LILA ~ Learning Innovations Laboratory at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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  1. Frustrated or flourishing? Three ways we make sense of challenges at work

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    June 5, 2017
    Sally Maitlis shared her research which revealed that, in the face of challenges, there are three pathways that workers take:   Identity Path: in the face of threats, they rely on their sense of who they are Contribution Path: in the face of threat, they try and use their skills to help Practice Path: in the face of challenges, they learn skills as part of the work   What’s important is that these paths explain different outcomes of employees – the identity and contribution paths lead to frustration, burn-out and leaving the organization. Only the practice path, which is about...
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  2. When we are uncertain, we turn to our group

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    April 12, 2017
    Michael Hogg’s shared his research on the role social identity and uncertainty. Just giving a groups a categorical names can create in group and out group dynamics: individuals trust, favor and conform to their in group and distrust, discriminate, and compete with the out group.   This research forms the foundation of social identity theory – the relationship between self and group. And what motivates this is often feeling better about oneself.   Michael’s work looks more specifically at a specific kind of uncertainty, identity uncertainty.   Overall, individuals are motivated to reduce uncertainty. And there are many sources of identity uncertainty –...
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  3. Where the tipping point missed the point

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    February 8, 2017
    Damon Centola’s work unpacked assumptions in networks that related to how ideas/behavior spread through networks via “strong vs. weak” ties.  For many years, and argued well in Gladwell’s Tipping Point, the belief was that all ideas spread like viruses through networks. Daemon’s work points out that what is important is the distinction between simple contagions (ideas/actions that requires a single contact) vs complex contagions (ideas/actions that require multiple contacts and social reinforcement). Many cultural practices require social reinforcement, particularly when there is uncertainty & risk, run against norms, or interdependence with other technologies. What is important to know is how complex...
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  4. Marga Biller

    Journal of Workplace Learning Publishes LILA Research on Informal Learning Conversations

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    2 November 25, 2015
    Informal learning conversations with colleagues is a powerful yet understudied source of self-directed, professional development. This study investigated the types of learning 79 leaders from 22 organizations reported they learned from 44 peer-led conversations over a two-year period. Survey data suggests empirical evidence of five learning outcomes – informational, conceptual, operational, reflective, and social learning. The study describes these categories, the overall distribution of these types of learning in the community, and how most conversations were “rich” in a particular outcome. It concludes with possible explanations for these patterns as well as potential lines for future research.
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  5. Marga Biller

    December 10 2015 Call with Tobias Fredberg Summary

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    November 24, 2015
    Tobias Fredberg is an Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweeden. During his presentation he stated that organizations are often good at solving complicated problems—often by taking an engineering approach: divide a problem into parts and then solve the component parts. But in organizations that are complex, complicated problem solving doesn’t work. Complex problems can’t be broken down. Instead, complexity translates into paradoxical tensions.
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  6. Journal of Workplace Learning publishes LILA article: Informal Learning Conversations – Findings from LILA Research

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    Comment October 17, 2015
    nformal learning conversations with colleagues is a powerful yet understudied source of self-directed, professional development. This study investigated the types of learning 79 leaders from 22 organizations reported they learned from 44 peer-led conversations over a two-year period. Survey data suggests empirical evidence of five learning outcomes – informational, conceptual, operational, reflective, and social learning. The study describes these categories, the overall distribution of these types of learning in the community, and how most conversations were “rich” in a particular outcome. It concludes with possible explanations for these patterns as well as potential lines for future research.
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  7. Marga Biller

    Ting Zhang reveals how experts can rediscover the experience of inexperience

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    1 February 25, 2015
    In a recent study, Harvard Business School doctoral candidate Ting Zhang identifies how experts who are looking to be mentors, can reverse the "curse of knowledge" and tap into what it was like to learn something new. She describes two specific actions that experts can take: when learning something new, proactively document the early-stage learning process with the intention of reflecting on the process and using this knowledge later on to help others re-experience what it was like to be a novice. Dave Perkins commented on the research and was published on the Working Knowledge site. You can read his comment as well.
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  8. Marga Biller

    Organizational Unlearning with Bill Starbuck

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    June 25, 2014
    William Starbuck, professor emeritus at New York University and Courtesy Professor in Residence at Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon, presented his work on organizational unlearning. Starbuck began with a historical overview. Prior to the 1950s, nobody thought of the idea that organizations could learn. As scholars began to study organizational learning, they (perhaps naively) assumed that it was a good thing; that learning meant the firm would do better in the future. Study after study showed that it was instead a mixed bag; learning both helps and hurts. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, scholars began...
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Harvard Graduate School of Education