Tacit Knowledge

[TerryT]

I was reading an old article on HBR dealing with innovation. These couple of paragraphs drove the point home for me on why it is so difficult to quickly learn or understand everything you need to know about shooting at the M or GM level.

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But the starting point of Tanakas innovation is another kind of knowledge that is not so easily expressible: tacit knowledge, like that possessed by the chief baker at the Osaka International Hotel. Tacit knowledge is highly personal. It is hard to formalize and, therefore, difficult to communicate to others. Or, in the words of the philosopher Michael Polanyi, We can know more than we can tell. Tacit knowledge is also deeply rooted in action and in an individuals commitment to a specific contexta craft or profession, a particular technology or product market, or the activities of a work group or team.

Tacit knowledge consists partly of technical skillsthe kind of informal, hard-to-pin-down skills captured in the term know-how. A master craftsman after years of experience develops a wealth of expertise at his fingertips. But he is often unable to articulate the scientific or technical principles behind what he knows.

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