Intergenerational Knowledge Capturing training pack
This document is both an introduction to the tools as well as a manual for facilitators to get
a fundamental understanding of the knowledge capturing process. It answers the question,
“how can I do Intergenerational Knowledge Capturing”. It is meant to be used as a guide and
can be adjusted to different contexts as needed.
The Intergenerational Knowledge Capturing procedure requires a facilitator with a certain
level of abstract thought, the ability to interview people in a pleasant way, and decent
writing skills. People with experience as a journalist or researcher are especially suitable for
the job. Having a basic understanding of the field of the expert you are interviewing is
helpful.
Intergenerational knowledge capturing may be used in two ways. One way is to train a
dedicated facilitator to perform the procedure. Another way is to use a novice that needs to
learn the particular knowledge that will be modelled.
The procedure consists of conducting two or three 1.5 hour interviews with the expert and
transcription of the knowledge in a set of operating principles. A room needs to be available
with a flip-chart and it is also recommended to record the interviews for future reference.
The expert can prepare using IKC Tool 1: Instructions for the expert.
1 Implementation
The procedure consists of seven steps:
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Determining the scope of the knowledge to be modelled
Describing three or four metaphors that reflect the knowledge
Generating additional associations with each metaphor
Analysing the metaphorical expressions
Creating ‘how to’ questions
Describing every ‘how to’ question in terms of a Test-Operate-Test-Exit protocol
Describing the important operating principles
1.1 Determining the scope of the knowledge to be modelled
The first interviews starts with determining the boundaries of the knowledge that needs to
be modelled. If it is to broad the modelling process will be too complex. If it is too narrow
the applicability of the good-practice description will be limited.
The following questions can be used to help determine the scope:
 What is it that the expert is good at? Can he describe it in couple of sentences?
 When is it successful? How can we see it is successful? When is it not successful?
 Is the knowledge aimed at a particular group of people or not?
 In what kind of environment do you apply your knowledge?
Examples of areas that have been modelled in the past include: ways to be entrepreneurial
and develop new businesses, ways to coach junior researchers in the process of becoming a
skilled researcher, and ways to answers letters to government agencies from civilians.
1.2 Describing three or four metaphors that reflect the knowledge
Many experts are good at what they do in an unconscious way. Their knowledge is deeply
‘tacit’. One way to get access to this unconscious knowledge is by using metaphors.
Metaphors can be used as a bridge between the unconscious and the conscious.
When the scope has been determined the facilitator asks the expert to come up with three
or four metaphors that can be used to describe the knowledge by asking the question: “Your
knowledge can be compared with….”, or: “your knowledge is like….”. The facilitator writes
down every metaphor on the flip-chart.
For example, coaching junior researchers is like solving a puzzle, like a expedition, like a
psychotherapeutic counselling and like cleaning your room.
1.3 Generating additional associations with each metaphor
The next step is to explore each metaphor and add as much free associations as possible.
This can be achieved by asking the question: “what do you think about when you think
about metaphor X?”, or: “can you tell me more about metaphor X?”. All answers are written
down on the flip-chart.
For example, coaching junior researchers is as solving a puzzle. Solving puzzles can lead to
the following associations: knowing what is on every piece of the puzzle, knowing how they
fit together, and keep your options open because there may be several ways the pieces may
fit. Expressions like ‘what is on a puzzle piece’, ‘fit together’ and ‘options open’ are
metaphorical expressions of the original metaphors that enrich the picture.
When this is done for all four metaphors in most cases there will be a list of over 20
expressions that reflect how the expert consciously and unconsciously thinks about his
knowledge.
1.4 Analysing the metaphorical expressions
Each of these metaphorical expressions is analysed further. The facilitator asks the expert
what he means with each expression and how this is related to the original knowledge. The
answers are written down and this creates a first description of the knowledge at hand. The
facilitator and the expert try to make this as complete as possible.
In the case of the coaching of researchers the ‘pieces of the puzzle’ stood for the concepts
and key variables that are used in the research; they determine how the researcher views
the world and an important task of the coach is to help the researcher make these explicit.
1.5 Creating ‘how to’ questions
You now have made explicit a vast amount of information about the knowledge at hand. To
turn this information into a good-practice description we need to create ‘how to’ questions.
‘How to ‘ questions bring the expert mentally in a state of ‘acting’. ‘How to’ questions are
developed using the following steps:
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 The facilitator asks the expert: What is the first question you need to answer when
you apply your knowledge in a particular situation?
