Emergent Learning

In complex and changing situations, there are no right answers…at least not for very long. Answers are hypotheses that represent our current best thinking about what it will take to get the results we intend.

Emergent Learning enables organizations or networks to adapt their strategies and action plans, in-course, to achieve the results they want. Through Emergent Learning, know-how emerges in the course of doing work (in contrast to learning that happens away from work in a classroom setting).

Emergent Learning is "emergent" in three ways:

1. Learning emerges from the work itself, because learning is built directly into the flow of work.
2. Know-how emerges and is refined through successive iterations. Over time, proficiency is built through repeated comparisons of intended and actual results.
3. By taking on each new challenge with the intention to track results and learn, success starts to accumulate in one setting after another, creating a positive track record and a confidence that encourages groups to tackle larger challenges.

What is an Emergent Learning "Practice"?

An Emergent Learning practice entails a systematic approach to using existing challenges and opportunities as the grist for developing skills, know-how and good practices.

Every organization or network faces challenges for which there is no single right solution. Such challenges need to be addressed by building mastery in the way people think and act, and are the “practice areas” where Emergent Learning typically adds the greatest value.

Having identified its key challenges, an organization or network can consciously prepare to learn from each cycle of action; each wave of deployment. This enables a group to apply insights from one action to the next in order to produce better results.

Emergent Learning tools such as EL Maps and the Action Review Cycle help people work together to:

1. Step into the situation with the clear intention to learn.
2. Articulate their assumptions and metrics.
3. Pay attention during the action and gather data on what happens.
4. Reflect on the interim results in order to adjust course.
5. Do this over and over again to continually improve outcomes.

Success is measured by people’s ability to name a performance target and hit it, regardless of what situations they encounter.

EL Map is a trademark of Signet Research & Consulting, LLC.

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