Capabilities

Yesterday I came across a interesting article in the Science Journal Section of WSJ - Scientists Using Maps Of Genes for Therapies Are Wary of Profiling. James Watson the Nobel Laureate for his work with Francis Crick on the Double Helix was deprecated for his position on eugenics. There have been a lot of new discoveries and updates in gene mapping that are raising eyebrows. The article blatantly acknowledged the lack of maturity of our species in expressing ourselves in words.

I started writing this essay because the WSJ reminded me of a recent experience. I had embarked on a knowledge management effort... I did the classic - talked about the opportunity to the stakeholders, the intangible side of KM, the process and the rewards. At the end of it I initiated a number of tasks to capture the tacit knowledge and codify it into documents, images, sounds but I quickly realized I could never capture the mind of the individual. There is clearly a LOT MORE to the human mind than just the data and information store. It is the process of transforming that information into knowledge, the multiple dimensions across which the mind is capable of thinking, the associations the mind makes, evaluates and processes the associations into thoughts, ideas until it delivers it into words. Not to get into the neurology of data and knowledge transformation but I was convinced that 'capabilities building' is a motivation more than the physical act of capturing and systematizing it.

I guess capturing knowledge is a cultural process. One that includes the steps in understanding how everyone else may be thinking and then knowing what they know and how they use it. The last step is the system!