harvard business review on knowledge management articles 4-6 presented by laila haidar undergraduate...

Harvard Business ReviewON

Knowledge Management Articles 4-6

Presented by Laila HaidarUndergraduate in Management Information Systems

09-29-2005 2

Overview Teaching Smart People How to Learn

• Chris Argyris (Published May-June 1995)

Putting Your Company’s Whole Brain to Work• Dorothy Leonard and Susan Straus (Published July-August 1997)

How to Make Experience Your Company’s Best Teacher• Art Kleiner and George Roth (Published September-October 1997)

Occurring Themes My Critique Additional Information References

09-29-2005 3

Teaching Smart People How to Learn

Human behavior patterns block learning in an organization

Why well-educated professionals are prone to these patterns

How companies can improve the ability of their managers and employees to learn

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“Success in the market place increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don’t know how to

learn”

Learning Dilemma: Companies have difficulty addressing

this issue Some companies are not aware this

issue exists.

09-29-2005 5

Misunderstanding Learning

Two mistakes made in the effort of becoming a learning organization:

1. People define learning too narrowly as mere “Problem Solving”

2. The common assumption that getting people to learn is largely a matter of motivation


09-29-2005 6

Types of Learning

Single Loop Learning Double Loop Learning

A thermostat that automatically turns on the heat whenever the temperature in a room drop below 68°

A thermostat that could ask: “Why am I set at 68°?” and then explores whether or not some other temperature might more economically achieve the goal of heating the room.


09-29-2005 7

How Professionals Avoid Learning


09-29-2005 8

Behavior Theory

Espoused Theory: How people think they behave

Theory-in-use: How people actually behave


09-29-2005 9

Theory-in-use

Governing Values of theory-in-use:• To remain in control

• To maximize winning and minimize losing

• To be as rational as possible

The purpose of all these values is to avoid embarrassment or threat, feeling vulnerable or

incompetent


09-29-2005 10

Defensive Reasoning and the Doom Loop

Encourages individuals to keep private the premises, inferences, and conclusions that shape their behavior and to avoid testing them in a truly independent, objective fashion

Performance evaluations are tailor-made to push professionals into the doom loop


09-29-2005 11

Your Fired


09-29-2005 12

Learning How to Reason Productively

Managers must become aware of their defensive reasoning and its results otherwise any change will just be a fad

Change must start at the top Connect the program to real business

problems Learning to reason productively can be

emotional, but the payoff is great


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Conclusion

Effective learning is the product of the way people reason about their own behavior

Companies need to make the ways managers and employees reason about their behavior a key focus of organizational learning and continuous improvement programs


09-29-2005 14

Putting Your Companies Whole Brain to Work

Managers can successfully foster innovation using different approaches of creative abrasion “Productive Process”

Different people have different thinking styles

Rules for working together to discipline the creative process

09-29-2005 15

Innovate or Fall Behind

How managers avoid personal disputes resulting from the creative process:

1. Comfortable Clone Syndrome: Coworkers share similar interest and training, everyone thinks alike

2. Unable to manage employees with a variety of thinking styles

Putting the Company’s Brain to Work

09-29-2005 16

How we think

Cognitive Differences Varying approaches to perceiving and

assimilating data, making decisions, solving problems, and relating to other people, these approaches are preferences

Every one has a preferred habit of thought that influences how they make decisions and interact with others

Putting Company’s Brain to Work

09-29-2005 17

Left Brain vs. Right Brain

AnalyticalLogicalSequential

IntuitiveValues-BasedNonlinear


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Assessment Tools/ Diagnostic Instruments

