CZ:Cold Storage/Knowledge creation

Basic Definition

Knowledge creation is simply creating new knowledge. New knowledge is knowledge that never existed before anywhere in the world. This means that, aside from the knowledge creator, no one on earth has this knowledge in storage in the human brain, in paper, or in a computer or other media, anywhere in the world.

New knowledge is created by individuals, not by society. Knowledge creation can seem occur in a group effort, for example, in a brainstorming session. But ultimately individuals in the group create the knowledge, and the group must accept that to incorporate it into their own knowledge base. Methods like brainstorming simply facilitate the three steps required for social advance.

Three Components of Social Advance

The delivery of new knowledge by individuals to society or some segment of society, and its subsequent acceptance, is social advance. There are three steps necessary for social advance:

1. An individual(s) creates and stores knowledge in his or her mind or on a computer system.

2. The individual expresses this knowledge to society.

3. Society, or a segment of society, or a social group, accepts the new knowledge and stores it in the social mind or social systems.

It takes all three of these components for society to advance.

For example, if you are missing:

• Number 1 - The individual fails to create the new knowledge, so society cannot advance. Or, the individual creates the knowledge, but fails to write it down or store it, and 'forgets' it. The knowledge is subsequently lost and society is not advanced. Unless the new knowledge is both created and stored by individuals, society cannot advance.

• Number 2 - The individual stores the knowledge, but chooses not to express it. The individual is silent and the knowledge is 'tacit.' Until that knowledge is delivered to society, society cannot advance.

• Number 3 - The individual delivers the new knowledge to society, but society fails to accept that knowledge for any number of reasons. Or, society accepts the new knowledge, but fails to store it. Unless the new knowledge is both accepted and stored by society, society cannot advance.

It is also important to note that new knowledge that is stored is not stored permanently and can be lost at any time. For example, if a person creates new knowledge and then dies, the knowledge could potentially be lost if it has not been recorded elsewhere.

The Tacit Knowledge Fallacy

Michael Polanyi popularized the term tacit knowledge with his saying "We know more than we can tell." Polanyi concluded that there was a kind of knowledge that preceeded logic that was difficult to express.

In reality, all knowledge is explicit, logical and structured. We know this because everything we know can be categorized. If categories are not clear, logic is not clear, and the knowledge is questionable. Knowledge is logical and categorized. If categories are not clear, we don't know what we think we know.

What Polanyi was missing was the concept of the question. A question is a perceived lack of knowledge structure. Questions exist in an antithetical, yin and yang structural relationship to knowledge. They call attention to any lack of logical structure, anywhere in the individual or social knowledge base.

Questions exist individually and collectively. Collective areas of question are equivalent to what Polanyi called tacit knowledge. All knowledge is explicit and can be easily expressed. It is only when knowledge is mixed with questions that it is 'fuzzy' and difficult to express.

Confusion of Terms

Terms related to both knowledge working and knowledge creation are often confused. Here are a few clarifications:

• A brain is a biological storage capacity.
• Intelligence is knowledge stored. An intelligent person may never create new knowledge.
• The 'global brain' is the cumulative knowledge storage capacity of society.
• The 'global intellect' is the cumulative knowledge of society.
• Genius is high volume knowledge creation. A genius is not always intelligent.
• Creativity, creative problem solving, invention, innovation, and ideation are all variants of the same knowledge creation process (below).

The Knowledge Creation Cycle

Knowledge creation is the conversion of questions or fields of question into knowledge structure. This process is cyclical and consists of five basic steps:

1. Definition/Solution/Structure (Knowledge Context).

2. Question/Problem.

3. Logical Operation (connects/structures/defines).

4. Result: Advanced Definition/Solution/Structure.

5. Return to step 1.

Knowledge creation is additive and as such new knowledge is built upon existing knowledge context. Expertise in a given area is therefore required to create new knowledge. All knowledge is created by this cyclical process and this 'knowledge context' is in turn vulnerable to this process as soon as it is created.

Knowledge vs. Knowledge Products

Knowledge is not products, but products do require knowledge to produce them. Industry is the 'science of making things.' In industry, we make new products (and services) from knowledge capital by designing, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing these products.

Knowledge is needed to create products, but again, these products are not equal to knowledge and products are not required to create new knowledge.