The role technology plays in the knowledge creation process

• 4 min read

The following is part two of an excerpt from a knowledge brief by Aberdeen Group: the brief discusses the role that technology plays in the knowledge creation process and the ways in which Learning 3.0 concepts can help accelerate the “spiral” of knowledge creation in your organization. To read part one of this two-part post, please click here.

Socialization: Tacit-to-Tacit

The creation of new knowledge always begins with the individual. Making this knowledge available to others in an organization is critical to its development. Interaction and collaboration between individuals promotes the sharing of knowledge and helps generate new knowledge. However, the process of knowledge sharing goes beyond merely transferring it. Networks or social groups result out of relation to others. The resulting shared knowledge is a product of the interactions between employees rather than any one individual employee’s contributions. Explicit knowledge exists without this type of relationship and can be more easily articulated. When knowledge is explicit, it is more likely to be shared than when it is clear and unambiguous. Additionally, explicit knowledge is more easily codified and can be transferred without the interaction of individuals. Learning in the context of interacting with others is referred to as social learning, and is a key outcome of knowledge sharing.

Tacit knowledge is essential to competitive advantage because it’s difficult for competitors to copy. It is the personal knowledge that resides in an individual’s head in the forms of experience, know-how, insight, and expertise. In order for tacit knowledge to be shared, there must be socialization, which can only occur through some form of interaction between an individual (or individuals). This interaction can sometimes occur through mechanisms such as observation, imitation, and even apprenticeships. However, it is through using social technologies that the greatest opportunities now reside to provide an interactive and collaborative place where employees can share, critique, and validate their collective experiential knowledge.

Not only are Best-in-Class organizations significantly more likely to enable social learning via technology (see Figure 1), but they are also more likely than all other performers to support social learning through peers, and through coaching and mentoring by managers.

Externalization: Tacit-to-Explicit

The externalization process converts tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. This is where the use of video works wonders in the knowledge conversion process. The Best-in-Class are 78.1% more likely than All Others to utilize user-generated video content (18.0% vs. 10.1%). These organizations realize that they are made up of many experts, and they use collaboration and video creation tools to help record, archive, and make available this critical information. These tools not only support learning in the moment, but create a searchable archive for the future.

In most cases, to create video content, all you need is a smartphone or tablet. However, some organizations have even begun to explore the use of wearable devices to aid in continuous learning in the workplace and to more easily capture knowledge in the field. While just 7.4% of all organizations surveyed indicated that they currently utilize wearable devices for learning, the Best-in-Class were three times more likely than all other performers to be using them (14.6% vs. 5.4%).These wearable technologies include devices such as smart glasses, badges with RFID chips, virtual reality headsets, and wrist displays. They can be used to record activity for later playback and/or distribution to others, or even as a means of real-time performance support to warn a remote worker when they start to slouch or send a field technician install instructions for a discontinued router, for example. Recordings can be viewed later, cleaned up, categorized or tagged, and then made available through an online knowledge repository or a company’s learning management system (LMS).

Recommendations

  • Enable employees to discover, grab, and acquire knowledge from wearable, mobile, and other various recording devices
  • Make your subject matter experts or “Knowledge Gurus” visible and searchable to all; turn them into effective coaches
  • Create various easy-to-access channels to share and distribute knowledge

Conclusion

Organizations need to share knowledge held by their employees if they are to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Through leveraging collaboration tools and creating communities of practice, organizations can nurture the creation of new knowledge. Tapping the tacit knowledge of individuals through their insights, intuitions, and hunches, and making those insights available through social interaction will benefit the process of organizational learning and provide the foundation for a competitive organizational advantage. Technology not only offers new ways of delivering learning (think video and two-way real-time video collaboration), but also offers new ways for employees to experience learning through such things as dynamic feedback from their wearable devices or through online discussion forums.Want to learn more? Watch the webinar, The New 70:20:10? The Changing Face of Learning, presented by Aberdeen Group and Docebo.