The Three Types of Knowledge
All knowledge is the same, right?
Wrong.
Technically, there are three classifications you should be aware of: explicit, implicit, and tacit.
Together they make up the different types of knowledge held with organisations often referred to as the knowledge base.
Keeping your work’s knowledge base up to date is essential to avoid the loss of critical information when people leave your organisation.
This is one of the main reasons companies make the same mistakes repeatedly; there is no record of someone else trying and failing with the same idea.
So what are the differences between them? Read on to find out.
Explicit knowledge
This is the easiest type of knowledge to store because it is easy to write down, share and articulate. It’s things like books, blogs, instructions, FAQs, schedules and project plans. Any company shared drives will therefore contain vast amounts of explicit knowledge.
Implicit knowledge
Implicit knowledge, on the other hand, is putting explicit knowledge into practice. For example, someone new to an organisation might ask a more experienced colleague how to do something. The subsequent conversation will lead to suggested solutions about the best solution. In addition, any transferable skill is also considered an example of implicit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge
This is any knowledge that is intuitive to the individual but is difficult to write down. It’s when you have a ‘feeling’ for something developed due to doing it many times. An example might be how an experienced angler can know what type of fish is on the end of his line without seeing it.
Spreading this knowledge far and wide
You will come across these different types of knowledge in any organisation, even if they’ve never been formally labelled.
The second two types are obviously a lot harder to capture than the first, which is why mentoring and shadowing more experienced peers can be very helpful.
