I grabbed this book, because I wanted to find out more about the SECI-model which underlines all the processes in Rocket model.
After finishing this book, I understood it is about a lot more. It is about a whole innovation process. A process of creating new knowledge in organizations systematically. Sounds so obvious but let me get into it.
The whole point is to think about it in the big picture, not just as a single model that describes how knowledge is created.
Now, I want you to think for a while, how do you obtain new knowledge?
Is it by reading books or listening to lectures? Or by watching a documentary or writing a test? If you thought that, you are not completely wrong, but you are far away from the whole truth.
These are all objective observative actions with the use of mind and focus on theory. They are great examples of the explicit knowledge.
It makes sense if these were the first things that came to your mind. We have been for a long time giving a lot of focus to explicit knowledge. To be more specific, since the 17th century, when a philosopher Descartes became known for a Cartesian split – the separation of mind and body. Which very tightly connects with the two types of knowledge the explicit (mind) and implicit (body). But the thing is, they are not at all that separated. They interact with each other and that is the key to the whole knowledge-creation theory.
When I gave you that first question, you may have thought about something more practical, something where you use your body and learn here and now. Maybe you thought about learning to ride a bike or play a piano. Well, those would be the examples of your tacit knowledge. And again, you were not wrong, but still there is much more to it.
So, what happens, when we stop viewing the explicit and implicit knowledge as separate processes and look closely on what happens when they interact? We get the four modes of knowledge conversion: socialization, externalization, combination and internalization. Their interaction creates a spiral.
This is the SECI model, the engine of the knowledge-creation process which operates at the individual level. You may have also seen it in the book Team Coaches Best Tools, because it forms the core of a rocket model, where each process is an application of its basic theory.
Seci-model is something you are familiar with, but don’t even know about. It is what we experience here in Tiimiakatemia.
For socialization to happen, you need to build a team, where members share their experiences and mental models.
The externalization mode is triggered by meaningful dialogue or collective reflection, which you perform regularly at training sessions or other occasions. Using an appropriate metaphor or analogy can help team members to articulate hidden tacit knowledge that is otherwise hard to communicate. They create a new concept.
The combination is a combination of this new knowledge with another, forming a new outcome. It can be just a summarized document, a product, service or system.
By summarizing, what we have learned so far in postmotorola for example, we are helping to transition the explicit knowledge into the tacit one and move to the final mode, internalization.
The internalization is “learning by doing,” and embody what we have learned which leads to shared mental models or technical know-how. It is our work on projects with customers. ATP.
The most important thing I understood here is that the organizational knowledge foundation is formed by the individualknowledge-creation and that a company itself cannot create knowledge. And that the actions we are supposed to do in Tiimiakatemia, are codependent on each other and doing just one mode will not be enough.
Because the bigger goal here is to create an organizational knowledge lets dive into the conditions, that promote the four modes to be transformed into a knowledge spiral that moves above the individual. In other words, what qualities needs the organization to have, so the knowledge can be created, accumulated and shared.
Enabling conditions:
1. Intention
Intention means to me an inner drive, fueled by aspiration of achieving something. In this context, it means to have organizational leading thoughts, that the members intentionally go after. (where do we want go with TAP?)
2. Autonomy
To be able to act autonomously – like in TAP. To have a say in what you gonna do and how. To make decisions for yourself.
3. Fluctuation and creative chaos
Sometimes, it is good when the structures break and we find ourselves in chaos that forces us to reflect on our actions and then come back stronger: fluctuation that leads to creative chaos (změna rozvrhu, vaškův odchod,…)
4. Redundancy
It means putting people from different fields together to support the new learning. (Rocket days, chit chatting in TAP, mixed project teams)
Note: “make it clear where information can be located and where knowledge is stored within the organization.” (komunitní strom moudrosti)
5. Requisite Variety
“Having a diverse community in order to survive in a diverse world.”
Crosse-leveling of knowledge
When these conditions are found in the organization, the spiral starts moving from an individual level on a team level, community level and further. On each level, the four modes repeat themselves to create new knowledge. These “levels” interact with each other continuously.
In this book, there is also presented a five-phase process of organizational knowledge creation, that consists of sharing tacit knowledge, creating concepts, justifying concepts, building an archetype, and cross-leveling knowledge. But when I thought a bit more about it, it just a translation of the four modes and put in another model.
The whole point is, that there are two knowledge types that interact with each other. That forms the four modes, which produces a spiral that moves to another level, when the organization conditions enable it. On the other level, the knowledge types interact with each other again and the whole process spiral more in cycles. It is a never-ending process that requires continuous innovation.
It is really hard, to put it into some kind of a model, that makes sense, because as I stated at the beginning, we need to think about it in the big picture. So, my next drawing is a trial of putting together my understanding from this book.
And now, if we take a look at one process in Rocket Model, we can see, that there is always an individual in the center, that supports his own learning by going through the four modes. To transfers the knowledge from one level to another, we move from the inner circle outwards, by cross-fertilizing or other interactions.
This is by far not everything, that allows us to build a knowledge-creating company. The book also talks about the appropriate type of management and organization for a knowledge creation. It is a middle up-down management and a hypertext organization. Specific roles of the knowledge management are also need.
But for now, this is all I can take from this book. By now I know, that organizational knowledge creation is a continuous and dynamic interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge - a spiral process·, starting at the individual level and moving up through expanding communities of interaction. It is not a linear process, rather a cyclical and iterative process.
I have also understood, how much ancient philosophy influenced today’s approach to learning. How complex the process of knowledge creation is and how everything is connected. And If you manage to get the spirals spiraling – you are in a huge advantage before anyone. This book mainly presented cases from Japanese companies, that were at the top of the market, but anyone can do it. Also, us here in Tiimiakatemia.
Quotes:
“What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”
Mono no aware – the beauty of change and transition
