Knowledge encompasses technology. Due to the rapid rate of technological development, organisations need to design and implement an integrated knowledge management framework to remain competitive.

The movement away from industries that compete primarily on cost, such as scale-based manufacturing, has seen – rather reactively – an economical increase in knowledge-intensive and service-based industries that compete on value.

Use the Jobs To Be Done Template to design a winning solution 

What is Knowledge?

Steve Denning, a successful business author, explains the concept of knowledge quite well. Denning articulates that an understanding of knowledge requires some grasp of its relationship to information.

In everyday language, we distinguish between information and data, arranging each in meaningful patterns. Knowledge, which has historically been regarded as something that is believed, relates to something that is true (for pragmatic knowledge, that works) and that is reliable.

Ok, we now we have three terms to define and consolidate our understanding before we can start:

1. Data – Facts or figures, pieces of information, but not information itself. Data can be quantitative or qualitative. On their own, they are not much use to us, however when data is processed, interpreted, organised, structured or presented to become meaningful or useful, they are called

2. Information – Information provides context for data.

3. Knowledge – Information and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

When we break down our simple definition of knowledge the role of ‘learning’ becomes apparent. Learning through practice and / or education.

So, let’s break it all down.

At its core, Information is something that is tangible. You can capture it, store it, reproduce it or distribute it. It is also static. Although it can be interpreted or used in a variety of ways, information in itself does not do anything or make anything happen.

In the 1990s, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems experienced rapid growth. ERP systems are the integrated management of an organisation’s main business processes. Many large corporations have discovered that simply looking over information isn’t necessarily going to help you make better decisions. Given the sheer wealth of information available to us today, this trend has only become increasingly true.

So, what measures can we take?

Asking the right questions about your data allows firm’s to make smart choices, improving business results. This now brings leads us directly to the concept of knowledge creation.

On the conceptual level, knowledge is more complex, more dynamic. In some ways, it is a part of each of us, mostly in our heads. Sometimes it can appear to be “in our hands”. Think of a skilled guitarist, for example, whose hands “know” how to play without conscious direction.

Essentially, knowledge is something you can have, apply, share or acquire, yet you cannot see it directly.

This is why apprenticeships are so vital. Further, this is why the mentor/mentee relationship in business is still an underused method to transfer knowledge and grow new capabilities in human capital.

Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge involves knowledge that can be

• Captured and codified
• Expressed in words
• Quantified in numbers or symbols
• Easily articulated in processes, procedures, products & practices

Knowledge of this form can be stored electronically or on paper, on the web, through shared storage or visual mediums. As it is tangible, it can be stored, communicated and transferred relatively easily.

While you can certainly learn a lot from explicit knowledge that can be readily articulated, such as the content you access here in NewLedge Base, you can’t underestimate the importance of tacit knowledge (knowing-how); knowledge embedded in the human mind through the experience or only gained through on-the-job training.

Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is more elusive form, as it is primarily developed and attained through personal skills, experience, judgment and intuition; moreover, it accumulates over time. Tacit knowledge can also be known as ‘a gut feeling’ or even wisdom. As a result, it not always simple and easy to communicate.

An effective tacit knowledge transfer generally requires solid or extensive personal contact and trust. The majority of an agency’s knowledge is tacit and not necessarily documented. Instead, it exists in the minds of workers, developing knowledge exclusive to their own experiences. This is the typical form of knowledge that, as a result of an ageing workforce, the public sector is at serious risk of losing.

Given the extensive amount of tacit knowledge held by public sector employees, relying exclusively on Information Communication Technology (ICT) networks and the internet for access may not always be an effective strategy. However, when utilised well and integrated to the needs of employees, ICT can make the knowledge sharing process much easier.

Examples of ICT methods that facilitate knowledge management include computer-supported meetings, internet conferencing, email, bulletin boards, discussion groups and blogs. Despite this vast array of options, it remains important to bear in mind that technology is only one enabler for knowledge management, and it is constantly changing.

