Unraveling the invisible value of tacit knowledge

Let's be honest. We all have a secret skill that isn't on our résumé and a unique "flavor" that we bring to our work. I'm talking about those things we do without thinking, almost by inertia: the instinct that tells us something will go wrong before it happens; the mental shortcut we invented to skip ten steps in a tedious process; and that almost magical way of calming an angry customer.

You can't Google this knowledge or download it from the cloud. You won't find it in a procedure manual or on a shared drive. It's the practical wisdom you accumulate bit by bit over the years. It's the invisible art that marks the abysmal difference between someone who simply "does their job" and someone who masters it completely with disarming naturalness.

This is what we call tacit knowledge. In essence, it is what you know without realizing it. It's not exclusive to large corporations. You have it. I have it. The team around the corner has it. The small entrepreneur has it. Even the lady who has been baking the best bread on the block all her life has it. It is the living memory of how things are really done.

The Great Escape from Wisdom

Consider the awkwardness of losing a valuable colleague who decides to embark on a new path or an expert who retires. The company loses more than just an empty chair. They take much more than their computer and files with them. They take their way of thinking, their tricks for overcoming challenges, and their intuitive approach to complex problems. It's as if part of the team's collective brain disappears overnight.

The same principle applies to us when we start or change projects. All of our experience, failures, and lessons learned through trial and error remain encapsulated in our heads. The real danger is not that it will be forgotten but that it will not be shared. When kept to ourselves, it becomes frozen. It becomes inert.

From Mind to Mind: The Human Recipe for Multiplying Knowledge

Tacit knowledge has one crucial characteristic: it cannot be stored; it must be transmitted. You can't put it in a PDF file for someone else to read. You have to show it, tell it, and live it with someone else. This is an inherently human process. This is where trust comes into play.

In order for someone to reveal their secrets or their unique method of "tricking" the system into working better, they must feel safe. There must be a culture in which sharing does not mean losing power or prominence. If you fear that revealing your expertise will make you expendable, the most logical thing to do is to keep it under lock and key. However, this attitude ultimately stagnates the entire organization.

Today's most successful companies are not the ones with the largest databases or the most information. They are the ones that have created an environment where their employees can actively learn from each other. The key is transforming individual experience into collective learning.

A coffee and a sincere conversation: Technology is not the complete solution.

Technology is, of course, a great ally. A good document management system can support explicit knowledge, such as that found in manuals. However, when it comes to tacit knowledge, the process remains irrevocably human.

The real magic happens in informal spaces. It's in that coffee break when someone casually mentions the major mistake they made and how they resolved it. It happens in sincere conversations between mentors and apprentices. It's in those moments when you discuss not only what was done but also how it felt, why decisions were made, and what didn't work.

It is in these raw exchanges of experience where the most powerful knowledge is created—the kind that can truly transform a person, a team, or a company.

Ultimately, nurturing that intangible knowledge is a profound act of intelligence. It protects the living memory of how we became who we are. Perhaps the greatest act of greatness and humility we can perform as professionals is not to accumulate more titles but to generously share what we already know. Knowledge doesn't lose value when shared; it multiplies.

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Suggested references

• Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company. Oxford University Press.

• Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Harvard Business School Press

• Polanyi, M. (1966). The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday. https://monoskop.org/images/1/11/Polanyi_Michael_The_Tacit_Dimension.pdf

• FAO (2023). Knowledge Sharing Toolkit. https://sites.google.com/km4dev.org/kstoolkit

• Wenger-Trayner, E. (2015). Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction. https://www.wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/15-06-Brief-introduction-to-communities-of-practice.pdf

• Harvard Business Review (2024). The Human Side of Knowledge.