Comments on: Exploiting your tacit knowledge

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:48:21 +0000

Well-articulated. Thanks.

By: Gesu Baroova

Gesu Baroova — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:56:01 +0000

Agree with you Steve, your site is simple and yet compelling – some real tacit knowledge in play there. Like the idea of producing a “ways of working” summary to bring it out.

By: Gesu Baroova

Gesu Baroova — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:38:45 +0000

Thanks Anol, glad you liked it.
Insightful comment! Agree that perhaps not all tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit, but it can be managed better. Not many companies do that efficiently either because they don’t know how or they don’t have the resources. I think marketing can step up for the task rather than wait for someone else to do it. My post was inspired by Nonaka & Takeuchi’s knowledge management spiral which you may find an interesting read:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Nonaka-and-Takeuchi-knowledge-management-cycle

By: Steve Fair (Sponge NB)

Steve Fair (Sponge NB) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:21:58 +0000

We often try to produce a “ways of working” summary that genuinely explains what we do, but then we add a new resource, technique or way of applying intelligence to our processes and the ways of working start looking a little old.

While it would make the job of winning clients easier, the simple fact that we sell a service that is difficult to explain means our clients, who are mainly marketing agencies, can be comfortable in the fact that we can condense their offering, which is never unique, into a compelling description. Eventually.

By: Anol

Anol — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:08:27 +0000

Great post Gesu! Glad to know that I am not alone here who is trying to mash-up organizational knowledge management and marketing concepts.

Here goes my 2 cents –

I believe not every tacit knowledge can be codified and converted into explicit knowledge.

I think you will like Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework explanation on organizational sense-making, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Snowden) where organizational strategic knowledge base is classified in 4 categories:

Simple, in which the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the approach is to Sense – Categorise – Respond and we can apply best practice.

Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense – Analyze – Respond and we can apply good practice.

Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe – Sense – Respond and we can sense emergent practice.

Chaotic, in which there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act – Sense – Respond and we can discover novel practice.

It’s not very difficult to explain each domain in marketing context.

Will look forward to your future posts!

(Thanks @dougkessler for the shoutout)