Organizational learning

Week 1, Friday

Psychology 360
Lecture Outline
I. A tale of two navies
II. Some lessons about learning
III. Is the University of Michigan building galleys?
A Tale of Two Navies
13th and 14th centuries: Mediterranean empires
rise of Venice and Genoa as trading and naval powers
e.g., the travels of Marco Polo (1275-1292)
15th and 16th centuries: Atlantic empires
rise of England and Holland as trading and naval powers
e.g., Drake's circumnavigation (1580-81)
The Mediterranean and Atlantic Spheres
Mediterranean naval culture
Built around the galley
Human-powered
Ideal for battles won by ramming and boarding
Well-suited to calm and flat waters
An early galley
Atlantic naval culture
Built around the caravel and galleon
Sail-powered
Ideal for battles won through superior firepower
Well-suited to high waves and rough weather
The caravel
A changing tide
Late 1500s - Holland chases Portugal from the East Indies
1588 - England defeats the Spanish Armada
1616 - Venetians saved from Spain by England and Holland
Sources of English/Dutch success
Not bound by tradition
Scarce resources
Capacity for borrowing profitable ideas
Adaptable
Constant observation, inquiry, and experimentation
Some Lessons about Learning
The role of direct experience:
competency traps - favorable performance with inferior technologies reduces experience with superior technologies
The role of others' experience:
diffusion of ideas - maintaining the networks and connections that may provide exposure to innovations
The role of experimentation:
variation in failure rate - success is the enemy of risk-taking, therefore induce ambiguity independent of performance
Is the University of Michigan
building galleys?
What are the UM's  competency traps?
Is the UM open to diffusion of ideas?
In what ways does the UM create variation in failure rates?
Learning at the UM
Competency trap:
MTS - ten years ahead of its time, now obsolete - UM has negligible experience with distributed computing
Diffusion of ideas:
travel budgets - generous funding to visit other places and see how others do things
Variation in failure rates:
vague goals - M-Quality deliberately underspecified?
Copyright © 1996, The Regents of the University of Michigan, All rights reserved.
Revised - November 4, 1996