CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Knowledge Theory Tacit Implicit Emergent Difficult to Manage Explain

5103 -
5103 -    ..
5104 - Summary/Objective
5105 -
510501 - Follow up
510502 -
510503 -
510504 -
510506 -  ..
5106 -
5107 -
5108 - Progress
5109 -
510901 - Received a letter from Gary....
510902 -
510903 -    1.  Subject: Unmanagin Knpwledge
510904 -        Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:10:51 -0700
510911 -  ..
510912 - Gary cites Rod's letter on 090622 0954 (which is not in the
510913 - record)...
510915 -         ..
510916 -    2.  Thanks for the article on tacit knowledge in your letter this
510917 -        morning.  What jumped out at you that relates to our stuff?
510919 -  ..
510920 - Gary comments today...
510921 -
510922 -    3.  Characteristics of Tacit knowledge
510923 -
510924 -        Emergent, Not Directly Manageable
510925 -
510926 -        a.  The bottom line is that tacit knowledge cannot be "managed
510927 -            out" of people.
510929 -  ..
510930 - This seems incorrect and excuses sloth, i.e., making no effort to
510931 - write up the record, and to add organization and connections that
510932 - maintain a well ordered record for making sense of complex daily
510933 - events by understanding causation, so that people can find relevant
510934 - parts of the record to rely on accurate experience and history to
510935 - guide daily work saving lives, time, and money, and discovering
510936 - opportunity in time to be effective.
510938 -  ..
510939 - Giving up on creating and managing knowledge "out of people" prevents
510940 - advance of civilization.
510942 -  ..
510943 - Tacit/implicit knowledge in relation to explicit/established knowledge
510944 - should first be defined, as in POIMS. ref OF 5 2301  The first
510945 - conference on Knowledge Management held in 1993, and reviewed on
510946 - 011102. ref SDS 2 DT5F, dealt with nebulous character of
510947 - tacit/implicit knowledge. ref SDS 2 6F3I  How sad, that 15 years later
510948 - after spending billions of dollars, people have given up.
510950 -  ..
510951 - Review on 011102 explains "knowledge" occurs along a continuum from
510952 - unknown to tacit/implicit, and eventually to well established.
510953 - Knowledge from routine exposure through culture and craftsmanship
510954 - occurs through repetitive experience to master and control cause and
510955 - effect relationships, mostly without conscious awareness, i.e., on
510956 - automatic pilot. ref SDS 2 W83L
510958 -  ..
510959 - Gary's letter continues...
510960 -
510961 -        b.  It must be allowed to emerge within co-evolving and
510962 -            mutually beneficial relationships.
510964 -  ..
510965 - Hope that useful knowledge "emerges" from attending meetings
510966 - facilitated by consultants, and "collaborating" by making calls and
510967 - sending email seems to align with Prusak's report on the role of
510968 - Knowledge Management, reported at the first conference, and reviewed
510969 - on 011102. ref SDS 3 01FT
510971 -  ..
510972 - What theory of "knowledge" supports application of "emergence?"
510974 -  ..
510975 - "Emergence" is a concept from physics reviewed on 040312 and explains
510976 - phenomena that arise from random numbers, commonly called "splatter."
510977 - ref SDS 4 GT6L  Where useful correlations are discovered from
510978 - splatter, writing up the record helps achieve repetitive resutls.
510980 -  ..
510981 - Theory of "emerging" "co-evolving and mutually beneficial
510982 - relationships" correlates with Jack Park's analysis on 090109 that
510983 - email enables laziness that generates "fools gold," reviewed on
510984 - 010908. ref SDS 1 YF5O
510986 -  ..
510987 - Giving up on Knowledge Management aligns with Jack Park's theory on
510988 - 010907 that people are too "lazy" to spend 20 seconds conforming the
510989 - subject of a letter to the content that maintains a well ordered
510990 - record, because doing nothing and just pressing the "Reply" button
510991 - enables spewing out whatever pops into the mind at the moment.
510992 - ref SDS 1 0001
510994 -  ..
510995 - On 040620 review of Knowledge Management successful seminars indicated
510996 - these efforts were "dimming the lights" on prospects for using tools
510997 - and work roles to advance from information to culture of knowledge.
