capture tacit knowledge

presentsCAPTURING TACIT KNOWLEDGE

INTO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

By: Sajad Nosrati

We know much more than we can tell

…BY ALBERT EINSTEIN

… BY POLANYI

tacit knowledge resides in the minds of individuals.

Information is not knowledge…..

The only source of knowledge is experience….

inspiration

insights

intuitions

BASICS

Tacit Knowledge Forms

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WHY TACIT

KNOWLEDGE IS

CRUCIAL

Mere information of law is no longer an

USP…..Clients pay for ‘solutions’ not ‘information’

Information imperfections do not exist in the practice

of law

Real-time transactions require firms to offer real-time solutions

Practice of law requires firms to adapt and

replicate knowledge into readily usable form

2

employees filling out endless questionnaires

conducting interviews with knowledge engineersconducting brainstorming sessions

facilitating JAD (Joint application design) and JAR (Joint Application Requirements) sessions

Currently, getting access to tacit knowledge has relied solely on:

3

An environment that people can organize their learning around the social communities in which they

belong. The knowledge of the community is integrated in the life of communities that share values, beliefs, languages,

and ways of doing things.

Knowledge repositories are: collections of factual, procedural knowledge that include manuals,

best practices, discussion threads, corporate directories,

and SME directories

Capturing tacit knowledge has led to the following:

Creation of knowledge repositories

Communities of practice

Enterprise knowledge portals

The enterprise knowledge portal is a single infrastructure

solution that supports the distributed KM objectives of

the organization

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Tacit Knowledge Capture

is a process by which the expert’s thoughts and experiences are captured.

Tacit knowledge capture

involves the transfer of problem-solving expertise from some knowledge source to a repository or a program.

Tacit knowledge capture

5


tacit knowledge is difficult to track and capture

Tacit knowledge capture has been largely ignored in traditional KM systems

Tacit knowledge can only be captured when it is found

Expertise management becomes a central tenet of

tacit knowledge

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Collaboration means working together to fulfill a shared, collective, bounded goal• The Gantt Chart• The Kanban Chart • The To-Do List• The All-Encompassing

Collaboration Suite• The Social Network


To begin to capture tacit knowledge you can channel informal discussions into a collaborative

workspace (i.e., collaboration tools)

7


Every time

there is a

problem, the

expert is

consulted

Expert has a knack for explaining

thingsExpert maintai

ns credibili

ty

Expert shares

expertise willingly

Expert uses

chunked knowledge

Who isEXPER

T?!

8


Advantages:- Ideal when building a simple KM system- Better facilitation- more confidentialityDrawbacks:- The expert’s knowledge is not easy to capture- Expert knowledge is sometimes dispersed- are more likely to change scheduled meetings

Which one? A Single Expert or Multiple

Experts!a Single Expert:

Pros and Cons

Multiple Experts:

Pros and ConsAdvantages:

- Complex problem domains benefit- consider alternative ways- Formal meetingsDrawbacks:-Scheduling difficulties- Disagreements-Requires more than one knowledge developer9


Tacit Knowledge as a Source of Competitive Advantage

insights, intuitions, and flashes of inspiration

• innovation process

creativity

• It is often called organizational culture

Because tacit knowledge is much harder to detail, copy, and distribute, it can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage

10


PROCESS OF CAPTURING TACIT KNOWLEDGE

- Organizational culturePromoting knowledge-sharing tradition

- Discipline creating individual discipline and corporate discipline.

- Using technologyCapturing and recording knowledge on Information Systems, including document management, web-sites/ intranet.

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PROCESS OF CAPTURING TACIT KNOWLEDGE

- Partner TrainingSenior Partners to contribute training in a drop-in fashion and share real-life experiences

- Insulating against attritionOrganize deal de-briefs, discussions on transactional dynamics- Meetings and conferencesOrganizing deal debriefings, informal discussions to discussion transactional dynamics

12


Managing Tacit Knowledge

Concept Extractio

n

Automatic Categorization

Brain storming

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Tacit Knowledge Capture14

- Polanyi, M. (1958), Personal Knowledge: Toward a Post-critical Philosophy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.-Polanyi, M. (1966), The Tacit Dimension, Doubleday, Garden City, NY.- Reber, A.S. (1993), Implicit Learning and Tacit Knowledge: An Essay on the Cognitive Unconscious, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. - Smith, E.A. (2001), “The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace”, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 311-21.

Thank You

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