Knowledge Flow in the Concrete Industry

HEADNOTE

"Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify."- Ambrose Bierce

As stated in the summary to ACI's Strategic Plan, the Institute's core purpose is "to provide knowledge and information

for the best use of concrete."1 To fulfill that purpose, ACI maintains over 200 committees, comprising thousands of members and nonmembers, working to produce documents that are distributed to tens of thousands of members and customers. Despite our best efforts at organizing and distributing this knowledge, however, all too often we hear the following complaints:

"It takes too long to get new information into ACI documents."

"Nobody reads most of ACI's publications."

"ACI's documents are too expensive."

"ACI's publications are written for eggheads."

"My driveway has cracks, and our streets are full of potholes."

While it's easy for those of us who serve on committees to get defensive when hearing such complaints, most of us realize that many are based on fact.

SOUND INFORMATION

Does this mean ACI is failing in its mission? Not by a long shot! For over 100 years, ACI has provided sound information to the concrete industry as it has become extremely effective at:

* Creating consensus documents pertaining to concrete. This includes the "Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary" and a multitude of other code requirements, specifications, and guides. The very fact that 10 to 30 people can meet in the same room and agree on anything is a major accomplishment;

* Providing venues for authors and speakers to present their findings about concrete. Concrete International, the ACI Materials Journal, the ACI Structural Journal, and our biannual conventions (each with over 100 speakers) collectively disseminate a wealth of concrete knowledge. Most of these findings are peer-reviewed, and all are open to public discussion; and

* Sponsoring seminars around the world. The most valuable bits of ACI knowledge are distilled into 1- or 2-day training sessions for local audiences.

Of course, ACI is good at many other things-providing certification programs, providing support for local ACI chapters, interfacing with international organizations, and serving as a leading organization within the concrete industry as a whole. So, why do the complaints persist?

UNDERSTANDING

ACI's members do understand concrete. Most of its documents are, therefore, of genuine value, so the problem is not a lack of understanding of concrete. Perhaps, however, the problem is that we don't understand "knowledge and information." There certainly are gaps in the information ACI provides and in how it provides that information. To help close these gaps, perhaps we should start by asking the following questions:

* What is information?

* How is information created?

* How is information validated?

* How is information organized?

* How is information stored?

* How is information used?

* How does information become collective knowledge?

* Who transfers knowledge to whom?

Any one of these questions could require pages of text to explore. Many more pages would be required to relate those musings to ACI's situation. However, briefly exploring one of these basic questions can be useful in determining ACI's future.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

So let's examine one of these questions: "Who transfers knowledge to whom?" This can easily be broken down by examining two entities: the knowledge provider and the knowledge recipient. Each one can be represented as an individual, a small group, or a large group (Fig. 1). Examples include: two people engaged in conversation (such as occurs at the Concrete Mixer at every convention); one speaker presenting findings to an audience of many (such as occurs at technical sessions at the conventions); one or a small group writes a paper that is published in a journal that is read by researchers and practitioners around the world; or a large committee creates a document that is published and supplied to the even larger group of ACI customers (a process that would itself take another article to describe).

Each of these methods of transferring knowledge implies a certain level of validation. Individuals in conversation validate the transfer through active giveandtake. When a speaker makes a presentation, validation is provided by those in the audience who are knowledgeable about the subject and who will comment if the speaker gets into a controversial area. When ACI publishes a paper or a committee document, the readers and customers can be assured that the information contained in it has been validated by a certain level of peer review.

A closer examination of Fig. 1 shows, however, that ACI doesn't cover all the represented possibilities. For example, although ACI provides the means for the "onetomany" combination as well as some aspects of the "few-to-many" combination, ACI has no current mechanism allowing "many-to-many" or "many-to-one" transfers. I propose that ACI could provide those mechanisms in the following ways.

Increase global transfer

Although Concrete International already contains articles from around the world, it could also highlight "International Showcase" articles. These articles could be solicited from other international publications, allowing them to select an outstanding article from the past year and submit it, in English, to ACI for publication.

