05 June 2003

Organisational learning should be like a disease The virus metaphor is a powerful one for organisational learning, particularly where supported by technology: Catching a disease makes it more likely that others will catch it also (the Network Effect, as shown by Kazaa, Napster and the thousands of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks); sharing your learning, both during the process of learning or once mastery is achieved, makes it more likely that others will learn also Studies of medical viruses and computer viruses have shown that there tends to be an "epidemic threshold", below which a virus will not spread, but above which an epidemic is probable. It's the same with learning in an organisation: knowledge and skills in almost any domain are unlikely to be pervasive throughout an organisation below a particular threshold. Key factors that influence a virus's effectiveness include readiness of hosts, effective transport mechanisms, number and frequency of connections and so on; comparisons with organisational learning are obvious here. Close personal contact between those with similar characteristics aids infection; people learn best from people with whom they share common interests and goals. In the early stages of many illnesses, symptoms are not evident but are sensed as discomfort - likewise learning. Those with antibodies to an illness will not catch it. In the context of learning, the antibodies include fear and discomfort; lack of relevance; too much information; blindness to need and so on Once a disease has done its work - or once skills have been spread around a cohort - it's unlikely that the same group will be infected again immediately. So re-infection with a new disease needs to be encouraged. Some types of disease - types of knowledge/skill - are less contagious than others; some have very long incubation periods. We need to know which these are. 4:04:38 PM    Any comments?  [] I just read this, from Transforming e-Knowledge: "Autonomic learning is like breathing, the beating of the heart, and the other autonomic responses of the human body." p57. Metaphors for learning are getting increasingly organic. Thankfully, there's far less about nuts 'n bolts, cogs and jigsaw pieces (although Lego pieces still get a frequent, and merited mention, thanks to Mr Hodgins early thoughts on learning objects). My metaphor for a key transport mechanism for learning is the virus. 7:54:57 AM    Any comments?  []

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