Knowledge Management > Learning & Knowledge

Learning & Knowledge

Learning is a crucial variable in organizational development. Adaptive learning involves the detection and correction of error based upon the results of individual and team behavior. Generative learning is the active process of constructing links between new and old knowledge — requiring individuals and groups to act upon the environment through experimentation and discovery to build more elaborate and effective knowledge structures.

Knowledge — as well as "consciousness" & "intelligence" for that matter — is not simply a brain phenomenon arising from our biology, but it is also a social phenomenon. Knowledge is rooted in the fabric of our inter-personal behavior & connectedness, culture & socialization, communication & language/symbols, and the ever emergent web of social relations & community. It is for this reason that knowledge can be studied as an "object", a "process", and as a "self-organizing dynamic system".

This is particularly evident in the relatively recent emergence of the Cognitive Sciences which serves as a unifying influence on numerous disciplines. Each of the disciplines has contributed important observations, paradigms and insights into our understanding of learning. Cognitive Science has grown primarily through inter-disciplinary dialogue and inquiry into shared issues and concerns.

Single-Loop & Double-Loop Learning

Chris Argyris and Donald Schon (1974) proposed the concept of "double-loop" learning which focuses on the ability to question and change the underlying values and assumptions of action. This is a skill that is essential for higher-order problem-solving and leadership. It is the ability to question and change the rules of a game. It is an application of Einstein's dictum: "The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. You have to rise above it to the next level."

The first response to the mismatch between intention and outcome is to search for another strategy which will satisfy the governing variables. "Single-loop" learning involves intention, decision, action, feedback and evaluation.
An individual or group hung in single-loop learning constantly focuses on the efficiency of strategy. The effort is to find better and better strategies of action, but is unable to question the underlying basis of strategy: the beliefs, assumptions and values which underlie the original intention. The change is in action only, not in the governing variables.
However, the power of effective problem-solving is not only achieved by evaluating efficiency, but in evaluating perspective, expectations and the context of strategy formulation: Effectiveness for what purpose.
Double-loop learning enables an individual or group to become aware of the mental models being used to evaluate situations, decisions, actions, actors, and results. Our mental models are our paradigms, our values, our beliefs and assumptions about how the world works or about ourselves or other people, These are beneath our conscious awareness for much of the time because of our emeshment. Power for creativity, problem-solving and leadership emerges as we become more conscious, and thereby perceive more options.

Mapping Knowledge, Learning & Value

Verna Allee, in her book The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence, presents a map of the relationship of knowledge, learning, performance and values — called the "Knowledge Archetype" or the "Knowledge Complexity Framework". The following table is a simplified and adapted summary of her work.

Note that different kinds of learning enables different kinds of performance and resulting value.

Allee argues against a naive, reductionist view of either knowledge or learning. She points toward the greater potential of organizational intelligence to support innovation, creativity and high performance through a knowledge-sharing environment.

Knowledge Sharing Cycle

Learning & Knowledge

The Value Proposition