Complexity and Unlearning

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Permalink Reply by Ned Seabrook on July 29, 2009 at 2:30am

We've headed this 'Complexity' but there are other themes.

Could we start by sharing thoughts on what we understand by the term 'unlearning' - which started our whole discussion.

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Permalink Reply by David McAra on July 29, 2009 at 3:10am

The chord this struck with me is the conscious competence model. The transition from unconscious to conscious incompetence can be a painful one, discovering unexpected ignorance.

Ned Seabrook said:

We've headed this 'Complexity' but there are other themes.

Could we start by sharing thoughts on what we understand by the term 'unlearning' - which started our whole discussion.

"I thought I knew something about this but it's all wrong." The more expert I am, the more difficult it is to see the unexpected gaps. I know where my expected gaps are, where I need and want to know more but please don't surprise me!

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Permalink Reply by John Evans on July 29, 2009 at 9:42am

I wanted to comment particularly on the Santa Fe "school" which is referred to here. For an introduction to Santa Fe economic complexity thinking see: “Strategy at the edge of chaos” by Eric D. Beinhocker.

For a fascinating application in leadership and development see: C. Otto Scharmer's work on "Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges" (Cambridge, MA: Society for Organizational Learning, 2007) and "Addressing the Blind Spot of Our Time". See also: "Reflections", The SoL Journal on Knowledge, Learning, and Change, Volume 5, Number 7 and - most helpfully, perhaps - "Illuminating the Blind Spot: Leadership in the Context of Emerging Worlds" by C. Otto Scharmer, W. Brian Arthur, Jonathan Day, Joseph Jaworski, Michael Jung, Ikujiro Nonaka and Peter M. Senge published (in extract form in "Leader to Leader" (Spring 2002), pp. 11-14 or, in full, as part of the McKinsey–Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Leadership Project (1999–2000).

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Permalink Reply by John Evans on July 30, 2009 at 4:16am

Ned Seabrook said:

We've headed this 'Complexity' but there are other themes.

Could we start by sharing thoughts on what we understand by the term 'unlearning' - which started our whole discussion.

I thought this was a breath of fresh air:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11207809/Creating-an-Innovative-Culture-C...

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Permalink Reply by Ned Seabrook on July 31, 2009 at 3:15am

John,
Thanks for this very useful link - an 'unlearning organisation' - Have I understood correctly; s/he (author?) seems to be saying that the organisation has to unlearn some of what it knows before it can then move forward.
Do we need the term 'unlearning' for this - which appears to be the same as learning about/exploring what the accepted norm is for the organisation AND learning about alternatives outside of the accepted norm?

Ned

John Evans said:

Ned Seabrook said:

We've headed this 'Complexity' but there are other themes.

Could we start by sharing thoughts on what we understand by the term 'unlearning' - which started our whole discussion.

I thought this was a breath of fresh air:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11207809/Creating-an-Innovative-Culture-C...

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Permalink Reply by John Evans on August 4, 2009 at 3:09am

Agreed - though that does not go far enough to my mind and I think the attached paper teases out five dimensions rather well. There may be more!



Ned Seabrook said:

John,
Thanks for this very useful link - an 'unlearning organisation' - Have I understood correctly; s/he (author?) seems to be saying that the organisation has to unlearn some of what it knows before it can then move forward.
Do we need the term 'unlearning' for this - which appears to be the same as learning about/exploring what the accepted norm is for the organisation AND learning about alternatives outside of the accepted norm?

Ned

John Evans said:

Ned Seabrook said:

We've headed this 'Complexity' but there are other themes.

Could we start by sharing thoughts on what we understand by the term 'unlearning' - which started our whole discussion.

I thought this was a breath of fresh air:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/11207809/Creating-an-Innovative-Culture-C...

Attachments:

• Learning & Unlearning The Role of Mindset.pdf, 149 KB

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