Can I transfer experience? - ITQ | IT Quality Group Switzerlanditq.ch/pdf/sqm/07/sqm_assmann_Erfahrungsmgt.pdf · 1 March 07 Property of Valeo – Duplication prohibited Can I transfer

March 071Property of Valeo – Duplication prohibited

Can I transfer experience?

Danilo AssmannApril 2007


Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their

apparent disinclination to do so.Douglas Adams


If we hear, we forget; if we see, we remember; if we do, we understand.

Proverb


A learning experience is one of those things that says, ‘You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.‘

Douglas Adams


You live and learn.—At any rate, you live.Douglas Adams


Erfahrung heißt gar nichts. Man kann seine Sache auch 35 Jahrelang schlecht machen.

Kurt Tucholsky

Introduction


Experience of an organization?

Process approaches

Process provides guidance and know-how, how to do it

Knowledge databases

Build up a company know-how (on hard disk)

Lessons Learned

Capture lessons learned on organizational level (on paper/on hard disk)

Experience databases

Capture experience from employees on hard disk (in DB)

Basic Notion:Make the know-how of an organization ‘independent’ of the people

Definition and Models


Experience: Definition in a nutshell

empirical knowledge

‘a posteriori’ knowledge

apprehension of an object, thought, or emotion through the senses or mind

knowledge/skill/observation through involvement/exposure

accumulation of knowledge or skill that results from direct participation in events or activities

the “added value” of each of us


Transfer: Definition

to move or pass from one place,person or thing to another

the act of conveying or removing something from one place, person or thing to another


Model of information abstraction

(Bellinger/Davenport/others)


Linguistic

(Semantic: de Saussure, Wittgenstein,etc.;Pragmatic: Austin, Cole, Peter, Watzlawick, etc)


Communication theory

(Shannon/Weaver)


Interaction model

experience level

(Satir, cited from Weinberg)


You live and learn.—At any rate, you live.

experience level

(cited from Neuwinger)


‘Stairs of knowledge’

experience level experience level

(North, Wissensorientierte Unternehmensführung)


Communication model: Potential deviations

Example for glossary: GIs in England.


Concentrated model of information abstraction

(Assmann)

Observations fromTheory


Observation

Data is only a neutral communication layer

Data has no intelligence, no meaning in itself

Data should carry concepts, semantic, syntax

Always the active action of the receiver is required to work with the data and give it meaning

Interpretation of data is ambiguous and context (incl. culture) dependent


Refined definition from models

experience = f(culture,history,character,talent,capability,ability,sensory perception,established concepts,practice,…)

experience is connected to a neurological structure (synapses)


Summary of experience factors

cross-linked collectivity ofwhat has been heard

what has been seen

what has been learned

what has been trained

what has been practiced

taking into accounttalent

personal capability (this is different to talent, but also ‘neurological’)

personal history

mind set

culture


Natural habitat of conceptual elements

Objections


Objections (1)

‘But if I tell you what I did, you can learn from me.I share experience.’

[sic!]

You share your experience, while going down from your concept model to a semantic model, to a syntactical model, communicate via an communication channel, while I get the syntactical information, build a semantic model, and than (might) develop a concept (which is most likely different than yours)

My experience is: I got information from you! All further interpretation and transfer is based on my actions and the context (e.g., the relationship between sender and recipient)

If I wanted to understand (and belief) what you where saying, I gained knowledge

If I gained knowledge, I can decide to try it one day, and then I can gain experience

and depending how difficult it is,I most likely will do it wrong


Objections (2)

‘If this is true then I need not any training!’‘If this is true then I need not give any training/coaching!’

If your purpose is really to transfer experience, you are right—this is simply impossible, and you don’t have to do it

A training/coaching is always (and solely) the facilitating that other can make their own experience

Training/coaching means to help the other learn

It means being a catalyst—making s.th. going fast, which would otherwise happen at all/slower


Objections (3)

‘This would mean LL and EF won’t work!’Firstly, that is exactly what we ‘experience’; these techniques actually don’t work most of the time, because they are based on false assumptionsMr. Aldus Dumbledore was able to put his experiences into a ‘think tank’and share them, but in real live this is (yet) not possibleWe can store information; we can store context attributes; the stored information can be useful, but it is by no means ‘experience’, which is directly usable

Example: perform tracheotomy as follows: Curvilinear skin incision along relaxed skin tension lines (RSTL) between sternal notch and cricoid cartilage; Midline vertical incision dividing strap muscles; Division of thyroid isthmus between ligatures; Elevation of cricoid with cricoid hook; Placement of tracheal incision. An inferior based flap or Bjork flap (through second and third tracheal rings) is commonly used. The flap is then sutured to the inferior skin margin. Alternatives include a vertical tracheal incision (pediatric) or excision of an ellipse of anterior tracheal wall; Insert tracheostomy tube (with concomitant withdrawal of endotracheal tube), inflate cuff, secure with tape around neck or stay sutures; Connect ventilator tubing most likely we can not do it, even it is formalized

now we know the name, but we have never done it and can’t do it rightlack of experience/competence

Examples from Daily Life


Driving license

too many stimuli in the beginning

after practicing the driving (steering, accelerating, breaking, change gears) is done ‘subconscious’

once the method (driving) is learned, it is easy to change the tool


Production

Drilling process needs by experience a change of the drill after500 process executions

After several production problems …

a Lessons Learned card is written

a counter is integrated in the production process, which triggers a maintenance (change of the drill) after 500 drillings


Playing the piano

Learning the basic technique (the method ‘playing the piano’)Stepwise continuous training … starting with easy pieces going to more difficult onceOne day you may have the ability to play ‘from sheet’ or ‘by ear’Normally ‘playing the piano’means you have the abilityto learn every piece (to acertain degree of difficulty)

it does not mean you can onlyplay one piece (even if this would be perfect)

the experience has formed thesynapses and allow you to actin a new context


Cooking

Process vs. experience

You need always both: a recipe and experience

Experience tells you what you exactly want, and can help you to get it in a given context

