In what follows, we analyze the process of knowledge transfer and outline steps that managers can take to increase information flow within their organizations. In principle, knowledge transfer can be broken down into distinct stages. Robert Sutton has studied creativity in groups and offers the following list of questions to ask when assessing a group's potential for creativity. For example, a work group might share its ideas in a meeting, where their merits are discussed and relevant potential adopters hear the new methods. Here, sharing refers to the need to expose others to the idea in order for it to be evaluated .
Dissemination takes place once the idea has passed some minimum level of evaluation.
For information sharing to occur, two conditions must be satisfied. First, ideas must be in a form that others in the organization can interpret. Dissemination is easier when the knowledge can be made explicit or formal. For many skills and ideas, this involves transforming the idea into a codified, often written, format. The second condition required for sharing to occur is that employees with ideas must be willing to share them.