely manner, and (c) proactive reciprocity re information and opportunities. According to Davenport, "perhaps the most important point to consider is the interrelated nature of these practices of high performers." Davenport agrees with Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Warren Bennis that the most desirable, knowledge-oriented culture is characterized by "the Five Fs": fast, flexible, focused, friendly, and fun. To establish and then sustain what Davenport describes as "Good Managerial Hygiene in the Knowledge Age,"offers a list of eight traits that apply to all kinds of workers and organizations. (These are discussed on pages 204-206.) It is imperative that managers understand these and other performance-related factors and how they interact with each other in the real world.

This review is somewhat longer than others I have composed recently because I have found so much of great value in Davenport's book. Also, because I agree with him and Peter Drucker (among others) that the fate of advanced economies depends on making knowledge workers more productive. Davenport concludes, "There is no business or economic issue that is more important to our long-term competitiveness and standard of living."

Decades ago, Drucker said something to the effect "If you don't have customers, you don't have a business." I presume to paraphrase that, suggesting that "If you don't have productive knowledge workers, you don't have a chance."

This is a fine, occasionally frustrating book. It is frustrating for the same reason that it is so badly needed: business is just starting to figure out what it means to compete in a knowledge-based economy. Knowledge work is tremendously important, but only partially understood. This volume, which mixes practical advice with worksite studies, is a good stepping stone toward comprehending knowledge work and the people who accomplish it. Author Thomas H. Davenport is honest enough to admit what isn't known, however he delivers what is known clearly. He explains various organizational schema that are applicable, but not rigid. He provides examples, sharing personal and organizational stories that illustrate both success and failure in knowledge work. We warmly recommend this book to knowledge workers, those who manage knowledge workers and business leaders who are planning for the future.

Thomas H. Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College. He is Director of Research for Babson Executive Education and an Accenture Fellow. He is the author/co-author/editor of ten books, including `Working Knowledge: How Organization Manage What They Know' (1997). This book was published in 2005 and consists of 9 chapters.

The first chapter provides the backbone for the remainder of the book. Davenport provides a definition: "Knowledge workers have high degrees of expertise, education, or experience, and the primary purpose of their jobs involves the creation, distribution, or application of knowledge." Most of us are knowledge workers, who think for a living. In the second chapter, the author argues that not all knowledge workers are alike. "Therefore, an approach to classifying knowledge workers may help organizations determine how best to manage, measure, and improve their work." Although Davenport has come to the conclusion that the perfect matrix does not exist, understanding the distinctions among knowledge workers begins to provide a basis for choosing among them. The third chapter describes the subject of improvement or interventions in general. "The dominant approach has been to rely on their individual brains alone, rather than on any approach to improving work." In the fourth chapter, Davenport talks about the roles of process and measurement. The process-based approach to improving performance "is an obvious candidate for improving knowledge work activities... knowledge workers have not often been the subject to this sort of analysis." The fifth chapter describes technology as a means of improving knowledge work. Chapter 6 focuses on technology, information, and knowledge management at the personal level. The seventh chapter describes the social networks of high-performing knowledge workers. Chapter 8 focuses on one of the least understood factors that affect knowledge worker performance, which is the physical work environment. The final chapter focuses on how to be an effective manager of knowledge work and workers. "I'd argue that the growth of knowledge work is the single most important factor driving the future of management."

Yes, this is a good book. It discusses the essential attributes in knowledge work in detail and provides a useful addition to his 1997-bestseller `Working Knowledge', which served as an introduction into knowledge work. The author provides handy summaries of the recommendations at the end of each chapter. Just one complaint, it does not cover much in relation to knowledge workers' financial compensation. Highly recommended to people interested in knowledge management, whereby we need to keep in mind that most of us are knowledge workers who think for a living.

As an organizational learning consultant and author myself, I found this book, Thinking for a Living, to be very helpful. Thomas Davenport has been a leader in the field of organizational learning (OL) for many years. I think this is his best contribution to the field since his co-authored book, Working Knowledge, in 1996.

Everybody knows the U.S. is now a knowledge-based economy and that the future of most companies rests upon their knowledge workers. Dr. Davenport suggests a different management style for this new breed of workers. The Industrial Age management style is no longer effective.

Davenport's work, as always, is based upon solid research. For this book, his research included one hundred companies and more than 600 knowledge workers.

Chapter 1 sets the context and offers practical definitions.

Chapter 2 looks at how knowledge workers are different from other workers. Davenport also offers his model of four types of knowledge work: transaction, integration, expert, and collaboartion. This is a very helpful chapter.

Chapter 3 offers suggestions on how to motivate knowledge workers, and how to measure their work.

Chapter 4 looks at knowledge work processes. Davenport comments about knowledge workers and re-engineering are especially relevant to today's companies.

Chapter 5 discusses the technological tools needed by knowledge workers.

Chapter 6 looks at the behaviors and attitudes of effective knowledge workers.

Chapter 7 covers development of knowledge workers. How to us personal and professional networks was especially interesting.

Chapter 8 discusses physical space in a very pramatic way. Some of Davenport's insight here are quite valuable.

Chapter 9 ties togther multiple issues that all knowledge workers and managers must consider. Davenport's insights into redesigning, improving, and the boundary expanding nature of knowledge work are important considerations for all practitioners.

This book is an outstanding contribution to the field. I recommend it in addition to my own book.

