Titin.net

Tacit knowledge is the type of knowledge we have and use but we find difficulty to express. Explicit knowledge on the other hand, is the type of knowledge we find no difficulty to express. An example of explicit knowledge, is Mr. Smith had diabetes mellitus because his blood sugar is 130mg/dL on two occasions. Tacit knowledge is like when you get a feeling that Mr. Smith is not fully convinced of having diabetes mellitus but you cannot exactly explain why you have this feeling. Tacit knowledge is not available in text books and journal articles but each of us develops it with experience.

A deeper look at Michael Polanyi’s research, points that the above understanding of implicit/explicit knowledge distinction is faulty. Surprisingly, Polanyi who passed away in 1976 is considered the father of implicit/explicit knowledge distinction!

Follows is a word for word copy from Wikipedia’s Tacit knowledge article. It is so beautifully explained using the fewest words possible. (that I cannot find better way to write.) I will end this post with how I think implicit knowing (or indwelling as will be explained) relates to designing electronic medical records interfaces.

Controversies:

With some regularity there are critical voices arguing that an understanding as formulated above is a mainstream but faulty interpretation of Michael Polanyi’s work. Tacit and explicit should not be understood as characteristics of knowledge, which is missing the point that Polanyi was trying to make largely. Polanyi’s point was that knowing always had an indispensable personal component. With this he was critiquing an objectivist position of which he was deeply worried for its lack of ethical commitment or considerations. Building on the general ideas from Gestalt-psychology he described a difference between two kinds of awareness: subsidiary and focal awareness. In our focal awareness we are aware of a coherent whole, a Gestalt. In our subsidiary awareness we implicitly are conscious of the different impressions, memories that build this Gestalt. This Gestalt is not given, but it is an achievement, realized by interpretative skills.

The whole notion of explicit knowledge as something that could be captured in an information system is at odds with this interplay between subsidiary and focal awareness, just as the mainstream definition of tacit knowledge as something unknowable or belonging to the subconscious. The tacit can be known but only in terms of the Gestalt that it bears on. The explicit is gone in the next moment, when a new Gestalt is formed in the focal awareness. Polanyi described this interplay between subsidiary and focal awareness as indwelling. We indwell our interpretative frameworks so that we order and select our impressions. We indwell our integrative skills so that we focus on what we want to achieve and our bodily skills implement what is needed. The focus is a Gestalt that is produced from the subsidiary particles, just as it is something that summons bodily skills.

The implications of this paradigm of indwelling (Sanders, 1998), have hardly been touched upon. Brohm (2005) explains this process of indwelling in terms of a stage metaphor. On the stage there is a focus in the play, an event in the theatre play (i.e. focal awareness), pointed at by the spotlight. Around the light circle on the stage there are actors, attributes (i.e. impressions). It is the director that has arranged the parts in such a way that the whole emerged from its parts (i.e. integrative skills).

The main benefit of this stage metaphor is that it counters the popular metaphor of the iceberg (the subconscious/tacit under water, the explicit above water). The metaphor shows the dynamics and interdependence between explicit and tacit knowledge.

Implications to Health informatics:

When we design even the simplest interface we are designing a virtual reality environment (a theatre stage). This necessitates the care for the smallest details; as these will be parts of users’ subsidiary awareness. This environment needs to make sense to users. Over time, consistency in this environment’s details will form the users’ logical expectations which in turn will allow users to make sense of things.

Finally, it is worth mentioning, included in our subsidiary awareness is our previous experiences, biases, beliefs, tasks and goals.(Brohm 2005) Out of these subsidiary awareness components our focal awareness is formed.

Brohm, R. "Polycentric Order in Organizations", published dissertation by ERIM, Erasmus University Rotterdam: Rotterdam, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1765/6911

Sanders, A. F. (1988). Michael Polanyi’s post critical epistemology, a reconstruction of some aspects of ‘tacit knowing’. Amsterdam: Rodopi.