Wisdom Network: An 8-Step Process for Identifying, Sharing, and Leveraging Individual Expertise

"Imagine your company has gold hidden in its walls. Or better yet, simply placed inside some of its offices, sitting in chairs behind desks. Wouldn't you want to identify where it is and put it to use? Surprisingly, most organizations do have this metaphorical gold in the form of the untapped knowledge and capabilities of their own employees.

Inside every enterprise is a small group of people who quietly know how to get things done, solve big problems that stump others, avoid obstacles, and anticipate emerging opportunities with amazing speed. These are the employees who always seem able to navigate office politics and find resources where none appear to exist. They have invaluable expertise in critical areas including technology, finance, sales, engineering, human resources, and others. Yet few companies make use of these experts, or even know who they are, even though they can be found at all levels of the organization.

The Wisdom Network introduces you to an eight-step process for discovering and realizing the power of the knowledge that exists within your own organization. You'll learn proven strategies to:

• Identify the people who share their expertise consistently and effectively

• Create an environment conducive to wisdom sharing

• Encourage boundary crossing and role breaking in pursuit of topics of interest

• Let it be known that people who shine in groups will achieve organizational stardom

• Use "magnet topics" to attract the experts, and then support ad hoc groups, teams, and communities that emerge around them

• Create unconventional measures to evaluate and reward performance and track the network's impact

Knowing how to leverage the astonishing range of information, ideas, and creativity that resides inside your own company is worth its weight in gold: an undertaking that will directly affect the bottom line and enable large and small goals to be met more efficiently and with greater rewards. The Wisdom Network shows you how to maximize the value of employee wisdom and motivate your company’s hidden experts to come out of the woodwork and collaborate with each other. It is a unique and powerful system that will transform your entire organization."

"Steve Benton is an executive director of information technology and an officer of UBS, one of the world's largest financial services firms, where he led the effort to create and support the UBS wisdom network strategy. In addition to his technical expertise, he has in-depth knowledge of the cultural barriers to change that must be dealt with for effective knowledge sharing. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Melissa Giovagnoli is founder and president of Networlding, a consulting firm whose clients have included American Express and Motorola. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including Networlding: Building Relationships and Opportunities for Success and The Power of Two: How Companies of All Sizes Can Build Alliance Networks That Generate Business Opportunities. She lives in Chicago, Illinois."