Keeping What You Paid For—Retaining Essential Consultant-Developed Knowledge Within DOTs (2017) / Chapter Skim
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5 C H A P T E R 2 2.1 Overview Figure 2 outlines the basic steps covered in this guide that facilitate capturing and learning consultant-developed knowledge. These steps are: 1.
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6 Keeping What You Paid For -- Retaining Essential Consultant-Developed Knowledge Within DOTs Key risks to consider are: • Misinterpretation or misapplication of consultant work products, which can lead to downstream problems (including liability issues) ; • Inability for agency staff to answer questions about the assumptions or decision processes inherent in the consultant's work, leading to a loss of agency credibility with customers or partners; • Lack of understanding of informal agreements made by the consultant during the course of the work, which can result in broken commitments and degradation of internal and external relationships, in addition to increased need for re-work; and • Inability to follow through on consultant recommendations, ultimately diminishing the value of the agency's investment in the consultant's services.
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Framework for Capturing and Learning Consultant-Developed Knowledge 7 • Improving future practice based on experience. Avoiding repeat mistakes and identifying and replicating effective engineering, design, and construction practices.
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8 Keeping What You Paid For -- Retaining Essential Consultant-Developed Knowledge Within DOTs The following may need to be understood in order to field future questions or ensure continuity of future actions at the project site: • Who are the people that championed this project -- both within and external to the agency? • Who was responsible for technical decisions?
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Framework for Capturing and Learning Consultant-Developed Knowledge 9 focus of knowledge capture is on improving future practices; this involves analyzing what happened on past projects and drawing conclusions about implications for the future. Key questions to consider include the following: • What technical or management challenges were encountered during the engagement?
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10 Keeping What You Paid For -- Retaining Essential Consultant-Developed Knowledge Within DOTs Question 3: What Is the Best Way to Capture and Learn This Knowledge? One common pitfall in planning knowledge transfer activities is to assume that just because knowledge is captured (e.g., the consultants deliver a report with pertinent information or a lesson from a project is recorded in a lessons learned database)
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Framework for Capturing and Learning Consultant-Developed Knowledge 11 Knowledge and cognitive processes become increasingly complex and abstract as one moves from top to bottom and from left to right. Tables 3–5 illustrate differences in typical areas of emphasis for learning objectives for three types of consultant knowledge capture and learning needs that have been identified.
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12 Keeping What You Paid For -- Retaining Essential Consultant-Developed Knowledge Within DOTs since the objective is to build seasoned managers who will be able to hire and develop staff and modify processes as needed. To achieve this learning objective, an extended period of experiential learning with mentoring will be needed.
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Framework for Capturing and Learning Consultant-Developed Knowledge 13 guidelines. It is important to note that both types of activities must be implemented in consort for this strategy to be effective.
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