Addresses the following questions: What is knowledge work? What are strategies and methods for increasing productivity, quality, effectiveness and value of knowledge work? Can knowledge workers be managed, and if yes, how? What are adequate methods for measuring performance of knowledge workers?

Unlock your company’s true potential by eliminating knowledge work waste that’s hiding in plain sight.Back in 1987, Nobel laureate Robert Solow quipped, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” This costly condition soon became known as the “productivity paradox.” Why does it persist today? Why do knowledge workers spend a third of their days on needless correction, avoidable work and overservice, despite existing office technology that could help, even automate, their actions? And why does nobody notice? The answers—and solutions—are in this book. The Knowledge Work Factory uncovers the well-intentioned waste that hides in plain sight within virtually every organization. It reveals the ingrained perceptual biases that trick our brains into accepting the status quo and missing breakthrough opportunities. It draws stunning parallels to industrial production, which cracked this very code over 100 years ago. Most importantly, it gives you an easy-to-follow, one-stop guide to boost efficiency, productivity, and morale among the very knowledge workers who struggle under the burden of the productivity paradox. Discover your organization’s true, untapped capacity. Maximize the productivity of every single knowledge worker. Uncover “better-than-best practices.” Reap benefits that drop straight to the bottom line. The power is in your hands—with The Knowledge Work Factory.

Landmarks of Tomorrow forecasts changes in three major areas of human life and experience. The first part of the book treats the philosophical shift from a Cartesian universe of mechanical cause to a new universe of pattern, purpose, and process. Drucker discusses the power to organize men of knowledge and high skill for joint effort and performance as a key component of this change. The second part of the book sketches four realities that challenge the people of the free world: an educated society, economic development, the decline of government, and the collapse of Eastern culture. The final section of the book is concerned with the spiritual reality of human existence. These are seen as basic elements in late twentieth-century society. In his new introduction, Peter Drucker revisits the main findings of Landmarks of Tomorrow and assesses their validity in relation to today’s concerns. It is a book that will be of interest to sociologists, economists, and political theorists.

Best Practices for Knowledge Workers describes ACM in the current era of digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent BPMS and BPM Everywhere. You will learn how support of adaptive, data-driven processes empowers knowledge workers to know in real-time what is happening at the edge points, and to take actions through the combination of rule-driven guidance and their own know-how. It is not a traditionally-automated system but intelligent automation, where technology doesn’t merely replace human decision-making but extends the reach of the knowledge worker; making IoT data actionable. As Sandy Kemsley points out in her foreword: As adaptive case management (ACM) systems mature, we are moving beyond simple systems that allow knowledge workers to define ad hoc processes, to creating more intelligent systems that support and guide them. Knowledge workers still need to dynamically add information, define activities and collaborate with others in order to get their work done, but those are now just the table stakes in a world of big data and intelligent agents. To drive innovation and maintain operational efficiencies, we need to augment case work – typically seen as relying primarily on human intelligence – with machine intelligence. In other words, we need intelligent ACM. Highly predictable work is easy to support using traditional programming techniques, while unpredictable work cannot be accurately scripted in advance, and thus requires the involvement of the knowledge workers themselves. The core element of Adaptive Case Management (ACM) is the support for real-time decision-making by knowledge workers. In award-winning case studies covering industries as a diverse as law enforcement, transportation, insurance, banking, state services, and healthcare, you will find instructive examples for how to transform your own organization. This important book follows these ground-breaking best-sellers on ACM; Thriving on Adaptability, Empowering Knowledge Workers, Taming the Unpredictable, How Knowledge Workers Get Things Done, and Mastering the Unpredictable and provides important papers by thought-leaders in this field, together with practical examples, detailed ACM case studies and product reviews.

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2004). Proven Methods for Attracting, Interviewing, and Hiring Technical Workers Good technical people are the foundation on which successful high technology organizations are built. Establishing a good process for hiring such workers is essential. Unfortunately, the generic methods so often used for hiring skill-based staff, who can apply standardized methods to almost any situation, are of little use to those charged with the task of hiring technical people. Unlike skill-based workers, technical people typically do not have access to cookie-cutter solutions to their problems. They need to adapt to any situation that arises, using their knowledge in new and creative ways to solve the problem at hand. As a result, one developer, tester, or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. This makes hiring technical people one of the most critical and difficult processes a technical manager can undertake. Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science of Hiring Technical People takes the guesswork out of hiring and diminishes the risk of costly hiring mistakes. With the aid of step-by-step descriptions and detailed examples, you'll learn how to write a concise, targeted job description source candidates develop ads for mixed media review résumés quickly to determine Yes, No, or Maybe candidates develop intelligent, nondiscriminatory, interview techniques create fool-proof phone-screens check references with a view to reading between the lines extend an offer that will attract a win-win acceptance or tender a gentle-but-decisive rejection and more An effective hiring process is crucial to saving an organization the costs and consequences of a bad hiring decision. Not only is a bad hire costly in terms of recruiting expenses and the time spent hiring, it can also bog down or derail projects that may already be running late. You, your team, and your organization will live with the long-term consequences of your hiring decision. Investing time in developing a hiring strategy will shorten your decision time and the ramp-up time needed for each new hire. Technical leaders, project and program managers, and anyone putting together a team of technical workers will greatly benefit from this book.

