Unit of One Anniversary Handbook

Let's say you want to learn more about the writings of business strategist Margaret Wheatley. In the eyes of yesterday's scholar, you should read all her books. Then you will have accomplished "learning." But in today's world, learning is an ongoing, interactive, integrated process, not a one-step solution. If you want to learn today, first read all of Margaret Wheatley's books. Be sure that you understand the concepts. Then call Ms. Wheatley. Invite her to lunch. Pick her brain. Challenge her ideas. Then write your own book.

And always remember that you have more to learn.

John Seely Brown
Vice President and Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation
Palo Alto, California
jsb.parc@xerox.com

Learning is important, for both people and organizations. But the real challenge today is unlearning, which is much harder. Each of us has a "mental model" that we've used over the years to make sense of the world. But the new world of business -- built on digital technologies and increasing-returns economics -- behaves differently from the world in which we grew up. Before any of us can learn new things, we have to make our current assumptions explicit and find ways to challenge them.

This is no academic exercise, and it doesn't come naturally. The harder you fight to hold onto specific assumptions, the more likely there's gold in letting go of them. Step back, reflect -- and listen!

Bill Miller
Director of Research and Development, Steelcase
Grand Rapids, Michigan
wmiller@steelcase-research.com

To overcome the productivity paradox -- the discrepancy between all the money they spend on information technology and the amount their actual productivity improves. The key is learning the four principles of effective collaborative work and learning.

First, don't use workstations and conference rooms as the way you allocate space. Instead, think of a home base and project clusters. Second, don't make your meetings linear and sequential. Interactions need to be concurrent and ongoing. Third, don't erase your whiteboards after each meeting. "Information persistence" helps learning continue before and after formal meetings. Fourth, don't keep people chained to one area or one function. You need mobile people acting as Marco Polos, carrying ideas across different communities of practice.