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

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  1. Marga Biller

    Genesis of GPS as Flexpertise

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    2 October 8, 2014
    "An environment that encouraged people to think broadly and generally about task problems and one in which inquisitive kids felt free to follow their curiosity." Equally important, it was an environment wherein kids with an initial success could turn to colleagues who were broadly expert in relevant tasks, because of the genius of the Laboratory Directorship, colleagues who were also knowledgable about hardware, weapons and weapons needs. Finally we agree that it probably couldn't have happened without Frank McClure and Dick Kershner. They were unique."
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  2. Michele Rigolizzo

    Transparency & Unlearning with Ethan Bernstein

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    June 20, 2014
    Transparency – there is a gospel of transparency in leadership in organizations. The concept went from ‘being able to see’ to a broader definition of openness and freedom of information. But there was an unanswered question in this assumption of transparency as good - does transparency increase productivity? Ethan conducted a field experiment in a factory in China that was, at the time, following all best practices.
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  3. Marga Biller

    Innovation Adoption as Unlearning with Janet Pogue

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    June 16, 2014
    Key Questions/Themes: What behaviors currently inhibit innovations that need to be ‘unlearned’ and what new behaviors need to be supported or encouraged? How can ‘triggers’ and/or the physical environment be leveraged to reinforce behavioral change? How can we engage early adopters in making the innovation their own? And then, foster to go viral? Summary of Session Content Janet Pogue is a Principal in Gensler’s Washington D.C. office. She co-leads the firm’s Workplace Practice and is a frequent writer and speaker on the critical issues affecting the design of high performing work environments. In this session, she shared on her views...
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  4. Marga Biller

    April 2014: Changing Systems Animation

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    May 8, 2014
    This year at LILA, we explore the theme of unlearning, this time, adopting a systems perspective. Unlearning is what we face when we are trying to learn something new, but prior learning gets in the way. LILA’s own David Perkins notes that even though we can’t really UNlearn, it is helpful to have a name for this type of learning as it presents unique challenges. While trying harder often succeeds in moving outdated skills to the fringes of our repertoire, some things resist even our most earnest attempts at sidelining. In these stuck cases, Dave suggests that, instead of trying harder, we change the game. Before imagining how we might design game-changers for our organizations, we look at several tools, models, and theories to test if and how they might help us understand the nature of system stuckness.
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  5. Marga Biller

    Unlearning to Learn: A 10,000 Foot View

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    April 28, 2014
    Unlearning to Learn:  A 10,000 Foot View David Perkins offered his third installment of a “10,000 ft.” view synthesizing where we are in our story about Unlearning for the year. He began by reminding us that our three “quests” have been to define, understand and foster Unlearning, and that today’s synthesis would focus on our progress in these quests through the systems lens. Defining Unlearning Perkins situated his synthesis by noting that from the start of the year we’ve held a big idea: unlearning is necessary when we face interference from prior learning. We’ve come to see, he says, that...
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  6. Marga Biller

    Unlearning Urban Traffic Engineering and Street Design with Ben Hamilton-Baillie

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    March 16, 2014
    In our own organizations, we often try to improve performance by clearly defining work processes and procedures expecting that these will produce the expected outcomes. Yet in many cases they don’t. By exploring the Shared Space approach, we hope to gain some insights into such questions as: How might we identify what needs to be unlearned before trying a systemic change? What systemic mindsets and habits have to be unlearned before change can be initiated? Does unlearning have to occur simultaneously throughout the whole system or can it be a gradual and in pockets? How do you design systemic cues into the environment in order to prompt different actions and sustain the new behaviors ?
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  8. Habits in Everyday Life

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    February 4, 2014
    Wendy Wood from USC joined LILA to share the research she does on habits -- what they are, how they can be aligned/misaligned with intentions, and how habits often override intentions (for better of worse). She set the table by suggested that habits are part our multiple selves, specifically part of our automatic self.That is the self that is guided by cation cues (like seeing a pot of coffee). This self is less conscious, not easily verbalize what we are doing, and changes slowly with experience. The automatic or "habitual self" is different from the "intentional self", which is guided by attitudes, goals, values. This self is more conscious, can verbalize, and can change quickly with decisions.
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  9. Marga Biller

    Challenges of Unlearning

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    1 December 15, 2013
    David Perkins shared some of his thinking about some of the challenges of unlearning. There are many ways to dig into the topic so he invited us to consider what is the big picture about this year’s theme in three ways: Defining Unlearning: Broadly speaking we can think of it as interfering with prior learning. Lots of learning builds on prior knowledge and beliefs. But there are other situations in which prior habits, mindsets, or systems are obstacles. A second point is that unlearning may not be the best term because you don’t really erase something, you typically bracket or...
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Harvard Graduate School of Education