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One of our most powerful pillars is to always be engaged in knowledge transfer.
Before we discuss the Pillar, a little background might help. Through most of the 19th century, we lived in an agrarian society. This was followed by an industrial revolution and then by a service-based economy. In 1959, Peter Drucker introduced the concept of a knowledge worker economy.
Under previous economic models, whatever you grew, made, or provided is depleted when shared or consumed.
In a knowledge-based economy, not only does your product not deplete or get consumed, it often grows and increases when shared. As a candle keeps its light when its flame ignites another, knowledge flourishes when shared.
So what is knowledge and how does it differ from information, data, or insight?
Knowledge is information put into context. Let’s use a photograph to better illustrate. If you take a photo of yourself, the picture is information. How you look in the photo is data. Once you see the photo, your mind automatically starts linking this image with memories of other pieces of information and in the process, becomes knowledge.
Your brain does this linking intrinsically. It takes the information from the photo, puts it into context, and then relates it to other information it already has. This includes things others may think as relevant or irrelevant such as the photography process, the medium the photo is produced in, details about the subject in the picture, the environment where the picture was taken, any emotional queues you may sense from the subject of the picture, and the feelings you derive from experiencing the photograph itself. Knowledge is the linking process that our brains do automatically with information.
