How can George Orwell help us learn about learning?

George Orwell was the famous author of ‘1984’, ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘The Road To Wigan Pier’.  One of his lesser known works is the essay, ‘Politics And The English Language’ which I shall now use to demonstrate the difference between adaptive and generative learning.

We have looked at these two ideas before.  To repeat, adaptive learning is what we do when we respond to a change in our environment.  We change, the environment does not.  Its outlook is short-term.

Generative learning is what we do when we develop a capability that will anticipate and respond to changes in our environment.  Its outlook is long-term.

Orwell’s essay includes 6 rules that aim to keep prose clear and concise.  Orwell hated verbosity and obfuscation because of the risk that such devices obscure the truth.  His 6 rules are:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.[1]

How do these help explain the difference between adaptive and generative learning?

Let’s imagine a company wants to improve the success rate of its pitches to clients and seeks my help.  An audit of their processes reveals a tendency to waffle, prevaricate, obscure and pad out their proposals, presentations and other communications.

I recommend the company employ me to edit, cut out, reduce and clarify all of the above.  I propose a fee based on the initial size of each document at 50 pence for each word that I remove.

Work begins and becomes a nice little earner for me.  The company is also happy because they notice a reduction in the response time it takes potential clients to review their documents and an increase in the number of successful bids.

This initiative is an example of adaptive learning.  We have addressed the problem of poorly worded proposals and, provided the value of the new business exceeds my fees, everyone is happy.

Some questions:

• Does this proposal help us to identify a root cause?
• If I dropped dead tomorrow or got bored of this work, would the company be able to maintain its current success rate?
• Has the company developed a capability that it lacked before my involvement?

No.

Now let’s look at how generative learning might address the same problem.

Following the audit (the one which identified a tendency to waffle, prevaricate, obscure and pad out their proposals, presentations and other communications), I propose:

• Market analysis for existing and abortive clients (i.e. what sort of proposals succeed in Asia, Africa, Scandinavia etc?  How do we adjust our style to meet their expectations?)
• Exploration of why proposals have been so verbose up until now (i.e. how does the Boss write?  Is there a culture of pretension in place? Do people feel the need to demonstrate overt intellect or education because their daily work provides no such opportunity?);
• All proposal-writing staff to read George Orwell’s essay;
• Design and delivery of a short training package to all proposal-writing staff to help them apply Orwell’s 6 rules where appropriate;
• Update of recruitment criteria for proposal-writing staff to ensure successful applicants can use various styles and understand clarity and conciseness.

If time is short, the initial adaptive response remains valid.  However, the company will only develop new capabilities if it examines root causes and understands its client base.
Those questions again:

• Does this proposal help us to identify a root cause?
• If I dropped dead tomorrow or got bored of this work, would the company be able to maintain its current success rate?
• Has the company developed a capability that it lacked before my involvement?

Yes.

So there we are - an explanation of the difference between adaptive and generative learning, thanks to George Orwell.

Read his essay!

For a conversation about learning, knowledge management or even George Orwell, please contact us direct or through the Knoco website.

 

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[1] Taken from http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/; accessed 5 Feb 2013.

5 things Knowledge Managers can learn from Samaritans

Samaritans is a UK charity that provides emotional support to people in crisis, including those that may be feeling suicidal.  There are many similar organisations worldwide that offer people an opportunity to explore their feelings in various ways, such as face-to-face, over the phone or even via text message or email.

I worked as a Samaritan for a number of years and found it both a rewarding and challenging experience.  As well as being in the privileged position of being trusted to hear people’s most intimate thoughts and feelings, I learned many things, about myself as well as skills that I have used in my career as a Knowledge Management (KM) consultant.

On a bike ride this morning, I thought about the relationship between KM and the work of Samaritans and I think many of us working in Knowledge Management have much to learn from this particular line of work.

Judge not, lest ye be judged

Samaritans do not judge those that get in touch, seeking their help.  Samaritans may hear things of which they disapprove, be they attitudes, opinions or things that people have done that have harmed others, perhaps in unbelievably cruel ways.  But there is never any judgement from the person taking the call.

