Types of Knowledge

There are two kinds of knowledge. One is explicit knowledge, which can be expressed in
words and numbers and shared in the form of data, scientific formulae, product
specifications, manuals, universal principles, and so forth. This kind of knowledge can be
readily transmitted across individuals formally and systematically. This has been the
dominant form of knowledge in the West. The Japanese, however, see this form as just
the tip of the iceberg. They view knowledge as being primarily tacit, something not easily
visible and expressible.
Tacit knowledge is highly personal and hard to formalise, making it difficult to
communicate or share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions and hunches fall into
this category of knowledge. Furthermore, tacit knowledge is deeply rooted in an
individual's action and experience, as well as in the ideals, values or emotions he or she
embraces.
To be precise, there are two dimensions to tacit knowledge. The first is the "technical"
dimension, which encompasses the kind of informal and hard-to-pin-down skills or crafts
often captured in the term "know-how". Master craftsmen or three-star chefs, for
example, develop a wealth of expertise at their fingertips, after years of experience. But
they often have difficulty articulating the technical or scientific principles behind what
they know. Highly subjective and personal insights, intuitions, hunches and inspirations
derived from bodily experience fall into this dimension.
Tacit knowledge also contains an important cognitive" dimension. It consists of beliefs,
perceptions, ideals, values, emotions and mental models so ingrained in us that we take
them for granted. Though they cannot be articulated very easily, this dimension of tacit
knowledge shapes the way we perceive the world around us.
What is knowledge management (KM)?
Unfortunately, there's no universal definition of knowledge management (KM), just as
there's no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. For this reason,
it's best to think of KM in the broadest context. Succinctly put, KM is the process
through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledgebased assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves codifying what
employees, partners and customers know, and sharing that information among
employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best
practices. It's important to note that the definition says nothing about technology; while
KM is often facilitated by IT, technology by itself is not KM.
Think of a golf caddie as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. Good caddies do
more than carry clubs and track down wayward balls. When asked, a good caddie will
give advice to golfers, such as, "The wind makes the ninth hole play 15 yards longer. "
Accurate advice may lead to a bigger tip at the end of the day. On the flip side, the golfer
having derived a benefit from the caddie's advice may be more likely to play that

course again. If a good caddie is willing to share what he knows with other caddies, then
they all may eventually earn bigger tips. How would KM work to make this happen? The
caddie master may decide to reward caddies for sharing their tips by offering them credits
for pro shop merchandise. Once the best advice is collected, the course manager would
publish the information in notebooks (or make it available on PDAs), and distribute them
to all the caddies. The end result of a well-designed KM program is that everyone wins.
In this case, caddies get bigger tips and deals on merchandise, golfers play better because
they benefit from the collective experience of caddies, and the course owners win
because better scores lead to more repeat business.
KM has assumed greater urgency in American business over the past few years as
millions of baby boomers prepare to retire over the coming decade. Tens of millions of
baby boomers turned 60 in 2005, so those of them who arent already retired are certainly
planning to do so soon. And when they punch out for the last time, the knowledge they
gleaned about their jobs, companies and industries over the course of their long careers
walks out with themunless companies take measures to retain their insights. In addition
to an immanent mass retirement, the outsourcing trend has forced CIOs who have entered
into outsourcing agreements address the thorny issue of transferring the knowledge of
their full-time staff members, who are losing their jobs because of an outsourcing deal, to
the outsourcers employees in order to smooth the transition to the newly restructured IT
organization.
What constitutes intellectual or knowledge-based assets?
Not all information is valuable. Therefore, it's up to individual companies to determine
what information qualifies as intellectual and knowledge-based assets. In general,
however, intellectual and knowledge-based assets fall into one of two categories: explicit
or tacit. Included among the former are assets such as patents, trademarks, business plans,
marketing research and customer lists. As a general rule of thumb, explicit knowledge
consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified, often with the help of
IT.
Much harder to grasp is the concept of tacit knowledge, or the know-how contained in
people's heads. The challenge inherent with tacit knowledge is figuring out how to
recognize, generate, share and manage it. While IT in the form of e-mail, groupware,
instant messaging and related technologies can help facilitate the dissemination of tacit
knowledge, identifying tacit knowledge in the first place is a major hurdle for most
organizations.
Besides using technology, how else can tacit knowledge be transferred? (Shared)
Shadowing and joint-problem solving are two best practices for transferring or recreating
tacit knowledge inside an organization. With shadowing, less experienced staff observe
more experienced staff in their activities to learn how their more experienced
counterparts approach their work. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap, two knowledge
management experts, stress the importance of having the "protg" discuss their

