Reaping benefits from intellectual capital.

The wealth and value of organizations are increasingly based on intellectual capital. Although acquiring talented individuals and investing in employee learning adds value to the organization, reaping the benefits of intellectual capital involves translating the wisdom of employees into reusable and sustained actions. This requires a culture that creates employee commitment, encourages learning, fosters sharing, and involves employees in decision making. An infrastructure to recognize and embed promising and best practices through social networks, evidence-based practice, customization of innovations, and use of information technology results in increased productivity, stronger financial performance, better patient outcomes, and greater employee and customer satisfaction.