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

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  1. Getting to the Roots (and Rhizomes) of Place

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    March 7, 2023
    With Dan Williams   Places are spaces where we make meaning.  But what are the different meanings a place can hold?  Dan Williams, a researcher who has looked at relationships that people have to locations such as national parks and second homes, invited us to consider two different ways in which we make meanings of spaces:  functional and relational.   Functional meaning focuses on the instrumental meaning we have with a space:  it works for our activities and goals.  Relational is about identity:  it speaks to how we see ourselves.  These can intersect but we can see interesting differences that might...
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  2. How can organizations prevent burnout?

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    Comment April 10, 2019
    In high reliability environments, employees are being pushed beyond their limits. People become emotionally exhausted when they are asked to pay more attention, look for new signals, and looking for discrepant and rare events. Tim Vogus noted that organizations that engage in high reliability have higher levels of emotional exhaustion. He found that organizations that establish compassion practices prevent burnout and increase high reliability.
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  4. Using the past to create the future with Davide Ravasi

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    February 6, 2019
    How do organizations use their history to understand and reform identity to support transformation?   Radical change can often be destructive so it is interesting to note how organizations look back to their history to create continuity in org identity while changing. Davide’s more recent research identifies the variety of historical mechanisms that organizations use to shape identity. One way is using collective memory – the shared memories of communities that get passed down, the rituals of remembrance, and symbolic objects and places to embody collective memory. For example, corporate museums are places that give quite a bit of evidence of...
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  5. Who are we as an organization and how did we get there?

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    Comment February 5, 2019
    f organizational identity is a self-reflective relatively mindful answer to the question of who we are as a organization, were does this come from? Davide Ravassi's work into organizational identity has examined various aspects of an org such as the emotional conceptualization, what is central and distinctive, deeply held beliefs, and claims and narratives that are reflective in the commitments. Interestingly, he has found that identity is revealed through conflict – when resources are scarce, when there is urgency, when there is some event that causes disruption. Also, foundational traits are acquired at the beginning of the organization: they are early imprints.
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  6. Who are we? Organizational Identity content and its effect on members’ identification.

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    February 5, 2019
    Shelley Brickson – University of Illinois-Chicago   Shelley shared her work on organizational identity, which is a member shared understanding of what is central to an organizational character, distinct and relatively enduring about the organization. These can be “what we do” and/or “who we are.” The latter is more character-based and describes commitments, values, etc.   How does identity shape patterns of behavior? This is a driving question of her research.   First we should understand, “who is the organization?” This involves identity orientation. I key idea is that people have different senses of self: individualistic, relational, and collectivist.   Shelley’s work...
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  7. Towards Collective Mindfulness – Michael Pirson

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    Comment October 16, 2018
    The world is full on complex problems, ranging from global warming to economic disparities, to ongoing ethnic conflicts. Michael reminded us that mindfulness approaches involve contemplative action, restoring harmony, and questioning status quo. Mindlessness approaches are easier and involves apathy and actionism, questioning harmony and resorting status quo.
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  9. Insights from Interactions: How do teams manage complexity? with Mary Waller

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    May 30, 2018
    Mary has studied what makes teams effective in a variety of dynamic contexts, such as flight crews, nuclear power plant engineers, hospital trauma teams, fire-fighting teams and emergency crisis teams. In her studies of interaction patterns she has identified some key lessons for leaders to keep in mind:   Setting the tone: interaction patterns emerge quickly and solidify.  Initial patterns of interactions influence the subsequent effectiveness during dynamism.  Teams that had reciprocal, balanced and consistent interaction patterns performed better in highly adaptive situations. In the thick of it: when teams face ambiguity, uncertainty, and incomplete data effective teams accept ambiguity...
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  10. “Three keys to leading emergent organizing” by Jim Hazy

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    Comment April 19, 2018
    Too often we feel that we are in control at a fine grain and local level, but too often in emergent contexts emergence it unfolding at a coarse grain and macro level in which we cannot control.  Traditional leadership still may still apply but the context matters more. An important first move is fine-grained to empathize with followers: what are their needs? A theory is that, as humans develop we move from dependence, independence, to inter-dependence.  Different leadership frameworks speak to these developmental needs.  For example, charismatic leadership speaks to dependence needs.  Transformational leadership speaks to independence needs, to support...
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Harvard Graduate School of Education