>>"In the first case, we have an history of learning, we know it takes a
week (?) to learn how to ride a bicycle, we have teaching techniques (like
mentoring or peer teaching). In the second case, we don't have any of
these. From a management point of view, there is a difference : - in the
first case, one can develop well known methods (like mentoring) to help
people learn skills that cannot be easily taught with other means, - in
the second case, we have to invent ways to help this emergent knowledge
diffuse in the team, in the group, in the company."
Bernard makes a distinction between 2 types of emergent learning, the 1st
when we can recognize when the skill has been acquired, and the 2nd, and I
am interpreting here (correctly I hope?), wherein the skill or knowing is
not known before hand. In the 1st, the learning emerges for the individual
in a tacit manner from the indwelling (or practice) stage, whereas in the
2nd the emergence has to be recognized, and would likely be highly
dependent upon the team.
I suspect Bernard, that the issue is not so much to invent ways of
diffusing the knowledge throughout the group because the group interaction
which makes the emergence possible, will look after that
semi-automatically. Rather, I think the challenge is to detect an
emergence of knowledge/skill just when it is "ripe". That is, not too soon
when an intervention might distort it, or create unnecessary group
reactions. And not too late, when the forces of stasis in the group have
already chopped up and pidgeon-holed the know-how into pre-digested
categories. Hence, the trick may be to bring the emergence to light, just
when it starts to become contagious.
I hope that I have not made this too abstract (I will attempt an example
if necessary). But it does seem that we are entering territory here,
where there is precious few landmarks. Can Bernard or anyone else shed
some light on these considerations? I believe that we could be talking
here of a capability (nurturing and bringing home the "crop" of emergent
learning) for high-powered teams in the learning organization.
The only thing I am aware of which is somewhat in this arena is the work
of Rupert Sheldrake on morphogenetic fields (roughly speaking the 100th
monkey phenomenon).
-- Doug Seeley InterDynamics Pty. Ltd. (Australia) in Geneva, Switzerland Compuserve: 100433.133