This week we have one more issue dedicated to the 6 skills of Personal Knowledge Management. If you lost the previous issues, read them here:

• ​​​6 PKM skills​​​
• ​​​Active note-taking​​​
• ​​​Active reading​​​
• ​​​Idea Management​​​
• ​​​Networked Reading​
• ​Argumentation​

Hello Reader,

The ultimate goal of research is to create knowledge, both personal knowledge and collective understanding.

But how can you do it?

First, as a process, it helps us create personal knowledge about a given phenomenon. We can curate sources, document our observations, analyse what we have observed, and derive conclusions from what we have analysed.

When curating other people’s work, we are first expanding the boundaries of our personal knowledge by answering the question:

“What is already known out there?”

But when you have studied a topic or a “phenomenon” deeply enough, you start generating knowledge that no one else has thought about (or at least written about) before.

You start expanding human knowledge.

That may mean PhD level research, but it may also mean knowledge about a specific issue within your job or profession (you are working day in and day out on that, if you do research it is likely that no one else knows the issue better than you).

So in this issue of the Playbook, we will cover how your Personal Knowledge Management practice can help you with knowledge creation, which is also the last skill in our PKM skills series.

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I will start this story with an anecdote common among graduate students. It comes from The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. by Matt Might and I simplify it here:
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A. Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge.

B. In basic education (elementary and high school) we acquire core basic knowledge.

C. In a bachelor’s degree (or a technical school) you also gain a speciality.

D. A master’s degree deepens that speciality.

E. Through knowledge curation (often in a PhD, but not necessarily) we arrive at the edge of human knowledge.

F. Once at the boundary, we keep pushing and, at some point, the boundary gives way. You have generated new knowledge. That tiny dent is your contribution to human knowledge (also, what usually gives you a PhD).

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I love this analogy of “pushing the boundaries” because, in our PKM practice, that’s exactly what we do 😃

And there are three ways in which we can ‘push the boundaries’: by modification, by aggregation, and by differentiation.

Let us discuss each one.

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Knowledge Creation by Modification

When you move away from document notes to using idea notes, every idea is an object of attention. You purposefully identify boundaries between what the object of attention IS and what it IS NOT (i.e. its context).

You also purposefully create links between the objects that exist in the context of each other and are, therefore, affected by each other.

The result is an interconnected network of ideas.

Now, imagine that this network represents part of the knowledge you have curated in your domain of expertise.

You identify that green idea at the centre as a core object of attention in that network. It means it has many connections and these are connections that create inter-dependence between the ideas.

Now imagine you change this idea.. just a tiny bit…

What do you think would happen with all the ideas related to it? Would they remain the same or have to “adapt”?

If you can pressure them to adapt, you have just created a “Ripple Effect”.

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Looking at the history of the world you can see some changes that create ripple effects:

• From a horse-powered car to a motor-powered car.
• From a telephone to a smartphone.
• From Newton’s understanding of gravity to Einstein’s understanding of gravity.
• From on-premise computing to cloud computing.

And I could go on and on.

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Look at any area of knowledge and you can find an example of ripple effect. When someone changes a core object of attention in a significant way, that’s when paradigm shifts happen (if you happen to know what that means 😉).

And you can do that directly from your notes.

Idea notes help you question where the boundaries are (and how you can change them). The visual boards help you see the interconnectedness between ideas. The connections between ideas and sources help you see which works will be impacted by the change (and that you can use for your upcoming argument).

So if you have made PKM for Research a practice then you have the tools to support your work in making an impact.

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But hey! This type of change is hard and time-consuming, right? So let us talk about something simpler.

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Knowledge Creation by Aggregation

Aggregation means to “put things together”.

What is open to interpretation (and where the fun begins) is what “together” means.

Here is an example.

Let us suppose we are looking at a landscape and our attention is caught by something.

We separate that something from its environment and give it a name: “daisy”. So we have just created an object of attention. It will now live in a note somewhere inside our note-taking system.

We have daisies, daffodils, bluebells, and other objects of attention. We notice that they often appear together, in the context of each other. So we then decide to look at the “whole”.

Now, the whole becomes the object of our attention (not any of the individual parts). We acknowledge it, separate it from its context and give it a name: “meadow”.

A new idea has just “emerged” from the aggregation of other ideas (because the “whole” is as much an idea as a “part”).

We say it has emerged because the new idea is not totally dependent on its parts. Remove all daisies and it would probably still be a meadow, remove all daffodils and the meadow is still there, as a meadow. But then, remove all plants and the meadow ceases to exist. That means, the emergent idea depends on its parts to exist as an object we can pay attention to, but it may be dependent in a “loose way”.

And yes, if we are physically looking at a landscape, the ideas of “meadow” and “daisy” may sound too obvious to you. But we can do that with any abstract concepts you are dealing with in your research, all with the help of your network of ideas.

So we can create knowledge by aggregating existing objects of attention (i.e. existing ideas), but is that all? Not yet…

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Knowledge Creation by Differentiation

The last type of knowledge creation is obvious (but most people who understand objects of attention still miss it): we can create knowledge through differentiation.

There is no dark without light, no yin without a yang, and no high without a low.

Humans create knowledge by separating patterns of stimuli from each other and making them into objects. We contrast what the object IS from what it IS NOT.

So the very process of creating objects of attention is a form of knowledge creation.

Also, through differentiation, we can now go from a “whole” into focusing on its “parts”. So, the more you study/write about an idea, the more likely you are to create new objects of attention and, therefore, new knowledge.

In fact, the more you research the more objects of attention you will start noticing. Most of them are already “common knowledge”, but the deeper you go into a topic the more likely you are to generate a novel idea.

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How can YOU create knowledge?

Knowledge creation happens inside your mind but can be supported by methods and external tools.

As a PKM skill, it includes being proficient in:

• The mindset shifts to change from knowledge consumer to knowledge creator. Otherwise, you can’t “see” new objects of attention.
• The sensemaking strategies as methods that manipulate your objects of attention.
• The tools that can support the application of your chosen strategies.

Also, knowledge creation does not exist in isolation. Instead, it benefits from having a well-connected network of ideas created as the result of applying the other 5 PKM skills.

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Want a refresher on the PKM for Research course? Renew your membership before Monday, April 29th and participate in a live refresher course on the Foundations of Idea Management. Renew My Membership

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When you have gone deep enough in an area of knowledge and have started applying different sensemaking strategies, new knowledge becomes a by-product of everyday thinking.

It may not be revolutionary, but you will certainly build your original contribution to the world’s knowledge. Just put your effort into it.

Meanwhile, as always, if you have any questions don’t feel shy. Just reply to this email and let’s chat. I take some time to reply but I reply to all emails 😊

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Talk to you soon.

Until then, take care.

Bianca

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