Knowledge Management: The NewLedge Approach

The emphasis of knowledge management based strategies should be the communication and actions of people, rather than the technology that facilitates communication. The NewLedge-Program will reveal how to approach knowledge management from a People, Process, Technology and Content perspective. This will enable you and your company to identify key priorities and improve knowledge flow across your innovation process, including current and potentially new sources of new knowledge and knowledge partners.

I had the pain and pleasure of creating a Course in Knowledge Management for a Bachelor’s Degree quite a few years back. I learnt why the Japanese are considered pioneers in Knowledge Management, and to really understand their approaches does get pretty deep. To illustrate this with a simple example, they appreciate that the simple action of a group of employees having lunch at the same time together in a small rock pool laden garden, would each have a completely unique world view of that experience. Of course, there would be some shared meaning, or worldview consensus of what existed in that garden, such as a similar description of the seats they were sitting on and the colour of the tree leaves etc…

Yet each employee (at every moment in time) experiences their own unique reality in the midst of a universal reality of what constituted that lunchtime, rock garden experience.

I am aware that this philosophy kind of flies in the face of our Western approaches and our tendency toward favouring rational mindsets. By establishing visions and mission statements, then drilling organisational wide objectives, implementing policies and procedures to mandate decision making we are in effect blueprinting the company’s worldview. Yet at the very same time, we now seem to set an overbearing political agenda for diversity and inclusion.

It can seem somewhat counterproductive when we might achieve more creativity through inclusion and diversity by:

• simply broadening our learning capacity,
• making sure our innovation process is more porous, that it is
  open to more external sources of information. And that we are
• willing to listen to more novel ideas from our employees and
• put them into practice in a bottom-up approach.

NewLedge will introduce a range of free and cost-effective knowledge management tools and techniques as we progress. You will build your employees and in turn your company’s exploration, transformation and exploitation capabilities as we place increasing emphasis on building your learning capacity.

Here are some other paradoxes of knowledge:

• Using knowledge does not consume it
• Transferring knowledge does not lose it
• Knowledge is abundant, but the ability to use it is scarce
• Much of knowledge walks out the door at the end of the day

Perspective

Like knowledge, learning is something that people naturally do. It happens over time. It is a universal process that people go through as they develop new knowledge. It is also personal. Two people performing the exact same task might learn different things, based on their own perspectives, and on what is important to them in the experience.

I read an interesting article on LinkedIn recently. The author recited a story of a time he was tucking into a juicy steak at a restaurant and someone at the table, I’m assuming it was one of those events where the attendees are associates rather than close friends, told him point-blank “eating meat is terribly bad for you”. His response was “surely not all meat?” This was met with the response, “I’m now a vegan and it has absolutely changed my life”. Interested he asked, “how long have you been a vegan for?” The nosy diner boasted “Nearly a week now”.

The point of his story wasn’t to discuss the virtues of veganism or health in general. The purpose of his story was to note that ignorant people are usually quite sure of themselves.

Bertrand Russell said,

“The fundamental cause of the trouble in the modern world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

If I take myself as an example, I have had friends tell me to launch a company with a platform such as this, on my own, for over a decade. Even before I completed my MBA. For me it was important to first:

• Test myself abroad; and then
• Co-found a successful company to support entrepreneurship and innovation in Australia.
• Successful commercialise that IP and exit.
• And then to spend six years developing an innovation-competitiveness framework that I could then validate and prove trustworthy across multiple manufacturing sectors in Australia.

Only now, with the results and PhD now an administrative checkbox procedure away, can I stand here and deliver my knowledge to you. As a Knowledge-Intensive Business Service provider or KIBS for short. Did I need to get a PhD and do all of these things to be considered an expert in my domain? Probably not and there are many ways to attain expertise.

But it is doubt that will mean no stone will remain unturned as I and everyone at NewLedge strive for product excellence in NewLedge and our partners.

Doubt comes from the “fear of not knowing what we don’t know”.

If you’d like to learn more about out course that can help you work across manufacturing, product marketing and service-oriented roles within the STEM sector, visit www.newledge.io