The world is too complex for us to get things right first time. So what matters is the speed at which we adapt and learn. Image from wikimedia commons The British historian Michael Howard wrote, on the subject of military doctrine, “I am tempted to say that whatever doctrine the
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Shared by Nick Milton April 12, 2021
Any lesson learning system requires a method for escalating lessons. However escalated lessons may need to break through “knowledge bubbles”. How do we reconcile these two issues? Rainbow bubble by Lena on Flickr As we have often argued on this blog, the purpose of lesson learning is to drive change
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Shared by Nick Milton November 11, 2020
Do learning organisations require learning leaders? Almost certainly they do, but will learning leaders require their organisations to learn as well? How well do leaders learn? There is the stereotype of the bull-headed CEO, hanging on to their dream, forging ahead single-mindedly until they dominate the industry. But is that
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Shared by Nick Milton September 23, 2020
Here is an interesting story about a couple of scientists who created a craft which reached the edge of space, and who (as good knowledge workers should) captured their lessons learned afterwards. The surprise is that they were only 8 and 10 years old at the time! The young scientists’
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Shared by Nick Milton September 22, 2020
Social and organisational learning is so easy that even ants can do it, and we can learn from the principles they apply. Leafcutter ant trail by Jasper Nance on flickr If you look at an ant trail from the nest to a source of food, it is pretty direct. The food
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Shared by Nick Milton June 4, 2020
The 70:20:10 rule is commonly quoted, as in this video by Steve Trautman, as representing the three ways in which people learn. 10% of our learning, comes from formal training 20% of our learning comes from structured mentoring, from a senior to a junior, or teacher to learner 70% of
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Shared by Nick Milton March 19, 2020
Effective learning within an organisation requires consistent and rigorous self-analysis, in order to pick up learning points and points of improvement. In Japan, this process is known as Hansei. Hansei, by Jim O’Neil, on Flickr Although alien to many in the west, Hansei is an important part of the Japanese
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Shared by Nick Milton March 4, 2020
Here is a useful boston square on learning from success and failure I blogged earlier this month about “Win or lose, you should always learn“. However the learning strategy you employ depends very much on whether you are in a fail-safe environment or whether (as in the Apollo 13 tagline)
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Shared by Nick Milton October 1, 2019
People often make a big thing about learning from failure, but learning from success is just as important, and can often be overlooked. Crossroads by Chris Potter on Flickr and stockmonkeys.com The impetus to revisit this topic came from a one-liner post on LinkedIn by Oleg Vishnepolsky reading “Sometimes I win,
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Shared by Nick Milton September 11, 2019
Knowledge Management is the discipline that drives continuous improvement. Here is a diagram that makes this clear We are all familiar with the link between Knowledge and continuous improvement in our personal lives, as demonstrated by the familiar saying “Practice Makes Perfect”. The more we do something, the better we
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Shared by Nick Milton March 29, 2019