Ba. It’s all about the place — The concept of “ba” by Ikujiro Nonaka

I am studying Public Communication at FH Joanneum in Graz (Austria). In the course “Intra- and intercultural communication” my colleagues and I are discussing several experts in this field. Among them you can find Geert Hofstede, William Gudykunst and … Ikujiro Nonaka. This leads me to my today’s topic: Nonaka’s SECI model and his concept of ba.

The concept of ba was originally proposed by Kitaro Nishida, the most influential Japanese philosopher of the twentieth-century, who combined western Anglo-European philosophy with Asian sources of thought. Ikujiro Nonaka adapted his theories, especially the Ontology of Consciousness, Theory of Universals and Logic of Space to elaborate the SECI model of knowledge creation, a well-known and well-used model in management theory and practice.

According to Nonaka knowledge creation is a spiraling process of interactions between explicit and tacit (implicit) knowledge. The interactions between explicit and tacit knowledge lead to the creation of new knowledge. The slide below from a keynote from Nonaka himself in 2010 mirrors the knowledge creating process:

Source: http://de.slideshare.net/hiranabe/agilejapan2010-keynote-by-ikujiro-nonaka-phronetic-leadership

But what does ba have to do with knowledge creation? The knowledge creation process starts at the individual. But intersubjectivity is a condition on the way from tacit to explicit knowledge. How is that? Individual contexts are shared at “here-now” and ba can be thought of as the shared space for these upcoming relationships. The shared context becomes the base of emerging knowledge. Intersubjectivity is established when individuals accept others as a whole being, resonate and empathize with others. In this case subjectivity becomes “our” subjectivity, a co-creating meaning.

Ba, the space where individuals relate to each other and knowledge is created, provides a platform for increasing individual and/or collective knowledge. Ba can be physical (e.g. office, dispersed business space), virtual (e.g. e-mail, videoconference, digital platforms), mental (e.g. shared experiences, ideas, models) or any combination of them.

There are four types of ba that correspond to the four stages of the SECI model. Each type describes a ba especially suited to each of the four knowledge conversion modes. These ba* offer a platforms for specific steps in the knowledge spiral process:

The four ba* are as below:

· Originating Ba (corresponds with Socialization | Share)

· Interacting Ba (corresponds with Externalization | Dialogue & Comliance)

· Cyber Ba (corresponds with Combination | Collaboration & Combination )

· Exercising Ba (corresponds with Internalization | Application)

Let’s go more into detail.

The Originating Ba is the ba where the knowledge creation process begins. It is the space where individuals share feelings, emotions, experiences and mental models. Physical face-to-face experiences are the key to conversion and transfer of tacit knowledge, but the first step is to share. Today, however, knowledge can still be created without any physical contact or socialization by using internet technology. People can exchange information via several media, like e-Mail, blogs, platforms, chats, phone calls … even in real time communication. For the knowledge creation process these contacts might support in a similar way as physical contact.

The Interacting Ba is — as the word says — a place where people interact. It is the place where tacit knowledge is made explicit. Dialogue is a key and using metaphors is a necessary conversion skill. Through dialogue, individuals’ mental models and skills are converted into common terms and concepts. These two processes operate in concert: individuals share the mental model of others, but also reflect and analyze their own. When Interacting Ba is institutionalized in the company culture, project teams, task forces and cross-functional teams are installed. To create more knowledge it is critical to select the right mix of persons to interact with each other. But participants shouldn’t be classified. It is always a real possibility that novices start a knowledge creating process by bringing up a new thought, idea or by asking an expert about something, he/she never thought about.

The Cyber Ba is a place of interaction in the virtual world and represents the combination phase where new explicit knowledge is combined with existing information. Knowledge generates and arranges new explicit knowledge within the organization. Collaborative environments and information technology providing such environments, e.g. online networks, intranets, documentation and database platforms, support this step and enhanced it over the last decade.

The Exercising Ba supports the internalization phase. It is more of a learning process in each individual as it allows the conversion of explicit to tacit knowledge. Formal and organizational knowledge is made use of in real life or simulated situations. In companies programs for trainings with senior experts, on job trainings and job buddy operations are common. Feedback and self-assessments support this step.

So, this was all for today. It was about ba — the platforms / places / spaces where knowledge is created. At least according to Nonaka. I hope it was a helpful overview. Feedback and discussions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

*In this post I will use the word ba only in the singular form.