Posted by John Tieso on April 05, 2002 at 11:46:08:

In Reply to: Re: Questions on theoretical underpinnings posted by Riva Gianluca on April 05, 2002 at 11:13:46:

Riva:

Some time ago, I knew a man who was one of the world's authorities on earthen dams. He had studied them nearly 50 years and was close to retirement. The US Army Corps of Engineers decided to do a knowledge study--as they called it then--and document his knowledge on dams. The contractor spent nearly a year and created a very complex set of algorithms on how he decided what was happening with the dams at any one time.

Well, it came time for his retirement and we were standing there in the reception line. I asked him one question:

"What happens when you get to the point that all of your experience is not working?"

His answer: "John, that's a hard question. Mostly, I just pick up some dirt, feel it, smell it, rub it in my hands, and the answer just seems to come to me. Don't know why, or how, but it just seems to be there."

Now the contractors had collected a rich set of information and experience from him. In fact, that information could probably be used well over 90% of the time and be successful because most of those dams respond in very predictable ways. However, the small percentage of time they do not often yields the greatest disasters.

Jaci's question and your response hit the problem on the head. Much of what we know is transferrable to someone else. I think we understand that the approaches we suggest may be the best one, because we created it, but we also know that others will adapt it over time to something they feel comfortable executing. What we can't transfer is our own personal, non-stated feelings on how we know what we do is good.

My friend the dam expert 'knew' from the feel of the dirt or clay--perhaps because of its moisture content or the amount of gravel or something else that there might be problems. Once he decided that he knew how to fix the problem. But could he define that 'feel' for someone else. Probably not. Polanyi understood that, but, I think, vastly overated how much 'personal' knowledge could not transferred. Nonaka gave more credit to the ability to tranfer knowledge and also recognized the role of experience in that effort.

Thanks for the insights

John T

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