Capturing Solutions for Learning and Scaling Up: Documenting Operational Experiences for Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

In the present guide, we assume that the bulk of the work discussed in the handbook has already taken place. Here instead we cover in more detail the process of creating the knowledge asset, the central element needed for learning. As summarized in chapters 5 and 6 of Becoming a Knowledge-Sharing Organization, creating a knowledge asset consists five specific, largely technical steps in which your organization (1) identifies, (2) captures, (3) validates, (4) prepares for dissemination, and finally (5) uses operational lessons learned for sharing and replication. The chapters and appendixes of this guide are devoted to the details of these five steps and provide practical tools, templates, and checklists to help you accomplish each one.

The intended audience for this guide includes professionals, midlevel managers, knowledge and learning experts, and IT specialists, particularly those in the public sector of developing countries. It also includes consultants who may be hired by an organization to perform some of these functions.

The information in this guide is based on years of work—by the Organizational Knowledge Sharing program in the World Bank Institute and the World Bank’s Leadership, Learning, and Innovation ViceP residency—in collaboration with public sector agencies in numerous developing countries around the world. It distills our learning and theirs in the hopes that your organization can likewise see its public service become increasingly effective.