Implicit Knowledge

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Implicit Knowledge How to Pass on Implicit
Knowledge?
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Necessary for successful knowledge management

• The issue about how to deal with not-explicit
  knowledge is a strategic factor for successful
  knowledge management.(Rammert, 2000)

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Question 1

• Do you know, why an experienced master craftsman
  prefers his apprentice to stand next to him in
  stead of going to school?

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Question 2

• Could you instantly draw a scheme about the
  allocation of the gears in your car?

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Implicit Knowledge

• Means knowledge, which is hardly to verbalize
• Solving complex problems relies heavily on
  experiences and implicit know-how

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Implicit vs. explicit knowledge
Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge
• conscious
• can be articulated
• can be identified
• can be discussed
• can be formalized
• can be communicated
• can be shared
• can be saved

• Implicit knowledge
• difficult to articulate
• difficult to identify
• difficult to formalize
• difficult to communicate
• difficult to share
• difficult to save
• has declarative and procedural parts
• is acquired by experiential learning
• can only be partially reflected

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The two states of knowledge
Explicit knowledge (10)
Implicit knowledge (90)
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Knowledge rarely exists in the extreme
forms! Model from practice HANSE von D. Snowden
Implicit
State of knowledge
Explicit
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• Basic problem of knowledge managementTransformin
  g implicit knowledge into explicit knowledge

Implicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge
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Implicit knowledge/explicit knowledge
Four kinds of knowledge creation
Nonaka Takeuchi, 1995, p. 72
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Methods to explicate implicit knowledge

• Cognitive Apprenticeship(Loud thinking,
  cognitive modeling)
• Kinds of knowledge representation
• Analogies
• Lessons learned
• Story telling
• Mentoring

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Passing on implicit knowledge Cognitive
Apprenticeship-Approach (Collins, Brown Newman,
1996)
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Other kinds of knowledge representation

• Graphic representations, graphics,
  logicalimages, copy, collage, sequence of images
• Scenic representations, complex procedures are
  made graphically visible or described in a film
• Analog representations, express the unspeakable
  with the help of another subject or context
  verbally, graphically, scenically

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WebViz (University of Minnesota)
Visualization of a UNIX-data tree in VRML (The
pyramids symbolize sub-directories)
Visualization of hierarchical directory
structures hyperbolically (3D) with VRML.  
Navigation Overview, hyperlink, details on
demand, movement in space 
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File System Navigator (Silicon Graphics)
A UNIX file system is presented in a horizontal
plain as a virtual information landscape. Podiums
represent directories, on which files are
visualized as colored blocks with an icon. 
Navigation Overview, hyperlink, details on
demand, fly over 
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Galaxy (SPIRE, Pacific Northwest Laboratory)
Visualization of large document collections
(document-concept-networks) as starfield
simulations (2D-scattermap). Document points
lying close together are also similar with
respect to content. Navigation Overview, zoom,
details on demand 
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Analogies
Perception on the basis of existing knowledge
and experiences made

• Analog recognition
• ... that is similar to ...
• Analog thinking
• ... that works like/I explain that to myself
  like ...
• Analog problem solving, recourse to analogies
• ... that can be solved/dealt with like ...

Analogies help to find ones way in unfamiliar
situations and to stay capable of action.
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Lessons learned
Lessons learned are on the one hand knowledge
and experiences due to learning from mistakes. On
the other hand, lessons learned is a method to
document less successful events, to make them
accessible and to prevent a repetition of the
mistake.
Reinmann-Rothmeier Mandl, 2001
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Designing lessons learned in the traditional
project process
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Central aspects for the compilation of lessons
learned-reports

• Analysis of the projects results
• Which critical experiences were made?
• What should future teams pay attention to in
  similar projects?
• Development of a uniform structure for the
  documentation of project experiences
• Select persons responsible for lessons learned!
• Give incentive for the writing of reports!

