This path-breaking book reviews psychological research on practical intelligence and describes its importance in everyday life. The authors reveal the importance of tacit knowledge--what we have learned from our own experience, through action. Although it has been seen as an indispensable element of expertise, intelligence researchers have found it difficult to quantify. Based on years of research, Dr. Sternberg and his colleagues have found that tacit knowledge can be quantified and can be taught. This volume thoroughly examines studies of practical intelligence in the United States and in many other parts of the world as well, and for varied occupations, such as management, military leadership, teaching, research, and sales.

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Summary: Practical Intelligence is practically indispensable!
Comment: Although the book is entitled "Practical Intelligence," I believe that Sternberg et al have produced a work that could become the standard reference for the measurement and management of tacit knowledge (TK).

From the opening sentence of the preface, "Practical intelligence is what most people call common sense", the reader knows that they are about to delve into an inherently practical and easily readable book. Even though the text is strongly academic, with almost thirty pages of references, the writers use straightforward language that clearly explains the nature, development, context and role of Practical Intelligence and more specifically, how Practical Intelligence is predicated on TK. They also describe an interesting and intuitively sensible method to develop and apply tools for measuring TK.

For me, the most valuable parts of the book were Chapters 3 & 6. In Ch 3 (The Specificity of Practical Knowledge) the role of TK in practical problem solving is explained, and in Ch 6 (Understanding Practical Intelligence), the characteristics and nature of TK are described in a way that ties together disparate academic views about TK (i.e., it can VS it cannot be explicated). Chapter 7 (Measuring Tacit Knowledge) describes the method for measuring industry specific/contextually relevant tacit knowledge. It will be interesting to see if this method is sufficiently robust to become standardised in future.

My copy arrived in the Monday morning's post, and by Tuesday evening, I had read it from cover to cover, complete with hi-lighting and margin annotations. I strongly recommend this title to anyone who has a practical interest in Tacit Knowledge Management.

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