Knowledge Only Exists in the Mind Everything else is information

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We often confuse knowledge with information. This leads to strategies that prioritise documents and databases over people and understanding. To manage knowledge effectively, we need to view it as something people create and use, rather than something to be stored, and design our practices to support sensemaking, not just storage.

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In everyday language, the words “knowledge and “information” are used loosely and interchangeably.

Knowledge is frequently defined as something like this:

Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating new experience and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers.

In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms.

Credit: Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak

As Knowledge Management (KM) definitions go, this is a good one. However, to manage information and knowledge effectively, I believe it is essential to make a clear, crisp distinction between the two concepts.

Difference between Knowledge and Information

There’s no such thing as knowledge management; there are only knowledgeable people.

Information only becomes knowledge in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it.

Credit: Peter Drucker

Some people say that knowledge can only exist in people’s heads. Anything else, such as information written or stored in databases, including voice and video, is considered information.

Others distinguish between tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is stored in people’s heads. In contrast, explicit knowledge is stored elsewhere, such as on paper or digitally in a computer system, and differs from information in various ways. Larry Prusak makes that distinction above.

However, the distinction is never straightforward, and so-called explicit knowledge is often intertwined with data and information.

Tom Wilson clearly and eloquently distinguishes between knowledge and information below. He references human knowledge, as many other creatures have minds and knowledge.

Knowledge only exists in the human mind. Everything else, however, is information.

Knowledge is defined as what we know: knowledge involves the mental processes of comprehension, understanding, and learning that go on in the mind and only in the mind, however much they involve interaction with the world outside the mind and interaction with others.

Whenever we wish to express what we know, we can only do so by uttering messages of one kind or another – oral, written, graphic, gestural or even through ‘body language’.

Such messages do not carry ‘knowledge’, they constitute ‘information’, which a knowing mind may assimilate, understand, comprehend and incorporate into its own knowledge structures.

Credit: The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’ by Thomas D. Wilson

But there is no right or wrong definition. As human beings, we can choose how we define things.

There is nothing wrong with living with two or more definitions—using the one most appropriate to the context in which we are working. It is somewhat akin to scientists living with the dual nature of light—both a particle and a wave simultaneously.

It’s also beneficial to minimize the use of the terms’ explicit’ and ‘tacit knowledge.’ There is nothing wrong with these terms, but the additional jargon tends to alienate many people.

We should also remember that our brain is not a computer. It does not process information, retrieve knowledge, or store memories like a computer.

Difference between Knowledge Management and Information Management

So, if we consider that knowledge only exists in the human mind and everything else is information, what is the difference between Information Management (IM) and Knowledge Management (KM)? Well:

Information Management is practiced by improving the systems that capture, store, categorize and transmit information.

It’s about databases, records management, libraries, books, reports, document repositories, videos, taxonomies, etc. Although information exists in many forms other than digital, it is largely about Information Technology (IT). On the other hand:

Knowledge Management is practiced through activities that support better decision-making and innovation.

It’s about understanding information, making better sense of the world, improving decision-making, creativity, and innovation. Only human beings can do this; computers cannot. Simply put, IM is about technology, and KM is about people.

Reports aren’t knowledge.

Credit: Peter Senge

Of course, you need to focus on people to do a good job of KM, but you also need a good IM foundation. Does everyone in the KM world agree on this?  No. Will they ever agree? No. Does it matter?  I don’t think so.

You can make sense of things independently by reading, observing, and thinking. However, as individuals, our capabilities are limited, and biases and flaws often influence our thinking.

If we wish to make real sense of the world, we need to pool our minds and think together. We do this through conversation. Let’s take an example.

Many organizations have a small team dedicated to what is often called market or business intelligence.

Knowledge is the capacity for effective action.

There is no capacity for effective action in a database.

Credit: Peter Senge

They look out into the big, wide world and note new technologies, products, and services, as well as new competitors, regulatory changes, and risks.

They then produce a regular report, which they circulate to relevant individuals within the organization. This is mostly IM – getting high-quality information to the right people.

But this is all they do.  Often, this is seen as a KM role. It is not – it is an IM role.

More innovative organizations add an additional step to this process.  When they discover significant things, they convene a Knowledge Café to make sense of the changes.

This is the KM part, and it can only be accomplished through conversation.

We need both IM and KM to do good KM. IM on its own is just that, IM!

For all our knowledge, we have no idea what we're talking about.

We don't understand what's going on in our business, our market, and our world.

Knowledge Management shouldn't be about helping us to know more. It should be about helping us to understand.

So, how do we understand things? It's through stories that we understand how the world works.

Credit: David Weinberger

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If we want KM to make a real difference, we need to be clear about what knowledge is and how it differs from information. That means working with people, not just systems. Let us design our practices to support understanding, conversation, and better decisions, not just better documents or databases.

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Resources

• Article: The Future of Knowledge: Can It Exist Without a Human Mind?
• Article: Can only humans have knowledge?
• Blog Post: You don’t have to be human to have knowledge