Replying to LO28645 --
Dear Organlearners,
Barry Mallis <theorgtrainer@earthlink.net> writes:
>Since tacit knowledge is difficult to collect (we expend
>many words at our LO site directed at increasing
>knowledge sharing), important decisions are made
>based upon gut feel, leaving people unconvinced.
Greetings dear Barry,
Your phrase "Since tacit knowledge is difficult to collect" caught my
attention. Perhaps my own experience might be of help to some fellow
learners.
People of diverse kinds often come to my office for help on a problem. In
most cases i have found that their actual problem is not being able to
make use of what they already know tacitly.
I have found only one way by which to probe into a person's tacit knowing.
It is to ask questions. Not to use a ready made questionaire, but to let
the answer to one question determine what the next question would be.
Obviously, the first question has to be done differently. I first allow
the person to talk. Somewhere in that talking the person will admit to
something "not yet figured out" or another wording in a similar vein. It
is upon this that i will construct my first question, using something
which the person did manage to articulate on it. This corresponds to the
sentences "The hardest part of solving a problem is figuring out what
problem to solve. Stage I requires utmost care and consideration." in your
paper which you have refered to.
I never put any information in any question which did not come from the
person self. In other words, i try very hard not to put information into a
question coming from my own knowing.
The reasons why questions work for me, is the following. I am aware of an
implicate order in my own tacit knowing. I assume it to be the same in the
other person, although i may be wrong. I am also aware that in the very
question i ask myself, part of its answer already occurs in it. This part
connects to my tacit knowing where the rest of the answer is. I assume it
to be the same in the other person, although again i may be wrong. Slowly,
question by question, I help that person to create the complete answer
("figuring it out") answer by answer. Afterwards i point it out to the
other person that the answer came from him/herself, only the questions
came from me.
Afterwards I usually contemplate what i self had learned from the episode.
I can summarise it as "the mind is like a living tree". But then, we have
to know what goes on in a living tree to understand what I mean!
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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