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Related Experiment Videos

Deep smarts.

Dorothy Leonard1, Walter Swap

  • 1Harvard Business School, Boston, USA. dleonard@hbs.edu

Harvard Business Review
|September 29, 2004
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Deep smarts, a crucial business asset, are expertise gained from experience, not just knowledge. Transferring this valuable know-how requires dedicated one-on-one mentorship, not traditional training methods.

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Area of Science:

  • Business Strategy
  • Organizational Behavior
  • Knowledge Management

Background:

  • Organizations rely on specialized expertise for success.
  • Deep smarts represent a unique form of practical wisdom crucial in complex business environments.
  • This expertise is difficult to acquire and easily lost.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To define and differentiate 'deep smarts' from general intelligence or emotional intelligence.
  • To explore the nature of deep smarts, emphasizing their experiential and contextual basis.
  • To identify effective methods for transferring deep smarts within organizations.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis of deep smarts based on business case examples.
  • Distinguishing deep smarts from 'know-what' versus 'know-how'.

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  • Evaluating traditional knowledge transfer methods against experiential learning.

    • Main Results:

    • Deep smarts are characterized by a systems view and context-specific expertise.
    • They are built over years of experience and are hard to codify or purchase.
    • Conventional training methods are ineffective for transferring deep smarts.

    Conclusions:

    • Deep smarts are a vital, yet vulnerable, organizational asset.
    • Effective transfer requires individualized, experience-based mentorship from expert to novice.
    • Investing in this type of training yields significant returns for companies.