observations with the "expert" in order to deepen their dialog and crystallize the
knowledge transfer.
Another sound approach that Leonard and Swift recommend is joint problem-solving by
expert and novice. Since people are often unaware of how they approach problems or do
their work and therefore cant automatically generate step-by-step instructions for doing
whatever they do, having them work together on a project will bring the experts
approach to light. The difference between shadowing and joint problem solving is that
shadowing is more passive. With joint problem-solving, the "expert" and the "novice"
work hand-in-hand on a task.
What benefits can companies expect from KM?
Some benefits of KM correlate directly to bottom-line savings, while others are more
difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most
opportunities and ultimately derive the most value from intellectual rather than
physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, KM
practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for
collaboration. Yet better collaboration is not an end in itself; without an overarching
business context, KM is meaningless at best and harmful at worst. Consequently, an
effective KM program should help a company do one or more of the following:
Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas
Improve customer service by streamlining response time
Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster
Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees'
knowledge and rewarding them for it
Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary
processes
These are the most prevalent examples. A creative approach to KM can result in
improved efficiency, higher productivity and increased revenues in practically any
business function.

The 3Cs of Knowledge Sharing:

Culture, Co-opetition and Commitment
One of the challenges of knowledge management is that of getting people to share
their knowledge. Why should people give up their hard-won knowledge, when it is
one of their key sources of personal advantage? In some organizations, sharing is
natural. In others the old dictum "knowledge is power" reigns. In this article we
explore some of the barriers and offers some pointers to overcoming them.
Why Don't People Share?
Some of the common reasons given by those I meet and in helpful articles and books
(see, for example, the section on psychological obstacles in reference 1 or "the
impediments" in reference 2) are:

"Knowledge is power" - but how true is this really? My own view is that citing
this reason is often a cop out by managers or change agents who are not
adequately addressing the human factors or motivational aspects. In today's
enterprise, where so much depends on teamwork and collective knowledge, it
is only a handful of people who have knowledge for which they can hold their
peers (and bosses) to ransom. It might be the owner-manager of a small
company not wanting to lose trade secrets; it may be a particular specialist
who has been in the organization many years and built up his or her own
unique way of achieving success without perhaps even understanding the
deep tacit knowledge of how they do it. Don't get me wrong - knowledge IS
power, but is typically not the primary reason for lack of knowledge sharing.

"not invented here" syndrome - this is more common. People have pride in
not having to seek advice from others and in wanting to discover new ways
for themselves.
Not realizing how useful particular knowledge is to others - an individual may
have knowledge used in one situation but be unaware that other people at
other times and places might face similar situations. Additionally, knowledge
derived for one need may be helpful in totally different contexts; or it may be
a trigger for innovation - many innovative developments come from making
knowledge connections across different disciplines and organizational
boundaries.
Lack of trust - if I share some of my knowledge, will you use it out of context,
mis-apply it (and then blame me!), or pass it off as your own without giving
any acknowledgement or recognition to me as the source?
Lack of time - this, I suspect, is the major reason given in many
organizations. There is pressure on productivity, on deadlines, and it's a
general rule that the more knowledgeable you are, the more there are people
waiting to collar you for the next task. How can you possibly find time to add
your lessons learnt to the knowledge database or have a knowledge sharing
session with your colleagues?

Other barriers cited by experts include functional silos, individualism, poor means of
knowledge capture, inadequate technology, internal competition and top-down
decision making. Generally, a mix of structural and infrastructure barriers is
exacerbated by the predominance of human ones - social, behavioural and
psychological.

How can we overcome such barriers? Certainly address the issues of organizational
structure and inadequate technology. But give your focus to the three Cs of Culture,
Co-opetition (a blend of co-ooperation and competition), and Commitment.
Changing Culture
Culture change is never easy and takes time. But cultures can be changed. Culture is
defined in many ways, such as "commonly held beliefs, attitudes and values"
(Institute of Personnel Development), "the collective programming of the mind that
distinguished one group from another" (Geert Hofstede), and in many other ways
that also embrace rituals, artifacts and other trappings of the work environment. I
like the simple but effective definition "the way we do things around here". There is
no one place to start, but most interventions are based on a simple layered model
that portrays how people's observable actions and behaviours are influenced by
reportable attitudes and values based on more deep-rooted beliefs. Therefore to
change people's actions you have to address the more fundamental underlying
layers. This can be done as an organization-wide programme or in small groups or
even individually. Here are some activities that might be used to plan and induce
change:

A culture audit - conducting questionnaires, interviews and team sessions

with a cross-section of the organization. This is especially helpful in finding
out the difference between what is articulated as the desired culture and what
is done (e.g. "we put quality first" but at the same time the organization ships
out less than perfect products at the end of a financial quarter to "make the
numbers"). It is also common to find several sub-cultures that conflict with
overarching goals. Can you clearly identify which values and behaviours
conflict with better knowledge sharing and perhaps (more importantly) which
people should be the target for change?

