ITIL? 4 Knowledge Management Walking-the-talk!

Let me refer to the ITIL 4 practice, ‘Knowledge Management’ which should be one of the fibres engrained within every practice.

I am going to put an ITIL techie' hat on as to speak, so hopefully some of you will benefit the best of both worlds, i.e., clarity on ITIL topic content and real-life context and meaning.?All that said, apart from the terminology used, this article has not been taken straight from the ITIL book, I have composed this article using my own words based on real-life business context and meaning. Even though I am an accredited ITIL trainer, as always, I prefer to take a walk-the-talk approach!

Apologies in advance if at first glance the content of this article appears to be confusing, if it does, I am sure after a couple of glances it will fall into place not to mention, the reason I have provided supportive examples/explanations.

I am going to start with referring to the SECI model comprising of Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation (SECI), based on Explicit and Tacit knowledge relationships.?You may recall this model if you have covered the practice knowledge management, those who have attended my ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) certification courses will have indeed covered the SECI model.

Okay, simply put, ‘Tacit’ knowledge is difficult to document and codify, whereas ‘Explicit’ knowledge is easy to articulate, document and codify.

For ease of understanding let me highlight a journey, let me start with ‘Tacit’ knowledge. When we refer to a ‘Tacit-to-Tacit’ relationship an example of this could be a face-to-face meeting where experiences, skills and ideas are conveyed. This is referred to as “socialisation.”

To round this example, I suppose we could say that Axelos? (the owner of ITIL) consult with industry specialists from around the world based on a Tacit-to-Tacit relationship (“socialisation”). Axelos then translate the knowledge gained into Explicit knowledge (Tacit-to-Explicit). This is referred to as “externalisation,” meaning Axelos translate such external experiences into a well-documented, articulated, and codified IT service management (ITSM) public framework, what we know as ITIL. Another example of a Tacit-to-Explicit relationship could be where a specialist uses his or her experience to document a knowledge article to be shared in a knowledge base.

Okay, when we refer to an ‘Explicit-to-Explicit’ relationship, an example of this could be an organisation adopting ITIL. This is referred to as “combination.”?Or a worker using the knowledge article composed by the specialist would be another example of an Explicit-to-Explicit relationship.

So, being mindful of this, let me now pick up on a student attending an ITIL course (Explicit-to-Explicit). It is assumed as part of absorbing the contents of the course (Explicit) the student translates the knowledge gained into Tacit knowledge, this relationship now becomes Explicit to Tacit. Meaning the student through his or her own experience translates this into ideas relating to business context, and the relevancy of his or her specific skills, experience and/or industry/organisation. This is referred to as “Internalisation.”?With this in mind, “internalisation” means that we are not only Adopting ITIL but Adapting ITIL.

Now unless you already knew all of this, I am sure you have got the gist, but let me just reflect on the journey described so far.

1. We started with a Tacit-to-Tacit knowledge relationship between Axelos and the industry specialists from around the world known as (“socialisation”),
2. Axelos took this external experience and transformed this into a public framework known as ITIL, based on a Tacit-to-Explicit knowledge relationship (“externalisation”)
3. This in turn created an environment where any organisation can adopt ITIL based on an Explicit-to-Explicit relationship (“combination”).
4. Then we ended up with the student taking this combination of knowledge and transforming this into an Explicit-to-Tacit knowledge relationship (“internalisation”) where such knowledge can be adapted within the chosen industry/organisation.

In summary, we have gone from “socialisation” to “externalisation” to “combination” and then to “internalisation.”

Let us now start ‘walking the talk’!

Let us pick up from the last piece of the journey, were the student attends’ an ITIL course (Explicit-to-Explicit) and using his or her own experience translates this to their specific industry (Explicit-to-Tacit), so does it end here??

What I am saying is, the output (the intangible/tangible deliverable) of the ITIL course is pretty much Explicit knowledge and the outcome/result for the student (apart from becoming certified through such Explicit knowledge) is Tacit knowledge.?So, is it here where it ends?

Hopefully not, surely the business has not funded the student to attend a training course based on relying purely on face-to-face meetings back at the workplace e.g., Tacit-to-Tacit (socialisation)?

• What if the student leaves the company??
• What if the student chooses not to freely share such information??
• What if the student wants to use such knowledge to gain a competitive advantage internally, and chooses instead to simply copy and paste the ITIL book as it stands into the company organisation??

Whatever the situation, none of this is acceptable!

So, should we not repeat the cycle back in the workplace by cascading “Socialisation” (Tacit-to-Tacit) e.g., consulting with other business stakeholders, to “Externalisation” (Tacit-to-Explicit) transforming this into shared knowledge articles to “Combination” (Explicit-to-Explicit) such as creating a set organisational guiding principles, or introducing our own ITSM framework and where relevant, “Internalisation” (Explicit-to-Tacit) into specific department/team relevance and context, and the spiral goes on.?For example, if we translate business requirements say from Production, Finance or HR etc., into ITSM context and meaning then we are cooking on hot gas as to speak!?It goes without saying that in today’s modern business world the business is IT and IT is the business!

I have seen ITIL certified Experts (now replaced in ITIL 4 as Managing Professionals - MPs) exist in some organisations not just in the one’s or two’s but in multiples but with zero evidence of such principles, methodologies and practices being conducted on the shop floor.?We do not even have our own set of guiding principles, that said, I see a lot of ITIL books kicking around the company but as a business owner this is no good to me, I want to see such books with my brand’ stamped on them!?So why is this?

Could this be that such personnel are not provided with the necessary support and resources to introduce these methodologies into the workplace as a whole? If so, then we should revisit the source/business case because something has gone wrong!

Or could it be that these personnel have little or no interest in sharing such knowledge, and prefer a tacit-to-tacit relationship? E.g., “if you come to me, then I will explain!” If so, we need to revisit the culture because this is not the culture that we promote!?Our culture is not based on silo working, our culture is based on collaborative working and this can only be achieved if we have a broad knowledge of other things in addition to our specialism(s) - we either fail together or succeed together, not in parts!

A good starting point is to stop just talking the walk and start walking the talk!

Trevor Wilson

E: [email protected]

W: https://www.itsmassist.com