 When the expert answers with a why, what or whom question the facilitator changes
it into a ‘how to’ question. For example, when the expert replies that he needs to
know which persons are needed to solve a particular problem, the answer is
rephrased into “how do I find the people that are needed to solve the problem?”.
 When a list of ‘How to’ questions is generated. Compare this information with the
information from step 2-4 and check whether any changes are necessary.
1.6 Describing every ‘how to’ question in terms of a Test-OperateTest-Exit rule
The answer to each of the ‘how to’ questions must now be described as a concrete
instruction. These instructions can be structured using the Test-Operate-Test-Exit (TOTE)
format. This format assumes that every instruction is based on:
 Testing what the situation is compared with your goal
 Performing a certain action
 Testing again what the situation is compared with your goal
 If the goal has not come any closer, do something else
 Testing again what the situation is compared with your goal
 Keep repeating the process until the goal is reached.
For the development of the TOTE instructions the facilitator can ask the following questions:
 Can you explain what the concrete result is of the answer to this ‘how to’ question?
 What is your point of departure? What is available, what is missing, what is the
problem?
 What is it exactly what you do in terms of concrete actions to answer this ‘how to’
question?
 What resources do you use? How do you use them?
 How do you know you are on the right track?
The end result should be concrete and detailed instructions that can be understood by other
people.
1.7 Describing the important operating principles
The last step is to describe the operating principles the expert uses when performing the
knowledge. These are principles, often taking the form of do’s and don’ts that are crucial
when applying the good practice. To come to the operating principles it is important to step
back and look at the protocol as a whole. The interviewer can ask questions like:
 If you look at the protocol from a helicopter view, what is really important when using
it?
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 If you look at the protocol from a helicopter view, what are important principles you
work from?
 What are the most important do’s and don’ts?
 What are the most important golden rules?
The results of the interviews can be written down in a good-practice report. Tool IKC 2
provides a temple for this.
2 Critical Success Factors
The procedure described here is in itself also a good-practice description and had therefore
also some operating principles:
 The expert is always right. Modeling the knowledge of an expert requires postponing
your own judgment. You are modeling the knowledge of somebody else and how
strange it may seem it has proven to be successful.
 Assume the knowledge is completely new to you.
 Assume you need to be able to perform the good practice yourself. Make sure
everything is totally clear to you.
 Assume that (even) you will be able to use the knowledge. Make it ‘dummy proof’.
 Carefully determine the scope.
 Specify what the criteria are that the expert uses to determine whether he was
successful.
 Make sure you have established a good relationship with the expert.
 Assume there is always somebody available with the right knowledge that can be
modeled to solve a particular problem.
 Use a 2-step approach. In the first interview you identify the metaphors and create
the ‘how to’ questions. In the second interview you create a TOTE for all the ‘how to’
questions and describe the operating principles.
3 Evaluation
(Note; also see IKC tool 3: evaluation form and IKC tool 4: Next steps)
Evaluation has two elements. One concerns the implementation of the intervention and as
such answers the question, ‘Did we do it right?’ The other element of evaluation concerns
the effects of the intervention and answers the question, ‘Did the intervention achieve what
we wanted it to?’ In order to structure the evaluation we use an adaptation of Kirkpatricks’s
model of four levels (see http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/kirkpatrick.htm for
details).
Please note: the actual evaluation forms are available at the end of this document.
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3.1 Evaluating implementation
Evaluating the implementation of interventions means looking at;
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Level 1 of Kirkpatrick’s model, which is called ’Reaction - How well did the learners like
the learning process?’ These are the first type of questions in the evaluation forms.
3.2 Measuring effects
Evaluating the effects of the interventions means looking at what was achieved. The second
type of questions found in the evaluation forms measure effects based on the following
framework.
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Level 2: Learning - What did participants learn? (the extent to which the learners gain
knowledge and skills)
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Level 3: Behaviour - What changes in job performance resulted from the learning
process? (capability to perform the newly learned skills while on the job)
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Level 4: Results - What are the tangible results of the learning process in terms of
reduced cost, improved quality, increased production, efficiency, etc.?
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Level 5: Sustainability- Are there any far-reaching effects that might be observed, i.e.
spill-overs used in society? For example lowered levels of ageism spill over from the
organisation to society, improving intergenerational relations outside the workplace.
3.3 Using the evaluation forms
Have all participants in the process to fill out an evaluation form when the final stage of the
process is finished. Because of the limited number of participants, you can evaluate the
results without entering them in Excel or spss.
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