Monday 13 October 2008

LtF Chapter 3: The holistic model

Freakishly quiet on the bus this morning. This was a good thing as the glorious weekend weather saw me do none of the reading I needed to for today. I did get to try out my new garden waste incinerator which I can heartily recommend. Moving swiftly on to the text...

The chapter looks to build a model that can then be modified to fit other situations. The model described is focused on learning throughout the progression from business objectives to results. Previously captured Knowledge is applied during the doing phase and renewed through and after it.

This seems fairly self evident to me but encouraging people to think in this way would be constructive. Research before actually launching into something is easily missed. Lessons learnt afterwards are far from regularly captured and shared. The how will be interesting. Perhaps a format for structured reflection that is then searchable and shared? I agree that success stories can lead to a positive cycle of sharing.

I think the key would be how you sustain these behaviours. I can see lots of opportunity for good intentions and interesting projects that then falter in the face of other pressures. Staff turnover would also be an issue leaving behind orphaned "knowledge assets" and an induction burden.

A closing quote "When we define where we want to be, all our actions turn out to be congruent with that place" reminds me of Irrationality by Stuart Sutherland. Well worth a read (if rather repetitious) Sutherland would rephrase this as "When we define where we want to be, we tend to ignore the evidence that does not fit with our view".

This chapter still often points ahead rather than including much detail. At least the points to skip ahead to are clear but I am left wanting more.

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