Posted by Kees de Vos on July 01, 1999 at 18:29:08:

In Reply to: Re: What is the difference between information and explicit knowledge? posted by Dave Paloian on June 29, 1999 at 19:37:14:

Hi Dave,

thanks for the encouragement. Being an MBA and working for an ICT-management company I thought I should bring in the "Old" contingency principles for management to balance the fairly restrictive, differentiating and prescriptive system thinking which seems to dominate the field.

IMHO Best Practices tend to stand in the way of innovation. Nobody is encouraged to question its validity (Neadertaler Best Practise: "the best way to get from A to B is by foot", thanks to NOT having Best Practices the invented the wheel :-)). By taking away context, thinking about the Best Principle is encouraged.

It's intriguing to watch the analogies with the recent (and excellent) article in the Harvard Business Review (MArch/April 1999) Codification or Personification; what's your strategy for managing knowledge? It's a review of the strategies of the major consulting firms.

At my company we developed two focuses into our KM model which also seem to be fairly similar to this distinction (and your view on near and far transfer for that matter). The focus comes from asking yourself the question "Is the added value of my business rooted in my people or my processes?" If it is people the personification strategy prevails, if it is processes than a codification strategy might have the upper hand (mind you, they DO frequently overlap, its a focus, not a strict distinction).

In the case of your example, the process "windshield-wiping" is more or less leading in the search for A (not THE) best solution (contingency again). In the case of far tasks the person itself is an active part of the solution process hereby making explication/codification a fairly ineffective and inefficient approach. Halting the codification at the level of the best principle might prove more effective.

Does this comply to your views?

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Follow Ups:

• Re: What is the difference between information and explicit knowledge? Dave Paloian 10:32:39 7/03/99 (7)
  • Avoid "best practices" Lauri Grohn 09:48:01 7/05/99 (6)
    • Re: Avoid "best practices" Dave Paloian 20:17:00 7/06/99 (0)
    • Re: Avoid "best practices" Kees de Vos 09:43:35 7/06/99 (3)
      • Re: Avoid "best practices" Lauri Grohn 12:20:29 7/06/99 (2)
        • Re: Avoid "best practices" Kees de Vos 12:26:13 7/06/99 (1)
          • Cultivate "best principles" outsource "best practices" Martyn R Jones 12:45:15 7/06/99 (0)
    • Avoid "best practices" Avoid labels, avoid language Martyn R Jones 11:44:38 7/05/99 (0)

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