Roy writes in response to Michael's message:
> Michael raises a very good question. Should we teach people the "Lists"
> from which they must operate or should we lead them to understand the
> concepts that led to the creation of the lists in the first place? This is
> a crucial question for organizational learning, maybe for all learning.
> In some cases we cannot afford to wait for the concepts to be understood
> and must first start with "lists". In an organizational setting we need to
> bring people up to speed quickly so they can contribute effectively to the
> purpose of the enterprise.
[much snipped]
Roy, tonight I had a long conversation with a colleague about this very
thing: Do we teach people to "do" before we teach them the theory behind
the "doing"? We didn't really reach any particular conclusions. We saw
benefits and weaknesses in both approaches. That discussion took place
four hours ago; in hind sight, I'd say approach should be: Get or take
action, and then explain the theory. It is important, however, that theory
be explained. Otherwise, the person's ability to take effective action and
to question the assumptions upon which the action(s) are based will be
minimized
--Benjamin B. Compton ("Ben") | email: bcompton@novell.com Novell, GroupWare Support Quality Manager | fax: (801) 222-6991
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>