Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation

I had a pleasant surprise when a friend of mine decided to gift me "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka. It forms a sequel to "the Knowledge Creating Company" co-authored by Nonaka and Takeuchi published in 1995 . The first book was a seminal work which has profoundly influenced my views on Knowledge Creation (Nonaka refuses to entertain the concept of KM , resolutely denying that Knowledgecan ever be managed!) along with writers like Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak. However, the first book was open to a lot of criticism saying that it was just too "theoretic", "vague" and "generalised" ...Nonaka et al try and get more hands on, and tool bookish with this book.However, this book is likely to disturb people who have read and formed ideas about KM by reading works of the American thought leaders.In the start of the book the authors try and make the difference explicit. In a passage titled "what's wrong with knowledge management?" they spell it out :Pitfall I: KM relies on easily detectable, quantifiable information.Pitfall II: KM is devoted to the manufacture of tools.Pitfall III: KM depends on a Knowledge Officer.While the premises of Knowledge Enabling and Creation are:Premise I: Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social, tacit and explicit.Premise II: Knowledge depends on your perspective.Premise III: Knowledge Creation is a craft , not a science. The authors reiterate that organizational Knowledge Creation involves five main steps :1. Sharing tacit knowledge2. Creating concepts3. Justifying concepts4. Building a prototype 5. Cross-leveling knowledge.To facilitate this the following 5 enablers need to be in place :1. instill a knowledge vision2. manage conversations3. mobilize knowledge activits4. Create the right context5. Globalize local knowledgeThe book is rich in case studies which show how different companies that follow these concepts are growing in leaps and bounds and innovating over others who remain stuck in the KM paradigm.The authors note that in the Knowledge journey companies can be mapped in 3 phases, which might or might not be sequential.1. The Risk Minimisers , whose focus is capturing and locating knowledge. The tools they use are data warehousing, datamining, Yellow pages, IC-Navigator, Balanced Scorecard, Knowledge Audits, IC-Index, Business Information Systems, Rule-based systems [these firms still view knowledge as a resource that needs to be collected and managed]2. The Efficiency Seekers, who focus on transferring and sharing knowledge. The tools they use are internets, intranets, Lotus Notes/Groupware, Networked organization, knowledge workshops, knowledge workbench, Best Practice Transfer, Benchmarking, Knowledge-gap analysis, Knowledge sharing culture, Technology transfer units, Knowledge transfer units, Systems Thinking 3. The Innovators who enable Knowledge creation are typically those who embrace a knowledge vision, managing conversations, creating the ri

In the many publications on Knowledge Management, the writings by Von Krogh and Nonaka (and, in this case, Ichijo) stand out in a number of aspects: 1) their emphasis of knowledge "management" as an essentially human and social process 2) their emphasis on linking knowledge management with strategic focus and business results 3) the inspiring examples and writing style.This book is a clear showcase of these elements. It provides a profound yet pragmatic guidance on the road to becoming a learning organisation. Where capturing & locating, and transferring & sharing knowledge are essential in achieving competitive advantage through knowledge, the real source of sustainable advantage is, as the authors claim, the continuous creation of new knowledge, as a result of developing a strategic vision and an enabling organisation and culture to realise that (evolving) vision.Being involved in implementing a number of the concepts in our organisation, I am convinced this book provides many ideas and tools that will help today's corporate world in reshaping our business for the knowledge economy.Highly recommended!

