Company CEOs and higher-ups put too much emphasis on explicit knowledge - that is tangible knowledge contained in documents, according to Vanessa Miller, MD of VM Consulting.
There needs to be more emphasis on retaining tacit knowledge, she explains, the knowledge people gain from experience.
Miller was speaking on BPM as a knowledge enabler at the ITWeb BPM Summit held in Midrand this week.
While explicit knowledge is easy to work with, and can be categorised and stored, “80% of the knowledge in an organisation is tacit,” she said.
“Tacit knowledge is one of the most difficult things to get, but the most valuable information resource.”
Miller added that in South African organisations, 50% of the permanent workforce is 35 or younger, 40% are over 50 and only 10% are between 36 and 50.
This is a potentially dangerous situation, she noted, because the majority of the workforce has less than 20 years' experience, and the next largest percentage of the workforce are nearing retirement.
One way to manage tacit knowledge, Miller suggested, is to create best practices, processes and communities of practice. Here, knowledge will be shared and enable others to learn from it.
“When someone leaves a company, they take their knowledge with them,” she added.
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