Tacit knowledge is know-how people use but struggle to explain. You capture it by asking for specific stories instead of rules, watching people work, having learners do the work under observation, and recording decisions with their reasons as they happen. Some tacit knowledge only transfers through practice, so pair capture with shadowing.
The idea is often traced to the philosopher Michael Polanyi, who wrote in The Tacit Dimension (1966) that "we can know more than we can tell."
Tacit vs explicit knowledge
| Explicit | Tacit | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | Leave policy | Knowing when to escalate a complaint |
| Easy to write? | Yes | No |
| Transferred by | Documents | Practice, stories, observation |
| Lost when people leave? | Rarely | Often |
7 methods to capture tacit knowledge
1. Story-based interviews
Ask "tell me about the last time…" rather than "how do you…". Stories carry the cues people do not know they use. See our knowledge transfer interview questions.
2. Think-aloud observation
Watch the expert work and ask them to say what they are looking at and why. Record it.
3. Shadowing and reverse shadowing
The learner watches, then the learner does it while the expert watches.
4. Worked examples
Collect real cases with the decision and the reason. Ten annotated examples beat one abstract guide.
5. After-action reviews
After an incident or project: what was expected, what happened, why, and what to do next time.
6. Communities of practice
Regular, informal sessions where practitioners share problems.
7. Capture during work
Knowledge is easiest to capture at the moment it is used: when a decision is made, when a reason is explained in a meeting, when a commitment is given. Tools that record decisions and reasons as they happen keep more of it than interviews held months later.
Which method for which knowledge?
| Knowledge | Best method |
|---|---|
| Judgment calls | Stories, worked examples |
| Physical or tool skills | Shadowing, think-aloud |
| Reasons for past decisions | Decision log, capture during work |
| Relationships | Introductions, shared meetings |
| Lessons from incidents | After-action reviews |
Where Reattend fits
Reattend supports method 7. Its desktop app notices decisions, commitments and explanations as work happens in meetings and work apps, and keeps them as memories with the people involved. That does not replace shadowing or mentoring, but it means the reasons are still findable after the expert has moved on. For more on the concept, see our page on tacit knowledge.
Frequently asked questions
What is tacit knowledge?
Tacit knowledge is know-how that people use but find hard to explain: judgment, intuition, pattern recognition and the feel for when something is wrong. The term is associated with the philosopher Michael Polanyi, who wrote that 'we can know more than we can tell'.
What is the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge?
Explicit knowledge can be written down and shared easily, such as a policy or a procedure. Tacit knowledge is learned through experience and is hard to write down, such as knowing which customer complaints signal a bigger problem.
Can tacit knowledge be captured?
Partly. It can be made more explicit through story-based interviews, observation and worked examples, and transferred through shadowing and mentoring. Some of it can only be learned by doing.
What are examples of tacit knowledge?
A nurse noticing a patient is deteriorating before the numbers change; a sales lead knowing when a deal is at risk; an engineer knowing which alerts are noise; an officer knowing how to handle a sensitive file.