Invaluable Knowledge

Whether it's an R&D engineer who consistently develops innovative products, an assembly line mechanic who single-handedly keeps the machines humming, or a gifted salesperson who understands the techies and the customers equally well, these people are essential to the organization, and they possess key institutional memory and tacit knowledge that will steadily disappear with every resignation or retirement.

William Rothwell, an international expert on succession planning and talent management, fills the gap in the HR tool kit with Invaluable Knowledge, a definitive yet, easy-to-read guide to the booming field of technical talent management. The book explores new challenges and opportunities, showing you how to create a fertile environment that attracts, develops, and retains the technical experts you need, and how to transfer their crucial knowledge to less-experienced successors.

The book's practical, accessible prescription for implementing a technical talent management program offers far more than just putting new bodies in old jobs. Instead, it looks ahead strategically to determine the special knowledge and skills required to stay competitive in the future, while maintaining a real-life tactical focus on what every manager can do day to day to support the in-house experts who drive an organization's success.

In today's knowledge-rich work environments, what people know and what they can do is just as important as how they lead or manage. Savvy executives are looking beyond traditional talent management models to focus on the crucial roles played by technical workers---high-performing engineers, IT professionals, financial wizards, and others whose invaluable knowledge would be difficult-to-impossible to replace. These are the in-house experts who don't just "know the ropes"---they often invented them!

But how do you pinpoint these invaluable knowledge-holders when they haven't been plucked into the managerial ranks? How do you create a fertile environment where technical experts thrive? And how do you capture the crucial knowledge they carry in their heads...before retirement or job-jumping make it too late?

Invaluable Knowledge is the first guide to the exploding new arena of technical talent management. With step-by-step instructions, checklists, case studies, and assessment instruments, this complete tool kit helps you find and keep the technical experts you need to stay competitive, as well as set up simple processes for transferring their vast institutional memory and proprietary knowledge to up-and-comers.

Taking off where leadership development, succession planning, and workforce planning traditionally stop, Invaluable Knowledge is an authoritative, start-to-finish guide to address the unique challenges of both grooming your technical and professional talent and capturing their vast stores of knowledge.

WILLIAM J. ROTHWELL is professor of Workplace Learning and Performance at Pennsylvania State University and president of Rothwell & Associates, a consultancy with more than 35 multinational clients. He is the author of Effective Succession Planning and The Manager’s Guide to Maximizing Employee Potential.