In KM also, objectivity is vital.  KM people and teams should remain impartial as they learn (and facilitate wider learning) what has worked and not worked in their organisation.  Whilst the KM team has to appear somewhere on the org chart, they should be beholden to no-one whilst helping everyone equally.

Listen, then listen again

Listening is at the heart of the work that Samaritans do.  They create and provide a supportive environment in which callers or visitors can open up and express thoughts and feelings that they may not yet have actually heard out loud.  Samaritans know that sometimes silence is the most effective way of getting someone to speak – few of us will resist the urge to fill that vacuum.  Also, the way things are said is sometimes more important than what is being said.  Listening – really listening – can help Samaritans pick up on tone, mood and emotion. 

In KM, listening is essential.  Creating an atmosphere that enables people to express ideas, concerns and suggestions alike is an important element of a KM framework, through and around which knowledge can flow.  When running lessons capture meetings or knowledge retention interviews, listening – really listening – tells you far more than just ‘what was said’ and can inform where the discussion goes next.

Who you are doesn’t matter; what you say does

When they contact Samaritans, people can give their name if they want, or another, or none at all.  Anonymity helps people open up, as does the knowledge that what they say will be treated in confidence and will not be shared with anyone outside Samaritans.  It’s easier to share things that might be embarrassing or shameful with someone that we don’t know and will never know.

Anonymity and confidentiality have their place in KM also but must be used carefully.  A key part of knowledge management is the enabling the connection between people that need knowledge with those that have it – hard to achieve at the best of times…even harder if people remain anonymous.  Nevertheless, diagnostic tools such as KM assessments and surveys are a good way of getting under the skin of an organisation and people are more forthcoming if they know they can speak freely.  Similarly, lessons capture meetings may be recorded to help transcription of the discussion but the recordings are discarded once the lessons are typed up.

Sharing is a good in itself

We can never know for sure but there is a strong argument to be made that suicide sometimes occurs not as the result of bad feelings (i.e. shame, guilt, depression, grief, worry etc.) but because of the apparent inability to express or handle those feelings.  It is the ability of Samaritans to get people to share these feelings that helps them and can reduce the temptation of suicide.

At its heart, knowledge management is all about sharing.  KM people see the sharing of knowledge as a good in its own right and work to facilitate this, through: the recruitment, training and retention of the right people; the development of supportive processes; the procurement of useful technology and the creation of a governance structure and culture that encourages sharing and discourages hoarding.

The harder you push, the greater the resistance

One of the central tenets of Samaritans’ work is the recognition that everyone has a right to make their own decisions, including whether to take their own life.  In practice, this means that all callers are asked if they are feeling suicidal and, if they are, the call proceeds in a sympathetic but straightforward manner.  This may seem counter-intuitive but one of the things that makes Samaritans different from friends, family, colleagues and others is that they will not try to talk people out of suicide.  Samaritans don’t want people to take their own lives, any more than anyone else would.  But they know that attempts to ‘talk people round’ usually fail, they create resistance and they indicate to the caller that even Samaritans just don’t get it.
KM practitioners benefit from an awareness of the way feedback loops work (i.e. part of ‘systems thinking’).  This approach acknowledges potential resistance to initiatives and works to develop ways of reducing it – as opposed to ‘pushing even harder’.  Such efforts will almost always fail, or will leave all parties bruised and battered.  Asking people about their concerns and fears can reduce them.

For a conversation about KM with one of the world's leading firms of Knowledge Management consultants, please get in touch direct or via the Knoco website.

10 things that a project manager that ‘gets’ KM will do after the project

1.      I recognise that I’ve just done finished something that, for me, was new.
2.      Who else will be doing this in the future? Who else will be working in this part of the world soon? Who else will be working with this client again?
3.      Do we have a Community of Practice (CoP) where people can share what they learn?
4.      Where are those people?  Can I speak to them?  If members of our project team leave the company, do we have an arrangement whereby we can call them back in, either for a meeting or two, or for longer, as an advisor?
5.      I’ve written my report, maintained a blog and updated a wiki with what we have learned. What communication channels are we going to use to make sure others engage with what we’ve learned?  Are there discussion forums for us to have Q&A sessions?
6.      Now that we’re done, who is going to interview me and my team?
7.      Where do all the lessons that we’ve captured need to go now? 
8.      Who can actually do something with the lessons?  Do we have a process for managing them?
9.      When do I get feedback on the lessons and notification that things have changed?
10.   Are we going to change things as a result of what we’ve learned?