Challenge 'improper' behaviour - if you identify people hoarding knowledge

unnecessarily: challenge them, though avoid "knowledge rage".
Involvement - some of the best knowledge sharing cultures are where
everybody (even novices and newcomers) believes that their knowledge is
respected, valued and used to inform decisions.
Use of role models - identify those people whose behaviours are an example
to others. Celebrate and publicize them. Involve them with other groups.
Team-building / organization development sessions - at regular team
meetings, allocate time to understand and improve internal processes; too
many meetings are task and output focussed, but fail to address the means of
achieving successful outcomes.
Align rewards and recognition to support appropriate behaviours - too many
schemes are based on seniority or individual expertise, rather than team
effectiveness.
Change people - move the knowledge sharers around; get industrial
psychologists and behavioural experts on board; perhaps fire some bosses
(seriously!) - after all, it is quality of leadership that will enable all the other
culture change techniques to achieve their aims.

Finally, remember that culture goes hand in hand with structure (roles and
responsibilities). At every level within the organization, there must be congruence
between objectives, structures, processes, people and supporting infrastructure. A

good example of changing culture alongside an evolving knowledge management

programme is that of Siemens (see reference 3 and Knowledge Digest).
Challenging Through Co-opetition
Human beings are at the same time social cooperative beings and have a competitive
streak. We all like to do better than our peers and excel in something. Yet, in today's
complex world, we need help from them to achieve our aims. In an organization, lack
of competition - both for individuals and teams - leads to complacency. But
competition must be done in a healthy manner. Some things to consider:

In early stages of product development, don't simply approve one line of

approach. Have several "competing" projects under way but make sure there
are mechanisms to exchange knowledge and challenge / encourage each
"runner" e.g. through people sharing, peer reviews etc.

Continually benchmark internal processes and functions with other

organizations and potential suppliers. Encourage them to strive for
improvement through learning from each other.
Introduce 'competitions', such as the "knowledge champion of the year", the
"innovators team award", but invite everybody to the award ceremonies.
Compete, not against other people or teams, but set goals vs. challenging
targets or external competitors.

Above all, let the apparent losers of such competitions share in success, celebrate
what they have achieved, and make them feel part of the winning team (the wider
organization). In one organization I know, whenever a competing development
project was wound up, the best people were almost universally attracted to the
winning teams (since the healthy competition meant that each had good knowledge
of the other).
Commitment
This builds on the other two Cs. Organizations need to create a commitment to
culture, to change, to challenge, to compete and cooperate. If, as is often the case,
time pressure leads to poor knowledge sharing, then there must be a commitment to
allow time for it to happen. Budget 5 per cent of a project's resources to distilling
lessons and sharing. Include time to contribute to knowledge development and
sharing in people's job goals (and in the accompanying reward system). Build
commitment into team processes.
Commitment to knowledge sharing must be demonstrated throughout the
organization. It is apparent through what the leaders of the organization say and do.
It is shown by commitment in the organizations' processes, reward systems,
development programmes etc. It is, above all, shown by individual throughout the
organization being committed to share their knowledge with others even if it is not
formally part of their 'day job'.
Summary: Seven Incentives for $$haring
My own experience is that knowledgeable people do like to share their expertise just listen to them in the bar after work. It's just something about their work
environment that discourages this natural inclination. Understanding these barriers
and individual motivations is the first step towards implementing changes in the work
setting. I've offered some suggestions in the 3Cs above. Different approaches will be
appropriate in different situations. But one thing is clear: you can change

organizational culture and individual behaviours such that knowledge sharing, rather
than knowledge hoarding, is the norm. You only have to look at companies like BP
and Siemens to see this in practice. One article which also illustrates some successful
examples was written by Larry Stevens, in the now defunct (at least in its hard-copy
form) of Knowledge Management Magazine (the one published by CurtCo Freedom
Press) in October 2000. He cited seven incentives for sharing with examples:

Hire people who will share - at Collective Technologies of Texas, the process
starts with recruiting people through an intensive few days of interactive
interviews;

Develop trust - Buckman Laboratories nurtures trust through its ten point
code of ethics in which employees are steeped;
Vary motivations - CAP-Gemini Ernst & Young applies incentives at three
levels: a solid business case for senior executives, relevant benefits for
departments, and incentivizing positive behaviours with employees;
Show public recognition - Harris has its "wall of fame" a gallery of pictures of
employees who have excelled at knowledge sharing;
Reorganize for sharing - Northrop Grumman uses integrated product teams,
backed up by appropriate mentoring programmes;
Create communities - The World Bank uses electronic bulletin boards focussed
around relevant topics, but which cut across organizational boundaries;
Develop leaders - Capital One formed a group from natural knowledge
champions to promote knowledge sharing and develop training.