Calibrating Loops: Connecting Evidence to Practice
Calibrating Loops: Connecting Evidence to Practice
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently described the AIR Forum in Atlanta as, "a staid venue for arcane discussions about data collection." Hmmmm.
"Walking in a straight line is a complicated process when you think about it from the perspective of the brain"
Jan Souman, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. Quoted in CNNHealth.
Personal Loops
- A jungle of neurons
- A network of abstractions
- Is the "I" a convenient fiction?
- Symbolism as communication
Calibration
- Trajectory
- Velocity
- Windage
- Aim
- Preparation
- Perseverance
- Perspiration
- Prayerfulness
- Playfullness
Spiraled Learning. A combination of single and double-loops whose direction may be up as in evolution but may also be downward in the case of uncompleted or unfulfilled loop.
Learning Dichotomies
Knowledge source: Internal v. External
Product-process: What is made focus v. How is made focus
Documentation mode: Record as personal knowledge v. Record as public know how
Dissemination mode: Formal v. Informal
Learning focus: Incremental v. Transformative
Value-chain focus: Design focus v. Delivery focus
Skill development focus: Individual v. Group
Source: Campbell and Uys
Other Dichtomies
- an administrative formality to comply v an integral step in the development process
- availability of data v. availability of actionable information
- availability of analysis v. availability of people who can understand it
- wallpaper data v. data that points the way
- inward looking IR Offices v. anticipatory IR Offices
- Push button data v. understanding data
Hard Won Lessons
- Using national databases to drive productivity metrics is only--at best--proximal research. To make real headway will require states to understand how the data they collect prior to national reporting can be used to impact productivity.
Rick's Rubrics
- If you’re not planning, you’re planning to fail
- Planning, unfortunately, oftentimes becomes a defensive activity
- Perfect data don't exist
- Thin to Win
- Not enough for planning to be participatory; it also had to be decisive
- Select 3 (maybe 4) “main things” that make a real difference
- Don’t expect a homerun every time
- Be flexible ready to adjust strategies and goals
- Show results widely (even if ugly)
- Link clearly to resources
- Most Critically: Separate the Operational from the Strategic
Loops and Organizations
- Single-loop learning: when errors are detected and corrected but firms carry on with their present policies and goals. Single loops don't alter the fundamental nature of the organization. Senge calls this "coping."
- Double-loop learning: when--in addition to correcting errors--the organization is involved in the questioning and modification of existing norms, procedures, policies, and objectives. Changes both the knowledge base and the organization's routines.
Rick Voorhees, Principal
Voorhees Group LLC
rick@voorheesgroup.org
www.voorheesgroup.org
References
- Argyris, C. (1994). Executive leadership : an appraisal of a manager in action (2nd Ed). University of Michigan Press.
- Campbell, M. & Uys, P. Building learning communities of practice for professional development in zzzzzzzopen and distance learning: the CELT experience.
- CNN. Freaky news about your brain may change your mind. Retrieved August 25, 2009 at cnn.com
- Hofstadter, D. (2007). I Am a Strange Loop. New York: Basic Books.
- Nevis E.C., DiBella A.J. & Gould J.M. (1995). Understanding organisations as learning systems. Sloan Management Review, 36 (2), pp. 73-85.
- Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: the art & practice of the learning organization. New York, NY: Doubleday
- Snowden, D. J. & Boone, M.E. (2007). A leaders framework for decision making. Harvard Business Review. November: 69-76.
- Snowden, D.J. (2002). Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness. Journal of Knowledge Management 6(2), p100-111.