In 1991, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi wrote a book called The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese
Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Now you might be thinking who cares? It's a book about companies and economics, just another boring edition of The Idiot's Guide to Making Loads of Money or something like that. But you'd be wrong and, in fact, you would have missed out on a brilliant little theory they produced called the spiral of knowledge. You see in this book, Nonaka and Takeuchi proposed that there were two different types of knowledge, tacit and explicit.
Explicit knowledge is “easy to articulate and express formally” (Paavola, Lipponen, and Hakkarainen 2004, p. 559)
Tacit knowledge is “embedded in individual experience” and involves “personal belief, perspective, and the value system” (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, p. viii)
Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Now you might be thinking who cares? It's a book about companies and economics, just another boring edition of The Idiot's Guide to Making Loads of Money or something like that. But you'd be wrong and, in fact, you would have missed out on a brilliant little theory they produced called the spiral of knowledge. You see in this book, Nonaka and Takeuchi proposed that there were two different types of knowledge, tacit and explicit.
Explicit knowledge is “easy to articulate and express formally” (Paavola, Lipponen, and Hakkarainen 2004, p. 559)
Tacit knowledge is “embedded in individual experience” and involves “personal belief, perspective, and the value system” (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, p. viii)
So what? Why does this matter? Because they also supplied us with something called the "spiral of knowledge" (right). They postulated that tacit knowledge (what you know to be true, your beliefs) can become explicit knowledge (you can define it) in a process called "externalization." When you combine this new knowledge with your old explicit knowledge, you create even newer knowledge. This last step, "combination," is the key to innovation. |
Okay great, so now we know where innovation comes from. So what?
Well actually we go back to the title of the book, you know the one we said sounded like the Idiot's Guide to Fame and Fortune? Because actually it's very important. I'll write it again, with the important parts in bold:
The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation
The fact is that Nonaka and Takeuchi wrote a book explaining how companies can foster innovation, something many people consider the key to business success.
Well actually we go back to the title of the book, you know the one we said sounded like the Idiot's Guide to Fame and Fortune? Because actually it's very important. I'll write it again, with the important parts in bold:
The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation
The fact is that Nonaka and Takeuchi wrote a book explaining how companies can foster innovation, something many people consider the key to business success.
| So let me ask you this: in the past 50 years, what has their been in terms of innovation in our educational systems? I mean something like the microchip, which revolutionized society and gave us so much of the technology we know and love. Nothing! There have been no significant strides towards reforming the American education system because people are too afraid of making mistakes. When will "enough be enough"? When will Americans start to realize that education is the safest way to bet on the future. You want to invest in stocks? Fine, you could lose all your money. With education, you're betting on the future leaders of our country. Can't beat that! |