Gary Klein/Edmunson Paper Discussion
Discussant Paper EDB9000 For 9/22/11
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Klein, Gary (2009). Streetlights and Shadows, Part III and Part IV: ch. 14 Moving Targets, ch. 15 The Risks of
Risk Management, ch. 16 Cognitive Wavelength, ch. 17 Unlearning, ch. 18 Reclaiming our Minds, ch. 19 Getting
Found.
Tucker, Anita and Edmundson, Amy (2003). Why Hospitals Don't Learn Much from Failures: organizational and psychological dynamics that inhibit system change. California Management Review, 45:55-72.
Ambiguous situations. All projects, organizations and situations have some level of ambiguity. I believe that people have the tendency to break all problems, complex or not, into smaller parts to try to vet out the ambiguity and get clarity, and that is where Klein’s list of “myths” or “claims” about how to make successful decisions have come about. Klein’s Streetlights and Shadows focuses on the typical beliefs about how we think and make decisions and how these processes change when the situation is unclear, ambiguous, or “in the shadows”.
The last two sections of the book cover the major topics of adapting, goal setting, managing risk, and common ground and summarize “unlearning” of the claims as originally described.
The article by Tucker and Edmundson, “Why Hospitals Don’t Learn Much from Failures: organizational and psychological
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•
Klein, Gary (2009). Streetlights and Shadows, Part III and Part IV: ch. 14 Moving Targets, ch. 15 The Risks of
Risk Management, ch. 16 Cognitive Wavelength, ch. 17 Unlearning, ch. 18 Reclaiming our Minds, ch. 19 Getting
Found.
Tucker, Anita and Edmundson, Amy (2003). Why Hospitals Don't Learn Much from Failures: organizational and psychological dynamics that inhibit system change. California Management Review, 45:55-72.
Ambiguous situations. All projects, organizations and situations have some level of ambiguity. I believe that people have the tendency to break all problems, complex or not, into smaller parts to try to vet out the ambiguity and get clarity, and that is where Klein’s list of “myths” or “claims” about how to make successful decisions have come about. Klein’s Streetlights and Shadows focuses on the typical beliefs about how we think and make decisions and how these processes change when the situation is unclear, ambiguous, or “in the shadows”.
The last two sections of the book cover the major topics of adapting, goal setting, managing risk, and common ground and summarize “unlearning” of the claims as originally described.
The article by Tucker and Edmundson, “Why Hospitals Don’t Learn Much from Failures: organizational and psychological