Learning in chaos improving human performance in todays fast changing, volatile organizations

LEARNINGIN CHAOS Copyright 01999 by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas All rights reserved This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without express written permission of the publisher Gulf Publishing Company Book Division P.O Box 2608 17 Houston, Texas 77252-2608 10 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Hite, James Austin, 1946Learning in chaos : improving human performance in today's fast-changing, volatile organizations / James Hite Jr P cm Includes index ISBN 0-88415-427-0 (alk paper) Organizational learning Organizational change Performance I Title HD58.82.H527 1999 658.4'066~21 99-36243 CIP Transferred to digital printing 2005 iv In memory of Pearle Wheeler Hite and James Austin Hite V Acknowledgments My thanks to Neil Nadler, Pat Arnold, Claire Smrekar, and John Bransford for confirming some of my initial thoughts about the topics included here Thanks to Jack Phillips for giving me the incentive to put something together on paper My appreciation to Kelly Perkins, who edited the manuscript and gave me some valuable suggestions about how to express these ideas Finally, but certainly not least, my grateful thanks to my wife, Ellen, who supported me while this was in the thinking and assembly process and who encourages me always xi Preface This book came about as the result of three primary influences that I can recognize and remember First, as I realized that organizations were never going to achieve stasis, I came to understand the virtues of change and dynamics in operating systems and organizations At one time, as I experienced high levels of change and even upheaval in organizations, it seemed that such things occurred for immediate, short-term gains or for the immediate survival of the organization, but it also seemed that, inevitably, long-term survival lay in stability Coming to terms with the rationale of constant change and the reality of dynamism in organizational systems was not easy, nor did I achieve it in a short time I am, in fact, still more comfortable with stability than with systemic anarchy, but at least I am now more aware that anarchy and systemic change and volatility not represent evils to be exorcised from the system Second, as a professional in human and organization development, became heavily involved, during a period of years, in the development of self-instructional materials As I did so, I moved naturally to the development and use of electronic performance support tools, courseware, and systems It became evident to me that such systems were of benefit because they could be delivered to the learner as the learner needed them They were easily modified and updated, they could be delivered using a variety of media, and they supported various flexible ways for learners and subject-matter experts to interact Moreover, electronic performance support tools offered a way to enable high degrees of change to take place in organizations, during shorter time frames This led to the recognition that, beyond some obvious economic benefits to organizations, such learning modes may be more likely to adapt and change with changes in the operating systems that they were designed to support That is, the flexibility of electronic media seemed a good match for the flexibility, adaptability, and volatility to be recognized as integral parts of most organizational systems As electronic technologies offered more and more capability to simulate learner performance environments, it seemed that such electronic learning support methods offered a way to support both individual and organizational learning in ways that had not yet been available In fact, this is proving to be the case in many organizations A third major influence, and the more direct stimulus for the book, was a conversation I had with Jack Phillips, the editor of the Improving Human Performance series of books into which this work fits During lunch, we discussed the increase in open approaches to organization development, which brought with it increased Xlll needs to measure what happens when direct, on-site supervision is no longer a norm The opening of organizations-and in fact the emergence of virtual organizations, which have a minimum physical presence anywhere-introduces the question of how such organizations will be managed We are also concerned with how they maintain coherence of operations, how people interact with ever-changing equipment and networks, and how learning will be delivered to support such systems How can traditional, school-model learning, prevalent in most organizations, be expected to satisfy people who live and work in virtual organizations? Jack asked me what I would call a book about these issues and opportunities I had a clear concept of the topics, but a title didn’t immediately pop into mind A few days later, he called me and suggested the title you see on the front cover Bells went off, neurons fired, and the result is here The book will draw from four principal areas of thinking: Chaos, including chaos theory This area of consideration will include a review of complexity theory and will differentiate between classical chaos, which relies on the historical definitions and connotations of the term, and technical chaos, which refers to the application of chaos theory, now more fashionably known as nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS)theory NDS is actually a body of theories that support the general ideas that nonlinearity is OK and that we may not be paranoid if we see two or more sides to every question NDS, when applied to organizational thinking, offers some new ways to look at and measure the activity in the organizational systems Organizational theory and practice, including some key thinking about organizations as systems How we put organizations together and how we maintain them are questions of significance when we consider the ramifications of chaos theory and the roles that learning and learning support play within these systems Learning theory and practice, including those theories and practices that will support learning in individual agents, as well as across the organization as a whole Learning is a highly adaptive process At its core, it is an individual matter Where the emphasis, however, is currently on human learning and adaptation, we need to understand that this landscape is quickly changing to incorporate machines that can simulate thought and certainly memory The advent of biotechnology, specifically the capabilities of cloning, means that bioengineering may replace many of the functions of silicon and electronic machinery Such genetically engineered devices may learn at a scale that more closely approximates human thought, demanding new views of what learning support means and the audience it addresses Moreover, we have effectively moved, on a global scale, beyond the existence of stand-alone processors to a world in which learning strategies facilitate the integration of humans with machines through electronic and electronically