The Hallways of Learning
Hallways are the places where some of our best conversations occur. Ask any conference attendee and you’re likely to hear the familiar comment, “The sessions were OK but I had some great hallway conversations.” The analogy of the hallway is a useful way to talk about how learning occurs in organizations.
Learning in organizations can be categorized into three types, only one of which happens in hallways. First, individuals use their experience and training to construct meaning for themselves. When individuals keep this meaning to themselves, rather than making it accessible to others, we can liken their learning to a Private Office. For example, imagine a field representative who installs and repairs the company’s product, and overtime, determines that a given part fails repeatedly under certain identifiable conditions. At this point, the field representative is constructing private meaning. Unless this private meeting is shared with others, the organization will not learn.
A second category of learning is that which occurs when individuals make their personal meaning available to others in the organization. This category is analogous to the Hallways of the organization where important exchanges take place. Hallways are places where ideas get tested against the thinking of others. As long is meaning is held privately, it is protected from the discovery that it may be wrong or limited in perspective. When it is made accessible to others, the data on which is based can be challenged and the reasoning and logic that led to the conclusions can be examined. Hallways are places were joint meaning is made. In other words, meaning it’s not just exchanged, it is constructed in the dialogue between organizational members.
Collective meaning is the third category of learning. It is the meaning that organizational members hold in common. Collective meaning is like having a Storeroom where the mementos of the past are kept. It is the glue that holds organizational members together and allows them to act in concert with each other. It provides a sense of belonging and community. Collective meaning saves the organization time. There is no need for lengthy discussions about those issues that organizational members are all in agreement about – time can be spent on more critical issues. The meaning in the Storeroom can, however, have a negative impact on the organization. In a rapidly changing world, collective meaning that was advantageous at one point in time may have become obsolete, yet may prove difficult to change.
Hallways are the only space where it is possible for an organization to learn. It cannot learn in the Private Offices, although individual learning can certainly take place there. It cannot learn in the Storeroom, where it is only possible to affirm what is already known. If organizations are going to learn, they will need to construct Hallways in which the in-depth exploration of meaning can occur. The real hallways of our organizations will not suffice for the level of organizational learning that is necessary. Rather, organizations to need to develop processes that have the positive characteristics of real hallways, yet are more focused and intentional.
Many organizations have developed processes that serve this Hallway function. Some are Knowledge Management processes, such as, After Action Reviews, Peer Assists, Communities of Practice, and Storytelling Circles. Others are whole system in the room processes such as Open Space Technology, Knowledge Cafes, and Appreciative Inquiry. Still others result from the rise of post-bureaucratic organizations that by design create more Hallway structures, for example self- managed teams, networked organizations, Holocracy, and Humanocracy to name a few. The frequency of such processes in organizations, which has grown rapidly over the last few years, attests to both the need for Hallways and ingenuity of organizations in creating new forms of collective learning.
Based on Dixon.N,Strategy & Leadership; Mar/Apr 1996; 24, 2; ABI/INFORM