Knowledge workers create the innovations and strategies that keep their firms competitive and the economy healthy. Yet, companies continue to manage this new breed of employee with techniques designed for the Industrial Age. As this critical sector of the workforce continues to increase in size and importance, that's a mistake that could cost companies their future. Thomas Davenport argues that knowledge workers are vastly different from other types of workers in their motivations, attitudes, and need for autonomy--and, so, they require different management techniques to improve their performance and productivity. Based on extensive research involving over 100 companies and more than 600 knowledge workers, Thinking for a Living provides rich insights into how knowledge workers think, how they accomplish tasks, and what motivates them to excel. Davenport identifies four major categories of knowledge workers and presents a unique framework for matching specific types of workers with the management strategies that yield the greatest performance. Written by the field's premier thought leader, Thinking for a Living reveals how to maximize the brain power that fuels organizational success. Thomas Davenport holds the President's Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College. He is director of research for Babson Executive Education; an Accenture Fellow; and author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (HBS Press, 1997).

Empowering Knowledge Workers describes the work of managers, decision makers, executives, doctors, lawyers, campaign managers, emergency responders, strategists, and many others who have to think for a living. These are people who figure out what needs to be done, at the same time that they do it, and a new approach to support this kind of worker presents the logical starting point for understanding how to take advantage of ACM.

By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God's plan, What's Best Next gives you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do. There are a lot of myths about productivity--what it means to get things done and how to accomplish work that really matters. In our current era of innovation and information overload, it may feel harder than ever to understand the meaning of work or to have a sense of vocation or calling. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? Matt Perman has spent his career helping people learn how to do work in a gospel-centered and effective way. What's Best Next explains his approach to unlocking productivity and fulfillment in work by showing how faith relates to work, even in our everyday grind. What's Best Next is packed with biblical and theological insight and practical counsel that you can put into practice today, such as: How to create a mission statement for your life that's actually practicable. How to delegate to people in a way that really empowers them. How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you. How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day. How to have peace of mind without needing to have everything under control. How generosity is actually the key to unlocking productivity. This expanded edition includes: a new chapter on productivity in a fallen world a new appendix on being more productive with work that requires creative thinking. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done--the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. You can learn how to do work that matters and how to do it well.

Many of us assume that our creative process is beyond our ability to influence, and pay attention to it only when it isn't working properly. For the most part, we go about our daily tasks and everything just "works." Until it doesn't. Adding to this lack of understanding is the rapidly accelerating pace of work. Each day we are face escalating expectations and a continual squeeze to do more with less. We are asked to produce an ever-increasing amount of brilliance in an ever-shrinking amount of time. There is an unspoken (or spoken!) expectation that we'll be accessible 24/7, and as a result we frequently feel like we're "always on." Now business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to unleash your creative potential. Whether you're a creative by trade or an "accidental creative," this book will help you quickly and effectively integrate new ideas into your daily life.

Adaptive Case Management is ultimately about allowing knowledge workers to work the way that they want to work and to provide them with the tools and information they need to do so effectively. Surendra Reddy points out in his Foreword: "Imagine a fully integrated ACM system layered into the value stream of an enterprise. The customer support team is able to focus on customer needs, with easy access to the entire company's repertoire of knowledge, similar cases, information, and expertise, as if it were a service. To truly accommodate customers, companies must vest real power and authority in the people and systems that interact directly with customers, at the edge of the organization and beyond. ACM empowers the knowledge worker to collaborate, derive new insights, and fine tune the way of doing business by placing customers right in the center where they belong, to drive innovation and organizational efficiencies across the global enterprise. "It's a whole different thing; a new way of doing business that enables organizations to literally become one living-breathing entity via collaboration and adaptive data-driven biological-like operating systems. "ACM, in my opinion, is the future blueprint for the way of doing business." Thriving on Adaptability describes the work of managers, decision makers, executives, doctors, lawyers, campaign managers, emergency responders, strategists and many others who have to think for a living. These are people who figure out what needs to be done at the same time that they do it. In award-winning case studies covering industries as a diverse as law enforcement, transportation, insurance, banking, state services, and healthcare, you have instructive examples to optimize your own organization. This important book follows the ground-breaking best-sellers in this series;"Empowering Knowledge Workers, Taming the Unpredictable, How Knowledge Workers Get Things Done, "and "Mastering the Unpredictable " Thriving on Adaptability: Table of Contents Foreword ACM 2.0: Decoding the Business Genome; The power of Data-Driven Adaptive Process Management, Contextual Intelligence, Case-Based Reasoning, and Machine Learning Surendra Reddy Thriving on Adaptability, Introduction and Overview Layna Fischer, Future Strategies Inc. Part 1: About Case Management " My Sandbox, Your Sandbox Keith D Swenson " "Understanding and Evaluating Case Management Software Nathaniel G Palmer and Lloyd Dugan" "Ontology-based ACM - The Need for Truly Adaptive Systems Jurgen Kress, Clemens Utschig-Utschig, Hajo Normann, Torsten Winterberg" "Combining Compliance with Flexibility; Real life experiences from Norwegian Public Sector Helle Frisak Sem, Steinar Carlsen, Gunnar John Coll" "Justice is Served through Production Case Management John T. Matthias" "Using Process Mining to Improve Adaptive Case Management Processes Dr. William A. Brantley" "Analyzing Communication Capabilities of CM/ACM Systems, with the help of Language/Action perspective lia Bider" "Enterprise as a System of Processes Alexander SAMARIN" Part 2: Real-World Award-Winning Case Studies "Cognocare, an ACM-based System for Oncology " " Crawford & Company, United States " "Infosys McCamish Systems, USA " "JuriShare - Contract Generation System " "The National Police Immigration Service, Norway " "The Office of Secretary to Govt of Federation of Nigeria " "Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon Company, USA " "State of Hawaii, Department of Human Services, USA" "State of Maine, USA " "The Antwerp Port Authority, Belgium " "TIAA-CREF, USA " "WESTMED Practice Partners, USA "