mediated networks In this new environment, learning is an open system, and informal and incidental learning take on increased significance within the organizational setting Learning support is increasingly provided outside the xiv walls of traditional classrooms and has increasingly come to encompass more than just formal training courses The definition of organizational system interventions has changed to merge much that was once diversified as “training” and “organization development.” The general social environment, including such areas as family life, formal education in schools and universities, art and literature, and government, as events and thinking in these areas impact organizations, their dynamics, and their learning The events occumng in social systems and governmental systems have a direct bearing on the attitudes, beliefs, and capabilities that are brought to bear in other organizational systems As we shall see, the opening of governments, the globalization of economies, and increased sensitivity of once strongly bounded systems to external influences are all having notable impact on how people live, learn, and work THE AUDIENCE The intended audience for this book will be managers and organizational leaders, as well as organization development practitioners, human performance technologists, human resource development executives and managers, and training and development professionals These are the people who will need to refocus the directions of their organizations to realize the benefits of learning under changed environmental circumstances Senior management will need to address the changing ways in which work gets done Mid-managers and supervisors will need to be concerned with the particular implications of increased use of technology, increasing presence of network-based working environments, and changes in which people, machines, and networks come together into meaningful organizational sets or units Learning, as senior, middle, and supervisory management is finding, is more integral to the success of organizations than it once was Yet the messages of the “learning organization,” as this renaissance in learning has been called, not necessarily make full use of some of the ideas arising from chaos and complexity theories In fact, this group may need to rethink the mental models that underlie and form the foundations of the learning organization People who profess that their calling is human resource management and development, and in particular, the development and fine-tuning of systems that incorporate people, will be called upon to rethink the focus or the place people hold in evolving organizational systems Moreover, persons who already profess an advanced view of human performance technology will need to rethink the concept of gap analysis, which has been a flag-bearer for that particular parade The linear thinking and Cartesian logic that informs much of this construct may not be sufficient to understand organizations as they are being formed today and as they will be formed in the future Dynamical systems cause a rethinking of the notion that a gap can be filled and then we can move on to some other need Needs must be seen as highly interrelated and volatile Interventions must become more fluid and dynamic xv themselves, with a new understanding that what were previously considered deviations, and therefore problems, may in fact constitute beneficial fires in the organizational forest Theories of how learning is supported will, I believe, depart radically from those theories that dominate today’s organization Current models no longer sufficiently address the dynamics of organizational forms that are now in the experimental or field trial stages KEY MESSAGES For all these audiences, a number of key messages can be summarized at the outset: Changes noted across organizational landscapes are temporal indicators of deeper, chaotic operations at work on a more elemental, permanent basis Change is not temporary and won’t go away Further, change is a functional characteristic of organizational existence There is no “right” time for change to occur, and often it will seem sudden and uncontrollable Many organizational changes will tend to release individual agents, regardless of value or organizational level, from controls, restrictions, and even from the fixed “organization” itself Organizations are now moving toward open structures, but this process of opening will continue toward virtual, non-permanent organizations Organizations, as historical entities, will cease to exist The value of an organization will be its value at the current instant, but that value will change quickly over time There is no steady growth curve, and optimization of organization performance is instant Linear metrics will be less important than nonlinear metrics Organizational activity will respond in more sensitive ways to stimuli, and changes will be abrupt and often radical Measurement of performance cannot assume a baseline, and goals are reset often and quickly Organizational success will depend on people, in close partnership with equipment, and the networks, both human and electronic, that enable activity People will no longer be the sole determinants of system direction, focus, decision-making, power, or organization culture This will result, in part, from increased emphasis on “knowledge work.” It will also result from increasing capabilities in machine and network intelligence Organizational structures will be affected by socialism, as bureaucratic organizational regimes are replaced by more democratic ways of integrating people, machines, and networks to produce products or provide services The associated dialectical nature of a democratic socialist organization model will be accepted as a norm, rather than as a delaying element in the system dynamics Where representative substrata are now strongly entrenched in governments, as well as in other organizational governance structures, the increased accessibility and communication capabilities through electronic xvi networks will tend to bring more decision-making directly to the people Representation may not disappear entirely in the short term, but it will be modified to incorporate increasingly complex input from the entities that are represented To be successful in open and virtual organizations, learning must operate effectively at individual, team, and organizational levels It must, however, be focused at the individual level, because individual agents, in an open system, play key roles They become more important as directive management behaviors are reduced Individual agents, not organizations, will energize learning The concept of co-evolution, if encouraged and supported in organizations, will reduce the delays between learning and behavior modification, and will align behavior changes at individual, team, and organizational group levels Emergent behavior will be encouraged, not discouraged or subordinated to power structures Learning will be done in different ways: There will be an increase in individualized and informal learning efforts, directed to particular