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

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  1. Marga Biller

    Unlearning in Action: Practice Without Helmets to Reduce Concussions

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    Concussions are a big problem for football teams. To address the problem, new regulations were issued regarding safe tackling. This presents a challenge for players who were taught to tackle using their helmet (head first). So how to help them unlearn this practice and learn a new technique that will lead to safer ways to tackle and reduce concussions? Enter Erik Swartz, a University of New Hampshire professor of kinesiology who studies movement. He suggests that getting to the root of the problem – technique may do the trick. Instead of clashing helmet-first, he suggests that the better approach is...
  2. Marga Biller

    Member Feedback October 2014

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    Karin Morrison:  It was wonderful being back at LILA with you and the LILA team and participants. It was such an interesting event with such rich discussions and so much to think about and already I am connecting things I have learned with what I am doing in my work. I appreciate you try some experimental activities to support our learning. Thank you very much. The Gists worked well and I think that as it becomes a routine, something  we use at different times, it will be very helpful in what we do in our own contexts. I value the...
  3. Marga Biller

    Team Feedback October 2014

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    What went well Passion in cafes Gists Speakers were well prepared Puzzles Use of the throughlines:  is it too many competing structures on the table now?  Should we use them at the next meeting?  Dave will think about it. Gists will people produce integrative gists rather than collections Will people produce personalized gists that apply to them in their organizations or general ones Journals weren’t formally introduced. Is there a time for the group to talk about journaling and capturing gists.  Can we get input from members on what would be helpful. How can we use the brief more in...
  4. Marga Biller

    Genesis of GPS as Flexpertise

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    "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."
  5. Marga Biller

    Dr. Jens Beckman shared his work on developing flexible expertise

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    Dr. Jens Beckmann is the Deputy Director of Research in the School of Education in Durham University in the UK, where he researches the assessment of intellectual abilities. He was previously the Director of the Accelerated Learning Laboratory (ALL) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where he was part of research team investigating the impact of a “2-year leadership training program for mid-level managers from large organizations” (Birney, Beckmann, & Wood, 2012, p. 573). This training program provided fertile ground for his study of cognitive flexibility, which can “broadly be defined as the ability to deal...
  6. Marga Biller

    Dr. Erik Dane shared his research on Flexible Expertise

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    During the October gathering, were joined by Dr. Erik Dane wh0 share his research on the topic of Flexible Expertise.         Dr. Dane is Associate Professor of Management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. His research focuses on cognition in the workplace. Through field research and laboratory experiments, he examines topics such as attention, creativity, expertise, intuition, and mindfulness (rice.edu). In a recent article, he writes about the trade-offs between expertise and flexibility. His construct of “cognitive entrenchment” explains when expertise may lead to inflexibility and when it may lead to flexibility. To learn...
  7. Marga Biller

    Managing Complexity – How Organizations Navigate Strategic paradoxes

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    Managing Complexity – How organizations navigate strategic paradoxes Dynamic work environments are complex and the changing conditions of ambiguity, uncertainty, conflicting goals, contradictory messages, and competing perspectives create barriers to effective performance. We are asked to take a long-term view and to make short-term decisions that increase profits. We are asked to learn new things and to perform at highest levels. We need to innovate and to operate in predictable ways. We oscillate between centralized and decentralized operational structures. We organize work closely for control and want people to show initiative and self-organize. We encourage collective identity and reward individual...
  8. Marga Biller

    Organizational Unlearning with Bill Starbuck

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    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...
  9. Marga Biller

    Innovation Adoption as Unlearning with Janet Pogue

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    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...
  10. Marga Biller

    Strategic Leadership & Organizational Learning: Dr Dusya Vera

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    Dusya Vera, from the University of Houston, shared her research on what leaders do to support organizational learning.  She began by offering an overview of an org learning framework that she and Mary Crossan developed to represent the various levels of “stocks” and “flows” that support learning.  For example, there are individual stocks of competence, capability, and motivations.  There are group learning stocks such as the group dynamics that support the development of shared understanding.  And there are organizational stocks such as the alignment between nonhuman storehouses of learning and systems that support learning as a competitive advantage.  In addition...

Harvard Graduate School of Education