When Brian agreed to help his friend Dr. K with an idea for a new business, he asked Paul if he could borrow his boardroom since the meeting was to be far away from Brian’s office. It was after hours; Paul left Brian a key and went home.

But Brian had a business question. A problem he could not solve immediately. He called Paul at home.

Using his home computer, Paul connected to the computer sitting on the boardroom table in front of Brian and Dr. K. Together they worked out the problem visually on the shared screen. Everyone was happy – so happy that they wanted to do it again a week later.

This time Paul was in the room. It wasn’t the same. Yes, they worked on the problem and got a result but it seemed much harder. Brian wondered what was so different.

A few months went by and Brian found himself seated on a plane next to the owner of one of the largest agricultural farms in Canada. Brian asked how long he had been farming and how long it had taken to learn farming.

Brian was surprised to learn that not only had he farmed for 38 years with his father to learn the business but that he had 3 children and not one of them had learned very much about farming. Brian observed out loud if it he started now would it take 38 years for one of his kids to learn farming as well.

The light went on in Brian’s head and he told the farmer why. He told the farmer about the process he’d followed with Dr. K. He told the farmer that he thought he could do a Knowledge Transfer in less than a day. It was all new.

The farmer said “I thought I was going to get some sleep on this flight”. Brian was concerned he’d offended the farmer. “Are you kidding?” the farmer asked. “This is the most interesting conversation I’ve ever had on the subject”.

The solution? ? keep the facilitator (Paul in this example) out of the room and keep the subject (Dr K. in this example) away from the computer and focussed on telling his story.

What should the farmer do? Use Transition Path for Knowledge Transfer of his 38 years of experience.