People-focused knowledge management

Word
Communication
Concept
Relationship
(Semantic Net)
Concept Hierarchy
Vessel
Freighter
Tanker
Ketch
Sloop
Jib
Sailboat
Sailboat
“Sailboat”
“Sail”
Behavior
Move
Roll
Drift
Motor
Ocean
Water
Material
Location
Medium
Locomotion
Locomotion
Agent
Hab
itat
Im
plement
Part
Wind
Drive
Sail
Sail
Figure 3-2
After a word communication (“The sailboat sailed away”) is received, the mind
may engage in complex processing that connects to prior associations (shown as a
simplified semantic net) and concepts (shown as chunks in a concept hierarchy).
Copyright © 1993 Karl M. Wiig. Reproduced with permission.
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People-Focused Knowledge Management
from a syntax perspective and contains information that we under-
stand and accept.
Associations and Biases Govern Our Actions
During the last part of the twentieth century, it was often accepted
that decision making in general resulted from application of logical
reasoning strategies (Janis 1989; Simon 1977). However, recent
research shows that behavior using explicit application of logical
strategies generally only applies to novices or people who struggle
with complex or unfamiliar problems and engage in problem solving
that requires conscious and structured synthesis and analysis (Janis
1989; Janis & Mann 1977; Simon 1977a, 1977b). Instead of our pre-
vious models, most reasoning is implicit or tacit, as Bechara et al.
(1997) have demonstrated. People who make decisions in situations
in which they are experienced use “covert activation of biases related
to previous emotional [meaningful] experiences of comparable 
situations,” in a process outlined in Figure 3-3. People use directly
executable or adaptable examples of prior situations that they have