Managing Politics at Work: The Essential Toolkit for Identifying and Handling Political Behaviour in the Workplace Book

The book is structured around five types of knowledge transfer identified by the author. The types (serial transfer, near transfer, far transfer, strategic transfer, expert transfer) are distinguished based on the type of source and receiving teams, the nature of the task and its context, and the type of knowledge that is being transferred. For each of the five types Dixon provides design guidelines and elaborate examples. This can be a useful framework to align to. However I wasn't able to unequivocally categorize my work situation; I can't put my case in just one of these five boxes.

What I liked about this book is its attention to language. Dixon writes about how a poorly chosen name can undermine the success of a knowledge transfer project. E.g. "lessons learned" can be understood as "mistakes made"; as a result, people are unwilling to share their work. The common "best practice" can cause the reaction "Well, if they already have a best for that process, I guess there's no need to send this one in."

Dixon's advice is: "to find a term that signifies what is to be accomplished rather than delineating the type or quality of knowledge to be shared. It is better yet if the emphasis is placed on the outcome rather than the process, and on the user rather than the inform itself." British Petroleum's Peer Assist is a good example. Also: "Don't call it knowledge management. Link it to the Business!"