Concept of Ba

"Ba" can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships. Can be physical (e.g. office, dispersed business space), Virtual (e.g., email, teleconference), Mental (e.g. shared experiences, ideas, ideals) or Any combination of them. Ba provides a platform for advancing individual and/or collective knowledge. Nonaka

Ba
Four types of ba corresponding to the four stages of the SECI model. Each category describes a ba especially suited to each of the four knowledge conversion modes. These ba offer platforms for specific steps in the knowledge spiral process. Each ba supports a particular conversion process and there by each ba speeds up the process of knowledge creation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJzsTXHMts &feature=related

The four Ba's proposed by Professor Ikujiro Nonaka are as below:

Originating Ba Interacting Ba Cyber Ba Exercising Ba

Ba

Originating Ba
World where individuals share feelings, emotions, experiences and mental model. An individual sympathises or further empathises. Primary ba from which the knowledge creation process begins and represents the socialization phase. Physical and face to face experiences are the key to conversion and transfer of tacit knowledge. Nonaka emphasizes: Physical contact is important in originating Ba to facilitate knowledge creation through Socialization.

Interacting Ba
It is more consciously constructed, as compared to originating ba. Selecting people with the right mix of specific knowledge and capabilities for a project team, taskforce, or cross-functional team is critical. Through dialogue, individuals mental models and skills are converted into common terms and concepts. Two processes operate in concert: individuals share the mental model of others, but also reflect and analyze their own. Dialogue is key for such conversions; and the extensive use of metaphors is one of the conversion skills required. The importance of sensitivity for meaning and the will to make tacit knowledge explicit is recognised. Here, interacting ba for collective reflection is institutionalised in the company culture. Initiators (conceptual leaders) are challenged to pursue their ideas. Interacting ba provide a place for dialogue where people engage jointly in the creation of meaning and value.

Cyber Ba
It is a place of interaction in a virtual world instead of real space and time. It represents the combination phase. Here, the combining of new explicit knowledge with existing information and knowledge generates and systematises explicit knowledge throughout the organisation. The combination of explicit knowledge is most efficiently supported in collaborative environments utilising information technology. The use of online networks, group-ware, documentation and database has been growing rapidly over the last decade, enhancing this conversion process.

Exercising Ba
Exercising ba supports the internalisation phase. Exercising ba facilitate the conversion of explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge. Focused training with senior mentors and colleagues consists primarily of continued exercises that stress certain patterns and working out of such pattern. Rather than teaching based on analysis, learning by continuous self-refinement through on job training or peripheral and active participation is stressed. Thus the internalisation of knowledge is continuously enhanced by the use of formal knowledge (explicit) in real life or simulated applications.