The Difference Between Workflows and Insights: A Deep Dive into Knowledge Management
- Shiri Atzmon
- Mar 25
- 2 min read
Knowledge management is a complex and multifaceted field that includes, among other things, two important concepts: workflows, i.e. work process, and insights. These two are often confused, and in this article, we will try to clarify the main differences between these two concepts and examine how they combine to create effective knowledge management.
Workflow: The Foundation
A workflow is essentially a detailed "recipe" explaining how to perform a specific task. It includes the required steps, necessary resources, and rules to follow. A workflow provides a structured and clear framework, that ensures consistency, efficiency, and quality in task performance. It is important for creating uniformity and even excellence, as described in the management approach developed by Toyota (The Toyota Way*).
When documenting a workflow, it is recommended to follow these steps:
Choose a specific content area and focus on it.
Create an initial documentation of the knowledge and information.
Validate with subject matter experts.
Insight: "The Winning Tip"
If the workflow is the "recipe," then the insight is the "winning tip" that makes the recipe perfect – like inserting a toothpick into a cake toward the end of baking to ensure it is perfectly moist. An insight is the added value that makes operational methods even more successful. Seemingly, one can work without it, and often insights are discovered in retrospect, for example, as part of lessons learned after a project or task (see article " From theory to practice: practical aspects of lesson learning").
Insights will always be brief - one or two sentences, and built from several components according to ROM's professional doctrine, including:
Context - in which situations does it serve us?
The insight itself - what is recommended to do / what is recommended to avoid?
The rationale - why is the insight needed?
Closing the loop - does the insight drive action and change? (See article " Distilling Insights: Rules for Extracting Meaningful Knowledge from Experience")
When learning a new insight, sometimes it's incorporated as a tip within the workflow itself, and then it appears as an integral part of the process. Additionally, we often want to keep the insight as an "independent entity" for several reasons:
Sometimes, it deals with an edge case, and including all edge cases in the process would make it very cumbersome.
Often, one insight is generalized and serves more than one process and even more than a specific context, so it can cross many diverse domains.
While workflows are in the category of "read and do," an insight can provide recommended thinking directions, but it is not necessarily binding or guiding for action.
Summary
The key to organizational excellence lies in the perfect combination of structured workflows and distilled insights. When the basic recipe is enriched with the winning tips of human experience, a living and breathing knowledge infrastructure is created that drives innovation and continuous development.
[*] Marksberry, P. (2011), "The Toyota Way – a quantitative approach", International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 132-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/20401461111135028
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