A recipe can be transferred, and may survive you

A recipe is neither complete, nor exact (only a guide/hint)

A recipe is not the cookery course


Software Engineering

My SE professor stressed always the triad of:Method—Technique—Tool

The concept was easy to get, but the deeper understanding was hidden

at least to most of us students … with the arrogance of youth

Meeting many people perfectly familiar with a single tool (or technique), they seemed too often like a musician, who can only play a single piece of music

they get lost in a new context, because the basic method is not familiar

Observations fromExamples


Observations

Experience can exist on a repetitive and on a creative level

experience on repetitive level (experience in repetitive tasks) is easily to formalize and automate, but also context dependent

experience on a creative level (experience in creative tasks) is difficult to formalize, but easier to use in new context

for creative experience you can start with the method and gain practice, or you start with the technique, and apply it in several different contexts and gain abstraction (shift to method level)

if a Lessons Learned can be fully formalized (repetitive), integrate it (automated) in the process

Experience is related to maturing

if you done a thing in the small does not mean, you can automatically scale it to the large (e.g., music, models, management)

Practical Meaning


Issues from the practice

Expectations to processes/documents/trainings is too high or wrong

‘here it is written, now you can do it’

Lessons Learned are seen as ‘organizational wisdom’, but often no strategy exists to get them in the heads/in new contexts

cultural and personal change models are ignored

training, discipline, training, discipline

(Creative) processes are not executable without experience/competence—this influences

selection of team members/employees

training/build up of team members/employees


‘transfer’ vs. ‘learn from’

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. (Douglas Adams)

German translation: “Menschliche Wesen, die beinahe einzigartigsind in der Fähigkeit aus Erfahrung anderer zu lernen, sind ebensobemerkenswert für ihre offensichtliche Unlust es zu tun.”

‘ability to learn from the experience of others’that is exactly what we can

we should want to do it

we should motivate others want to do it

we should support the learning

we should avoid the false assumption that we can just simply transfer experience, in the same way we can transfer money (at least here in Europe)


Building experience

facilitate

hearing

seeing

learning (theoretical and practical)

trying and training

practicing

invest only on fruitful ground

missing talent/capability can not be completely compensated by effort

there are people that should not/can not/want not do certain things

we have to acknowledge and respect this


Direct measures

for ‘building experience’provide teaching, coaching, mentoring!provide teaching for ‘how to learn’there are no shortcuts—it is always training and discipline

discipline is always the foundation for training (e.g., music, sport, art, science, handcraft)

provide opportunity for practicingallow failures

provide experience in person (experts) or other form (trainings, books)there exist books that support build up of experience, but be aware that this costs time

motivatedefine clear, realistic expectations

for ‘Lessons Learned’the problem is the usage, not the capturing

spend effort on good retrieval concepts and provide enough effort for ‘daily’ retrieval

Note: if you can formalize it—automate it (repetitive process)


Strategies to deal with experience

keep experiencein the heads of your people

thus keep your (good?) people

integrate in trainings/coaching/mentoringtrainings provide the opportunity to learn from the experience of others (make own experiences based on realistic scenarios)

trainings must reflect the current state of the process

integrate in processautomation where possible

process improvement

deeper changes in process should be communicated through training

be careful with expectations to lessons learned/knowledge managementinvest more effort for the ‘retrieval’ and build-up of knowledge/experience

the storage provides only data/information


Conclusion

Don’t mix experience with the captured(written/spoken/…) form of experience

the highest abstraction level is always just information

one thing is the input (captured form), the other the output (experience)

Experience is always connected to a neurological structureExperience is an active competence, an applied and applicable ability

Experience has different quality in repetitive or creative contexts

Build up of experience must always be actively performed(this actually should not be written in a passive sentence)

I can not transfer experience, but I can facilitate the process of building experience, and provide the right information

learn from experience—migrate experience

Spend effort on build up of experience … over and over again

Lessons Learnedin creative context: can be a reminder to people with experience

in a repetitive context: should be formalized and automated


Thank you!


References

Shewhart/Deming several statements and papers on data and theory

Linguistic papers (according to models in presentation)

Shannon/Weaver: The Mathematical Theory Of Communication

Weinberg: Anticipating Change

Barry Boehm, ICSE 2006 Keynote

Klaus North: Wissensorientierte Unternehmensführung

Wiegers: Creating a SE culture


More examples from human beings …

A few things work (normally) from the beginningbreathing

crying

digesting

But how does it work with all other abilities, such as …walking

speaking

thinking

…

Its always practice, practice, practice‘the more I practice, the better I get’

that’s experience


Hint: Devotion as principle

Learning (gaining experience) needs humblenessYou have to be humble to (endlessly) try simple techniques againand again (e.g., riding the bicycle, writing, playing the piano, ice skating)

Sometimes the training is focused on a special goal and thus, motivated through this goal

In all other cases you need an intrinsic motivation—this is devotion!

Devotion means to cultivate the mind-set of a beginnerbe amazed about every improvement

the art of devotion means to give simplethings the same meaning as extraordinary

if you focus only on the goal, youprobably miss the whole way

devotion results in discipline


Men are not moved by things, but by the views which they take of them.

Epictetus


You can observe a whole lot just by watching.Yogi Berra

Documents

Can I transfer experience? - ITQ | IT Quality Group Switzerlanditq.ch/pdf/sqm/07/sqm_assmann_Erfahrungsmgt.pdf · 1 March 07 Property of Valeo – Duplication prohibited Can I transfer