GS1 The Power of Pull How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion John Seely Brown Visiting Scholar, University of Southern California
A New Culture of Learning in a world of constant change Learning-on-demand: pull, not push Arc of Life Learning A Simple Belief The old institutions aren t hacking it very well. And nor are our schools 1
20 th Century Era Captured by Alfred Chandler Push Economy 20 th century infrastructure roads/cars/trucks/trains/ships/airplanes Scalable Efficiency became the goal. S-curve stable over decades. (Few real changes in 60 years) predictable hierarchy control organizational routines minimize variance 20 th Century Push-based Education Scalable Efficiency became the goal. S-curve predictable curriculum standards based authority focused 2
The 21 st C infrastructure is driven by the continual exponential advances of computation, storage & bandwidth, with no stability in sight!! S-curve S-curve rapid set of punctuated moves (potentially never ending) in a world of increasingly rapid change, the half life of a given stock/skill is constantly shrinking & the predictability of future needs is increasingly less certain! Stocks =====> Flows protecting knowledge assets sharing knowledge (explicit) participating in knowledge flows creating new knowledge (strong tacit component) 3
The Big Shift Push --- > Pull Stocks ---> Flows Crisis of Imagination embracing change, not fearing it. The big shift rapid set of punctuated moves (potentially never ending) 4
The 2nd Shift-- The Explosion of Data almost beyond comprehension! Every two days we now create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003. Let me repeat that: we create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003. Eric Schmidt, CEO Google A 21 st Century Challenge: preparing our students/workforce for this world of constant change! Perhaps we need to rethink how we actually learn- especially the tacit. what we need to learn & how wnew media has changed the game in fundamental ways. Creating a resilient mindset ability to change, adapt, re-conceptualize and engage in deep listen with humility. 5
A Pull Framework for 21 st century value creation 11 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. A fortuitous encounter that helped shape my thinking. Oh an example from your years of running PARC? No two extreme cases of amazing learning both using new media++. 6
The Grommets A story about how fame & fortune was brought to Maui The first junior champion ever in Maui and a new genre aerial surfing. And now ALL Five! 7
How was this possible? >A passion to achieve extreme performance and a willingness to fail, fail, fail on the way. >Accessing and analyzing frame by frame the best surfers around the world via video s of the pros. >Use of video tools to capture and analyze each of their own improvisations. >Pulling the best ideas from adjacencies: wind surfing, skate boarding, mountain biking, motor cross, >Accessing spikes of capabilities around the world leveraging networks of practice in a ecosystem. >Attracting others to help them around the world. And always - a deep collaborative learning with each other. 8
Mind Set And a passionate pursuit of extreme performance with a deep questing disposition And a commitment to Indwelling. World of Warcraft A massively multi-player online game : MMOG on a quest Why should we care???? 9
MMOGs are... Virtual spaces which h both define and are defined by the players who inhabit them Social spaces where issues of community, meaning, and values are negotiated Sites of joint collective agency To see the value of games don t just look at the core of the game but pay close attention to the social life on the edge of the game. The edge is often referred to as a knowledge economy. 10
WoW Mantra If I m not learning then it ain t fun. Two kinds of learning spaces.. In game learning knowledge economy out-of-game learning In game learning: a kind of collective indwelling with constant experimentation/tinkering/playing around. getting a feeling what for the system 11
Dashboards World of WarCraft aft is way too complicated to play without complex analysis tools and dashboards. These dashboards are nearly always handcrafted by each player and are key to masterful play. 12
After Action Reviews 13
Blending the tacit & the cognitive Collective Indwelling + Reflection: marinating together in a problem space with joint action Speed chess & hard core hacking The making of grand masters - indwelling complements/transcends cognition And the same for hard core hacking 14
Two kinds of learning spaces.. In game learning knowledge economy out-of-game learning Out of game learning (aboutness) : Social Life &Knowledge Economy/Ecology on the Edge WoW s knowledge economy/ecology help players gain & create knowledge faster Blizzard Forums (~300) (forums.worldofwarcraft.com, forums.wow-europe.com) Databases (www.thottbot.com, www.wowdb.com, www.wowguru.com) Other Forums (~countless) (www.worldofwar.net/forum w s, www.wowforums.com) Over a million WoW Interactions on the EDGE Blogs (www.worldofwarcraftblo gger.com, www.wowinsider.com, www.resto4life.com) Videos (www.warcraftmovies.com) 26,000 videos from over 5k guilds Wikis (www.wowwiki.com) 15
Capturing play in WoW through machinima Tempest Keep Managing Knowledge via Guilds > Structure of filtering and feedback loops Problem: Knowledge is constantly changing Problem: Too much information to reliably manage. (around 12k new ideas just last night.) > Guild structures allow for small groups (20-200) Guild structures allow for small groups (20 200) to seek out, test, filter & disseminate information. 16
Fusing the two kinds learning spaces thru concerted (peer-based) cultivation Exponential Learning Hours to Gain Experience Points (XP) in WoW 12,000,000, Level 70 ence Points (XP) Experi 10,000,000 8,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 Level 30 Level 40 Level 50 Level 60 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Accumulated Hours to Gain XP Source: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) PlayOn http://blogs.parc.com/playon/; Deloitte Analysis A Pull Framework for a 21 st century economy 34 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. 17
Access on-demand access to resources Access involves the ability to find, learn about, and connect with people, products, and knowledge to address unanticipated needs. Individuals: I id l Social Networks that t can scale 35 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. Attract 18
Harnessing the power of serendipity In a world that is rapidly changing we don t really know what questions to ask or whom to look for.. The real challenge is how to attract people in unexpected ways to help ask, frame and answer these questions. Ah, where Google can t help. 37 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. Shaping Serendipity Can be more than just luck!!! Choose Develop Serendipity Serendipity Environments Practices Enhance Serendipity Preparedness All encounters: deep listening with reciprocity Transactional --> Relational 19
Exposing surfaces Jack Hidary People become too dependent on one facet of their lives. Folks tend to isolate themselves from the flows of new knowledge and the people creating them. How often do you get out of your comfort zone? Achieve pulling out of each of us & our institutions our full potential by harnessing network effects. 20
The Bigger Picture Breaking free of the Red Queen effect Experience curves Collaboration curves harnessing network effects where the more people that participate the greater the potential returns 42 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. 21
The purpose of the 20 th century firm: to minimize transaction costs & achieve scalable efficiency The purpose of the 21 st century firm: to achieve scalable capability building (building talent) Learning from others as they learn from you: accelerate bootstrapping in an ecosystem Pull Framework Interleaving individual-institutional-arena into a virtuous PULL spiral around Access/Attract/Achieve 44 The Power of Pull Copyright 2010 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. 22
Jan 2011 Thank You 23