Michael Beitler, Ph.D.
Author of "Strategic Organizational Learning"

Knowledge Workers are those people whose main professional output is Knowledge. Because all work requires some knowledge, the boundary can be arbitrary. So, depending on where you draw the line, Knowledge Workers represent ¼ to 1/3 of the labor force in the developed world. Doctors, lawyers, researchers, consultants, and computer programmers all share this trait.
We saw (in Corporate Longitude by Leif Edvinsson and Intangibles by Baruch Lev) that the market value of all publicly traded companies exceeded the market value of their tangible assets sometime in the early 90's. This gap has grown ever since. We assume that Knowledge accumulated inside a company is responsible for a good part of this difference. Ergo, our Knowledge Workers represent a very important, if mostly intangible, asset.
Because their main output is Knowledge, you can't quite measure what they are doing. If one of your best Knowledge Workers says she has her best ideas in the shower, you have no choice but to take her word for it. Knowledge Workers resist most controls on their quality and productivity. Sometimes this resistance is built into the rules of their professional associations (check out the rules and regulations of any legal or medical association and you'll witness this). Most Knowledge Workers hate bureaucracy and hierarchy. Some Knowledge Workers do not run on money: they prefer to be compensated with, for example, easier access to Knowledge.
Trouble is, our management models have changed little since the Industrial Revolution, so they're uniquely inadequate for managing Knowledge Workers. In fact, because the person who manages Knowledge Workers is in most cases a Knowledge Worker him/herself, this suggests that the ideal management model for Knowledge Workers must contain a "Player/Coach" flavor.
Enter Prof. Davenport, who has dedicated the past several years to the study of Knowledge Workers. This book distills most of what he has learned, and has a wealth of references to those who need more detail.
Knowledge Workers cannot easily be grouped into one category. One important lesson throughout the book is that, when coming to grips with the Knowledge Workers inside your company, you must segment them into different groups. After all, because Knowledge can be invented, discovered, packaged, distributed, or consumed, each Knowledge Worker you deal with will be active in one or more, but rarely all, of these activities. Prof Davenport proposes a basic taxonomy for this, with two dimensions: the level of interdependence among Knowledge Workers, and the level of Complexity of the work itself. This in turn spawns four basic models:
* Transaction Model (low interdependence, low complexity): The Knowledge Worker is essentially by him/herself and most of the situations he/she faces are repetitive. This is the only segment where "scripting" (ie, standard, pre-rehearsed speeches covering the most common situations) is effective. A good example of this is the 0800 customer-support people in a software company.
* Integration Model (high interdependence, low complexity): The task is repeatable but integration is critical, both intra-team and across disciplines. In this segment, the key is to establish tight process routines and standards. The best example of this is geologist/geophysicist/drilling engineer teams in oil&gas exploration.
* Expert Model (high complexity, low interdependence): Performance here is highly reliant on a person who contains most if not all the necessary Knowledge. Still, these people might profit from easy access to databases containing similar situations that took place in the past. Trial attorneys, systems analysts, and some types of medical doctors are excellent examples of this model.
* Collaboration Model (high complexity, high interdependence): People in these teams feel they're improvising all the time, when in fact there's an enormous degree of judgement in every decision made. This is the most difficult type of Knowledge-Worker team to improve in any organized way. Structured-deals teams in Investment Banks are probably the best example of this.
He is the first to admit that the above model is only a very basic first approach. When you do this in your company, you may find two or three of the above. Also, look out for hybrid situations. For example, a neurosurgeon fits the Expert model (without him, there's no surgery), but his supporting team (nurses, anesthesiologists, etc) fits the Collaboration model.
Prof. Davenport strongly encourages people to quickly move beyond the above models and develop their own Knowledge Worker segmentation models, and then to develop and use different management, performance-metrics, office-space, recruitment, remuneration, retention, succession, and IT-support strategies for each segment.
One set of research findings described in the book will not surprise most of us: business-process reengineering, a consulting buzzword in the past decade, has probably done more harm than good to the Knowledge Worker community.
The book also dispels some myths about Knowledge Workers with some hard research performed by Prof. Davenport and colleagues: for example, surprisingly few of them prefer to tele-commute (explanation: interaction among Knowledge Workers is critical to their success). Another interesting example is that they're not as much into electronic gadgets as we, coming from a geek stereotype, all thought.
Because it summarizes the author's past publications and research, the writing can be of variable quality, and progress from one chapter to the next is not exactly seamless, but neither of these foibles is enough to detract from the overall impact of a very timely and important book.
Some people may be offended by the summary at the end of each chapter; they didn't bother me, knowing there are so many print-challenged executives around us.
Highly recommended. Executive coaches dealing with technical teams may find this book invaluable.

Knowledge workers are those workers who think for a living. They are the ones designing the new products, implementing the data processing systems, managing the activities of the company. These are the workers upon whom the future of the company rests. In far too many companies, the same standard rules of management are applied to these workers as to the assembly line worker.

Mr. Davenport contends that knowledge workers are very different from other types of workers and need to be managed differently. In this book he reports on findings made in his study of some 100 different companies. He also reports on research conducted by other organizations. This includes such things as the working process, the development of and continuing education of knowledge workers, the physical work environment, and finally Managing Knowledge Workers.

As the United States changes from a manufacturing company to a knowledge based country this becomes an even more vital concern than it was before.

I bought this book for a class; I consider that is good, easy to read, and can recommend for others.

Received the book in the allocated time given. The book was in great condition just as the review prior to purchase stated.