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Informationen zum Autor David Bartholomew has been managing knowledge for over 25 years as a director of research, a business manager, a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at De Montfort University and a consultant on innovation. Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung 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. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface vii Acknowledgements xi Part One Foundations 1 1 Introduction 3 Paradoxical professionals 5 New context, new issues 9 What is in this book 12 2 Knowledge at Work 15 How we learn 15 What makes an expert 19 Varieties of knowledge 22 Putting the pieces together 27 3 Strategic Frameworks 34 Starting points 34 Frameworks for thinking 35 Finding conviction 41 4 The Challenges of Change 44 Why initiatives fail 44 Difficulty is normal 59 5 Leadership and Other Roles 61 Action starts where the buck stops 61 Practical leadership 63 Other roles 70 Knowledge-conscious management 78 6 Knowledge Audit and Beyond 79 Finding square one 79 Audit techniques 83 From audit to action plan 89 Putting plans into practice 92 Part Two Tools and Techniques 95 7 The Knowledge-Friendly Office 97 Environments matter 97 Designing the knowledge-friendly office 99 Workplaces for teams 102 8 Expanding Networks 106 It's not what you know . . . 106 Help from IT 108 Designing networking tools 111 9 Learning from Peers 119 See one, do one, teach one 119 Mentor...