Virtual Reality and Tacit Knowledge- can they be connected?

Today, during our Knowledge Management Global Network course on Leveraging Tacit Knowledge for Value Creation, Tracy Cosgrove shared her inspiring story about using Virtual Reality (VR) in hospitality services.

Key Takeaways on how VR can leverage value creation of tacit knowledge:

• Tacit Knowledge Transfer: Amplifying Nonaka's Principle, tacit knowledge can be transferred without converting it to explicit knowledge. VR beautifully amplifies this idea. Thank you, Sven Rinke, PhD, for the insight.

• Sensory: Stimulating sensory engagement, VR immerses experts in virtual environments that stimulate their senses, enabling them to tap into their unconscious and tacit knowledge.

• Contextual Understanding: VR allows experts to view the world from different personas' perspectives, enhancing their understanding of various contexts and situations. This leads to creating both tacit and explicit knowledge relevant to business needs.

• Enriched Learning: Blending VR with real-world scenarios enriches our learning experiences, making them more exciting and engaging, thus stimulating our imagination and knowledge creation.

• Questions: Everyone acts as avatars in VR environments, providing a sense of anonymity and protection. This encourages more questions, which helps listeners leverage their tacit knowledge and understanding (internalization) and enables experts to deepen their understanding while answering these questions.

Tracy emphasized that you can use VR technologies without being a technological expert. So, for those hesitating, there are few excuses left for delaying their adoption.