Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak have written a book--What’s the Big Idea: Creating and Capitalizing on the Best Management Thinking (Harvard Business School Press). Babson Insight has an article--
The Practice of Ideas: Identifying, Advocating and Making It Happen by Davenport and Prusak, that expounds on some of the concepts put forth in their book.
Here is an excerpt on 'Idea practitioners':
"...Idea practitioners are the most important players in the entire process of importing and implementing new business and management ideas into organizations. They are the link between ideas and action. Without them, new ideas would remain on the periphery of organizations, and never get embedded into practice. Furthermore, the ideas wouldn't be nearly as useful. These managers aren't passive recipients of fully-shaped ideas. The good idea practitioners all filter out, add to, or subtract from the ideas they implement, "fitting" them to fit their organizations' specific needs. In many cases, it's from these individuals and their organizations that the gurus actually get their ideas and case examples.
We define idea practitioners as individuals who use business improvement ideas to bring about change in organizations. At some point in their careers they may have had managerial responsibility for achieving this objective. They may become consultants or academics at some point in their lives, but they have always worked for "real" companies or government agencies as well. Even when they are pontificating or generating new ideas themselves, it's usually on the basis of their own experience..."
K-Collector Topics: Knowledge Management Thinking Harvard