Collective Intelligence
Grow collective intelligence through self-awareness of what tacit knowledge you have strengths in and where you can use that to add value. Tacit and Explicit knowledge are valuable to organisations.
Explicit knowledge provides a foundation of formal information, while tacit knowledge allows for nuanced application of skills and expertise.
Effective knowledge management involves capturing explicit knowledge and finding ways to share tacit knowledge, such as through mentoring programs or communities of practice.
Converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge enables organizations to engineer systems for automation. However, some tacit knowledge will always remain difficult to fully codify due to its experiential and intuitive nature.
Tacit Knowledge
Examples: Riding a bike, recognizing faces, expert intuition
- Difficult to articulate, document, and share
- Based on personal experience, intuition, and insights
- Subjective and context-dependent
- Acquired through practice and observation
Explicit Knowledge
Examples: Written procedures, formulas, technical specifications
- Easy to articulate, document, and share
- Can be codified and stored in databases, manuals, etc.
- Objective and structured
- Can be taught through instruction
Key Differences
- Transferability: Explicit knowledge is easily transferred, while tacit knowledge is difficult to pass on to others.
- Codification: Explicit knowledge can be readily codified and stored, while tacit knowledge resists formal articulation.
- Acquisition: Explicit knowledge is gained through study and instruction, while tacit knowledge is developed through experience and practice.
- Nature: Explicit knowledge is logical and systematic, while tacit knowledge is intuitive and experiential.
- Expression: Explicit knowledge can be expressed in formal language, while tacit knowledge is often demonstrated through application.