Conduct surveys

ACI could put a survey question on its website each month, and provide the results the next month. Questions might include:

* How many finishers would you (a contractor) assign to finish each of the following slab placements (on a daily basis, using rider trowels)? 5000 ft^sup 2^ (500 m^sup 2^); 15,000 ft^sup 2^ (1400 m^sup 2^); 45,000 ft^sup 2^ (4200 m^sup 2^).

* How long would it take your engineering design company to design a 100 100 ft (30 30 m) threestory office building?

* How many cubic yards of concrete do you (a ready mixed concrete company) produce each month, and how many quality control technicians do you have to monitor that production?

Open the discussions

ACI could expand on its "one-to-many" activities by allowing a different level of validation. Not every piece of information that comes through ACI needs to be peer reviewed. Computer mailing lists and conferencing software currently allow individuals to communicate their questions and ideas directly to those with similar interests. The Structural Engineers Association International, for example, maintains an e-mail list server that allows people from around the world to discuss structural engineering.2 The list is not moderated, so there is nothing to stop a person from sending a message that "concrete should contain Swiss cheese." That message will either be ignored (and the individual may be removed from the mailing list) or it will be "shouted down" by other members of the list. There have been many worthwhile discussions on the list that have been both heated and vitriolic. Of course, ACI would need to add disclaimers to nonreviewed information. Even better, maybe ACI could capitalize on its review process and emphasize the difference between nonreviewed information and the value-added benefits of reviewed information.

Build on the Chapter Roundtable model

Typically ACI does not excel at "few-to-few" relationships. Chapter Roundtables are, however, a welcome exception to this general statement. At Roundtables, chapter officers get together to talk about how to improve their chapters. Attendee feedback indicates that the Roundtables are valuable learning experiences, providing useful tips on running successful chapters. ACI needs to learn how to build on this model. An example might be to formalize the connection between local chapter technical committees and ACI technical and educational committees.

Open ACI to the concrete "family"

The "one-to-few" relationship also provides opportunities. ACI is a large organization, but the concrete industry is obviously much larger. A common comment among ACI Board committees is that, in order to attract more members, ACI has to provide more "value" to its membership.

The church I belong to is faced with a similar issue. We have over 5000 members. Church clergy and management have realized that if people don't feel "at home" at church, they won't come back. It is hard to feel at home on a Sunday morning with 1000 strangers sitting around you. Because of this, the church leadership has strongly promoted getting people involved in Sunday school classes as well as attending church. They believe that it's easier to feel at home in a small room, chatting with 15 to 20 similar people, than in a massive Sanctuary, listening to the minister. Of course both venues provide benefits to the member.

ACI needs to provide ways for individual members to relate to others in their specific area of interest. While conventions do this for some members, only about 10% of ACI members attend conventions and sit on committees. Specialized web conferences and an individualized Internet experience for people coming to the website might help more people become members of the ACI "family."

MANAGE THE KNOWLEDGE

Here, I've examined basic questions relating to knowledge in general and how knowledge relates to fundamental assumptions contained in ACI's processes. This examination process need not apply just to the ACI website, but can be used throughout ACI's infrastructure.

I recommend that ACI retain the services of an "expert" in knowledge management to explore opportunities it might be missing. When asking the basic "knowledge" questions above, it is apparent that there are many things that ACI could do at little cost that would either increase membership, generate more "knowledge" to disseminate, or get knowledge about concrete out to the public in a more timely fashion. We need to step away from "we've always done things that way" and get back to basics in our efforts to provide knowledge about using concrete.

SIDEBAR

This point of view article is presented for reader interest by the editors. However, the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the American Concrete Institute. Reader comment is invited.

REFERENCE

References

1. ACI Strategic Plan, available at www.concrete.org.

2. Structural Engineers Association International List Server, accessible at www.seaint.org.

Selected for reader interest by the editors.

AUTHOR_AFFILIATION

James M. "Jay" Shilstone, Jr., FACI, is President of The Shilstone Companies, a Dallas-based concrete materials consulting firm. He is current Chair of ACI Committee E 602, Electronic Delivery Oversight Committee, Past Chair of the Internet Advisory Committee (now the Information Technology Advisory Committee [IntAC]) and ACI Committee 118, Use of Computers. He is a frequent speaker at ACI conventions and at other industry meetings.