Draft 4 - JAN03 Learning from Experience The Manual February 2003 BAA Draft 4 - JAN03 “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand” (Confucius, Chinese sage, 551-479 BC) “Our ability to apply the best available knowledge is a key point of difference for us in the marketplace” (Bovis Lend Lease) “That was the most productive meeting we’ve had in 3 years of partnering” (a Director of Partnerships First, after a Hindsight workshop) “Truth springs from arguments amongst friends” (David Hume, Scottish philosopher, 1711-76) “If it’s that easy, why aren’t we doing it already?” (a Transco engineer, after a Hindsight workshop) Acknowledgments The Learning Toolkit was developed by David Bartholomew Associates and Gardiner & Theobald in collaboration with: • Amicus Group • BAA plc • The BP-Bovis Lend Lease Global Alliance • Buro Happold • SecondSite Property plc (previously Lattice Property) • Transco plc (now National Grid Transco) We are grateful for their invaluable input. The work was supported by the Department of Trade and Industry through the Partners in Innovation programme. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the Department. Learning from Experience Contents Contents 1 Why learn from experience? ........................... 2 2 Learning basics .................................................. 4 Introduction .......................................................................4 Principles..............................................................................5 3 Planning a learning programme .................... 6 Making the business case .........................................6 Making it happen: learning as a project ...........6 Creating a programme framework......................6 Launching a learning programme.......................8 4 Workshops and interviews .............................. 9 Introduction .......................................................................9 Planning considerations..........................................10 Preparing for a workshop .......................................10 Insight and Hindsight ...............................................11 Leader skills .....................................................................13 Foresight ...........................................................................14 5 Creating knowledge ....................................... 16 6 Sharing knowledge......................................... 17 7 Further reading................................................ 18 For further information about the project or for consultancy on learning methods contact: • David Bartholomew of DBA at [email protected], or • Marion Weatherhead of Gardiner & Theobald at [email protected] © DBA 2003 1 Draft 5nf - JAN03 Learning from Experience Why learn from experience? Why learn from experience? Box 1: Data, Information and Knowledge We live in a knowledge-driven economy in the information age of a globalised world. Knowledge has become recognised as one of the keys to You’ve just moved from London to Poole and you decide to realise an business success, and it is written about, managed and valued as never old ambition and take up dinghy sailing. You’ve never bought a boat before. But what exactly is it? Where does it come from? And what is it really before so you go to the Boat Show, but the range on offer is bewildering. worth? Which one would be good to learn in, fun for the family, and give you the chance to race? Would it be better to buy one that would go on The knowledge industry likes to blur the distinctions between knowledge, top of the Volvo, or something a bit bigger? And how much is it information and data. They do overlap, but the differences matter. Data is to really worth paying? You collect a bag full of brochures, but there’s information is to knowledge as brick is to wall is to building: data and too much data to take in. So at Waterloo you look at the magazines information have only limited value until they are brought together in in WH Smith and find one with a comparative review of six models. somebody’s head and transformed into knowledge that can inform action That contains information you can understand — all the key data (see box 1). Most ‘knowledge management’ (KM) systems are really just data in tables for easy comparison, and opinions from experts. You narrow or document management systems (see box 2). KM systems can do a great the choice down to two. But which would be best? On the train deal to make relevant information more accessible, but it still takes human back home a man notices you’re making notes from the magazine intelligence to turn it into knowledge and act on it. and offers some personal knowledge. There’s a friendly sailing club at Poole that specialises in Mirror dinghys. They organise regular We acquire knowledge in three ways: by study, experience or being taught. one-design races, and they have trained instructors and a couple of As a society we invest heavily in learning by study and being taught, but we club boats which can be hired by the day. You could try one without leave learning from the practical experience of doing a job largely to chance, commitment, and if you decided to buy your own could probably get unconsidered and unresourced. Learning has become increasingly a good second-hand boat for half the price of a new one. synonymous with being taught as lecture rooms have replaced apprenticeship. And yet the most highly regarded knowledge is experiential: chief executives, market traders and footballers are paid for Box 2: Learning and Knowledge Management their experience, not their university degrees — because that is what creates the most business value. Learning programmes and knowledge management systems are complementary: learning programmes create knowledge, It is not perverse to invest in conventional education, but it is perverse to knowledge management systems share it. leave learning from experience to chance. The ‘experience’ that is so highly valued is not just acquired by living through events, but by learning actively Learning programmes aim to reveal the know-how that is locked from them. One of the hallmarks of the most successful people and up in the heads of people and teams (tacit and team knowledge) organisations is their ability to learn from everything they do. This is not just and use it to solve problems and improve business performance. a matter of innate ability: it is a learnable process. Technique and organisation pay dividends, just as they do in teaching. Knowledge management (KM) aims to make all the recorded (explicit) knowledge of an organisation easily, quickly and reliably Teaching and study usually are the best ways to learn when knowledge can available to everyone, wherever it is and wherever they are. be ‘codified’ — that is, when it can be reduced to formulae and sets of rules, and stored in a textbook or a hard disk. This is ‘explicit’ knowledge. A knowledge management system is a combination of: Management judgement and football skills have to be learned from experience because they can only be codified to a limited degree. This is culture: a habit of sharing rather than hoarding information ‘tacit’ (or ‘implicit’) knowledge, which exists only in heads. Some is conscious IT: an organisation-wide electronic storage and access system, (we know we have it, and we could codify it if we tried); much more is typically including a structured filing system (for access to specific unconscious — we may (or may not) use it, but we could certainly not codify documents), full-text indexing and searching (for finding documents it. Do you really know how you swim? Could you write it down well enough which include specific words, phrases or concepts), financial and so that a non-swimmer could read it and start swimming immediately? The staff record databases, and a common interface for viewing all kinds more complex the task, and the more it depends on a stream of minute-by- of documents minute judgements, the more tacit knowledge outvalues explicit knowledge. procedures: to ensure that all information which may be useful gets into the system, and ensure its integrity. Typically, they cover It is no accident that so much management training is based on role-playing routine scanning and OCRing of incoming mail, filing of project and team activities — learning from experience in artificial, designed documents and web downloads, recording of contact and market situations — rather than classroom teaching, or that Harvard Business School intelligence information, and updating of a directory of expertise. teaches its MBAs almost entirely through intensive discussion of case studies. Even knowledge that is available in books is often better learned from Software alone is not a knowledge management system (whatever it experience: as Confucius said, “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do says on the box). and I understand”. 2 Draft 5-nf - JAN03 Learning from Experience Why learn from experience? Explicit knowledge The members of a team can collectively possess knowledge of which none Conscious of them is individually aware — team knowledge, spread around in pieces tacit that mean nothing until they are put together. Historically it may have been knowledge enough for people to learn for themselves, but it no longer is in industries like construction where achievement depends on the combined efforts of Individual Unconscious project teams. tacit Team knowledge When learning from experience is left to individuals and to chance