And… the pitch!
There’s a crack of the bat and, instantly, the outfielder darts to the place where the ball will fall and raises his glove to precisely the right height and at the right angle to snag the fast-moving ball out of the air.
The scene just described is so commonplace—we have known of it since our youth—that we don’t even give it a second thought. It’s just “natural,” we say to ourselves, and shrug our shoulders.
But, consider what the human mind has done in the moments between the crack of the bat and the catching of the fly ball.
With only a couple of small clues, which occur almost simultaneously—the sound emitted from the impact of the ball with the bat, and the motion of the ball as it accelerates away from the swinging bat—the human mind calculates the trajectory of the ball and its estimated landing zone. Then sets the outfielder in motion to intercept the ball before it reaches the ground.
This the outfielder does this with confidence and precision without knowing any of the following “facts”—
- The velocity of the ball as it leaves the bat.
- The precise weight of the ball.
- The measurements of the atmospheric elements that will affect the ball’s trajectory, such as barometric pressure, wind speed or direction, or relative humidity.
- The mathematical formula for calculating the trajectory of an missile.
How does the ball player accomplish this amazing feat?
He does it by employing a combination of intuition and experience.
Intuition is that innate (unlearned) sense that the human mind has for absorbing—instantaneously or over time—clues from our environment and employing those clues for problem-solving and to guide actions.
Experience is the cumulative experience gained by the fielder’s own trial and error, as well as that which has been obtained by coming in contact with the experience of others.
TRIBAL KNOWLEDGE and INTUITION
Ask any all-pro, destined-for-the-Baseball-Hall-of-Fame major league outfielder to write down precisely how he does what he does and he would be unable to do so. More than likely, he would be inclined to tell anyone who asked him to do so, “You’re crazy! You can’t tell someone how to do what I do. They either can or they can’t.”
That is why we refer to this combination of intuition and experience as “tribal knowledge.”
Tribal knowledge is difficult to codify—to write-down, to document—in a meaningful way.
Nevertheless, it is very, very real and it is valuable to the success of every human endeavor—including business enterprises.
THINK ABOUT IT
The average human mind is far more capable to absorb “clues” from our environment and compute potential outcomes based on those clues than we are generally willing to admit.
By failing to unlock the “tribal knowledge” in your business enterprise and beyond—into the extended supply chain—your firm is failing to access the best, most powerful computer of all: the human mind!
Examples:
- Your people know far more about your customers (individually, in some cases; but certainly in the aggregate and by segment) and your marketplace than your ERP system with all its “big data” will ever know. Chances are they know…
- The subtleties about your customers—what excites them and what turns them off
- How much various customers rely upon your firm for certain products
- The scuttlebutt in your industry about your firm’s performance, and even why certain big players in the market do business with you (or why they do not do business with you)
- Your people know more about your vendors, too, than the “big data” in your ERP database—in fact, they know more about your entire supply chain from end-to-end than either “big data” or “fast data” will ever be able to provide to management
- Your people know more about how things actually workin your organization, too
- Not what management believes about how things work
- Not what the policy and procedures manual says about how things work
- Not what the workers tell management about how things are working
- Your people know more about your products and services than “big data”, as well
All of this “tribal knowledge” may be unlocked and leveraged for a process of ongoing improvement (POOGI)—like a pennant-winning baseball team—using the right tools.
Don’t fail to leverage the most powerful computing system you have available to you for helping make your business more successful. After all, you’re already paying for access to it.
Unlock “tribal knowledge” starting tomorrow!
