It’s Time to Thrive

Surviving the Baby Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees

By Ken Ball and Gina Gotsill
(Cengage Learning, 270 pp., $24.99)

Reviewed by Paula Ketter

+ From T+D Aging Agencies Risk Workforce Shortages //

+ From Infoline: Revitalize Your Career //

Kudos to Gina and Ken for creating a comprehensive book about knowledge capture and transfer. This topic has been in the news lately because company reductions-in-force have compelled managers to examine how to get company knowledge from the employees who are no longer there, how to capture knowledge from the ones who remain, and how to transfer that knowledge to a multigenerational workforce.This valuable book focuses on five basic steps of knowledge transfer—analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation—and arms readers with everything they need to make a business case for knowledge capture and transfer.

The book examines how the baby boomer phenomenon, generational distinctions, and learning preferences influence knowledge capture and transfer. In researching the book, the authors spoke to many companies about how they were able to implement a successful knowledge-transfer program. Those stories are part of a comprehensive look at this often overlooked critical issue. Unfortunately, the authors also found that many companies have put off capturing knowledge or don’t have a culture that values this key business initiative.

This is a practical guide that describes how to assess a company’s knowledge gaps, create a knowledge transfer strategy, and nurture a multigenerational culture that is all about collaboration and knowledge sharing. This book is written specifically for the workplace learning professional and is filled with information about how to link the program to staff goals, assess what the audience needs, communicate objectives, and create some detailed metrics.

The book makes a strong case against putting off creating a process for collecting knowledge from boomers before they walk out the door. The economy might have postponed the baby boomer exodus, but it is still approaching, and companies need to be prepared to retain quality information before it’s too late.

This book is not only a good read, but it’s a very good practical guide for how to build a knowledge-capture strategy and how to implement it. I give it three cups of coffee.

Paula Ketter is editor for T+D; pketter@astd.org.

The New HR Analytics: Predicting the Economic Value of Your Company’s Human Capital Investments

By Jac Fitz-enz

(AMACOM, 331 pp., $29.95)

This latest book from a reigning legend in the field of human capital offers a new model for measuring the success of investment in people. These days, as the job market struggles to look upward and companies are seeing a mass exodus of talent searching elsewhere, it’s an understatement to say that new human resource analytical methods might come in handy. Building on more than 30 years of work, the HCM:21 model incorporates business intelligence, process improvement, workforce planning, and HR process integration (destroying the silos) to advance performance across the organization and keep people prepared for inevitable shifts in the future.

Graymanship: The Management of Organizational Imperfection

By Bob Eddy

(Multi-Dimensional Press, 166 pp., $18.68)

It should be pretty clear to all that there is no golden key for working past negativity and cynicism in an organization. Bob Eddy, however, thinks he has something pretty close, and all he asks readers to do is “use your brain.” This very personal, conversational work guides us through philosophical (most prominently, realism and constructivism) and scientific means for discovering our everyday working selves. The picture isn’t always pretty, and hardly ever black-and-white (hence the “gray” in “graymanship”). The second half of the book describes practical ways to apply this discovery to combat miscommunications, incompetence, inequity, unethical behavior, conflict, and other common difficulties.

Successful Onboarding: A Strategy to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization

By Mark A. Stein and Lilith Christiansen

(McGraw Hill, 266 pp., $29.95)

This book would make a great buy for first-timers implementing onboarding initiatives. Few HR departments are entirely unfamiliar with orientations, so for those looking to craft strategic programs that fit in with their specific culture and business, this book has some valuable models to offer. The authors present a strong case for tailoring early career support, teaching organizational culture, and using strategy immersion, which gives new hires the sense of purpose and focus they need to succeed from the beginning. Stein and Christiansen are consultants with D.C.-based firm Kaiser Associates.