Language as a Medium of Knowledge Transfer

Wikipedia defines knowledge as "..... a familiarity with someone or something, that can include facts, descriptions, information, and/or skills acquired through experience or education." The key words here are facts, descriptions, information, and/or skills. As one can see, knowledge is often tacit, something that resides in someone's mind and is exchanged when two people communicate.

All living beings share knowledge. You can see it all around you. Even animals teach their young ones basic life skills. What, however, differentiates us humans from animals when it comes to sharing knowledge, is language. Over millennia, humans have perfected the art of expressing themselnes through language and this has impacted the way we share knowledge. So how have we humans fared? Has language been a bane or a boon for knowledge transfer? Why do corporates spend millions of dollars every year on knowledge management experts?

For centuries, human beings shared knowledge through direct physical interaction. Language was just an aid and communication was fairly high-context. Gestures, tones, and other elements of body language played a huge role in communication. Sometimes, even simple gestures communicated a lot. What's more, written information was expensive to create and maintain. Writing methods like engraving on stone tablets, writing on papyrus or silk scrolls, and writing on palm leaves were not wide-spread as they were expensive. Also, literacy was not widespread. So the ancients used written text mostly for important records. In the absence of easy availability of books and written information, the ancients evolved more language-independent means of knowledge transfer. While craftsmen and other skilled workers used guilds and apprenticeships to share and spread knowledge,  societies used oral rendition to keep literature alive. These high-context and interaction-intensive means of knowledge transfer persisted for centuries.

The two huge inventions of the Industrial Revolution, the printing press and the telephone, have changed the way we communicate and hence share knowledge. While the printing press made it possible to create and distribute written information (especially books) on a large scale, the telephone made it possible for people to communicate without seeing each other. This forced language to play a larger role in communication thus making communication more low-context. In the absence of body language, written and spoken language have become more stylized and structured. But, is a low-context medium like language an effective medium for knowledge transfer? How will multi-media impact knowledge transfer?

Advantages of Language

Storage

The greatest advantage of language, especially written language, is storage. Written text can be stored in various ways and can be delivered in the creators absence. In the past 200 years, we humans have "published" far more knowledge than we ever have in the past 5000 years. The emergence of audio and video recording technologies in the last century have made it cheaper and easier to capture knowledge than ever before. Today, we have millions of books, movies, and documentaries on almost every subject under the sun. 

Measurable

Both written and spoken language can be measured both in terms of quantity AND quality. This has huge business ramifications. Writers, speakers, entertainers, and other folks who earn through language can actually charge by quantity and quality. 

Freedom and Human Rights

The newspaper and radio have empowered more people than any other medium in history. Their unquestionable reach have made Gods of leaders. I'm sure even Alexander and Ashoka were not as well known to their people then as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. are today.

Disadvantages

Open to Interpretation

Both written and spoken language can be misinterpreted. Language experts have evolved a mind-boggling array of vocabularies, taxonomies, and grammars to make language more efficient. All these efforts have simply made language more complex. Today, what you say or write in a business context can mean something different in another context.

Low Effectiveness for Skill Transfer
Not all types of knowledge can be effectively transferred by just by speech and text. Classic examples are skills that require physical activity. You can learn swimming by reading a book! A bulk of the skills that we humans need can only be learnt from another human. This applies to the industry as well. That's the reason why mentors are more effective than user manuals. :) Language is, however, a great medium for record keeping ("reference" or "fact" information type for information architects.)

Quantity vs. Quality

Language-based content like text and audio (and even video) often "take up more space" and time to communicate an idea as compared to body language and graphics. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Conclusion
Language is a great aid to communication, but should be used carefully in a knowledge management context. It is great for storing factual information, but can be pretty ineffective if used exclusively for other information types. So, the next time you are designing a "skill preservation process" or a training session,  try supplementing written text with video and audio content to make it more effective.