Knowledge Management From Harvard Business Review Harihur Dsilva MIS Graduate Student

Towards a learning organization Theme 1 - Managing creative and learning group processes. Theme 2 - “ Five disciplines ” : mental models and systems thinking, shared vision, personal mastery, and team learning

Teaching Smart People How To Learn Article by – Chris Argyris Professor Emeritus Harvard Business School Published – May:June-1991

Two Mistakes Learning Dilemma:Competitive Success depends on learning but most people don ’ t know how to learn Effective Learning = The way people reason about their behavior First: Define Learning as mere “ Problem Solving ” Single Loop and Double Loop Learning. Second: Thinking that getting people to learn is a matter of motivation

How Professionals Avoid Learning “ Professionals embody the learning dilemma …” Defensive Reasoning can block Learning Teaching people how to reason about their behavior Continuous Improvement did not click with the consultants Defensiveness had become a reflexive routine Dynamics of Defensive Learning

Defensive Reasoning and The Doom Loop “ The very success of professionals at education helps explain the problems they have with learning ” It is impossible to reason anew in every situation. Theory of Action- Set of Rules that individuals use to design and implement their own behavior. Paradox of human behavior Theory in use

Governing Rules for in-use Theories Four basic values To remain in unilateral control Maximize winning and minimize losing Suppress negative feelings Be rational Defensive reasoning encourages individuals to keep private premises, inferences and conclusions and not test them.

Doom loop or Doom Zoom Attributions are not tested so defensive reasoning is closed loop Not experienced embarrassment or sense of threat that comes with failure “ Performance evaluation is tailor-made to push professionals into the doom loop ” Productive loner Features of fair performance evaluation

Learning How To Reason Productively “ Until senior managers become aware of the ways they reason defensively, any change activity is likely to be just a fad. ” People can be taught how to recognize the reasoning they use. Connect the teaching program to real problems “ Learning to reason productively can be emotional-even painful. But the payoff is great ”

Grab The Opportunity “ To question someone else ’ s reasoning is not a sign of mistrust but a valuable opportunity for learning ” Reflecting undefensively about his own role in a problem makes it possible for professional to talk without whinning The insights they gain will allow them to act more effectively in the future

Putting Your Company ’ s Whole Brain To Work Dorothy Leonard Susaan Straus Published in July:August 1997

Innovation and Thinking Innovation takes place when different ideas, perceptions, and ways of processing and judging information collide. Comfortable Clone Syndrome

Thinking Styles AnalyticalIntuitive ConceptualExperiential SocialIndependent LogicalValues driven

How We Think Creative Abrasion Cognitive Differences Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

MBTI

HBDI

How We Act Understand Yourself Style can stifle creativity Hire, Work With and Promote People who make you uncomfortable.

Forget The Golden Rule “ In a cognitively diverse environment, a message sent is not necessarily a message received ” Create Whole-Brained Teams- innovative problem solving is enhanced by totally different perspectives.

Look For The Ugly Duckling “ Successful managers spend time getting members of diverse groups to acknowledge their differences ” Process of Creative Abrasion Making sure that everyone is at the front of the bus and talking. Clarify why you are working together Make Operating guidelines explicit Set up an Agenda

Depersonalize Conflict Caveat Emptor Energy released by the intersection of different thought processes will propel innovation.

How To Make Experience Your Company ’ s Best Teacher Art Kleiner George Roth Published – September:October 1997

Approach to Institutional Learning Learning History is a written narrative of a company ’ s recent set of critical episodes. Right Hand Column- Relevant events described by people who took part in them Left Hand Column-Analysis and Commentaries by Learning Historians. Learning history Is as much as a process as it is a product

Advantages of Learning History Build Trust Opinions Counted Visibility for People Collective Reflections Removes inhibition to raising issues Transfer Knowledge from one part of the company to another Builds a body of knowledge about management

Opinion Article 1-Defensive Reasoning 1. People with high levels of education have learned to play the learning game. 2. They can't or won't admit they don't know something because in essence they would have to admit failure. 3. They become defensive in the face of failure and rationalize the blame for failure rather then looking for the root cause and examining their own involvement in the failure.

Opinion Article 2-Whole Brain A majority of the work in the corporate world all over the world gets done in teams.Knowledge workers from diverse backgrounds need to synergize to achieve team goals. Article 3- Learning History The technology available now facilitates capture of learning history viz. Blogs, Microsoft SharePoint Portal.This will help the concept to flourish.

Critique ConsequencesLimitations Application of Continuous Improvement to Learning of Professionals Two decades later, in the current dynamic business context, teaching smart people to learn is even more difficult Seminal Work which helped create the field of knowledge management Metrics for measurement of success of the methodology are inadequate.

New Thinking Article 1- Smart Learning Learning involves the detection and correction of error. Governing Variable Action Strategy Consequences Double Loop Learning Single Loop Learning

Application of Whole Brain How Unisys combines Six Sigma KM

Learning History Process

Reference Smart Learning to Learn Smith, M. K. (2001) 'Chris Argyris: theories of action, double-loop learning and organizational learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, Using The Whole Brain Inside Knowledge- Volume 10, Issue 3-November 2006 Learning History Process