Knowledge Transfer: Where Process Improvement Begins

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Strategy  

Ever stop to think what Business Process Improvement (BPI) initiatives have to do with knowledge transfer and knowledge management? When done correctly, the BPI process hinges on knowledge transfer and lays the groundwork for ongoing knowledge management. Let me explain by walking you through a basic BPI process through the lens of knowledge transfer…

Knowledge Transfer #1: Transferring knowledge of strategies, goals & objectives from the leadership team to the bpi teams. The first transfer that takes place in a top-down BPI process is that between the leadership team and BPI teams. During this process, the BPI team (“the Team”) is brought up to speed on the organization’s strategies, goals and objectives. The Team then works with the leadership team as needed to translate that information into operationally measurable objectives.

For example, an objective of an automobile manufacturer might be to materially improve the gas mileage of its SUV line. To make it operationally measurable, the objective would need to be recast to define what “materially improve” means. The BPI team would work with the leadership team to come to an agreed-upon definition and then recast the objective. If the outcome was to go from a current average of 21 mpg to 35 mpg, the objective would spell that out. This in turn defines the gap that needs to be…

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