Explicit and tacit knowledge are interdependent: one can be expressed and shared through artefacts, while the other is carried through experience, judgement, practice, and context.
Explicit knowledge can be represented in documents, models, procedures, diagrams, standards, data, training materials and other artefacts. Tacit knowledge lives in people’s ability to notice, interpret, judge and respond appropriately in real situations. Explicit knowledge helps knowledge travel; tacit knowledge gives it context, meaning and practical use.
Neither is sufficient alone. A procedure may exist without being understood, a model without being socially internalised, or a definition without shared meaning. Organisational learning therefore depends not upon converting all tacit knowledge into documentation, but upon creating conditions in which tacit and explicit knowledge continually interact through experience, dialogue, reflection and practice.
The artefact may show where the conversation landed. The story around the artefact explains why it landed there.