CONFERENCES, SEMINARS, VIDEO PRESENTATIONS: THE MOST VALUABLE EVENTS FOR LEARNING
By Nick Parkin AffilIIMS
Attending industry conferences and seminars is a pivotal part of professional growth and development of marine surveyors. Not all sources of knowledge are equal!
There are two types of knowledge: • Explicit knowledge: Formal, codified and typically documented
• Tacit knowledge: Ideas and experiences that people have in their minds and are, therefore, difficult to access because they are often not written down or codified and may not necessarily be easily expressed
In the field of knowledge management, the concept of tacit knowledge refers to a knowledge which cannot be fully codified (written down or encoded). Therefore, an individual cannot acquire tacit knowledge simply by reading printed matter or Googling, you need to be exposed to the experiences and wisdom of the subject matter expert.
With tacit knowledge, people are often not aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires personal contact, interaction and trust. This kind of knowledge can only be revealed through practice in a particular context (transmitted through social networking) or by sharing ideas and experiences through seminars, conferences and video presentations. To some extent it is “captured” when the knowledge holder joins a network or a community of practice.
The benefits of immersing ourselves professionally away from the normal work schedule, far outweighs the challenges of being away from work for a short period of time, however we always seem to convince ourselves that we are too busy to attend seminars and conferences!
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” Ben Franklin
There are numerous benefits to attending conference sessions and seminars, however the most valuable is to hear expert speakers present on thought provoking topics and provide the environment and potential for absorbing tacit knowledge.
To maximize the value of knowledge capture and transfer from conferences and seminars, it’s important to consider and create a formal process for information capture, synthesis and distribution.
• Capture the Knowledge: Capture what is being presented using notes, diagrams and multimedia.
• Synthesize and Formalise the Knowledge: Share and discuss the knowledge and ideas collected with colleagues and filter out what’s most useful.
• Capture and share: Have a plan for how you will internalise the useful ideas, insights, statistics and case studies and share these with your colleagues and clients. Specific learnings can be saved in your personal knowledge base.
The IIMS enables knowledge sharing through seminars, conferences and YouTube video sessions which are all sources of the most valuable from of knowledge (tacit knowledge). IIMS members should take advantage these rich offerings to build knowledge, skill and capability.
14 | The Report • September 2017 • Issue 81
Member News
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