Kay, your illustration is quite perceptive. You've described a systemic need to capture (make tacit) what one person knows so that the organization can learn. KM is, essentially, an integral component of any self-organizing system. When I work with people who are beginning to change their culture so that they can adopt KM practices and principles, we use the learning model (I've forgotten who to attribute this to, so please forgive me) that depicts the move from:
Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence to Unconscious Competence. We all know people (including ourselves) who have mastered certain sets of knowledge, skills and abilities to the extent that they "use" these KSA sets without really thinking about it. I use a common example, that of people who drive their auto from home to work, only to realize on arrival at their worksite that they don't remember how they got there! In your illustration, the experienced nurse used her Unconscious Competence (tacit skills, knowledge and abilities) to save a life. To get her to share that tacit KSA set is very challenging, because she has to consciously map out how and why she did what she did (sort of like trying to remember the trip to work that was "blanked" out). Once we can turn that tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, we need to somehow capture the context (the situation that called the knowledge into action) and the solution (how the nurse responded and why). If we can capture and structure it so that we can allow for dynamic retrieval by someone else (just-in-time knowledge), then other nurses or care-givers can describe a similar situation (one which shares a context pattern relationship) and retrieve the knowledge object. It may not provide "exactly" the right solution for the new problem, but it may at least suggest an approach, insight or idea which can help save another life. This is at least one aspect of knowledge management, or as I prefer to call it, organizational memory. I'm pleased to read some of the ongoing dialog about KM in this list for one specific reason. OS is a one of the best ways I know to facilitate significant change in an organization. Adopting KM practices and principles requires significant change to organizational systems, especially those we call human systems or culture. An effective KM change effort will be stymied if the organization cannot transform itself...and without systemic KM practices and principles, many enterprise organizations may not remain competitive enough to survive. The good news is that this transformation "humanizes" organizations in ways that many of them are unable or unwilling to realize right now. An effective KM adoption relies on collaborative skills (team practices)...which in turn relies on each person and collaborative group to develop their capacity for self-direction. It also relies on leaders at every part of the organization who can help shape the organization's future and develop the organization's capacity to sustain change. I've found great delight in realizing that the only way that many of these enterprise organizations can survive is to develop the capacity of each of their members to lead themselves and their teams in collaborative contributing ways. Experiencing Open Space is certainly a path which can lead to that. regards, Richard (Doc) Holloway ------------------ "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education." --Thomas Jefferson Richard Charles Holloway - P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 USA Telephone 253.539.4014 or 206.568.7730 Thresholds <http://www.thresholds.com> Meeting Masters <http://www.thresholds.com/masters.html>