Business psychologist: conversations that seem like a waste of time often get you the furthest | Business

Builds competitive advantage

Have you heard the term “tacit knowledge”? tacit knowledge)? It is knowledge that is imparted through practical experience, informal conversations, intuition or mentoring. These are skills that employees pass on to each other, various tricks, personal tips, unique ideas and creative methods of solving problems that are not described in textbooks or documents. Organizations that are able to promote and utilize such knowledge undoubtedly gain a competitive advantage.

First of all, tacit knowledge helps you understand your organization, understand why certain things work or don’t work in it. In addition, with still relatively high employee turnover, where we lose some information with each exit, tacit knowledge gains even more weight. Of course, there are standardized tasks, clear responsibilities, they must be described and documented, but this time it is not about them.

Talking about tacit knowledge becomes even more relevant now, in the era of artificial intelligence, when standardized, aggregated, commonly applicable knowledge, rules or strategies can be generated for us by artificial intelligence in a few minutes. But those “raisins”, secret tricks are not so easy to find, especially knowing that we often don’t even share them.

In other words, what is written in books or what is presented to us by artificial intelligence can be read at any time, but there is usually no contextual knowledge that is applicable in every specific organization or situation. Just as every chef has a secret ingredient to the dish he prepares, so in this case, every organization’s context is different and requires a different approach to decision-making.

I can tell you from experience that the conversations that seem like they are going nowhere at first often get you the farthest.

We have many examples where a highly experienced manager is appointed to lead a team, but the desired change does not happen. This is proof that what works in one organization will not necessarily work in another. In other words, each team has its own baggage of secret knowledge, which is like “between the lines”. On the other hand, we each carry our own experiences and unspoken knowledge that we can share and apply in certain situations. This reciprocal exchange is very valuable.

Let’s change transactional communication to transformational

The clearest signal that there is a lack of sharing of tacit knowledge in the organization is unattainable results, when it seems that all formalized, usually applied in a certain situation, seemingly rational solutions have already been tried, but they do not work. This is a sign that it is time to exchange non-standardized knowledge and look for ways to codify it.

I won’t lie here – there is no golden recipe for sharing that knowledge. The main tip is to talk. If today in organizations we allow ourselves to talk about 1 percent. time, let’s increase that percentage. What kind of conversation is this supposed to be? For example, after each completed project, have a tradition of sharing your emotions and thoughts about why things happened one way or another. This is best done in case of success so that team members can share with each other why they were successful in that particular case. Of course, such reviews are valuable even after failures.

Let’s change transactional communication, which is common in organizations, when we share achieved and unachieved goals, to transformational communication, which includes dialogue – the kind in which we do not demonstrate who is superior, better, more knowledgeable or similar, but simply share our impressions, thoughts, ideas after each project and implemented solution.

We live in the myth that everything must be rational

I can tell you from experience that the conversations that seem like they are going nowhere at first often get you the farthest. In general, we live in a kind of myth of rationality. We are unconsciously taught that everything must be very serious, rational and calculated. I know that many in this place will say: “but we don’t pay and receive money for speeches”. True, but I dare to say that the biggest enemy of innovation and creativity is the pursuit of efficiency.

Let’s allow ourselves more reflection, less calculation only by performance indicators. Let’s find more free time. We can start with small steps, for example, by simply observing colleagues at work, solving certain questions, and sharing with each other what you have observed. Also dedicating time to discuss projects and completed works, remembering what transformational communication is. Let’s just try it and see if anything changes. I am sure you will see positive changes.