Knowledge Management
1. What is knowledge?
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Knowledge is distinct from information and data.
Knowledge, information and data are
quite different despite their seemingly
obvious similarities. Imagine placing
these three items on a spectrum. One
side increases in abundance while the
other side increases in actionability.
To dive a little deeper, data sits far
towards the abundance side;
information sits centerline; while
knowledge sits far towards
actionability. What does this mean?
When placed within the context of an
organization, you can see that pure
data can be very abundant but lack
actionability. For example, the number
200 (data) means nothing until I place it into context and tell you that there were 200 incoming customer
calls yesterday (information). Furthermore, if I tell you that there were 200 incoming calls yesterday
complaining about customers getting sick after eating at a particular restaurant you would now have
actionable knowledge. Knowledge is “understanding” gained through experience and analysis.
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Knowledge has inertia and flow.
Knowledge-flow theory is an emerging field of study and that explores the flow of knowledge through
organizations. Since knowledge does not typically arise where it is needed, it must move through an
organization until it arrives at a destination where action can be taken on new knowledge. Knowledge
Management (KM) can be seen as the management of knowledge flows and knowledge flow problems.
Metaphorically, these can be thought of as blood within the human circulatory system. When knowledge
is hemorrhaging or clotting; when knowledge circulation is weak- the organization suffers.
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Tacit knowledge vs. explicit knowledge
Knowledge can come in two forms: explicit and tacit. Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is internal to the
user and be difficult to express. A subject matter expert (SME) is a common reservoir of tacit knowledge.
For example, take the master pilot
who has thousands of flight hours
under his wings and compare him to
an instructional manual that he wrote
– the manual would be explicit
knowledge, while the pilot himself
would house the tacit knowledge.
Which would you rather have next to
you during a flight lesson? In this
example, the tacit knowledge would
be all the knowledge the pilot has, but
that couldn’t be explicitly stated in the
instructional manual. Tacit knowledge
moves slow and has a narrow focus
but is very powerful; conversely
explicit knowledge moves fast and has broader application but its power becomes diluted. Take the
example of the master chef who cooks without recipes or fancy instruments. Instead, he cooks by the
sight, taste and smell of the ingredients as he makes on-the-fly adjustments. This is an example of action
enabled by tacit knowledge; action enabled by a cookbook would be explicit-enabled.
2. What is KM?
The goal of KM is to get the right information, in the right format, to the right consumer, so they can make
the best assessment. There are five main principles in harnessing knowledge power:
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All things equal, knowledge can make all the difference when two people are assessing the same
information. I.e. Military officer fresh out of
academy versus officer with 20 years of
combat experience both looking at the same
combat scenario: Whose assessment would
you value more?
Knowledge is distributed unevenly throughout
organizations- it must flow if it’s going to
positively affect an organization.
Tacit knowledge is of higher quality than
explicit knowledge.

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Critical resources are limited; understanding which knowledge flows are of key importance to an
organization will help it focus resources more efficiently.
The KM model identifies four key elements within an organization: people, information, process and
technology. Successful KM requires all four elements be targeted equally. Focusing on technology
alone, or any one of these single elements, will result in a failed KM effort.
3. Why do you need KM?
Knowledge has a shelf life. Knowledge is perishable. If it is not captured and shared it will be lost to turnover
and time- people leave. Tacit knowledge is
both sticky and transitory: SME’s can become
isolated and their innovations will never be
shared with the rest of the organization.
Knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, is an
actual organizational product. Isolated
knowledge is good for no one and reinventing
the wheel can be expensive. Building a robust
KM program can leverage organizational
knowledge creating a competitive advantage.
An organization’s knowledge gap is defined as
the difference between what you know, what
you don’t know, and finally, what you don’t
know you don’t know. An organization implementing KM should make identifying its “knowledge gap” one of
its top priorities.