Possible strategies for facilitating the exchange of tacit knowledge in a team of creative professionals

Abstract

This paper discusses strategies for improving how creative professionals embrace new digital tools into their workflow, in context of the EU-funded international research project IdeaGarden, which aims at developing tools and scenarios that facilitate creative collaboration. In previous research by the authors, a preference for analog tools over digital has been detected among creative professionals. In a new series of interviews done at the same workplace, it is shown that it is possible for a designer to build up tacit knowledge of the field in which he works, for use in a digital environment. Using examples from the interviews alongside examples from the literature on tacit knowledge, we try to describe a path for further inquiry into the challenge of facilitating the designer’s shift from analog to digital tools via facilitating the exchange of tacit knowledge between co-workers, especially via making amendments to the physical arrangement of the workplace.