510998 - ref SDS 6 6Q9R
511000 -  ..
511001 - Current thinking in Knowledge Management presented in the letter today
511002 - aligns with case study on 070126 showing people have given up on all
511003 - three aspects of Knoweldge Management. ref SDS 7 QH8L
511005 -  ..
511006 - Gary's letter continues...
511007 -
511008 -    4.  Individual, Environmentally Influenced ===
511009 -
511010 -        a.  Essentially, tacit knowledge encompasses ideas and
511011 -            abstractions at the individual level.  More specifically,
511012 -            it is implicit knowledge that is:
511014 -                 ..
511015 -            1)  Grounded in personal experience and innate
511016 -                predispositions.
511018 -                 ..
511019 -            2)  Carried by people in their minds, which is difficult to
511020 -                access or share.
511022 -                 ..
511023 -            3)  Difficult to transfer to others without extensive
511024 -                personal contact and trust.
511026 -                 ..
511027 -            4)  Based on habits and culture that we do not recognize in
511028 -                ourselves.
511030 -                 ..
511031 -            5)  Stored in a different area of the brain than explicit
511032 -                knowledge.
511034 -                 ..
511035 -            6)  The wellspring of new codified or explicit knowledge.
511036 -                Tacit or unrelated knowledge comes to the fore
511037 -                serendipitously and becomes explicit as individuals or
511038 -                small groups confront new or unanticipated situations.
511040 -             ..
511041 -        b.  Tacit knowledge is a dynamic resource indispensable in the
511042 -            innovation process.
511044 -             ..
511045 -        c.  Further, tacit knowledge must be allowed to "emerge"
511046 -            through voluntary collaboration or self-organization.
511047 -            People are seldom aware of exactly what unrelated knowledge
511048 -            they possess until confronted with a problem or an
511049 -            opportunity.
511051 -         ..
511052 -    5.  Support Tacit Knowledge by Managing the Environment
511053 -
511054 -        a.  Therefore, in order for tacit knowledge to properly emerge,
511055 -            people must first be surrounded by a supportive
511056 -            environment.
511058 -  ..
511059 - Need example of a "supportive environment" on the job, and a few
511060 - examples of work product that "emerged" that is qualitively different
511061 - from what normally occurs without environmental support.
511063 -  ..
511064 - Possible example might Tumor Board meetings conducted weekly by
511065 - oncology departments.  Nobody is prepared, and no work product
511066 - emerges, except what people discuss, shown by the record on 040614.
511067 - ref SDS 5 4R59
511069 -  ..
511070 - Gary's letter continues...
511071 -
511072 -        b.  I think such an environment should include good tools for
511073 -            dealing with explicit knowledge.
511075 -  ..
511076 - What about tools dealing with emerging, implicit knowledge?
511078 -  ..
511079 - Gary's letter continues...
511080 -
511081 -    6.  Organizational Sweet Spot ==
511082 -
511083 -            ...under the right conditions the informal components will
511084 -            begin to overlap more and more with the formal elements of
511085 -            an organization.
511086 -
511087 -            ...spot, in essence, represents the area where the formal
511088 -            and informal systems of an organization have reached "a
511089 -            meeting of the minds" over the fundamental goals, policies
511090 -            and processes of an organization.
511092 -             ..
511093 -        a.  What is particularly noteworthy about this agreement is
511094 -            that it's not reached through any sort of formal
511095 -            negotiations. Rather, it is emergent.
511097 -             ..
511098 -        b.  A related quote: "Our challenge is to turn what 'everybody
511099 -            knows' into what 'everybody does' - Tom DeMarco
511101 -  ..
511102 - Another challenge is to get "what everybody knows" commonly
511103 - understood, so that folks take complementary actions, rather than
511104 - compound conflict.
511106 -  ..
511107 - Gary's letter continues...
511108 -
511109 -        c.  The notion that it is possible for the informal networks to
511110 -            converge with the formal ones so that people are actually
511111 -            doing what the company needs and stands for is utopian, but
511112 -            it is an interesting idea.
511114 -  ..
