This document summarizes an image that synthesizes the author's core thoughts on accessible, assessable, and actionable knowledge. The image depicts circles representing crucial concepts in the knowledge economy, which can be discussed individually. It shows the relationship between values/norms, rules, context, decisions, actions, and outcomes. Events trigger conversations with a knowledge system to assess situations and determine actions. Additional images may provide more detail on topics like the virtuous spiral and integrated value chain. The goal is to create a shared knowledge network that supports contextual decision making and moving from insight to action.

1. Synthesizing your thoughts in one image
For many years I have created concepts, developed products and written articles related to the
domain of accessible, assessable and actionable knowledge. A domain that is near to my heart,
being a 21st century librarian. On my desktop I used to have an image that synthesized core
elements of my thoughts in one single view. I have often used that image in all kinds of
conversations with participants of various levels. It turned out to be it extremely useful as a
storyline for presentation, argumentation and discussion. Creating such an image is perhaps
useful in your situation as well.
The image that I used conveys crucial concepts for actors in the knowledge economy in general,
and knowledge intensive industries in particular. The concepts are placed in circles. This allowed
me to start a conversation at any point, depending on the situation and interest of my conversation
partner.
The synthesis
The image allowed to speak about values and norms that we have in our society, company and
personal live. They are the basis for the rules, agreements and regulations we (have to) adhere to.
Such rules may vary from personal and professional standards, procedures and operating
practices to legally binding requirements of all sorts.
All rules apply to a certain context. In our daily and professional lives we take countless
decisions based on a specific context at hand. That may be our personal context, the context of a
customer that is applying for a decision, the context of a situation at hand or a combination of
these.

2. Decisions lead to actions that result in some form of outcome. If this outcome conflicts with our
value and norm system and the rules that are applied, we tend to adjust the rules system. Over
time, and in certain cases, we will also adjust our values and norms system.
The image contains also a connection between events and a source of shared executable essential
knowledge. The connection enables conversations between the external world (actors like
humans and systems) and a request and response actor that navigates a model driven
multidimensional knowledge network.
The conversations are established through bi-lateral connected Signs. The reader may be familiar
with these signs from the semiotics literature. This type of connection provides
a meaningful response based on a specific context. It enables to handle situations of multi-reality.
This means that needs, rules, roles and capabilities of participants are situation dependent aligned
in order to realize real added value and support the ‘process of me’.
Events are the trigger for our conversations. In order to take a decision or perform an action we
need to make sense of the situation at hand. By means of conversations with our knowledge
system we can assess the meaning of the situation and decide what to do and how to do it. This
assessment is recurrent and takes place after every action, thus providing the guidelines and
constraints for the next possible action.
Of course is using only one image not mandatory. If the situation it required I used sometimes
some extra images like the ones beneath to go deeper into certain details.
The virtuous spiral
Becoming an entrepreneur of meaning is vital in for the 21st century intelligent enterprise.
Especially conversations with an automated system tend to be cumbersome, if this system is not

3. designed for contextual intelligence and built for human centric goal driven interaction. Only
then can lower order logic be executed automatically, thus freeing our time and attention span for
aspects that require human cognition and conscious decision making. Else the frustration gap of
all participants will widen over time due to the increase of complexity in the business
environment.
By using the term 'shared executable essential knowledge' we stipulate that not all knowledge
must be (and can be) transformed into a set of models, or any other form of codification. The
focus should be on knowledge that is essential and can be made actionable in order to enable
users to interpret a situation/condition and perform an action/transaction.
The folder in the image emphasizes that 21st century work needs case based support. Events
become the unit of work that is carried out by means of collaboration between various actors in
spontaneous networks. The work is based on a context and the conditions that are applicable in
that context. Constraint based processing is inevitable and only possible by using some form of
contextual intelligence. The case folder provides the glue between separate elements and acts
moreover as an auditable source of truth. A next generation intelligent Business Process
Management System (iBPMS) can provide the required agility and meet the governance, risk and
compliance requirements.
An intelligent enterprise of the 21st century will have to create services, based on shared
executable essential knowledge network that levers the logic of the business operating system.
The network enables users (customers, clients, employees, partners, supervisors etcetera) to take
decisions in context and move from insight to action seamlessly and instantly. It
supports customized user journeys and omni-channel conversations as well as efficient goal
driven operations and continuous feedback and improvement, without deviating from the
organization's goals and objectives.
The integrated value chain

4. In order to keep its knowledge source and service up to date an enterprise needs to organize a
provisioning chain. This provisioning chain can be based on the principles of the OODA loop. It
requires in any case a regulatory capability and policy management to keep the knowledge and
rules set actual and to simulate impact before releasing changes. This way an organization can
maximize its return on rules and regulations.
Needless to say that it is crucial that the provisioning chain is tightly integrated with the primary
value chain of an organization. Both must ultimately fuse into an integrated value chain in order
to fully support the business motivation model and the new way of digital working. Tight
integration is also required in order to create a sustainable actionable governance capability.
For further reading about these - and other - thoughts the reader may be referred to the
publications on www.eurosapiens.com and presentations on SlideShare.
Hopefully can this article act as an incentive for creating your own image. Feel free to use the
above example and tweak it to your specific situation. Needless to say that a reference to the
source is be appreciated.
Thei Geurts