Posted by Vaughn P Fox on October 27, 2000 at 13:14:27:

In Reply to: Re: K from D/I posted by Denham on October 25, 2000 at 09:40:22:

Denham,
I am writing a book on KM and the art of decision-making. When I first started writing the book I knew what I wanted to say, but I was not sure what the title should be. The more I wrote, the name of the title became crystal clear. You can look at knowledge from any angle, but what is the one common factor that knowledge always supports? If it is not decision-making, what is it? Who says all decisions are explicit? When you learn, did you decide to retain raw data (words) that conveyed some type of meaning (content of each chapter…processed data) that was then evaluated through judgment to generate knowledge used to understand the value of the information used to promote knowledge?
You raised an interesting point. In my opinion there are two basic categories of decisions; planned and unplanned. Did you set the alarm clock last night to get up this morning…or did you get up when the moment felt right? In either case a decision was made. In the first example, a person using an alarm clock most likely made a conscious (explicit) decision to get up at a certain time the night before, whereas the person that got up when the moment felt right did not plan on making any type of pre-planned explicit decision…until the moment he or she decided to wake up.
I recommend you take a close look at decision-making processes. You may find that explicit decisions are often associated with people who use some type of planning process to predetermine decisions they believe are required to achieve desired results. Unfortunately most plans are never executed exactly as planned, but useful planning processes/methodologies normally arm people with enough knowledge of friendly, threat and environmental capabilities and limitations that they can usually overcome unexpected actions and events by reallocation of resources through the appropriate use of decisions made in a timely manner.
I have never met an effective decision-maker yet that did not consider people, organizational design, relationships between people that form those organizations and information they needed to gain knowledge used to make sound decisions...before they made a decision.
I think you may be associating the term “decision” to mean only explicit decisions. I would ask you to place your finger on one key decision a CEO needs to make and then take a look at all of the other decisions that were made by senior executives, middle management and workers to ensure the CEO obtained the information he or she required in a format that promoted knowledge he or she needed to attain the level of understanding necessary to make that key decision. In this one example there was one key decision supported by many other decisions…that produced information…and ultimately knowledge by the CEO. Do you think people using tacit knowledge make decisions? It is my impression that each time a person filters information they are in fact making a decision. It may not be a key decision, but a decision non-the less.
One more thought: social meditation is implicit in any effective decision. Staring out the window for at least one hour per day is a healthy way to keep peace of mind, especially for people who think they are too busy to waste any time. I think you need to look below the surface of the comments previously posted. Respectfully, Vaughn.

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Follow Ups:

• Implicit decisions Denham 14:45:33 10/27/00 (2)
  • Re: Implicit decisions Vaughn P Fox 23:41:37 10/27/00 (1)
    • Re: Implicit decisions Denham 01:49:51 10/28/00 (0)

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