The Tacit Knowledge Series

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that cannot be captured through words alone.

Three kinds of tacit knowledge:

• Relational
  • Knowledge that is tacit because of the way people relate to each other. Sometimes people do not make their knowledge explicit because they do not know how to do so, other times, they do not make their knowledge explicit because they do not want to do so.
• Somatic
  • Knowledge that is tacit because it has to do with the human body. Think of executing a tennis backhand, playing a guitar, or riding a bicycle. This knowledge is tacit because it has to do with the embodied nature of the skill involved.
• Collective
  • Knowledge that is tacit because it is embedded in our social environment, and we do not know how to make it explicit in a way that doesn’t involve socialising.