Knowledge a Key Component of Modern/ Future Operational System: "Data vs Information vs Knowledge Understanding the Difference"

 

For the last couple of weeks,  I have discussed in this blog the concept of “expertise, knowledge,” how to multiply this, and why harnessing and bringing knowledge as a natural part of your Operational Architecture is key to dealing with the changing operational human assets due to age, culture, length of time in role, digital.

I was at a customer on a white board and discussing some of these concepts, and I realized that there was confusion between DATA, INFORMATION and KNOWLEDGE.

Sitting over coffee afterwards I agreed that this was not uncommon, and actually comes down to the fact that many people have not had the time to think through what does their operational landscape look like in 2020. That afternoon I was reviewing another customer in Europe vision, and they had a set of functional maps relative to activities on how they expect to operate in 2020 and what is needed, and reflecting on this knowledge is the foundational part built out of many parts.  

I was reading this article from Tom Davenport at Harvard on how knowledge workers collaborate (his book is called Working Knowledge)

, thought it is worth bringing up in the blog I have extracted some points from an article  "Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know" By Thomas H. Davenport and Lawrence Prusak

 

   

Firstly this comment on why knowledge is key:

“Knowledge, by contrast, can provide a sustainable advantage. Eventually, competitors can almost always match the quality and price of a market leader's current product or service. By the time that happens, through, the knowledge-rich, knowledge-managing company will have moved on to a new level of quality, creativity, or efficiency. The knowledge advantage is sustainable because it generates increasing returns and continuing advantages. Unlike material assets, which decrease as they are used, knowledge assets increase with use: Ideas breed new ideas, and shared knowledge stays with the giver while it enriches the receiver. The potential for

new ideas arising from the stock of knowledge in any firm is practically limitless -- particularly if the people in the firm are given opportunities to think, to learn, and to talk with one another.”

 

Then the difference between Data/ Information/ Knowledge.

 

Data is a set of discrete, objective facts about events. In an organizational context, data is most usefully described as structured records of transactions. When a customer goes to a gas

station and fills the tank of his car, that transaction can be partly described by data: when he made the purchase; how many gallons he bought; how much he paid. The data tells nothing about why he went to that service station and not another one, and can't predict how likely he is to come back.

 

Unlike data, information has meaning -- the "relevance and purpose" of Drucker's definition. Not only does it potentially shape the receiver, it has a shape: it is organized to some purpose. Data becomes information when its creator adds meaning. We transform data into information by adding value in various ways. Let's consider several important methods, all

beginning with the letter C:

• Contextualized: we know for what purpose the data was gathered
• Categorized: we know the units of analysis or key components of the data

• Calculated: the data may have been analyzed mathematically or statistically
• Corrected: errors have been removed from the data
• Condensed: the data may have been summarized in a more concise form

 

Knowledge derives from information as information derives from data. If information is to become knowledge, humans must do virtually all the work. This transformation happens through such C words as:

• Comparison: how does information about this situation compare to other situations we have known?
• Consequences: what implications does the information have for decisions and actions?
• Connections: how does this bit of knowledge relate to others?
• Conversation: what do other people think about this information?

The article goes into a lot more depth, but I think it is this transformation from information to knowledge that is key as it enables the all important action to be taken. Too often we get caught up in hype and miss the reason why we are capturing data and information it is really to enable faster, and more efficient decisions and actions.

So this leads to the concept of “Intelligent work” which has the information in a knowledge form, with experience and associated actions, the leaders will design their systems to centered on this approach.