SECI is a knowledge-creation model developed by Ikujiro Nonaka and colleagues that describes the ongoing interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge through Socialisation, Externalisation, Combination, and Internalisation.
- Socialisation shares tacit knowledge through experience and interaction.
- Externalisation expresses tacit understanding through language, stories, concepts and models.
- Combination connects and reorganises explicit knowledge.
- Internalisation embeds knowledge back into practice, skill and judgement.
SECI is therefore more than a method for capturing what people know. Externalisation is not the destination. Knowledge becomes organisationally useful as experience is shared, made visible, connected with other knowledge, tested through practice and internalised again. Gemba helps ground this movement in reality, while Ba provides the social conditions through which it can occur.
SECI is not simply a knowledge model. It describes knowledge in motion — experience becoming shared understanding, and shared understanding returning to practice.