People-focused knowledge management

Tacit Subliminal Knowledge. This knowledge is mostly non-
conscious and is not well understood. It is often the first glimpse
we have of a new concept.
Idealistic Vision and Paradigm Knowledge. Part of this knowl-
edge is well known to us and explicit — we work consciously
with it. Much of it — our visions and mental models — is not
well known; it is tacit, and it is accessible only nonconsciously.
Systematic Schema and Reference Methodology Knowledge.
Our knowledge of underlying systems, general principles, and
problem-solving strategies is, to a large extent, explicit and
mostly well known to us.
Pragmatic Decision-Making and Factual Knowledge. Decision-
making knowledge is practical and mostly explicit. It supports
everyday work and decisions, is well known, and is used 
consciously.
New
Insights,
New
Ideas and
Innovations
Tacit,
Subliminal
Knowledge
Idealistic
Vision and
Paradigm
Knowledge
Systematic
Schema and
Methodology
Knowledge
Pragmatic
Decision
Making and
Factual
Knowledge
Automatic
Routine
Working
Knowledge
Figure 3-11
Personal knowledge development as a general evolution cycle. Copyright © 1995
Knowledge Research Institute, Inc. Reproduced with permission.
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Actions Are Initiated by Knowledgeable People
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Automatic Routine Working Knowledge. We know this knowl-
edge so well that we have automated it. Most has become tacit
— we use it to perform tasks automatically — without con-
scious reasoning.
One role of person-focused KM is to facilitate and, at times, to
accelerate the maturation of knowledge to the point that it can be
applied to deliver competent work. As we will discuss in Chapter 7,
deliberate and systematic — comprehensive — KM does not mean
autocratic top-down determination of which knowledge must be
created, transferred, and utilized to be competent to perform desired
work. Instead, it means the creation of a knowledge-vigilant personal
mentality and corporate culture perhaps guided from the top and also
strongly motivated by rank-and-file. Each individual and each depart-
ment adopt the mentality as part of daily work, continually looking
out for the knowledge perspective to ascertain that appropriate
expertise and understanding are brought to bear to deliver the desired
work. The comprehensive KM culture also recognizes a particular
aspect of personal behavior. This aspect deals with the realization
that many individuals deliver outstanding work in unusual situations
without having extensive topic knowledge. Instead, they have strong
metaknowledge that provides capabilities to make sense of novel sit-
uations and create effective approaches to handle them.
We use conceptual knowledge-level categories to indicate how
individuals hold specific knowledge items. Later, we will see how that
may affect the individual’s capabilities to learn, innovate, make deci-
sions, and perform regular knowledge work. It may also affect how
individuals are able to collaborate and work with others who do not
hold comparable knowledge on equal levels. People may hold the
same general knowledge at different levels. Hence, a beginner under-
writer for group health may hold knowledge on developing a pro-
posal to a large service organization as idealistic knowledge. The
underwriter expert with whom the beginner works may hold the
same knowledge (judgments, regulatory aspects, and particulars on
contract opportunities), but as more internalized pragmatic knowl-
edge. Finally, an unusual underwriting master may hold this knowl-
edge as automatic knowledge.
The models that comprehensive KM practices often use to struc-
ture their activities and priorities include the enterprise knowledge
evolution cycle indicated in Figure 3-12, which also considers five
stages:
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People-Focused Knowledge Management