1. Building a Culture of Evidence
The Wisconsin Technical Colleges
November 4, 1999
John Tagg
Associate Professor of English
Palomar College

2. Why is it hard to change?
Not enough time; everybody already has a full-time job.
We were hired to maintain the organization in its current functions, not to create new ones.
The structure of the organization is designed to serve the paradigm that created it.

3. Conventional/ Instructional Conventional/ Learning
Mission
Instructional
Mission
Learning
Mission
Conventional/ Instructional
Conventional/
Learning
Conventional Organization
Organizational
Type
Learning/
Instructional
Learning/
Learning
Learning
Organization

4. A learning paradigm college will be a learning institution in a double sense: .
an institution that produces student learning and an institution that learns

5. How do you become a learning organization?
You model the behavior you want from your students.
(Critical thinking begins at home.)

6. Deal and Kennedy: Corporate Cultures, 1982

7. Organizational Culture
High Risk
Low Risk
Tough Guy-Macho
High Feedback
Work Hard-Play Hard
Low Feedback
Bet the Company
Process

8. What Is a Learning Organization?

9. Theories of Action
Action Strategies
Governing Values
Consequences

10. Single-Loop Learning
Governing Values
Action Strategies
Consequences

12. Double-Loop Learning
Governing Values
Action Strategies
Consequences

13. Defensive Routines Chris Argyris, Knowledge for Action, 1993:
“An organizational defensive routine is any policy or action that inhibits individuals [or] groups. . . From experiencing embarrassment or threat and, at the same time, prevents the actors from identifying and reducing the causes of the embarrassment or threat. Organizational defensive routines are anti-learning and over-protective.”

14. Typically, in using defensive routines we
Evade the real issue
Cover up the evasion
Cover up the cover-up.

15. Most public colleges exhibit a particular form of process culture:
The Culture of Compliance

16. Some characteristics of a culture of compliance:
Lack of feedback on important goals.
Lack of reward or risk—no clear consequences from actions.
Lack of local autonomy in important areas of policy.
Separation of mandates from mission.
Separation of rhetoric from reality.

17. Defensive Routines in a Culture of Compliance:
Evade the issue of learning by boasting.
Evade the issue of learning by shifting to finances.
Evade the issue of learning by shifting to mandates.
Evade the issue of change by shifting to the demands of maintenance.
Evade the issue of learning by blaming the students

18. Skepticism About Change
Learning Challenge
Evasion or Shift
Skepticism About Change
Cover-up of Evasion

19. How to break out of the Vicious Oval?
Create a culture of evidence.

20. Creating a culture of evidence
Raise awareness of defensive routines.
Seek consensus on the criteria for success.
Systematically provide feedback to your staff and students about the important outcomes you seek.
Increased feedback will raise awareness of risk and reward

21. Systematically raise awareness of defensive routines and develop strategies to disable them

22. Defensive Routine: We don’t have the time/money/staff to change.
Recalculate costs and benefits in terms of student learning.
Examine the costs of present policies in terms of student learning.
Weigh both costs and benefits of alternative policies.

23. Systematically provide feedback
Assess learning.
Track the results of assessment over time.
Define goals in terms of data.

24. Raising awareness of risk and reward
We already work in a high-risk/high reward environment, but risk and reward are camouflaged by organizational defensive routines.
The risk is student failure; the reward is student success.
Systematic feedback can spur the culture to effectiveness by disabling cover-up.

25. jtagg@palomar. edu http://daphne. palomar
The Fourth North American Conference on the Learning Paradigm
Copyright © John Tagg 1999