Capturing Critical Knowledge From a Shifting Work Force

Trends in retirement, rapid growth, turnover, mergers and acquisitions, and internal redeployment can lead to a great loss in an organization's collective knowledge. This book describes how to maintain a knowledgeable work force, using proven principles, tools, and practices of knowledge management. Apply critical success factors and benchmarking research detailed in this book to implement a preemptive, strategically aligned knowledge capture and transfer system.

This book details determining types of knowledge, identifying and sharing critical knowledge, supporting structures and funding, and identifying critical success factors in knowledge retention. Specifically, this book involves: identifying potential knowledge attrition, identifying critical and inconsequential information, designing and implement a knowledge management initiative, determining the necessary support structures and roles, determining the initiative's projected costs, identifying implementation challenges, and measuring the effectiveness of knowledge retention strategies.

With vital information for both senior management and knowledge management practitioners, this book describes the knowledge retention process, including indicators of a knowledge retention problem, necessary resources, realistic ways to capture knowledge, and processes to disseminate relevant information.

An editor and writer, Paige Leavitt helped to produce a number of APQC publications, including Best-practice Reports and the Passport to Success Series.

Before joining APQC, Leavitt edited language arts textbooks for Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Leavitt has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Darcy Lemons is a project manager with APQC. Project manager for the "Retaining Valuable Knowledge" consortium benchmarking study, Lemons’ other recent studies have focused on best practices in e-learning and KM innovation.

Lemons earned a bachelor’s and master's degree in psychology at Texas Tech University.