For a conversation about KM for projects with one of the leading firms of knowledge management consultants, please contact us through the Knoco website.

10 things that a project manager that ‘gets’ KM will do before a project

1.      I recognise that I’m about to start something that, for me, is new.
2.      Has anyone else done this before?  Have they worked in this part of the world before?  Have they worked for this client before? 
3.      Do we have a Community of Practice (CoP) where people can share what they learn?
4.      Where are those people?  Can I speak to them?  If they have left our company, do we have an arrangement whereby we can call them back in, either for a meeting or two, or for longer, as an advisor?
5.      When they did this stuff before, did they write down their experiences in a report, or on a blog, or on a wiki?  Are there Q&A sessions on the intranet that I can use?
6.      Was the project team interviewed at the end of the project?  Where are those interviews?
7.      Did they capture any lessons?
8.      Where are those lessons now? 
9.      Did anyone do anything with them? 
10.   Did we change things as a result of what we learned last time?

For a conversation about KM for projects with one of the leading firms of knowledge management consultants, please contact us through the Knoco website.

10 reasons for not using knowledge management (KM)

1.      Creativity and innovation are two of our company’s values, so re-inventing the wheel is all the rage around here.
2.      We do KM; we’ve already got [insert name of random IT system here].
3.      We’re so incredibly busy doing things adequately, we simply haven’t got time to learn how to do them better.
4.      Teamwork is one of our values, so having only a few people know how to do stuff forces people to work together.  Clever, huh?
5.      We’re having a re-organisation at the moment.
6.      Finding out what works and what doesn’t might mean asking tricky questions and we might not like the answers so we’re not going to do that.
7.      Things are fine just as they are, thank you.
8.      The HR department are under-valued, so making people redundant, then re-hiring them as contractors when we realise we need the knowledge that went with them, gives them something worthwhile to do.
9.      Internal competition helps us identify the best people/managers/teams; what’s more, learning to keep good practice to themselves ensures that, by the time they’re moving from middle to senior management, our best leaders have this down to a fine art.
10.   We had to learn the hard way and find out for ourselves where everything was and who you needed to speak to and what you needed to know and it didn’t do us any harm.

For a conversation about the value of KM with one of the leading firms of knowledge management consultants, please contact us through the Knoco website.

10 things you need to know about project knowledge management (KM) plans

1.      A project team asks, “What knowledge do we need to manage this project?”
2.      Then, “What are the priority knowledge areas?”
3.      Then, crucially, “Where is that knowledge at the moment?”
4.      If it’s been written down, “Can we get access to it?”
5.      If it hasn’t, “Can we speak to the people who have it?”, “Where are they now?”, “Can they help us?”
6.      And then, “Who is responsible and accountable for KM on this project?”
7.      “What processes will we use to manage our knowledge on this project?”
8.      “What IT are we going to use to help us manage our knowledge on this project?”
9.      “How will we learn on this project?”
10.   “Who else can benefit from what we learn?” “Where are they now?” and so on….

For a conversation about KM plans with one of the leading firms of knowledge management consultants, please contact us through the Knoco website.

10 things you need to know about leadership and knowledge management (KM)

1.      Like any initiative, KM needs leadership support.
2.      Leaders can lead by what they say.
3.      Or even better, by what they do.
4.      For example, by resisting the desire to re-invent the wheel.
5.      And, instead, asking, “Who’s done this before?”
6.      “Where are they now?”
7.      “Can they help us?”
8.      Furthermore, honesty and self-criticism don’t harm leaders.
9.      Rather, they improve their standing.
10.   And show others that this is how to behave.

For a conversation about KM leadership and governance with one of the leading firms of knowledge management consultants, please contact us through the Knoco website.