“Creating Knowledge”
“Capturing and Storing Knowledge”

Chapters 2 and 3 of Jay Liebowitz: “Building Organizational Intelligence: a Knowledge Management Primer”. CRC Press, 1999. 

Summarized by: Ferdie Balagtas
14 August 2001
Summary:

Chapters 2 and 3 of this book discuss the knowledge management tools for knowledge acquisition, codification and banking/storing. Some of the most important concepts and principles discussed here are the following:
 

Creation of Knowledge

This chapter discusses the value of creating knowledge to support knowledge generation. It also cited three techniques and conversion modes that can help in the creation of an environment suitable for knowledge sharing.

1. Converting  Tacit to Explicit Knowledge

  • Tacit knowledge refers to the knowledge one uses without perhaps even realizing it – “subconscious knowledge”.
  • Similar to the approach taken by the knowledge engineers in trying to acquire knowledge from a domain expert.
2. Converting Internalized to Explicit Knowledge
  • Internalized knowledge is related somewhat to tacit knowledge, but refers more to taking someone else’s knowledge and then shaping it into one’s own knowledge for better understanding by that person.
  • The internalized knowledge will need to be made explicit so that others can share and apply this knowledge.
3. Converting Externalized to Explicit Knowledge
  • Externalized knowledge refers to the “outside” knowledge – that is, knowledge associated with the external environment such as through competitor intelligence, economic conditions, etc.
  • Can be related to “competitive intelligence.”


Other knowledge creation techniques are:

  • Socialization
  • Observation
  • War stories (anecdotes of evidence)
  • Shared story-telling
  • Exchanging artifacts (documents, books, reports, files, software, memos, etc.)
  • Simulation
  • Metaphors, analogies
  • Deduction, induction, dialectic reasoning, contradictions, paradoxes
  • Brainstorming
  • Prototyping and experimenting
  • Face-to-face dialog and group work
  • Groupware, intelligent decision support, creativity/idea processing systems

Techniques for Capturing Knowledge

Some of the approaches applied in capturing knowledge are the following:

1. Interviewing.

  • Structured interviews follow a sequence of questions prepared in advance with some flexibility for deviation
  • Unstructured interviews are typically open-ended questions, not planned in advance
  • The skill of the interviewer is a key ingredient towards getting at the deeper knowledge vs. the shallow knowledge of the expert.
2. Protocol analysis deals with verbal walkthroughs in which expert reasons aloud with his/her decision making process without intervention of the interviewee. The expert describes the dead-end paths, as well as those that follow a positive direction, in reaching a decision.

3. Questionnaires, Surveys and Web-based observation forms

4. Observation and Simulation

  • Can be gained by observing an expert solving a problem in his/her work environment
  • Computer simulation may also trigger the application of knowledge by the expert in running though simulation.
5. Learning by Doing
  • Some knowledge and insights used by an expert can be picked up though apprenticeship, mentoring or on-the-job training.


What to Capture?

Knowledge may be expressed via the following sample mechanisms:

  1. Anecdotes
  2. War Stories
  3. Case Studies
  4. Lessons Learned
  5. Best practices
  6. Failures and Successes
  7. Heuristics (rules of thumb acquired through experience)
  8. Value-added relationships, regarding human capital, structural capital, and customer capital


How to Store Knowledge?

Some of the various approaches used to store knowledge are the following:

1. “Knowledge Attic” technique – This is the simplest form of knowledge repository, in which knowledge is contributed by the employees in a passive way, and passive analysis and dissemination are applied whereby the no entity analyzes the knowledge to disseminate to appropriate individuals in the organization who would benefit from its use. The knowledge approach is similar to having a corporate memory or repository sitting there for possible use.

2. “Knowledge Sponge” method – This approach involves the active collection but passive analysis and dissemination of knowledge. Here, there is an active process to capture the and store knowledge, but still there isn’t an entity that analyzes and disseminates the knowledge to pertinent individuals in the organization.

3. “Knowledge Publisher” method – This approach involves the passive collection but active analysis and dissemination of knowledge.

4. “Knowledge Pump” method – This approach allows the active collection, analysis and dissemination of knowledge.