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Story Telling

• Narrative method for dealing with experience in a
  learning way (implicit knowledge)
• Story telling works with narrative elements and
  views processes in companies from different
  perspectives (e.g. from the customers,
  managers, project managers or employees
  perspective)

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• Rebuilding an industrial machine
• 10 project participants describe their
  experiences
• Creation of a report about these experiences
• (Erlach, Thier, Neubauer Vohle, 2002)

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• Creation of a report about experiences with the
  goal
• Making the valuable knowledge and expriences of
  the persons involved transparent
• Reflecting the past
• Making different perspectives of the
  participants salient
• Using the experiences from projects passed for
  future projects

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• Participants of the creation of the experiences
  report
• The project leader
• A supervisor of production
• A builder of production machines
• The persons responsible for
• Mechanics
• Measurement
• Electrics
• Supply
• Research

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• The experiences report contains several Short
  stories, which comprise quotations, comments,
  images and analogies.
• Four chapters relate to the project phases
• Planning
• Step I
• Step II
• Launch
• Further chapters comprise important topics
  resulting from observation

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• The short stories dealt with following topics
• Commendation for the project and the recognition
  of efforts
• the experiences with planning, communication and
  realization

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• About the hierarchical structure of the project
  and resulting consequences for the personal
  engagement
• about the relation of Voest AG and their
  suppliers

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Story Telling at Voest AG

• how the team dealt with pressure and workload
• the relation between the team and the project
  leaders and about the role of the CEO

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Stories can open doors
Humans as location of Change
Organizations as location of actions
Processes of learning and of change
Neubauer, 2002
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Story Telling Methodology

• Methods
• Narrative and semi-structured interviews for
  surveying the employees
• Receiving different perspectives on problems
• Style Experience reports from short stories

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Story telling 6 Steps
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Three factors for the success of STORY TELLING
True to the story
Story
Experiential story
Target group
Facts
True to the audience
True to the data
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Story Telling Benefits

• Efficiency of working processes by discovering
  problems of communication, instruction,
  team-building and customer relationship.

Erlach, 2002
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Story Telling Benefits

• Identification and documentation of unconscious
  and unknown problem-solving strategies and hints
  from employees about difficult work-processes.

Erlach, 2002
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Story Telling Benefits

• Explanations for important problems of important
  projects.
• Support of cultural-change processes in the
  organization (e.g. fusions or when reaching new
  markets.

Erlach, 2002
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Story Telling Prerequisites, effects and
barriers
Temporal andpersonal resources
Effects
Openness,sensibility andwillingness
LearningOrganization
Willingness forInvests
Prerequisites
Cultural and organizationalbarriers
Willingness to give temporal and personal
resources
Long-term method
Barriers
Neubauer, 2002
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Transforming implicit knowledge by mentoring
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What is mentoring?
Mentoring can be seen as the support through a
person so that another person can make
significant changes in the fields of knowledge,
working and thinking. A mentor is often an
elder and more experienced person. (Megginson
Clutterbuck, 1995)
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Goals of mentoring
Identification of potentials
Improvement of productivity
Knowledge transfer
Improvement of leadership competences
Stabilization in times of change
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Dimensions of mentoring

• Trusting personal relationship between two
  persons
• Mutual desire for development (Giving and taking
  between mentor and mentoree)
• Integration into organizational setting (learning
  organization)
• There should be no supervisor relationship of
  between mentor and mentoree
• The mentor does not interfere with the work of
  the mentoree
• Mentoring does not substitute for other
  supporting measures but supplements them

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Distinction mentoring - coaching

• Mentoring
• Non-directive
• Broad focus
• Focus on the learner himself
• No supervisor

• Coaching
• Directive
• Job-focus
• Focus on workresult
• Often supervisor

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Model of the learning process in mentoring
Development
Improved skills
Locatingdeficits
Ability
Insight
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Risks of making implicit knowledge explicit

• Loss of strategic advantages The owner of the
  knowledge offers other persons advantages from
  his knowledge
• Confidence of the explained knowledge
  Beneficial effects may be attributed to wrong
  causes or naive believes
• Losing the implicit knowledge after making
  explicitThe explication process may evoke
  reflective processes, which hinder the further
  application of implicit knowledge