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Learn-Unlearn-Relearn
Creating an Unlearning Organization
Source: Azmi, Feza Tabassum (2008) ‘Mapping the Learn-Unlearn-Relearn Model’ European Business Review. 20:3, 240-259
Researchers in different eras
Researchers in different eras
Dominant thought in each era
Dominant thought in each era
IT CALLS FOR A LEARN-ACT-SHARE
ORIENTATION ON THE PART OF ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS.
Learning is not a one-shot program,
it is an on-going process.
Learn-Act-Share
Learn. This forms the base of the iceberg. It refers to the subtle
and gradual acquisition of new knowledge, skills, capabilities and know-how on an ongoing basis.
Act. Once new learning has been acquired, it needs to manifest
itself in work patterns and role behaviors.
Share. Organizational members need to pass on new learning
to others leading to synergies and desirable outcomes.
While, learn and act may take place on an individual basis, sharing of information and knowledge calls for a collective give and take.
Hence, while learn and act are implicit; sharing is the explicit part of the learning iceberg.
Learn-Unlearn-Relearn
Creating
an Unlearning Organization
Creating an unlearning organization
All organizations can learn.
the role of leaders in organizations is to set the necessary conditions for the
organization to develop an effective learning capability.
Successful companies have managed their learning capabilities to ensure that it occurs
by design rather than by chance.
However, learning is not a sufficient precondition for organizational effectiveness.
Successful business organizations do not just have to learn.
In fact, they have to learn to unlearn.
It necessitates employees to unlearn the old ways of doing things.
Creating an unlearning organization is the imperative for facilitating the journey of
improvements.
The Unlearning Typology
Negligence.
This in unplanned loss of company data, information, knowledge, skill or methods due to dereliction and complacency. Several organizations tend to unconsciously perpetrate a system where employee negligence leads to a forgetting effect – one where knowledge is lost due to lack of care.
Many a times such loss may be accidental or due to short-sightedness. It may also happen if knowledge is not coded and stored systematically.
It has negative consequences for the organization, more so if vital information of the past is lost.
Sabotage
This is willful and deliberate destruction of valuable data,
information or knowledge, which hampers a company’s
competitiveness and has negative consequences on its
survival.
Often, such a forgetting phenomenon may be the result of a
wayward behavior of either employees or outsiders.
Emerging cyber crimes like hacking and data diddling, to
name a few, are some of the common examples of
information sabotage, threatening IT-enabled business
organizations of today.
Decay
This refers to the phenomenon of natural loss or decay of old
skills or knowledge due to continuous organizational life
cycle.
As organizations evolve and grow there is a natural tendency
to forget certain information and skills of the past that is no
longer required.
As skills and knowledge become obsolete, people tend to
gradually forget them. This may be a natural consequence of
time and growth.
Unlearning
This refers to a planned, active and deliberate attempt
towards strategic rethinking. Forgetting here involves a
conscious game-plan to carefully weed out knowledge that
has been producing dysfunctional outcomes.
It requires a deliberate effort to come out of a particular
frame of reference that is no longer workable or viable.
It is different from decay because here old and jaded skills
and knowledge are willfully and systematically parted with.
The relearning architecture
Learn-Unlearn-Relearn
Relearning
Relearning is based on a continuous process of organizational
renewal – where traditional and archaic systems are
replenished with life and vigour.
This process of organizational renewal can be related to the
concepts of time- and event-pacing.
Time pacing
Time pacing is a strategy for competing in fast-
changing unpredictable markets by scheduling changes at predictable time intervals.
ตวัอย่าง Intel
Way back in 1965, Gordon Moore, the Co-founder of Intel Corporation,
predicted that the capacity of the microprocessor computer chip would
double every 18 months. Moore’s law, as it is better known as, is a business
objective that Intel’s engineers and managers have taken to heart.
Over the course of time, Intel has created a series of new product
introductions that have set a blistering pace in its industry.
Intel is certainly the most visible practitioner of time pacing. Not only does
Intel make Moore’s law a reality through its new product introductions, but
it also time-paces in other areas. For example, about every nine months
Intel adds a new fabrication facility to its operation.
By expanding its capacity in this way, Intel deters rivals from entering the business and blocks them from gaining a toehold.
Event-pacing
involves a strategy of scheduling changes with changing events.
Companies that believe in event-pacing make changes not in response to time but in response to events such as moves by the competition, shifts in technology, poor financial performance, changing legal framework or new customer demands.
Event-pacing is about creating a new product when a promising technology comes out, entering a new market in response to a move by a competitor, or making an acquisition because an attractive target is visible on the horizon.
Time-pacing & Event-pacing
Companies that march to the beat of time-pacing
build momentum, and
companies that effectively manage event-pacing
sustain that momentum without missing important beats.
3-R principle
To synchronize time- and event-pacing
renewal, organizations need to keep track of
the 3-R principle.
Range
Rhythm
Route
Range
This refers to the size of change.
Organizations need to understand the magnitude of change
required for success.
Relearning will accordingly depend on the quantum of
change.
The more radical the change, the more will be the need to
assimilate new skills and techniques.
Rhythm
This refers to the speed of change.
Business organizations also need to be wary of the rate at
which change is required.
Too fast a change shakes the roots of the organization while
too slow a change tends to stifle organizational growth.
Thus, there needs to be a balancing act.
Route
This refers to the direction of change.
Apart from range and rhythm, the route along which change
takes place also needs to be taken care of.
Managers need to watch out where the organization is
heading. Many a times, as in a relay race, one may end up
finishing where one started from.
The direction of change has to be ahead; one that takes the
organization nearer to its vision and away from competition.
Relearning architecture
Strategic building blocks
Resistance, denial and nostalgia are the greatest enemies of
organization.
Organizational barriers
Organizational prerequisites