|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
HUMAN LEARNING -
NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- DEBRIEF - Look at that ! Paramedics go beyond established heuristcs. Expertise comes from the capacity to generate new context-relevant heuristics. In other words, they go "by-the-book" and "beyond-the-book"... thus rewriting part of the book.
This is profound evidence of the active management of one's own personal knowledge base...the astute professional.
In so doing, a continuous positive self-generating loop happens….leading on to more knowledge and greater confidence to make decisions that produce optimal outcomes. Paramedics go beyond established heuristics. The astute knowledge worker is one who has the ability to generate potentially new guidelines and rules from their experience. These findings strongly support the recognised mental model of experiential learning discussed in KM Tutorials (>Human Learning Model) and in Loo's (2002) work, summarised by their respective related illustrations below. Paramedics are actively using all four learning style preferences. They would likely argue no differently. Here then is evidence that all four styles are critical to develop a knowledge worker into an astute knowledge worker.
The knowledge worker only becomes astute when they can perhaps apply heuristics in different contexts and redraw heuristics to suit the new non-routine events. This study confirms this principle of powerful workplace experiential learning. These new heuristics are what improves the performance of the individual and the organisation once they are 'institutionalised.' And here is a key process need in KM.... how do we get the professional to stop and reflect about their new insight and be able to share it with their colleagues in the shortest time ? How do we help people routinely uncover their tacit heuristics and broadcast them across the organisation to those who need to know ? Paramedics...without computers or databases...do this face-to-face in communities of practice, finding this 'social capital' process as very effective. Paramedics however may have been forced to be astute. Their 'business' is about human life and death crisis issues. Yes ? They therefore are compelled to be dynamic ongoing learners of their field. It is a self-imposed professional imperative. One mistake could mean the death of a patient or a colleague. This is also true for military personnel, for natural disaster services personnel, for national security personnel. They have an obvious reason to continually learn. Can this attitude however be replicated in non-human emergency business environments ? Can high school teachers, accountants or product managers for chocolate have a similar professional development urgency like paramedics ? To date, my observations of the low member activity levels seen even in professional occupational bodies like Human Resources and Training and Development suggest this learning urgency is likely absent in many professional disciplines. Becoming an astute knowledge worker seems not to be a priority for them. Do senior management want their staff to make it a priority ? Is it a core competency for the organisation ? The incoming Knowledge Era mindset may soon stir management to think about rewarding professional development initiatives by their staff. Much more could be said about this. Conclusion This has been a watershed study on the likely mental learning processes of astute knowledge workers. These workers not only reinforce and refine established heuristics but generate new heuristics about their discipline.... even when they are shifted to new work roles in the same profession. The experiential learning model of mastering all four learning styles has been well supported in this study and should be continued to be used as the gold standard of human learning models. But can the majority of personnel who are not in emergency services be convinced of the necessity of personal life-long learning enabled by KM processes ? It comes down to personal choice rather than external rewards and punishment. You can buy a person's hands but you can't buy their heart. But again we have seen there are no short cuts to profound learning in managing an accident scene.. and likewise, neither in the board room... in front of the customer... or on the golfing range.
______________________________________________________________________ |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
TOP
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
