Implicit versus explicit knowledge

Five compelling reasons for making implicit knowledge explicit

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Some of our knowledge is readily available to us. We are conscious of it and can share it with others. Psychologists refer to this kind of knowledge as explicit. But people often know more about a particular subject or issue than they can articulate. This is because much of our knowledge is built through experience, and much of what what we learn through experience does not automatically become conscious. We call this kind of knowledge tacit or implicit. You can also think of it as intuitive knowledge. Tacit knowledge is not a bad thing. It helps us make quick choices in familiar situations.

We’d be in big trouble if we had to think through every single situation in our lives before we made a decision!

But tacit knowledge is also a kind of buried treasure, and as long as it remains buried it suffers from some important limitations.

First, because it’s difficult to bring tacit knowledge into focus, we can’t readily share it with others. This is the case in businesses with “intuitive” leaders at the helm. Because their leadership skills are tacit, they can’t be shared. In situations like this, it is not uncommon for an institution to last only as long as its leader.

Second, tacit knowledge is limited by our experience, which means it isn’t terribly useful for dealing with novelty. Because tacit knowledge is experience-based, it is most useful in situations that are like those we have confronted in the past. Unfortunately, the modern world is constantly providing us with new challenges. To meet these challenges, we need conscious methods for evaluating knowledge and experience.

Third, sometimes our tacit knowledge is sub-optimal. For example, people who learn the skills required to survive in a cut-throat business environment or in an abusive relationship often fare poorly when they try to function outside of those contexts. This is partly because their tacit knowledge isn’t useful in their new surroundings. Before people in this situation can learn more adaptive skills, they usually need to bring their tacit knowledge into consciousness.

Fourth, relying on tacit knowledge limits our development. When we habitually rely primarily on intuition, learning not only slows down, its quality is compromised. To fine tune our learning, we need to participate reflectively in learning.

Finally, relying upon tacit knowledge limits our ability to collaborate with others. If we can’t clearly communicate what we know, others cannot benefit from our perspectives.

VCoL+7 to the rescue (again)

Yes, this is another reason for learning the VCoL way. Learning with VCoL helps raise our awareness of what we’re learning from experience, and helps us optimize the knowledge we build through experience.

So, here are two videos—one long, and one short—that explain how VCoL works!