Why I share — tacit vs explicit knowledge
While reading The Connected Company by Dave Gray I came across Nonaka’s spiral of knowledge as presented in his book The Knowledge Creating Company and more easily accessible in an article on HBR.
The books and this model describes the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is things that are easy to see and measure. It consists of documentation, software, instructions, models, processes and ways of working. Hierarchical organizations love this kind of knowledge because it is easy to measure and compare. Tacit knowledge on the other hand is in the minds of people working. It is the mastery, skills and unconscious knowledge of someone who knows how to do the work in a great way. This type of knowledge is almost impossible to measure, but without it the company will fail. In a knowledge creating company these two types of knowledge interact, creating new knowledge. Magic happens in the transitions between tacit and explicit knowledge. The only way to pick up tacit knowledge is to spend time with a master and learn from the way they do work. Copy them and understand how they are doing things, and why. By putting this into writing and sharing this information we make the knowledge explicit. By giving this to others, they can train on this explicit knowledge and build new tacit knowledge. When reading this I realized — this is exactly why I share.
Why I share
When I read something I always filter, categorize and try to apply it to my reality. It can be everything from team dynamics, current coaching assignments, problems I am facing or a fit with other interesting things I have been processing but have not found a good place for yet. Everything available to read is explicit knowledge. If something passes my filter it means I will begin to internalize it and find a place for it in my world. Sometimes this comes instantly and sometimes it takes a while. Whenever I have a revelation and find good use for something I crave to share it. I need to share it because I need to do another transition between tacit and explicit knowledge to structure my thoughts. By doing this transition I learn again and give others the possibility to build on (or reject) my idea. Sometimes this means I will do another round in the spiral, internalizing someone else’s idea that was built on mine.
This post is a great example. I stumbled upon this model and realized that it fit perfectly on my motivation for blogging, tweeting, doing brown bags and speaking at conferences. I took the time to write this post to better understand what makes this model fit so well. Now I hope that you will take the time to add to this idea and help me build on it. That is why I am addicted to sharing.
