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Knowledge Through Motion

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The same concept applies to many Indigenous populations. Their deep connection with nature is an essential part of their education. In some tribal colleges in the Southwest U.S., sterile formulas in textbooks come to life when students directly experience their connection to the four Navajo elements—earth, light, air and pollen. Even the traditional placement of a teepee has a firm basis in math and science. For thousands of years, Navajos have intuitively, with tacit knowledge understood the principles of nature and how they relate to things as basic as shelter, even if they didn’t know the associated mathematical formulas.

These are just a few of the nearly infinite ways to use movement and interaction with nature to reinvigorate the mind-body-environment connection Although large bodies of research have identified such connections, much of this research remains untapped and underutilized. Knowledge graphs anyone?

Enter KM

Concern about jobs being replaced by AI continues to grow. As an alternative the notion of humans using AI to augment and enhance their work has been making the rounds. As KMers, we might consider flipping that notion and instead concentrate on the benefits from human knowledge workers validating, augmenting, and enhancing the outputs generated by AI. This is especially true regarding the brain’s executive function that will likely remain out of reach from AI for the foreseeable future.

Questions for KMers: What’s the KM equivalent of developing muscle memory? Can we apply scientific knowledge of proprioceptors to raise self-awareness and other key components in the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) Loop or other decision frameworks? For example, referring back to Indigenous tribes, many consider hair (an often overlooked proprioceptor) to be deeply sacred, as it aids in the ability to sense and act upon extremely weak vibrations.

Don’t reject something just because it sounds strange. If we want to accelerate human cognitive development, nothing should be off the table. Remember that AI doesn’t respond to weak signals very well, especially in unique and novel situations. If something helped prehistoric and pre-Industrial Age populations survive and, in some cases, thrive for tens of thousands of years, it’s definitely worth dusting off and revisiting. We’ve always said that people are an organization’s greatest asset. If that’s still the case, are we just going to sit idly by and watch AI take over?

Steps Toward Activating Knowledge Kinesthetics

Creating the workforce of the future will demand not only whole-brain thinking, but also whole-body learning as well. Now is the time to get in the habit of regularly exercising both. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Studies have shown that simply by walking, you can increase the number of neurons in your hippocampus and your capacity for learning and memory. Nothing new here. Down through the ages, great minds, from Aristotle to Darwin to Emerson, Thoreau, and many others, have practiced this instinctively (hbr.org/2021/02/dont-underestimate-the-power-of-a-walk).

AI will never be able to experience or take advantage of the flow of endorphins that comes not only from exercise, but also from any activity that involves activating one or more of the senses. But it’s something we humans will lose if we allow ourselves to atrophy both physically and mentally.

The implications are wide-reaching, affecting not only cognition, but all areas of health. According to the World Health Organization, physical inactivity is the fourth-leading risk factor for death globally and a leading risk factor for chronic conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some cancers.

So, get up out of your chairs and get moving. Hit the gym or exercise room in your office building. Break a sweat. Enjoy those aha! moments of knowledge discovery just waiting to spontaneously appear in the middle of a walk, jog, or swim. Or who knows, maybe even during an intensely competitive pickleball match. Online games don’t count.

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