Learning from experience in novel and complex situations: Perspectives from research and practice

1. Learning from experience in novel and complex situations: Perspectives from research and practice D. Christopher Kayes, PhD Associate Professor of Management School of Business George Washington University

2. Questions for conversation • What was your best learning experience? What was good about it? • What was your worst learning experience? What made it that way? • In your opinion, what conditions promote learning?

3. Learning in organizations • US businesses spend US$109.25 Billion on employee learning annually • Average was 2.72 % of payroll or US$1,616 per employee • Best US companies spent 43 hours per employee/UK 61 hours average per employee per year Why do we need learning?

4. Do these exist in your organization? • Pressure to achieve continually higher goals? • Increased need to achieve success? • Drive to short term performance as well as long term performance? • Need to adapt and change? • Reliance on teams? • Unpredictable environment? • Competition for scarce resources?

5. Novelty and complexity

6. Warning • In novel, complex, and dynamic organizations many traditional learning practices lead to disaster!

7. Requires a shift of thinking

8. Relative importance of competencies for success Source of data: Boyatzis (2006)

9. Experiential learning: A primer • In class ‘experiential’ exercises • Beyond the classroom experiences (e.g. , internships, service learning, co-ops, work experiences, on-line learning) • A particular theory or approach to how people learn (e.g. , “Learning describes how leaders gather, process, update, and act upon knowledge (Kayes & Kayes, 2011; Kolb, 1984)

10. Aspects of experiential learning • Process of solving problems, making decisions, and innovating • Process of change • Transformation of knowledge • Person and environment interaction • Any age/lifelong • Not always in the classroom • Critical for leadership development

11. Academic Well defined Formulated by others Necessary information provided One correct answer One or limited number of methods to obtain answer Disconnected from every day experience Practical Ill defined Unformulated Additional information required Multiple ‘correct’ answers Multiple methods to obtain answer Embedded in everyday experience Academic versus practical problems Sternberg, 1995, p. 822

12. Outcome Evaluative Developmental Experiential Learning Process Form Emerging Institutional Values Content Place of experience in curriculum

13. Kolb’s cycle of learning

14. What are we trying to develop?

15. Levels of learning Based on Borredon, Deffayet, Baker, & Kolb, 2011

16. Learning stages and curriculum Material deleted from original Based on Borredon, Deffayet, Baker, & Kolb, 2011

17. Experiential learning in the Army Study of military leaders found that skills emerge in a systematic fashion Stage 1: skills and principles Stage 2: application to creative problem solving, creativity

18. Importance of assignment

19. Learning differences • Do you read your new phone’s manual from cover to cover? • Read the quick start guide and work the rest out later? • Base your understanding on your last phone • Observe other people using your phone • Ask your teenager for help • Use your landline

21. Strategies for improving learning • Find experiences with people of different learning styles • Improve fit between learning style and situation you face • Practice skills in new areas that both challenge and compliment your natural abilities • Don’t forget the mind body connection • Activate different learning centers in the brain • Feel “incompetent” at least once a month • Plan for your learning and its transfer

22. The Learning Advantage high Experiential Learning Complex and novel problem solving Traditional learning low Time

23. Conclusions “Learn. It is the only time you cannot fail!” Merlin the Magician

24. Key ideas • Most work environments are characterized by complex, dynamic, and novel problems. • Learning is the core competency of success. • Experiential learning involves gathering, processing, and acting on information and updating perspectives based on new information. • Experiential learning helps students/employees to better leverage strategies to succeed in a complex, novel, and changing world

25. NSF • This workshop was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-1038065. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.