Does anyone else have trouble with that? Aren't there other results of
learning? For example, we used to talk about knowledge, skills, and
attitudes -- all potentially the outcomes of learning. In organizational
learning, at least, it seems to me that another potential outcome of
learning is a (changed) system or process ("structure") -- and this,
except metaphorically perhaps, is not what I would want to call
"knowledge." Learning algorithms in computer programs restructure their
own code -- so the result of "learning" is, first, a new structure and,
then, different actions ("behavior") produced by that code the next time
it is invoked.
I wouldn't raise this point if it were just picky. I think it's more than
that. This (erroneous, in my opinion) identification of learning with
knowledge underlies some of the thinking behind "knowledge management" and
makes me uneasy. And this (erroneous) identification of learning with
knowledge may even underlie some of the dialogue we've had on this list
about whether organizations can learn (or do they simply make it possible
for individual people to do so.) I think that it's difficult to
understand organizational learning as anything other than individuals'
learning if one identifies the only outcome of learning to be "knowledge."
But if one identifies other outcomes, then it makes a lot of practical
sense to say that organizations learn.
Let me give you a real-life (if somewhat dated) example: Many years ago,
when I was in the military service, I ran across a very ordinary section
of corridor that had a Marine guard standing at each end. Between the two
guards, along the corridor, was no room of any particular importance that
I could determine. I was curious why these two people had to guard an
apparently unimportant stretch of hallway -- so I asked them. Neither of
them knew why they were there. I went to their commander and asked him.
He didn't know either but he admitted that they had been doing it as long
as he had been there -- which was six months. I continued by seeking
people who had been posted at that location for longer than six months and
asking them why the Marines were guarding the corridor. Finally I found
one old hand who knew the story. It seemed that about a year before there
was to be an inspection of the accounting area (which happens to be in
that corridor) by a general from headquarters command. Troops had spent
hours, the night before the inspection, buffing and polishing the hallway
for the general's visit. To prevent this work from being scuffed up, two
Marines were posted at either end of the corridor to keep people from
walking on the polished floor before the general arrived -- and no one had
bothered to ever rescind the order!
If that old guy had been reassigned, this would have been a case of an
organization "learning" something that was not in any one person's head
(any more.) Its learning was manifest in a continuing process/procedure
(standing orders) that determined, in part, how people in the organization
were to act. By the way, I used to tell this story in Fortune 500
companies and then ask, "Do you have any Marines guarding corridors around
here?" The answer, invariably, was "Yes!"
I believe a lot of organizational learning is "remembered" in structures,
processes, and systems that determine how the organization (and, yes, the
people in it) will act. Some of this learning is very consequential and
important, some of it is inconsequential or just silly (like the Marines
guarding the corridor), some of it is pernicious to the avowed purposes of
the organization. Some of it may be described by people in the course of
their working together, some of it may be describable but not usually
articulated, some of it may even be "tacit" in some strong sense. But it
is not what I choose to call "knowledge" even though it is what I choose
to call an outcome of learning, and it does not (all) reside in people's
heads.
John W. Gunkler
jgunkler@sprintmail.com
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>