Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Investment Dimensions to Learning

There are two critical aspects or dimensions to learning that have direct bearing on learning portfolio management. The first of these, which I have come to name ‘Learning use,’ came to my direct attention while researching and working with clients in healthcare. The second, ‘Learning impact,’ came from my consulting work in the field of education.

Learning use

Some of the learning that takes place in healthcare involves practices or techniques that are used immediately to care for sick patients. Healthcare is a unique context in which the effect of not learning (possible death) is so devastating that medical practitioners and caregivers continually explore new procedures and protocols to help their patients. Consequently, they learn new techniques because they are needed immediately to address a patient’s condition and thereby improve their well-being, if not their very survival. Yet as part of their formal training, medical practitioners also learn about illnesses and diseases they may encounter at some future date.

One can think of this comparison as reflecting a time dimension to the value of learning. For some practices the usefulness of what’s been learned is realized immediately in the short term, while for other uses the benefit comes later on. In industry this contrast is reflected in a manager’s choice between focusing on production activities that create valued outcomes and benefits in the short term and investment activities that lead ...