The author's of this book are leading thinkers in the KM field. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is as a sequel to Nonaka's earlier 1995 book. But, we all remember what happened to Scarlett, again a much touted sequel. Although this book was a slight disappointment since Nonaka has set reader's expectations a little too high with his earlier groundbreaking title "The Knowledge Creating ompany" that, for the most part, defined KM as we know it. An academic reader will appreciate they theoretical insights provided and extensive references to supporting literature. But there are some aspects that this book underplays: 1. Knowledge creation is fine, but knowledge integration is perhaps as important---an issue to which the authors pay little attention. 2. Excellent ideas aside, this book underplays the significance of empirical evidence and most cases tend to be descriptive qualitative analyses. 3. The role of technology is highly underplayed. 4. The book has "sufficient" overlap with the authors' research papers in the uropean Management Journal. For academic readers who have read those, this might be a little disappointing. 5. The concept of KM and it's relationship with innovation at architectural and component levels is not described in much detail.On the positive side, you will find that: 1) Lots of issues that were barely touched upon in Nonaka's preceding book are described in further detail. 2) The book is very well written and the tone is accsible to both academic and non-academic readers. 3) the concept of BA is elucidated in further detail Readers who do not follow academic research journals might find that an interesting extension. 4) A link between strategy and KM is well illustrated. For businesses, KM is of little value if there are no results. The authors describe how to look for those results (or in lay terms, ROI). Academic readers will also find Nonaka's recent paper in a recent issue of Organization Science (2000) to be of much interest. Academic readers must also realize that the approach here seems to be "post modern," and indeed quite qualitative in the European research tradition. To sum my opinion, this book is a worthy addition to the bookshelves; but, it is not to be read without reading Nonaka's preceding book "The Knowledge Creating Company." A word of warning is in order: Academic readers will enjoy this title however, managerial readers might find it a little heavy and abstract. Indeed, this book stands out of the crowd with three authors who are well respected in the American research circles---consequently, its high overall quality comes as no surprise. Recommended.

"Knowledge written and stored in computers is effective only about 20 percent of the time," observes one CEO who is quoted in this excellent book. The authors focus on how organizations can encourage and exploit the remaining 80% - knowledge which is fundamentally created through human interaction. Such tacit knowledge is valuable because it is the key to innovation and nearly impossible to replicate. This book highlights the importance of knowledge activists, 360-degree visionaries, and cultivating a caring culture to support tacit knowledge creation and dissemination. Practical examples are provided from insight gained at well-established companies. In particular, there is a great 'knowledge story' about how Shiseido introduced its Ayura cosmetics brand. After losing market share in the early 1990s, Shiseido revived itself through high quality interaction with customers. Their strategy "...involves the mutual cooperation of producers and consumers, and entails two-way education to improve the products."

"This is a book about knowledge enabling." Georg Von Krogh, Kazou Ichijo, and Ikujiro Nonaka write, "It is our strong conviction that knowledge cannot be managed, only enabled...From our perspective, managers need to support knowledge creation rather than control it...This book provides new concepts about how knowledge in organizations can be created and used for competitive advantage by describing knowledge-enabling conditions...In Enabling Knowledge Creation, we move beyond the current limitations of knowledge-management theory to discuss practical approaches to the amorphous, constantly evolving, human realm of knowledge. We identify five knowledge enablers- (1)instill a knowledge vision, (2)manage conversations, (3)mobilize knowledge activists, (4)create the right context, and (5)globalize local knowledge- weaving in detailed stories from Siemens, Skandia, Shiseido, Sony, Phonak, Adtranz, General Electric, and other companies (such as 3M, Nokia, Intel, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Lotus, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Glaxo Wellcome)."In this context Von Krogh, Ichijo, and Nonaka :* describe and discuss individual and organizational barriers to knowledge creation.* examine the three pitfalls of a knowledge-management approach in more detailed :Pitfall-1. Knowledge management relies on easily detectable, quantifiable information.Pitfall-2. Knowledge management is devoted to the manufacture of tools.Pitfall-3. Knowledge management depends on a knowledge officer.* present the three counter premises of knowledge enabling :Premise-1. Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social, tacit and explicit.Premise-2. Knowledge depends on your perspective.Premise-3. Knowledge creation is a craft, not a science.* present more general ideas about care in organizations and the role it plays in knowledge creation.* focus on how a company's strategy can be connected to knowledge enabling.* discuss how campanies develop their knowledge visions. * describe the five key "knowledge enablers" more precisely.As sequel to "The Knowledge-Creating Company / I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi", I highly recommend this much anticipated study.