Activating Knowledge Through Technology TM

As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which he cannot apply will make no man wise. - Dr Samuel Johnson, English essayist, biographer and poet (1709-1784)

Like many other things in life, all knowledge follows a cycle.

Knowledge is first created, often using various sources of information, and then it is stored. If it is stored in the head of the creator, it is referred to as tacit knowledge. Knowledge that is stored in books, documents, papers or in electronic form is referred to as explicit knowledge. Once stored, knowledge becomes available to the creator at a later time or can be made available to others so that it can be applied in appropriate situations.

For the better part of a thousand years, much of humankind’s knowledge was stored in books. As such, we tend to use the metaphor familiar to book publishers for the knowledge cycle: "authoring", "archiving" and "dissemination".

The process of authoring often comes about as a result of a stimulus, a need to understand what is observed or to explain knowledge obtained in pursuing a solution to a problem. Knowledge and problem solving are inextricably tied together. Without the availability of knowledge, problem solving is diminished, whereas without problem solving, the growth of knowledge is hampered.

When we are invited into an organization to consider a problem they are having within our sphere of expertise, our first step is always to develop an understanding of the organization’s goals because it is only in this context that a meaningful and successful solution can be developed. Our second step is to look at the intellectual capital that the organization possesses that it can bring to bear on the problem. It is only after these two steps that we look at the problem situation and attempt to ensure that the problem is fully understood before working with our client to develop a robust solution that takes full advantage of the client’s own resources to develop a solution that "fits" the organization.

In the vast majority of cases, in our experience, client’s have attempted to develop a solution without having taken the time necessary to fully understand the problem that needs to be solved.