Presentation by Prof. Frank Barett during the 8th editon of Vlerick HR-day 2011.

1. 9-6-2011
Frank J. Barrett, PhD
Professor of Management
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, CA 93940
fbarrett@nps.edu
Are learning and performance
compatible goals?
Is it possible to engage in experimentation and
learning while simultaneously seeking reliable
performance?
Leading and collaborating when you’re facing the
unknown
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2. 9-6-2011
Jazz Band as Prototype for
Collaboration
How can we create conditions that support collaborative
achievements?
How can we maximize learning
through doing?
Learning, “Intelligence,”
Creativity, and Identity
§ John Dewey’s definition of learning: the capacity
to imagine new possibilities, the capacity to
generate novel responses to familiar stimuli
§ Discovering who we are by discovering how we
behave in unfamiliar situations
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3. 9-6-2011
Improvisation: Living on the Edge of the unknown
§ Self organizing system
§ Dynamic tension between chaos and order
§ Strategy and implementation are simultaneous
§ Devoted to continual re-inquiry
§ Openness to novelty: ongoing quest to discover best alternatives
§ Small, positive actions have large consequences
§ Agile and adaptable organization
Collective Intelligence in action
Large, loosely organized groups of people can work
together in effective ways.
No centralized control
Google
Wikipedia
Unbuilding the World Trade Center
How is this possible?
3

4. 9-6-2011
Groups and Extremism
Going to Extremes – “When people find themselves in
groups of like-minded types, they are especially likely
to move to extremes.”
Members of a deliberating group usually end up at a
more extreme position in the same general direction as
their inclinations before deliberation began.
Separation creates polarization
Jazz Jams – overcoming extremism
Overcoming Group Polarization: “hanging out” in
diverse groups.
Jam sessions common space where different types
of people can mingle
Sensitivity to other members
Equality of distribution in conversational turn-taking
High diversity
Architecture of serendipity
4

5. 9-6-2011
Who can improvise?
Language as a prototype
Planning and learning
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6. 9-6-2011
8 Guiding Principles of
Jazz Improvisation
1. Art of unlearning habits: overcoming trap of success
2. Appreciative mindset: say “yes” to the mess
3. Full-bodied immersion
4. Minimal consensus and minimal structures that allow
maximum autonomy
5. Embracing errors as a source of learning
and discovery
6. Provocative competence: incremental disruptions
7. Alternating between soloing and supporting
8. Striking a groove: dynamic synchronization
1. Master the Art of “Unlearning”
§ Create opportunities to surprise yourself
§ Develop routines and abandon them
§ Be suspicious of patterns
§ “If it sounds clean and slick, I’ve been doing it too long.”
§ Throw yourself into the terror
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7. 9-6-2011
Two improvisers
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8. 9-6-2011
“I’m attracted to improvisation because of something I
value. That is a freshness, a certain quality, which can
only be obtained by improvisation, something you
cannot possibly get from writing. It is something to do
with the “edge.” Always being on the brink of the
unknown and being prepared for the leap. And when
you go out there you have all your years of
preparation and all your sensibilities and your
prepared means but it is a leap into the unknown.”
–Saxophonist Steve Lacy
Keith Jarrett – interrupting habits
"I realized that I had little formulas I would use, little
vamps, and I wanted to break out of it. So I started
practicing, simulating solo concerts, and if I heard
myself fall into those patterns, I would stop. . . .I'm not
playing what I like, I'm playing what my fingers want
to play."
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9. 9-6-2011
Deliberate abandonment of routines
“If I knew how a project was going to turn out, I wouldn’t
do it.”
Architect Frank Gehry (quoted in Boland and Collopy)
2. Appreciative Mindset and Engagement:
Say “Yes” to the Mess
§ Whatever has happened or is happening has positive
potential for innovation
§ Attend closely to what is happening and jump in
§ Every act, every utterance, has affirmative potential. Any
material can be embellished in a positive direction.
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10. 9-6-2011
Appreciative Mindset:
A New Frame for Leaders
“The most important job of a leader is to maximize peoples’
strengths so that their weaknesses become irrelevant.”
Peter Drucker
Appreciative Mindset: Amplify Positive Deviance
We have the materials right here and right now.
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11. 9-6-2011
3. Full-bodied immersion: learning as a
doing
§ Intense involvement of mind, body, emotions, intuition
(not just cognitive endeavor).
§ Openness to the immediacy of wondernment
§ Risk as part of learning
§ Pragmatic view of action –Intention is emergent in
dynamic process of means, ends, and context.
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12. 9-6-2011
“Learning should be a joyful process.”
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13. 9-6-2011
Minimal Structure and Maximum
4.
Autonomy
§ Limited structures and tacit rules that coordinate action
through time.
§ Impersonal, minimal constraints that invite embellishment
and transformation.
§ These rules themselves can become the targets of
transformation (even while they provide orientation).
Minimal structure:
Guided Autonomy
§ Give people lots of freedom to experiment and respond to
hunches.
§ Assume when people disagree that they’re both right.
§ Tolerate and encourage dissent and debate.
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14. 9-6-2011
5. Embrace Errorsas a Source of
Learning and Discovery
§ Risky, explorative actions are expected to produce the
unexpected, including errors.
§ Errors are incorporated as part of the ongoing action.
§ Potential to be integrated into new pattern of activity.
§ Repeat it, amplify it, develop it further.
§ Aesthetic of forgiveness for “noble” efforts
Errors as Source of Learning
“When we have a failure, we…learn from it. We take
this error and see what new information it can
generate. It helps us see in new ways.”
Safety manager at Boeing
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15. 9-6-2011
Psychological safety and learning cultures
§ Nursing units with BETTER leadership and coworker
relationships reported MORE errors (25 vs 1000 patient
days).
§ WHY?
Mistakes were not held against them, were so important that
they had to TALK about them and LEARN from them.
Amy Edmonson, Harvard University
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16. 9-6-2011
6. Provocative Competence
§ Explore and monitor the perimeter of comfort and the edge
of the unknown.
§ Create incremental disruptions that dislodge habit and
demand openness to what unfolds.
§ Nurture an affirmative image of what’s possible.
§ Create situations that demand action: passivity is not an
option.
§ Open and support alternative pathways.
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17. 9-6-2011
Provocative Competence: “Tweaking”
Cultural Inertia
§ British Air
§ Navy rescue drill
§ Sony
7. Alternate Between
Soloing and Comping
§ Take turns: make the other happen
§ “Comping” = Accompanying
§ Provide a “holding environment” that supports the
unfolding of others’ ideas and actions
§ Give one another room to experiment,
to develop themes
§ Attentive listening enables exceptional performance
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18. 9-6-2011
8. Striking a Groove:
Dynamic Synchronization
§ Appreciative attunement to others
§ Continual attempts to shape one’s creations to what one has
heard and is hearing
§ Negotiating a shared sense of the beat
§ Expressions of connection and ecstasy: sailing, gliding, grooving
§ Expressions of receptivity, openness,
fluid connection
§ Renewed sense of hope
Collective Intelligence in action
Large, loosely organized groups of people can work
together in effective ways.
No centralized control
Google
Wikipedia
Unbuilding the World Trade Center
How is this possible?
18