511115 - This may be another presentation of the common challenge to align what
511116 - people do with objectives, requirements and commitments.
511118 -  ..
511119 - This grounded mechanics of a well ordered record that enables people
511120 - to quickly make connections to maintain alignment, and adjust course
511121 - before mistakes compound into confusion, conflict, and calamity.
511123 -  ..
511124 - Gary's letter continues...
511125 -
511126 -    7.  Depends on smart people ==
511127 -
511128 -        a.  Whether we like to admit it or not, all activities and
511129 -            interactions between people are governed by emergent
511130 -            relationships or self-organization.
511132 -             ..
511133 -        b.  Therefore, we need to place greater emphasis on developing
511134 -            constructive social contexts that support the dynamics that
511135 -            allow people to establish meaningful relationships and in
511136 -            the process share tacit and explicit knowledge to the
511137 -            fullest extent possible.
511139 -  ..
511140 - Need an example of how this "sharing" occurs.  Might this occur in a
511141 - meeting, a phone call, an email, skywriting
511143 -  ..
511144 - Gary's letter continues...
511145 -
511146 -        c.  Complex adaptive systems’ thinking is vital today in order
511147 -            to properly address never- before anticipated problems or
511148 -            new opportunities.
511150 -             ..
511151 -        d.  Thus, where conventional approaches consistently fail to
511152 -            bring success, more pragmaticroaches need to be found and
511153 -            applied.
511155 -             ..
511156 -        e.  Multiple perspectives consistently lead to fresh and more
511157 -            insightful solutions than simply putting new faces on old
511158 -            failed concepts.
511160 -             ..
511161 -        f.  In the end, it all comes down to smart people dealing
511162 -            realistically with the unavoidable realm of “social
511163 -            emergence” and supporting the expansion of “organizational
511164 -            sweet spots.”
511166 -             ..
511167 -        g.  So much of what the value networks people seem to be saying
511168 -            is that there is no way to do anything about these networks
511169 -            -- they just evolve, and they do whatever they do, they
511170 -            can't be managed.  Then they go on for days about mapping
511171 -            the networks, analyzing them, understanding them, writing
511172 -            papers about them, sharing knowledge about them (using the
511173 -            old tools of writing papers, email, etc. -- no real help
511174 -            managing the information (or knowedge, take your pick).  It
511175 -            is a strange and inconsistent mix of viewpoints.
511177 -             ..
511178 -        h.  Emergent effects are mysterious in the sense that we have
511179 -            no way to assign causes to effects.  Dave Snowden and
511180 -            Clayton M.  Christensen (Innovator's Dilemma) both propose
511181 -            that, over time, we understand more and more of how things
511182 -            happen and can come closer to establishing cause and
511183 -            effect.  So, not knowing isn't a permanent condition.
511185 -  ..
511186 - Capturing the record and "connecting the dots" is a common way of
511187 - transforming mystery into understanding and enlightenment.
511189 -  ..
511190 - Gary's letter continues...
511191 -
511192 -    8.  Summary ==
511193 -
511194 -        a.  This is a rather clear summary of the position of the value
511195 -            networks community. What they have to say is clearly
511196 -            correct, though I consider it unbalanced.
511198 -  ..
511199 - Correctness of discussion on tacit and implicit knowledge and
511200 - emergence is discussed above. ref SDS 0 UH8P
511202 -  ..
511203 - Gary's letter continues...
511204 -
511205 -        b.  Although these emergent phenomena can't be managed
511206 -            directly, the environment *can* be managed so as to
511207 -            facilitate or inhibit the emergence. What emerges can be
511208 -            charted after the fact and its evolution supported.
511210 -             ..
511211 -        c.  Given that this group is doing good work, growing, and
511212 -            continuing to gain recognition, we are better off if we can
511213 -            find a way to support them rather than arguing with them.
511215 -  ..
511216 - Knowledge Management can advance only to the extent is applied to
511217 - perform daily work that saves lives, time, and money.
511219 -  ..
511220 - SDS is doing this everyday.  What other method is accomplishing these
511221 - goals?
511223 -  ..
511224 - Gary's letter continues...
511225 -
511226 -    9.  Hope this helps.
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5113 -