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The Building Blocks
of Learning
Chapter 3.1 (Foundation)
Draft 4/17/09
"People cannot
be expected to learn one expertise and just apply it routinely in a job. Your
expertise is in steadily renewing your knowledge base and extending it to new
areas. That lifelong cycle of learning really is the foundation of the new
information organization and economy.” – George Gilder
Long before I became a CEO in
healthcare, I had started my graduate studies with the intention of becoming a
child psychologist, specializing in troubled and acting-out adolescents. Although some might joke that that is
what I ended up doing as a CEO, there actually were many applicable lessons,
just not the ones I might have expected. One of the greatest influences on my
understanding of learning and performance in adults came from the work of Jean
Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist who studied infants closely for the
first two years of their lives.
Piaget detected patterns of
behavior that were much too subtle for even interested observers like parents
to recognize on their own. Infants
and toddlers, he said, use every experience and each bit of new information to
build theories about how the world works. Infant learning is the ultimate “pull
yourself up by your own bootstraps” process since everything beyond instinctual
behavior must be constructed from scratch. He proposed that they use two intertwined learning
strategies called assimilation and accommodation.
Here is how it works. Assimilation means treating something
new like something you are already familiar with. When a toddler puts a new toy or object in his mouth, he is
treating it like other things he puts in his mouth. Whether it is a bottle, a block, or a cell phone, it is
something that first goes in the mouth.
In essence, he ignores or doesn’t recognize or understand the
differences between a bottle, a block, and a cell phone.
Accommodation is the complementary
partner of assimilation. When a
toddler changes his pattern of behavior to adjust to the differences presented
by a new object, he is accommodating to it. Often, however, he will try several different assimilation
activities first. Is this
something to be sucked, to be chewed, to be shaken, to be dropped, etc.? Through experimentation, the toddler
can come to identify characteristics of the new object that are similar to
things he has known. He encounters
some unique qualities as well and develops new behaviors to go with them (using
drum sticks to beat on a drum and not just to stick in his mouth, for example).
As a person seeking to benefit from
the lessons of experience, you can take advantage of Piaget’s insights about
these building blocks of knowledge.
When you encounter a new situation, you can compare it with situations
you have dealt with before. You
can call upon skills and patterns of behavior that have served you well in the
past. However, you cannot assume
that each new challenge is just like some previous one you have already
mastered, or you will get stuck in a rut.
You also need to adjust your ideas and your patterns of behavior to take
into account the unique or unexpected qualities that the new situation
presents.
You can exercise awareness of the
processes of assimilation and accommodation to increase your learning. For example, when given a new job
assignment, you can ask yourself: how is this like other situations I have
competently handled in the past?
How can I apply those skills here?
How is this situation different?
What do I need to learn?
What should I keep, what should I drop, and what should I add?
Consider the challenge that many
executives experience when they first begin to do strategic planning. Strategic planning is a lot like annual
planning and budgeting, except that it covers a longer time frame, is less
detailed, more speculative, and less certain. When I consult with executives and boards, I have to remind
them of these differences so that they will accommodate to the demands of
strategic planning and not fall back into the more immediate, concrete, and
familiar practices of operational planning. They can build on their previous planning experiences, but
they must make some changes as well.
Learning is quickest and most
effective when the new challenge is just a bit different from one already
satisfactorily handled because assimilation and accommodation can work together
seamlessly. That is one reason why it is so hard to learn a new subject or new
skill and much easier to advance your performance once you have established a
basic level of competency.
Application: Look for something familiar within something new so
you can build upon your previously developed skills or knowledge, but also be
alert for what is new in the situation that demands accommodation on your
part. Learning is fastest when
there is a combination of comfort and stretch.
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