ends or to wider, more strategic goals Mass production of training will go away and will take with it cumcula and classrooms Like jugs of milk, learning events will be dated, and even refrigeration won’t keep them fresh for long Learning-and in fact other “performance” support-will be designed to be disposable because the systems they support are dynamic Sources of learning support will expand far beyond the traditional classroom and traditional teachers Learning, however, will depart from the models of today, which tend to want to organize material into an assembly-line order, for efficient learning We are already recognizing the value of struggle and failure in the learning process, and have adopted this philosophical model in concepts including lifelong learning, action learning, problem-based learning, and mastery learning These forms of learning must be redefined to include non-human learning This means that there must be greater acceptance of differences in learning strategies and that learning strategies are themselves dynamic Learning strategies of machines and networks need to be accounted for in learning support Where we have tried to build approaches based on average performance, an understanding of chaotic systems leads us to believe that averages may not sufficiently represent what is important in system dynamics or behavior 10 Measuring and evaluating learning, either for efforts of individual agents or for assessing organizational capability, will require new tools and methods and will become a chief function in the larger community, not restricted to individual organizations Evaluation will shift to the holistic system and away from human efforts alone As organization structure becomes less important, community capabilities will become more important Focus on capability will shift from micro- to macro-environment Metrics will shift from those based on linear projections or histories to those based on multiple potentials and histories Traditional business metrics, based on central tenxvii dency, will be found to be less effective and accurate than nonlinear measures that account for differentials in system behavior and multiple variables Nonlinear dynamical systems are not well represented by static averages or by independent measurement of variables 11 As organizational work moves toward a community typology, so too will learning Synergistic approaches to learning and performance have been demonstrated to be effective at a variety of levels, from young learners to older learners Increased system complexity means that processes may be impacted by a number of humans, carrying out specialized but synchronized actions, as well as by actions from the electronic network and actions of machines that must be synchronized into the processes The realization of organizational systems outcomes will depend less on the decisions and actions of single heroes than on the combined and aligned efforts of multiple contributors Problems will best be solved by the amalgamation of varied perspectives, and not through directives concocted in some out-of-the-way boardroom or management decision-cave Management, as the literature has already generously suggested, becomes a facilitative role, not a directive one, in the learning and doing community 12 Electronic technology will play an unprecedented role in organizational activity and in learning In fact, electronic technology will itself develop a learning capability amalgamated with the capabilities of other system agents These changes, along with genetic engineering, will introduce new forms of technology that may integrate features of humans with features of machines and networks Learning and learning support, therefore, will cease to be homocentric and will be more integrative When these factors are taken all together, it means, for managers and system performance specialists alike, that a number of paradigms need to be revisited and some radical rethinking of processes may be in order The ways in which we measure and intervene in organizational systems today have more in common with mechanical, linear, and localized environments The tools we use, as well as the methods we employ in the future, for managing and intervening in systems will need to reflect the realities of diversity, decentralization, disintermediation, and chaotic systems What we must begin to learn is how to promote effective learning and how to develop effective learning support interventions in an environment with few certainties, constant change, and radical surprises STRUCTUREOF THE BOOK I have created the book in four main sections, to reflect four key areas of knowledge and learning for those interested in this topic First, I have reviewed some of the current observations and thinking about systems in general We are beginning to see variety in the forms of organizational systems that are being put into play It is important to understand at least three forms on this continuum: nuclear organizaxviii tions, open organizations, and virtual organizations Much of our need to understand the operation of chaos theory and chaotic learning is embedded in this form of system thinking Second, I have provided a brief introduction to complex adaptive systems and to chaos theory The second section integrates our traditional, or classical, concept of chaos with more recent, technically oriented viewpoints regarding chaotic systems activity In this section, I have also expanded consideration of chaos and complexity theories to include research and thinking that begins to extend application of those theories into areas of particular interest for organizational leaders and human performance consultants The third section illustrates important changes in the way we view learning theory, learners, and learning support, which begin to address issues raised by open and virtual organizations Some of the approaches and tools we need are in place Others need to be rethought or developed to incorporate chaotic organizational systems into our models In the last section, I have brought all these ideas together to develop some thoughts about learning in chaotic systems Such learning, and the support we provide to learners, will make use of open and virtual system characteristics, will adopt principles of complex and chaotic systems, and will serve to enhance the effectiveness of chaotic organizational systems To meet this goal, we will change our learning and learning support strategies to adopt a chaotic model James A Hite, Jr xix ... in the learning process, and have adopted this philosophical model in concepts including lifelong learning, action learning, problem-based learning, and mastery learning These forms of learning. .. of chaos theory and the roles that learning and learning support play within these systems Learning theory and practice, including those theories and practices that will support learning in individual... be redefined to include non -human learning This means that there must be greater acceptance of differences in learning strategies and that learning strategies are themselves dynamic Learning strategies