Building on Knowledge: Developing Expertise, Creativity and Intellectual Capital in the Construction Professions

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.

Table of Contents:
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 Mentoring in different contexts 122 10 Learning from Practice 128 Practice: the invisible lab and unsung teacher 129 Windows of opportunity 130 Foresight: learning from invention 131 Hindsight: learning from mistakes – and success 135 Choosing cases 144 11 Communities of Practice 146 Encouraging enthusiasts 146 Creating communities 148 12 Organisational Memory 151 The indispensability of the written word 151 Deciding what to record, and how 154 Capturing knowledge 156 Documenting knowledge 159 Software frameworks 165 13 Personal Knowledge Management 176 Equipment for the mind gym 176 Developing personal expertise 177 Building a bionic memory 179 14 Synergies 181 IT-enabled synergies: networking directories, knowledge bases and business systems 181 Creating and sharing knowledge: foresight, hindsight and knowledge bases 184 Multiple synergies: communities of practice, knowledge bases and mentoring 185 Part Three Knowledge Management in Practice 187 15 Introduction to the Case Studies 189 The case studies 189 Recurring patterns 190 16 Aedas 193 Starting points 194 MIS 194 Aedas Studio 197 Knowledge audit 199 Emerging knowledge systems 202 Commentary 204 17 Arup 206 Starting points 206 Projects 207 Future 210 Commentary 211 18 Broadway Malyan 213 Starting points 213 Business Process 215 Who's Who 218 Contact database 219 Induction process 221 Commentary 222 19 Buro Happold 223 Starting points 224 The prototype 224 The fi nal design 225 Assessing the results 228 Commentary 229 20 Edward Cullinan Architects 231 Starting points 233 Knowledge strategy 235 Commentary 241 21 Feilden Clegg Bradley 244 Starting points 245 Hindsight reviews 246 Yellow Pages 248 Knowledge base 249 Commentary 251 22 Penoyre & Prasad 254 Starting points 255 The R&D database 256 The knowledge bank 257 Lessons learned 260 Commentary 261 23 Whitbybird 263 1: Identifying knowledge systems and assets 264 2: Selecting a subset for audit 265 3: Choosing audit methods 265 4: Designing the questionnaire 266 5: Testing and refi ning the questionnaire 266 6: Conducting the survey 266 7: Analysing the results 267 Commentary 268 24 WSP 269 Starting points 269 Technical coordinator workshops 271 Commentary 272 25 Case Studies on Foresight and Hindsight 273 Amicus Group 275 BAA 277 BP/Bovis Global Alliance 279 Buro Happold 282 Lattice Property 284 Epilogue 289 26 Where Next for Knowledge Management? 291 Web 2.0 292 The Semantic Web 293 Developments in psychology and the science of human relations 294 Insights from neuroscience 294 Further Reading 296 Index 301

About the Author :
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.