Rather than struggling to start from ground zero, why not transfer the required knowledge and stand on the shoulder of those that have gone ahead. You can leverage that knowledge to get the best out of life. Knowledge is dynamic and this dynamic nature of knowledge has impacted greatly on human development.
The human race has gone through different economic system engineered by their knowledge per time, starting from the primitive economy of the Stone Age, that took the longest part of human existence, to when the communal era of the agrian age, that brought with it the inglorious years of Atlantic Slave Trade; to machine era of the industrial age, ushering in colonialism, to the digital era of the information age, that witnessed the advent of computer system and telecommunication technology. As knowledge becomes more sophisticated, the transition between one age and another is being shortened. For instance, the present knowledge age is just an extension of the information age; hardly will one notice the difference. This may likely be the end of age according to Daniel’s prophesy (Daniel 12:4).
Knowledge is processed information, and until information is processed into body of knowledge it is of no use to human race. Unfortunately, our present school system was not designed to process information into body of knowledge. The school only provides raw information to school children and leaves them to figure it out. This is unfair. Until raw information is processed into a body of knowledge, it will be difficult to apply it to real life situations.
When raw information is processed into body of knowledge, it becomes easily transferable. The conspiracy of the school system is provide raw information to school children, thereby turning them into budge of rote learning Robots. The inventors of the school system during the industrial age knew that society can only survive by the application of knowledge and not by accumulation of raw information. Until raw information is processed into body of knowledge, it is not worthy of transfer for human development.
Project management is the application of knowledge transfer. According to Mark A. Langley, the President and CEO of Project Management Institute in the March 2015 edition of the “Pulse of the Profession” that “knowledge has long been recognized as the driver of productivity and economic growth” The PMI’s Pulse of the Profession discovers the creative blend of project management skill, business strategic insight and leadership capabilities as the major factors for achieving successful implementation of projects. Knowledge transfer according to “the Pulse of the Profession” Report, is defined as the methodical replication of the expertise, wisdom, insight, and tacit knowledge of key professionals into the heads and hands of their coworkers. Knowledge is now democratized and made so easy for everyone who cares to access. According report, it is more than just on-the-job training.
In organizational theory, knowledge transfer is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to another.
The report of Project management Institute (PMI)’s Pulse of the Profession identifies five steps of knowledge transfer life cycle as follows:
1. Identifying Relevant Knowledge
Organization should be cleared about the type of knowledge they desire to transfer, not any kind knowledge will be beneficiary to the organization. Organization must first define which knowledge is beneficiary to her before transferring the knowledge. Knowledge is better transfer through effective talent management. When organization offers training opportunities for her talented staff, they acquire knowledge that can be transferred into the organization.
2. Capturing and Retaining Knowledge
Once the organization is convinced that the knowledge about to be transferred is relevant to the organization, effort should be made to capture and retain the knowledge.
3. Sharing Knowledge with Others
Getting the knowledge transfer to their talented staff is the hallmark of project success. Knowledge transfer should be both top-down and bottom-up. A top down knowledge transfer is from those who have gone ahead to the upcoming professionals within the organization. This will enable them perpetuate the culture of excellence in the organization. The bottom-up knowledge transfer is from the younger generation to the older generation. For instance, the younger generation is vast in the use of technology than the older generation and when they transfer this knowledge to the older ones, the organization is better for it. This synergy of knowledge transfer between older and younger generation is a critical success factor in project management.
4. Applying Transferred Knowledge
Most times, when knowledge is transferred, the will to apply it becomes absence. This is a disservice to the knowledge acquired. Management must provide the enabling environment to apply the knowledge transferred. For example, when knowledge of technology is transferred within an organization, management must assure its workforce this new technology will not replace them but rather enhance their work.
5. Assessing the effect of knowledge transfer
Taking stock of the benefits of the transferred knowledge is essential to project management. This will provide the necessary feedback on the effect of knowledge transfer on project management and help management decide if this transfer is worthy of continuation.
Our challenges as a Nation
It is believed that the knowledge required to solve the numerous problems of Nigeria is resident within Nigeria, but the greatest challenge is how to harness the required talents that can effectively transfer the body of knowledge required to move the nation forward. Political sentiment and selfishness of political gladiators has always been the major factors limiting the harness of Nigeria talents to drive the Nigeria Project. History of project failure is being repeated in Nigeria because no knowledge is transferred to change workforce mentality. Our workers still believe in the culture of strike actions rather than proffering solution to critical national problems and sitting with government to find ways of resolving them and Government in his part has this culture of playing the super heroes endowed with all wisdom to solve the problems, thereby making dialogue to end up in a deadlock. It is a change in mentality that can correct these anomalies. Until this mediocre attitude is changed, Nigeria project will continue to suffer defeat.
My Counsel to Government
The present government most promotes project management by engaging project management talents, who can effectively transfer the knowledge of project management to drive the system and bring about culture of excellence. At present, our workforce is plagued with ineptitude and lack of drive for excellence. This is the reason for the failure government establishments such as NITEL, NEPA/PHCH, NNPC and Nigerian Airways to mention just few. None of these establishments make profit because no effective knowledge transfers. The continuous influx of school products with lack of effective programme of knowledge transfer between the older and younger generation has crippled national development. This is the reason why a PhD holder in government is not a guarantee that he will do well when appointed into office. Holding a PhD should only be made an added advantage and not the main prerequisite to serve in government. There must be proving evidence that anyone to be appointed to serve in government must have requisite knowledge rather than have raw information typical of school graduates. Nigerian is operating within the knowledge based global economy and engages the serve of knowledge deficient officials, will be a disservice to this nation. Nigeria cannot afford to appoint anyone that cannot cope with the rigors and demands of knowledge economy. Enough of having people occupying sensitive leadership positions who lack the knowledge of technicalities involved in such positions. Nigeria government top officials should be made up of technocrats, for they are the once who have the skills of reading, writing and interpreting technical reports. Technocrats needs no aides to help him interprets technical reports. There are certain business of government that should not be delegated to subordinates and even the delegated business still require some degree of supervision to be able to deliver quality service. One of the deficiencies of GEJ government is over delegation of serious business of government. His government engaged so many “trusted hands” without him supervising and cross checking most of their unrealistic statistics.
Knowledge transfer within an organization is possible only with the culture of due process in place and the culture of due process is through project management. I thereby recommend that all officials of government must be made to go through project management training to guarantee the culture of due process. This will allow everyone working within the system to be on the same page, thereby allowing the management to gain the buy-in of their subordinates in establishing the culture of due process. The buy-in of the corporate culture of due process is guarantee through the exposure of government official to the practice of project management. This will lead to project success at all time because of the elimination of traditional cultural inhibition. The major advantage of making it mandatory for government officials to go through project management training and imbibe project management discipline is the ability to mind details and achieve success effortlessly. .