19. 9-6-2011
Groups and Extremism
Going to Extremes – “When people find themselves in
groups of like-minded types, they are especially likely
to move to extremes.”
Members of a deliberating group usually end up at a
more extreme position in the same general direction as
their inclinations before deliberation began.
Separation creates polarization
Jazz Jams – overcoming extremism
Overcoming Group Polarization: “hanging out” in
diverse groups.
Jam sessions common space where different types
of people can mingle
Sensitivity to other members
Equality of distribution in conversational turn-taking
High diversity
Architecture of serendipity
19

20. 9-6-2011
Designing for learning
What can you personally start doing back in your unit to
design a learning context for others?
Pick an opportunity within your control or influence and
brainstorm ways you can create a culture that enhances
learning potential.
Myths about innovation
Myth: invention comes from individual genius
Myth: innovation involves creating from scratch.
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21. 9-6-2011
The art of improvisation teaches us
that:
It’s more important to build from existing ideas rather
than try to invent new ones
Appreciation and Innovation
Seeing potential in existing practices and ideas is an
affirmative move
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22. 9-6-2011
Innovators don’t break from the past; they connect and
reconnect different worlds:
Build new worlds from best parts of old ones
• Shift from invention to inventive recombination
Power of periphery -- be in a position to see how benefits
from one world might benefit another world
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23. 9-6-2011
Implications
Enhance learning by choosing good comparisons.
Helps to overcome cultural inertia and competency
traps.
Implications
Create psychological safety and drive out fear.
Encourage people to TALK about and LEARN from
mistakes.
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24. 9-6-2011
Implications
Come with a beginner’s mind: don’t pretend that you
have the answer.
Implications
Cultivate an appreciative mindset: fully expect that in
every situation, no matter how dire, there is some
positive opportunity.
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25. 9-6-2011
Implications
Ask provocative questions.
Break a routine deliberately.
Throw people in over their heads upon occasion.
Implications
When possible, don’t over rely on outside experts. Let
people discover, on their own, better ways of doing
things.
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26. 9-6-2011
Implications
Create a context in which people can experiment with
new behaviors.
Implications
Create a mindset of inquiry: give people a chance to
“think out loud” together. Encourage dissent and
debate.
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27. 9-6-2011
Implications
Model “comping” – good followership – by supporting
the others’ ideas and helping them shine.
Implications
Remind people about the skills and talents of their co-
workers; this will encourage them to experiment.
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28. 9-6-2011
Implications
Help the group to identify, analyze, and amplify
positive deviance.
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