{"id":1536,"date":"2012-05-19T15:47:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T15:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2012-05-19T15:47:19","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T15:47:19","slug":"knowledege-and-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=1536","title":{"rendered":"Knowledge and Understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Knowledge is not the same as Understanding.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0all know that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West;\u00a0most of us know that the oceans\u00a0have a twice-a-day tidal cycle and some of us\u00a0know that these tides also have\u00a0a monthly cycle that is\u00a0associated with the phase of the moon. We know all of this just from taking notice; remembering what we see;\u00a0and being able to recognise the\u00a0patterns. We use\u00a0this knowledge to make reliable predictions of the future times and\u00a0heights of the tides;\u00a0and we can do all of this without any understanding of how tides are caused.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0lack of understanding means that we\u00a0can only describe what has happened.\u00a0We cannot explain how\u00a0it\u00a0happened. We cannot\u00a0extract meaning – the why it happened.<\/p>\n

People have observed and described the movements of the sun, sea, moon, and stars for millennia and a few could even\u00a0predict them with surprising accuracy –\u00a0but it was not until the 17th century that we began to understand\u00a0what caused the tides.\u00a0Isaac Newton developed enough of an\u00a0understanding\u00a0to explain how it worked\u00a0and he did it using a new\u00a0concept called gravity<\/strong> and a new tool called\u00a0calculus<\/strong>.\u00a0 He then used this understanding to explain a lot of other unexplained\u00a0things and suddenly\u00a0the Universe started to\u00a0make a lot more sense to everyone. Nowadays we teach this knowledge at school and we take it for granted. We assume it is obvious and it is not. We are no\u00a0smarter now that people in the 17th Century – we just have\u00a0a deeper understanding (of\u00a0physics).<\/p>\n

Understanding enables\u00a0things that have not been observed or described to be predicted and explained.\u00a0Understanding is necessary if we want\u00a0to make rational and reliable decisions that will lead\u00a0to changes for the better in a changing world.<\/p>\n

So, how\u00a0can we test if we only\u00a0know<\/em> what to do or if we actually\u00a0understand<\/em>\u00a0what\u00a0to do?<\/p>\n

If we understand then we can demonstrate the application of our knowledge by solving old and new problems effectively and <\/strong>we can explain how we\u00a0do it.\u00a0 If we do not understand then\u00a0we\u00a0may\u00a0still be able to apply our knowledge to old problems but\u00a0we do not\u00a0solve\u00a0new problems effectively or efficiently and we are not able to explain why.<\/p>\n

But we do not want\u00a0the risk of making a mistake\u00a0in order to test if we\u00a0have and understanding-gap so how can we find out? What we look for is the tell-tale sign of an excess of\u00a0knowledge and a dearth of\u00a0understanding\u00a0– and\u00a0it has a name – it is called \u201cbureaucracy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Suppose we have a system where the decisions-makers do not make effective decisions when faced with new challenges\u00a0– which means that their decisions lead to\u00a0unintended adverse outcomes. It does not take very long for the system\u00a0to know that the decision process is ineffective – so to protect itself the system reacts by creating bureaucracy – a sort of organisational damage-limitation\u00a0circle of sand-bags\u00a0that limit the negative consequences\u00a0of the poor decisions. A\u00a0bureaucratic firewall so to speak.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately,\u00a0while bureaucracy is effective it is non-specific,\u00a0it uses up resources\u00a0and\u00a0it slows everything down. Bureaucracy is inefficiency.\u00a0What we get as a result is a system that costs more and appears to do less and that is resistant to any change – not just poor decisions – it slows down good ones too.<\/p>\n

The bureaucratic barrier is important though;\u00a0doing less bad stuff is actually a reasonable survival strategy – until the cost of the bureaucracy threatens the systems viability. Then it becomes\u00a0a liability.<\/p>\n

So what happens when a last-saloon-in-town\u00a0\u201cefficiency\u201d drive is started in desperation and the \u201cbureaucratic red tape\u201d is slashed? The poor decisions that the red tape was ensnaring are free to spread\u00a0virally and\u00a0when implemented\u00a0they create a big-bang\u00a0unintended adverse consequence! The safety and quality performance of the system drops sharply and that\u00a0triggers\u00a0the reflex “we-told-you-so” and rapid re-introduction of the red-tape, plus some extra to prevent it happening again.\u00a0 The system learns from\u00a0its experience and\u00a0concludes\u00a0that\u00a0\u201chigher quality always costs more\u201d and “don’t trust our decision-makers” and\u00a0\u201cthe only way to avoid a bad decision is not to make\/or\/implement any decisions\u201d and to \u201cthe safest way to maintain\u00a0quality is to add\u00a0extra checks and increased the\u00a0price”. The system then\u00a0remembers this new knowledge for future reference;\u00a0the bureaucratic concrete sets hard; and the whole cycle repeats itself.\u00a0Ad infinitum.<\/p>\n

So, with this clearer insight into the value\u00a0of bureaucracy and its root cause we can now design\u00a0an alternative system: to develop knowledge into understanding and by that route to improve\u00a0our capability to make better decisions that lead to predictable,\u00a0reliable, demonstrable and explainable benefits for everyone. When we do that the non-specific bureaucracy\u00a0is seen to impede\u00a0progress so\u00a0it makes sense to dismantle the\u00a0bits that block improvement – and\u00a0keep the bits that block poor decisions and that maintain performance. We now get improved quality and lower costs at the same time, quickly, predictably and without taking\u00a0big risks, and we can\u00a0reinvest what we have saved in making making further improvements\u00a0and developing more knowledge,\u00a0a deeper understanding and wiser decisions. Ad infinitum.<\/p>\n

The primary focus\u00a0of Improvement Science is to expand understanding –\u00a0our ability to\u00a0decide what to do, and what not to; where and where not to; and when and when not to – and to be able to explain and to demonstrate the\u00a0“how” and to some extent the “why”.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0proven\u00a0method\u00a0is to See, then to Do, and then to Teach. And\u00a0when we try that we discover to our surprise that the person whose understanding increases the most is the teacher!\u00a0 Which is good because the deeper the teachers understanding the more flaxible, adaptable and open to\u00a0new learning they become.\u00a0 Education and bureaucracy are poor partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knowledge is not the same as Understanding. We\u00a0all know that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West;\u00a0most of us know that the oceans\u00a0have a twice-a-day tidal cycle and some of us\u00a0know that these tides also have\u00a0a monthly cycle that is\u00a0associated with the phase of the moon. We know all of this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Knowledge and Understanding”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,42,43,46,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","category-how","category-why","category-teach","category-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}