Our Take on it

Our Take on it ?

Learning in organizations is not about knowledge but about behavior change & business impact : Learning is about doing things differently and creating significant impact for your business and organization.  And we find the following principles key :

• Learning is not about 'transfer of knowledge' but about creating insights from experience and from looking back at those experiences.  In that sense it is 'making knowledge'. (experiential learning)
• Learning is not an individual game, it is a relational game. People learn in the relationship and collaboration with others... things get meaning in context (social constructionist view)
• Learning and behavior change is not a 'cognitive' game, but our behavior and our capacity to change is very much linked to the context we work in and in order to change our behavior we have to look at all behavioral levers : "nobody does something just because he is capable of doing it".
• The learning process needs to be co-created with the learners
• Change (and learning) is not a Top Management game.  Most situations in organizations are far too complex to be truly understood by a few people in the board.  You need from the very beginning to include and involve all stakeholders.
• Change is not a 'step by step linear process' but a journey you go together with all stakeholders and you co-create the journey while you go (action learning) : "you only understand a system when you change it" (K.Lewin).
• Change is not about communicating and selling the reasons 'why you have to change' but a collective 'meaning making' exercise and developing a shared vision on the future.

Designing Experiential Learning Processes

Move! uses the principles of experiential learning to create very powerful LEARNING TRACKS.  We use the 'double-deck principle' where people on the one hand work on their issues in close collaboration with their team, internal customers, boss, etc...

On the other hand they come together with other participants in a Learning group where they share experience, get feedback, are challenged, reflect on the action principles behind things and develop new ways of doing.  Once brought into practice, they bring that experience back into the learning group to learn from it.

That process is repeated a number of times and we keep the process going by creating small inter-vision groups or individual coaching sessions with your manager to support you in experimenting with new behavior in your work situation. The nice thing about this is that not only the 'participant' learns, but the whole functional system around him is also involved in changing the way they do things. 

The key design principles are :

• Not one shot, but a process over time
• Carefully integrate WORK and LEARNING (work experiences are the input for the formal learning workshops AND the insights from the workshops are translated into action in the field)
• Focus on the 'individual learner' AND the 'system' : manager, colleagues, reports, customers, ...
• Integration of diverse learning activities such as : coaching, workshops, inter-vision, experiential games, feedback, role play & simulation, job-aids, networking, etc..

It is a very powerful model for leadership development because it doesn't focus on individual skills and competencies only, but also creates a working culture that triggers shared and distributed leadership in teams and departments.

Co-creative Change Processes

Also for the design and facilitation of transformational change processes, we work from the Action Learning principle. Organizations engage in organizational wide change to enhance organization and business performance.  That means that you need to get your analysis right and that you have to be able to implement the new ways of working in an effective way in the organization...

Both things are only possible if you involve from the very beginning all stakeholders in the analysis of the issues and in creating the common and shared future. CO-CREATION is the only way to bring all the knowledge, insights and meaning together to understand the issues and the only way to develop the energy in the organization to make the change work and stick.  Our role as consultant is to design a process that allows for that and to be the guardian of involvement and co-creation. In an organization where leadership becomes increasingly distributed, co-creation is the only way to bring to develop the expertise, experience and energy necessary for effective transformational change.  Co-creation takes away four important obstacles for successful change.

Recent research concluded that it's not change that people resist, they change all the time, they decide to build a house, to quit their job, etc... but that they resent the fact that they are as 'key stakeholder' who are impacted by the change NOT RECOGNIZED and that their experience and expertise is NOT USED.

If people are treated as outsiders they will also behave as outsiders.  Telling, selling or training in it self will not work.  It's not about communication it's about involvement !

Methodology

What can we  do ?

Learning and change are for Move! in essence Co-Creative processes, so whatever we do, we always go for an approach where people build as a community their own learning and change path.  Within that path, these are few possibilities of used methods :

• Process Consulting for change processes
• Communities of Practice
• Design and Facilitate Experiential Learning Tracks
• Workshops
• Toolkit, Job-aids, Learning Journal
• Coaching (help organizations introducing a coaching management culture)
• Inter-vision (and coach inter-vision facilitators)
• Experiential Games and Activities
• Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator/Designer workshops
• Develop tool kits for Facilitators
• Large Group Interventions (Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, Open Space, ...)
• Development Centers (as part of an experiential process towards development)

Peter Senge argues that when you have multiple sources of leadership and expertise needed for getting effective solutions or innovative ideas, co-creative and collaborative processes are necessary.

Food for Thought

Food for Thought

C. Leemans, (2010).  Engaging Experiential Learning Activities.  Move! Article (not published)

Roelf Woldring., (1999)., A managers' short primer on resistance to change in organizations. Copyright Workplace Competence International Limited, Hillsburgh, Ontario

Kilian M. Bennebroek Gravenhorst. (2003).  A Different View on Resistance to Change. University of Amsterdam. (no longer free available on line)

Jozef Kessels & Suzanne Verdonschot., (2010)., Corporate Curriculum. In : Robert-Jan Simons & Manon Ruyters., Canon van het Leren, Hst. 12. Kluwer (DUTCH)

Marylène Gagné., (2009).  A Model of Knowledge-Sharing Motivation.  Human Resource Management, Vol. 48, N° 4, p. 571-589