What is the Best Way to Transfer Tacit Knowledge?

Transferring Tacit Knowledge
Dr. Travis Perera, Management Consultant, Sri Lanka, Member
There are many ways to assimilate tacit knowledge:
- Belong to a family where the desired tacit knowledge is;
- Work with an expert for a reasonable time;
- Experiment;
- Acquire the art part of the skill;
- Observe for a reasonable time;
- Work with different cultures...

Transfering Tacit Knowledge
luiz melo, Consultant, Brazil, Member
Most of these ways presuppose human interactions. But when a company has lost an important human resource, these interactions won't occur anymore.
Then it's very difficult to maintain and guarantee the tacit knowledge in such company.

Opening the Way to Transfer Tacit Knowledge
Lawrence Gqesha, Analyst, South Africa, Member
For a long time organizations did not realize that to build or create knowledge is an expensive exercise. Until we found ourselves struggling to with knowledge in relation to new technologies.
Technology assists us to do things easier and faster. But we still need knowledgeable personnel.
To transfer tacit knowledge better, interaction is crucial at all levels in an organisation, irrespective of its size. A proper understanding of the goals and objectives of an organization must be utilised as a theme for the people in the organization. Yes, challenges will always be there with organizational culture, silos etc. but at the end if the willingness to achieve a certain goal comes first.
I think the chance that good ways of transferring tacit knowledge will emerge in such environment are best.

Brainstorm Sessions to Transfer Tacit Knowledge
luiz melo, Consultant, Brazil, Member
I agree with all statements. Perhaps the better way to create a continuous process to the transfer of the tacit knowledge would be that the organization implements brainstorming sessions as a common practice.
A mediator could attend these meetings to ensure that the subject is explored in detail. The meeting could be recorded or registered in some way so that employees could have access to the results.

Collaboration to Transfer Tacit Knowledge
Lawrence Gqesha, Analyst, South Africa, Member
One of the strategies that organization might also use is collaboration (phsyical or virtual), flexible structures with fully management.
In one of the organizations I worked for, we used to have bif teams consisting of representatives from different units within the organization and from time to time we benchmark / brainstorm with external stakeholders on key issues around public sector.
Recordings form these interactions were used to develop a document which is used by new employees to understand the organization and even more human interactions were encouraged at all levels.

What is the Best Way to Transfer Tacit Knowledge
luiz melo, Consultant, Brazil, Member
@Lawrence Gqesha : Perfect! In that company, who was responsible for managing and updating the documents and brainstorming sessions? In that company, did the function of a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) exist?

Ways to Transfer Tacit Knowledge
Lawrence Gqesha, Analyst, South Africa, Member
Knowledge management is new to our organization and not fully explored. In some departments they had set up units of knowledge management, but without fully understanding their roles.
I used to be a budget co-ordinator and was responsible for co-ordinating the brainstorm sessions. And as part of the budget team we were responsible for managing and updating the document.
For future references a unit of knowledge management was going to be established, but I left the organisation. Even today the unit has not yet been established.

A Focused Role-player, a Culture and a System for Knowledge Management
Fernando Valdez, Consultant, Panama, Member
@Lawrence Gqesha: I will start working as the chief knowledge officer for a large system integrator in Latin America and the 3 pillars of my long term project are:
- a focused knowledge officer / department (me and one analyst in the very beginning),
- a culture (which I will have to fund and build) and
- an information system designed for knowledge management (which I already have).
I will use many of the SECI model foundations, but this is part of the how. At the kick off of my project I need the sponsorship of the company for my role, the culture and the system. Without these 3 pillars... no knowledge management methodology can work in a sustainable way, I would say.

A Tool for Knowledge Sharing in Change Management
Christian Blatter, Consultant, France, Member
A few years ago when I was responsible for research in human and social sciences at SNCF, the French railways company, I supervised the development of a prototype for sharing knowledge in change management.
First we made elicitation interviews with persons involved in change leading in order to explicit latent knowledge.
Then we selected the verbatim to be entered in a software structured on a specific ontology. This software was accessible on a portal based on an itm knowledge manager.
For more explanation, see Remillieux, A., Petitmengin, C., Ermine, J.l., Blatter, C. (2010). “Knowledge Sharing in Change Management, A Case Study in the French Railways Company”. International Journal of Knowledge Management Practice. Vol. 11, n°2, June.

Avoiding Loss of Information During Tacit Knowledge Transfer
christine Tuitoek, Kenya, Member
How can we transfer tacit knowledge without losing it, or some of it, from one person to another. Most knowledge management models on the transfer of tacit knowledge such as the Spiral Knowledge Model of Nonaka and Takeuchi give the impression that some of the knowledge might be lost in the transfer process, or misinterpreted.
Hence the correct information will then not be avaliable at the receiving side...
So: how can we transfer tacit knowledge smoothly without losing it or misinterpreting it?
Any best practices?

Transferring Tacit Knowledge Without Losing It
Fernando Valdez, Consultant, Panama, Member
@Christine Tuitoek: Best practice:
Transfer knowledge using structured models with components that are known and standard for both the generator, sender and receiver. The loss of knowledge is minimal applying this best practice.
Depending on the context of the knowledge you can develop different models with specific components for each situation or type..

Transfer of Tacit Knowledge is Facilitated by Trust
Bahman Norouzpour
Tacit knowledge is defined as knowledge that is non-verbalized, intuitive and unarticulated and it has often been regarded as an important basis for competitive advantage from a resource based view(RBV) of the firm.
The transfer of tacit knowledge is highly related to the perception of partner's trustworthiness. In other words, trust facilitates the transfer of tacit knowledge.
In contrast, trust is NOT really important for the exchange of explicit knowledge Although the explicit knowledge transfer may also be enhanced by the presence of trust, it does not require a high trust relationship to be effectively transferred.

Tacit Knowledge Transfer
Spyros, Student (Other), Greece, Member
Since tacit knowledge is connected with behavior, my research idea (in hospitality establishments) was to adjust the existing set of rules of the working position, not only to the working qualifications, but to the personal elements (personality) of the staff. (The idea of rules adjustment is based on Drucker's SMART rules).
The research took place in 56 hotels in Cyprus and Greece and proved that rules personalization (customization) is positively associated with tacit knowledge acquisition and transfer.
Research also proved that in a working environment of rules customization, social relationship, communication, leadership and experience are also strongly positive connected with tacit knowledge transfer and acquisition.