The most valuable knowledge in our organisation isn't in our documentation

I recently revisited Talking about Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job by Julian E. Orr. It's a study of Xerox service technicians that remains relevant in today's AI and knowledge work era. Orr challenged a common management assumption that expertise can be captured in procedures and communication channels. Orr showed that work happens in the gap between work as imagined and work as done.

The best technicians didn't rely primarily on manuals, but on colleagues, conversations, and war stories instead. Troubleshooting is assembling fragmented clues from symptoms, sounds, user observations, and experience into a coherent explanation. Technicians were managing expectations and educating users. Sometimes fixing the customer mattered just as much as fixing the copier! The most effective technicians combined formal knowledge with judgment and practical improvisation. While teams accumulated expertise through continuous interaction, individual experience became collective capability through conversation.

Whether we're designing products or leading teams, the most valuable expertise is often contextual, collaborative, and adaptive.  The challenge for organisations is creating environments where people can continuously challenge and build knowledge together.

Thirty years later, Orr's ethnography feels like a blueprint for understanding modern knowledge work.

Reference:

Orr, J.E. (1996). Talking about Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job. ILR Press.