Learning Histories LO5849

Art Kleiner (art@well.com)
Mon, 26 Feb 1996 00:35:05 -0500

Having taken part briefly in the learning history conversation in this
newsgroup a few weeks ago, I wanted to briefly let people know that George
Roth, Nina Kruschwitz and I are putting on a workshop this year called
"Becoming a Learning Historian," based on the ten-to-twelve learning
histories with which we have been associated to date.

The course consists of six session days spread over six months (starting
in mid-April), with the creation of a prototype learning history and the
dissemination of that work, as part of the course. If you are interested
in more details, please email me <art@well.com> with your mailing address.

End of plug. I will add a bit more, however, to revive the generic subject
of learning histories, since I've followed the comments in this newsgroup
with great interest.

We have been thinking a great deal about the methods of producing learning
histories, with a group of "pioneers" based at MIT. (Diane Weston, who has
commented in this newsgroup, is one of them.) We have come to think that
the audiences for learning histories vary immensely:

1. The "pilot" team, who has been through a learning effort, is eager
to have the experience played back to them. This, to my mind, is the most
difficult audience, because it can overwhelm the learning historian... and
it doesn't represent a "learning infrastructure" that will carry the pilot
team's experience to the rest of the organization.

2. The remainder of the organization, championed by key managers who
are intensely curious about the pilot team's results, and whether those
are duplicable -- and often curious about the pilot team's change of
heart, as well.

3. The rest of us, out in the world. Danah Zohar makes the point that
the "reflection" from outside of a company's experience is a key part of
the company's ability to learn about itself. Perhaps business journalism
does serve a useful function, after all...

-- Art Kleiner, art@well.com

-- 

art@well.com (Art Kleiner)

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>