Essay on Discussion 1

Submitted By tumbhimere
Words: 1370
Pages: 6

Please consider the following questions. Using a new message, post your answers to each of the questions by the Monday of Week 3. Then, throughout Week 3, reply to the thoughts of others, and engage in discussion or dialogue about them with your classmates. You have until the Monday of Week 4 to complete (not begin) your dialog and discussion. Your discussion grade will be determined partly by the quantity of your involvement in the discussion but mostly by the QUALITY of your contributions to your group's learning, through both your initial posting and your responses and interactions with the postings of others.

Questions:

In the handout from Harvard professor Garvin's book, Learning in Action, you read about the three stages of learning: 1) acquiring information, 2) interpreting information, 3) applying information.

Earlier in his book, he makes it clear that REAL LEARNING does not occur if ALL THREE of these stages of learning are not engaged. In other words, you have not really learned if you do not acquire, interpret, AND apply information.

1a) What do you think about the importance of the "application" stage to the total learning process? The application stage is important because it is the final process of cementing the knowledge and fully understanding it.

1b) Do YOU believe "application" is really necessary for individuals and organizations to truly learn, grow, and progress? Why or why not?
Yes, I believe application is really necessary because without application you will not know if what you are doing is the right thing to be doing. Managers must translate their interpretations into concrete behaviors and must then insure that a critical mass of the organization adopts the new activities.

Stanford professors Pfeffer & Sutton have written a now famous book titled The Knowing-Doing Gap. You read the first chapter of the book in a handout.

2a) Do you believe the magnitude of the "knowing-doing gap" is as great as Pfeffer & Sutton allege? Why do you believe organizations have this knowing-doing problem?
Yes, I believe the magnitude is even larger then they allege. Unfortunately, many people go on to get their second degrees right after their first. This is not always a bad thing, but from personal experience, these people tend to do even less with what they know, and at the time they are learning it, they don’t know why they are learning it.

2b) Do individuals share the same problem?
Yes. Absolutely. When people cry about their problems, odds are that most of the time, they know how to fix them. They are afraid too, or don’t have the want to do so, and therefore they do not act on what they know.

2c) Can you identify a significant "knowing-doing" gap in your own life or work performance? Will you describe it to us very briefly? What is your plan for overcoming this gap? How are you doing on it?
I know that I should not waste my time on facebook with silly games that mean nothing to me. I do that anyways. My plan is set aside a small amount of time each day to play the games and then cut myself off. With all of this school work that should not be hard to do.

Read Scholtes pp. 30-34 on "Understanding How We Learn, Develop, and Improve; Leading True Learning and Improvement."

3a) How do you see the "PDSA" tool for practicing learning integrating with the "Acquire, Intepret, Apply" tool for practicing learning?
I believe that Plan-Do-Study-Act is basically the same thing as the “Acquire, Interpret, Apply” tool. PDSA takes things one step further by looping over and over. Not everything that is applied is going to be perfect, and over time it might need to be changed or modified.

3b) Covey talks about the "7 habits" of highly effective people (and organizations). How could Deming's PDSA tool help us develop Covey's habits in our lives and organizations?
Developing Covey’s habits can be greatly helped by using the PDSA tool. Changing a habit is not an easy thing to do. It goes to the core of who