Corporate Trainings: Never Forget What Life Has Taught You

Training managers who are already working in a company and managing people, processes, and projects is a challenging task. These professionals have significant experience, which they have acquired in a specific corporate environment. Part of this experience takes the form of explicit knowledge, while another part exists in the minds of managers undergoing corporate training as tacit knowledge.

Explicit knowledge is codified, that is, it is organized and communicated according to formalism, a symbol, or appropriate natural language. It is therefore easily transmitted and can be recorded in structured forms such as procedures, reports, strategies, guidelines, and so forth. Tacit knowledge we possess goes beyond what we can express. It is oriented toward an action, an experience, and a commitment of actors in a specific context. It is difficult to formalize, communicate, and transfer (P.A. Arling, M.W.S. Chun Facilitating new knowledge creation and obtaining KM maturity J. Knowl. Manag., 15, 2011).

Ignoring the explicit and tacit knowledge that managers undergoing corporate training already have while creating and implementing a training program, and saying "forget what life has taught you, let's start again," is not possible. Effective adult education is fundamentally built on the experience of managers undergoing corporate training. This helps to increase engagement and simplifies the understanding of new information.

The Knowledge Creation Model (I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi. The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation Oxford University Press, New York, 1995) describes the process of transforming explicit and tacit knowledge, which can occur through four modes:

• 1) From tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge (socialization): This arises from the interaction between individuals in a group. Learning is done by observation, imitation, and sharing experiences.
• 2) From explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge (combination): This allows the creation of explicit knowledge by deduction or induction from a restructured set of items of explicit knowledge that have already been acquired.
• 3) From explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge (internalization): This is a conversion from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge by a learning process of the type ‘learning by doing’.
• 4) From tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge (externalization): This is the explanation of practices and beliefs. Externalization is a process of articulating tacit knowledge into explicit concepts such as analogies, concepts, hypotheses, or models.

How can these modes of spreading tacit knowledge be enhanced by corporate training?

In corporate training, additional opportunities arise for spreading knowledge in the mode "from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge (socialization)," as training creates a new context in which communication occurs. To enhance the spread of tacit knowledge in the format "from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge," the following will work:

• Including employees of different levels of corporate hierarchy in one training group, forming cross-functional groups.
• Integrating internal company experts into the training program.
• Stimulating discussions and debates during the training.

Corporate training stimulates the spread of tacit knowledge through the mode "from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge," as any training builds upon, supplements, and develops the codified knowledge already in the minds of managers undergoing corporate training, which they acquired as a result of previous training and experience.

The incorporation of "learning by doing" elements in corporate training stimulates the internalization mode, the formation of new tacit knowledge among company employees. It should be noted that including this mode requires extensive involvement of managers undergoing corporate training in applying the knowledge gained not only in the classroom but also in real professional activities. The role of corporate training is to create motivation for applying the acquired knowledge in the form of educational projects, reflection sessions, which outside the training program return the managers to what was studied and help them connect their new experience with what was learned.

Corporate training also creates an environment for including the mode "from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge" in the following ways:

• Creating internal cases using interviews with experts, which translates part of tacit knowledge into explicit through structuring information, emphasizing, choosing a specific angle of presenting the situation, formulating the problem (ensuring all this is the task of the methodologist who creates the case, together with the expert).
• Incorporating internal company experts into the educational solution, who through presentations, participation in discussions, mentoring of educational projects can transmit hidden knowledge to managers undergoing corporate training.

Effective training strategies should not discard the existing knowledge that these professionals possess, but rather build upon it. This involves recognizing the value of accumulated experience and integrating it into new learning contexts. Corporate training should aim to create a dynamic learning environment that respects and leverages the existing knowledge base of its participants while introducing new concepts and practices.