In today’s knowledge economy, competitive advantage depends not just on what organizations know, but on how effectively they capture and apply that knowledge. The most valuable insights often reside in the minds of employees as tacit knowledge—unwritten, experience-based expertise that’s easily lost. This blog explores why capturing that hidden knowledge is the next frontier in organizational intelligence.
To paraphrase the legendary management guru Peter Drucker, “knowledge is the dominant, and perhaps the only source of competitive advantage.” That’s why the ability to effectively capture and apply knowledge is critical for business success.
The most valuable, yet elusive, form of knowledge is tacit knowledge, which routinely accounts for over 80% of an organization’s intellectual capital. Tacit knowledge is personal knowledge that is often difficult to formalize or communicate to others. It consists of the expertise, insights, and intuition that reside in people’s minds; knowledge that is often difficult to articulate or document. Consider Lori, a senior legal expert who always has the answer when complex case law questions arise. Her knowledge is built on years of experience and past cases but also on informal interactions and observations that are often overlooked. This deep expertise is rarely recorded. Without structured methods to capture it, this valuable knowledge is lost when Lori leaves the firm or retires.
Historically, efforts to capture and manage knowledge focused exclusively on explicit knowledge starting with structured documents; things like invoices, bills of materials, and orders, because they were easiest to process and organize. Over time, attention shifted to unstructured documents, such as contracts and industry reports, which required more sophisticated techniques to extract meaning. Classification techniques like tagging via metadata enabled these documents to be made useful within knowledge management solutions. But, as we have noted, documents are only part of the story. The missing pieces are all the formal and informal interactions between people that happen in conversations, meetings, and presentations. That is the next kind of information to tackle.
Today, thanks to the widespread adoption of collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, these interactions are now recorded, and organizations are accumulating vast amounts of them. Automatic transcription capabilities ensure these conversations are no longer fleeting. The rise of Generative AI tools like ChatGPT now enables organizations to analyze, summarize, and connect discussions to create knowledge. However, simply having access to these tools does not automatically translate to value. The real challenge is embedding them into workflows so that knowledge capture is seamless and valuable to employees, rather than an added burden. Just as crucially, the captured knowledge must be structured and surfaced in context, ensuring it can be applied effectively to business scenarios.
Technology alone does not solve the challenge. The hardest part of transformation remains getting people to change their behavior. Even with the ability to transcribe and analyze conversations, organizations face two key obstacles: motivating employees to share their knowledge and ensuring that the right tools and workflows are in place to contextualize and structure this knowledge for transformation into actionable insights.
Tacit knowledge is difficult to capture because much of it is instinctive and context driven. Employees often don’t recognize the value of their own expertise or assume that what they know is obvious to others. Additionally, professionals may hesitate to share insights due to concerns about job security, lack of time, or the absence of structured opportunities to contribute. Without incentives, clear expectations, or a culture of knowledge-sharing, employees are unlikely to document or verbalize their expertise.
Building a culture where knowledge sharing is the norm requires leadership advocacy and clear incentives for participation. Employees need to see the direct benefits of contributing their knowledge, whether through increased efficiency, recognition, or opportunities for professional growth. Organizations can encourage participation through structured forums, expert Q&A sessions, and knowledge-sharing initiatives that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows.
Even when employees share insights, if the knowledge is not captured in an organized manner - categorized, tagged, and contextualized, it risks becoming just another piece of unstructured data that is difficult to find. Effective knowledge capture requires more than just recording information; it demands tools that intelligently organize and correlate insights, surfacing them when they are most relevant.
Enterprise knowledge platforms like Atlas help solve this problem by applying contextual metadata / classification to unstructured data, ensuring that insights are stored in an accessible and actionable format. AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot can further refine knowledge by summarizing discussions, identifying key themes, and connecting related pieces of information. By integrating these tools into daily workflows, organizations ensure that valuable tacit knowledge is continuously captured and made useful.
As we have already explained, to truly capture and use tacit knowledge, organizations need a combination of the right tools and best practices. Encouraging a culture of knowledge sharing is essential. Organizations must foster an environment where contributions are recognized and rewarded, whether through structured forums such as expert Q&A sessions or informal knowledge-sharing communities. When employees see the value in sharing their insights; both for their own efficiency and for the success of their teams, they are more likely to participate actively.
Capturing information in a usable format requires the integration of technology into daily workflows. Microsoft Teams and Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) can serve as platforms for ongoing discussions and knowledge contributions that preserve expertise in context. AI-driven transcription services within Teams and Zoom help convert spoken knowledge into searchable text, ensuring that valuable insights are not lost.
Structuring and classifying captured knowledge is the second critical step. AI tools, such as Microsoft Copilot, can summarize discussions and highlight key themes, making it easier to distill insights from large volumes of information. Automatically applying metadata using Atlas within Microsoft 365 and other systems ensures that knowledge is organized effectively, allowing employees to find what they need quickly. By building centralized knowledge hubs, organizations can create knowledge collections where curated insights are easily searchable and referenced over time.
Finally, making knowledge discoverable and actionable is crucial for long-term success. Enterprise Search and AI-powered assistants, such as those powered by Atlas, surface relevant knowledge in real time, providing employees with the information they need when they need it. Continuous refinement of knowledge assets ensures that information remains accurate and relevant, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
In summary, by strategically combining advanced technologies with behavioral change initiatives, organizations can finally capture the wealth of tacit knowledge that has historically been locked in employees’ minds. This newfound capability makes it feasible to harness the vast reservoir of insights that underpin organizational success. By leveraging platforms that facilitate information capture and implementing effective classification methods, companies can transform previously elusive expertise into valuable assets. The result is a smarter, more agile organization where critical knowledge is preserved and leveraged as a long-term competitive advantage.
Our next post will explore the crucial human aspect of motivating employees to contribute their tacit knowledge, ensuring the collective pool of organizational intelligence continues to serve the business.