All instruments agree on the following points: Preferences are neither inherently good nor

inherently bad Distinguishing preferences emerge early in our

lives, and strongly held ones tend to remain relatively stable through the years

We can learn to act outside our preferred styles Understanding others’ preferences helps people

communicate and collaborate


09-29-2005 19

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®


I = IntrovertE = Extravert

S = SensingN = Intuitive

T = ThinkF = Feeling

P = PerceivingJ = Judging

09-29-2005 20

Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument


09-29-2005 21

How We Act

Understand Yourself• When you identify your style you will gain insight of

your preferences in thinking and communication

• Your style can repress the very creativity you seek from you employees

Forget the Golden Rule• Don’t treat people the way you want to be treated

• Tailor the communication to the receiver instead of the sender

Create Whole-Brained Teams


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How We Act Continued

Look for the Ugly Duckling• Successful managers spend time getting members of

divers groups acknowledge their differences Manage the Creative Process

• Set common goals

• Make operation guide lines explicit

• Set up agendas ahead of time Depersonalize Conflict

• People who do not understand cognitive preferences tend to personalize conflict, avoid it, or both


09-29-2005 23

Caveat Emptor “Buyer Beware”

Diagnostic instrument only measure one aspect of personality: preferences in thinking styles and communication

Preferences tend to be stable but life experience can affect them

Only trained individuals should administer diagnostic instruments


09-29-2005 24

Conclusion

Today’s complex products demand integrating expertise of individuals who do not naturally understand one another

The intersection of different thought processes will drive innovation


09-29-2005 25

How to Make Experience Your Company's Best Teacher

Discusses a tool called learning history

09-29-2005 26

Learning History

A written narrative of a company’s recent set of critical episodes Presented in two columns

Analysis and commentary by the learning historians (Trained outsiders and knowledgeable insiders)

Relevant events are described by people who took part in them, were affected by them, or observed them up close.

Experience is The Best Teacher

09-29-2005 27

Why Learning History Works

1. They Build Trust

2. It raises issues people would like to talk about but have not had the courage to discuses openly

3. Transfers knowledge from one part of the company to another

4. Builds a body of general knowledge about management


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Conclusion

Learning history is often commissioned to analyze one event, but their lessons often supersede it

Experience is the best teacher in both individual and organizational lives


09-29-2005 29

Occurring Themes

Managers and employees must learn to reason productively

Create a whole brain company

Experience is the best teacher

09-29-2005 30

My Critique

•The Publications are outdated•There has not been any experiments done on the learning history tool•No guarantee that these methods work

•Easy to Read •Many Examples

Pros Cons

09-29-2005 31

Additional Information

An Interview with Chris Arygris

Article about MBTI®

Creating a Learning History

09-29-2005 32

An Interview with Chris Arygris May 1999

Where are organizations now. And where are they headed with respect to learning?

“… In all fairness, there are Hr and training people who understand the difference between single and double loop learning. They say they haven’t been able to concentrate much on double loop learning and that they didn’t they had permission and enthusiasm from top management.”

1


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Article about MBTI® February 2005

2


09-29-2005 34

Creating a Learning History March 1995

A new philosophy and approach to assessment is embodied in learning history work. At the Learning Center, we are very careful in using the word "assessment." We now write “learning histories.”

We include a learning historian as part of the team. The learning historian's job is to capture and tell the story. That is the language we use. It is amazing how this approach resolves a lot of psychological and emotional problems associated with assessment.

People don't want to be assessed. They want to share. They want others to know what they've done - not in a self-serving fashion, but so others know what worked, and what didn't work. They want their story told.

3


09-29-2005 35

References

1. A chat with Chris Argyris. By: Abernathy, Donna J.. Training & Development, May99, Vol. 53 Issue 5, p80, 5p (Using the Universities Academic Search Premier)

2. AMA Adds Myers-Briggs Qualification Program To Portfolio, Will Launch New Conference. Lifelong Learning Market Report, 2/4/2005, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p1-2, 2p (Using the Universities Academic Search Premier)

3. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:QxhvNSQSV0EJ:https://dspace.mit.edu/retrieve/2285/SWP-3966-37617962.pdf+art+kleiner+george+roth

harvard business review on knowledge management articles 4-6 presented by laila haidar undergraduate...

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