Documenting Tacit Knowledge Through a Case Study - Private Chef Meals
- Sagit Salmon
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Documenting tacit knowledge is a structured process of eliciting and converting an expert’s experience-based insights into reusable, explicit knowledge. By mapping workflows, probing underlying reasoning, and capturing real-life cases and practices, organizations can preserve critical know-how, improve decision-making, and enable consistent performance-even when expertise is scarce or transitions occur.
Let’s start with a recommendation:
When you have a recipe list for a meal in front of you, it is advisable to spread ingredient purchases over several days.
The reasons for this vary: for instance, quality ingredients are found in different stores, and one doesn’t always have the time or energy to spend half a day just shopping.
Another reason - not all ingredients should be purchased on the same day. Dry goods such as rice, spices, and oil can be bought a week or more in advance, while fish should ideally be bought only on the day of the meal or the day before…
Well, you are probably asking yourselves how this recommendation found its way into a professional journal on knowledge management…
The answer is that I recently carried out a knowledge retention process for a chef, on a topic that interests us all - food.
Why Conduct Knowledge Retention for a Chef?
Because he is very senior and experienced in the field (close to 30 years), because he serves as a source of consultation even among his colleagues, and because his is a one-man business - and perhaps one day one of his successors, who already work with him today, will decide to take over.
So, How Did the Process Actually Unfold?
First, we defined the scope of documentation - we thought together about what unique knowledge he possessed. What he specializes in, what knowledge he has developed over the years, what cannot be found anywhere on the internet.
We decided to document the method for preparing and executing a meal for up to 100 guests.
He then began to narrate in a flowing, associative manner what he does. As I documented his words, I could already understand and reflect to him that there was a work process here, with several stages, each worthy of deeper exploration.
This insight helped us both:
I understood that the document structure would follow the work process (from planning to completion) and created a framework for the documentation document, asked questions to deepen and focus (drawing on my prior knowledge and what I learned from observations I conducted), and helped him understand what he knows.
He described in greater detail what each stage entails, beyond the simple, self-evident actions.
In the process, he recalled, for example, a preliminary stage he had not mentioned: interviewing the client (needs assessment), as the basis for planning the event. From this interview, the following are derived: the desired menu, the number of guests, sensitivities requiring special adjustments, the location of the event (= travel time), the venue (= what equipment needs to be brought), the date of the event (= the chef’s availability, pricing), and much more.
Together, we converged on the proposed structure, defined the stages of work in chronological order, detailed the actions carried out at each stage, and organized them logically. In the course of the narration and documentation, practices (insights/tips) also emerged - knowledge accumulated from experience and applied consciously (such as the recommendation that opens this article) - that make it possible to improve and streamline the work.
Note:
In other cases, a document structure can be organized by topics such as areas of activity within a role or a review of projects; by scenarios such as cases and responses or troubleshooting procedures; or a document that combines these.
As the process continued, we delved into an additional layer of practices relating to tacit knowledge - knowledge the expert does not know he has.
He operates according to this knowledge, yet does not think to share it. Speaking about the knowledge and documenting it transforms it from tacit to explicit, and delivers the greatest added value to the process - not only the self-evident, but also the unique knowledge, the kind found only with the expert, the kind that might not even be transmitted during a handover - the kind that holds the key to success.
And how does one reach tacit knowledge? By asking more and more in-depth questions (digging deeper),, trying to understand the rationale (why act this way and not another?); discussing “interesting” past cases, analyzing cases and responses, and from these deriving additional recommendations.
One of the cases that arose was a meal for 20 guests at the client’s home, where the kitchen was far from the dining table, requiring a long walk to serve the food.
Why is this case a challenge? Because you want to serve all guests simultaneously, because you want everyone to receive their food hot, and because the number of staff is not always sufficient for all of this.
And yet - solutions were found in real time, and the guests were satisfied.
Now, it is clear that such a case can recur; therefore, documenting the solutions provided (or even simply raising awareness of them) can help handle it in the future. That is, when the chef returns to a venue where the kitchen is far from the dining table, he will no longer need to “invent” solutions but rather reuse those he has already applied.
In summary, an expert is an expert - whether belonging to a large organization or a one-person operation.
Retaining the expert’s knowledge includes both explicit, known work processes and practices (explicit) and tacit knowledge.
Both are important, but the greatest added value is often provided precisely by tacit knowledge, which can only be reached through a systematic documentation process directed toward that knowledge.
The beauty of it - once documented, this knowledge can help even novices.
And the recommendation at the beginning of the article? I will remember it when I plan my next holiday meal.
Below are several articles on the topic of knowledge retention from our knowledge management repository:
Comments