New knowledge, new learning and creation of value (Ariadne’s Thread)
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This article is available in 19 languages. Please choose your option. "We live in an era of transition, in which capable and efficient control of knowledge and its new technological tools will be critical. The future of any educative system or company will depend on the capacity to manage this knowledge in a more efficient way, which entails the qualified management of new technologies."
A process of rethinking all learning according to a different paradigm is emerging, producing a new type of learning that can take place at any age, in any place and for any length of time. In this article, Roberto Carneiro explains the uncertainty resulting from this transition, particularly the use of new technologies in the creation of knowledge and how learning and education processes, based on permanent innovation through new technological tools, are the key to survival.
The Harvard Business Review (HBR), an internationally renowned journal considered a major reference in the study of business contexts, distinguishes six successive stages in the evolution of management theory over the past few decades1:
- Scientific Management (~1922 to ~1932)
- Governmental Regulation (~1932 to ~1946)
- Marketing and Diversification (~1946 to ~ 1960)
- Strategy and Social Change (~1960 to ~ 1972)
- Competitive Challenge and Restructuring (~ 1972 to ~ 1988)
- Globalisation and Knowledge (~1988 to ~ ?)
Hence, if we agree that knowledge is the current driving force of economies, its fuel is then learning. This is why lifelong learning is the great challenge of this new century, both for individuals and organisations (organisations that learn).
Nonetheless, the chain of values – data-information-knowledge- learning – is missing the last link, which is what really produces wealth (whether personal or organisational). This last link is the creation of meaning2.
Knowledge thus acquires new connotations: it is polysemic, governed by non-fragmentary canons, subjectively built rather than objectively materialised, and its competitiveness lies in the tacit corpus of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. The management of knowledge is indiscernible from the people who create, enrich, disseminate and lend it added value on the basis of the utility of knowledge.
Learning is also undergoing a marked transformation. With regard to people, the new type of learning can be done at any age, in any place and for any length of time. With regard to the organisational sphere, strategic management chooses the so-called "biological" companies, that is, the companies that learn by evolution and adaptation (as opposed to "mechanical" organisations, which simply continue to repeat actions as in the past). In this new business model, the spirit of cohesion, the value of social capital, collaboration networks, relations based on trust and practice communities are the essential springboards for development. In this new learning, whether individual or organisational, individuals once again occupy the central role.
In this context, the major topic of study and debate for this new century is that of the management of people and communities.
In reality, organisations are comprised of ‘thinking individuals with sentiments’ (reason and heart, intellect and emotion) who live in communities of purpose and meaning, as this is the veritable and main springboard for the creation of value, the production of wealth and the progress of nations: we only transform into knowledge the information that we can integrate into congruent templates, and we only truly learn what makes sense.
The intellectual capital3 that is emerging as a driving force of current economies is therefore the result of a wise combination of human capital and structural capital capable of fostering and generating value for organisations. The new chains and networks of value, which are the principal source of wealth and competitiveness, are based on human knowledge and skills, on the one hand; and on the efficiency of organisations in incorporating these intangibles resources in order to innovate and distinguish themselves from the competition, on the other hand.
It should therefore come as no surprise that the government of Singapore, the world’s leading country in standardised knowledge tests promoted by international organisations, structures its new development strategy around four fundamental core aspects of learning4:
- Knowledge Capital: the schooling programme is to be reduced by 20 % in order to allow the pupils to explore solving complex and interdisciplinary problems.
- Imagination Capital: consists of promoting new ecosystems that are ‘friends’ of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Emotional Capital: aimed at creating the conditions of emotional stability and tranquillity capable of retaining the best international teams and capital.
- Social Capital: orientated towards sustainable employment and the densification of basic community networks.
We are experiencing a new era, an era that is simultaneously complex and challenging. And this new era, as has been the case for at least the past 250 years, is being catapulted forward by technology.
Carlota Pérez speaks in an attractive manner about the lesson that we should gain from ‘historical regularities’5 . On the basis of her research on the technological revolutions that have occurred over the past 250 years, the author reveals that each new economic era is catapulted forward in great technological leaps that manifest themselves in two ways:
- The appearance of powerful clusters of new products and services, as well as new infrastructure networks.
- The consolidation of a new techno-economic paradigm characterised by: new generic technologies of a broad scope, new organisational principles, different business models and infrastructures facilitating low cost (instigators of quantifiable jumps in greater productivity).
According to Carlota Pérez, humanity is now at a ‘turning point’ in the latest technological revolution. The period of establishment of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that has taken place over the past thirty years – with its sequels of ‘creative destruction’ and generalisation of a new social paradigm, the information and knowledge society – could be followed by a period of implementation and prosperity of the full potential of the new, triumphant paradigm. According to the researcher’s analysis, the intermediate period in which we live – the ‘turning point’ – is marked by instability, uncertainty, the end of bubbles of speculation and institutional reorganisation.
If this interpretation proves true, our ‘venerable’ institutions – such as the school, the university, government and companies themselves – will currently be subject to the pressure of the urgent challenge of structural adjustment and ample reform.
The creation of novelty in the fields of knowledge and learning depends on how well people manage to innovate, govern, work, communicate and create value through the new technologies.
Today, e-Learning and b-Learning are powerful tools for fostering the value of individuals and accelerating learning and innovation within organisations. New knowledge and new learning, highly promoted by new communication technologies, are the thread that will enable us to emerge unscathed from the dizzying change that awaits us.
Hence, rather than segmented visions of the issue implied by this or the other technology, what emerges is the major challenge of rethinking all learning according to a different paradigm, in other words, thinking in terms of New Learning.
We have learned from Ancient Greek mythology that it was thanks to Ariadne’s thread that Theseus, after killing the Minotaur, was able to find his way out of the labyrinth and save the others lost in it.
Today, as in the past, Ariadne’s thread can save us.
Roberto Carneiro
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Hence, if we agree that knowledge is the current driving force of economies, its fuel is then learning. This is why lifelong learning is the great challenge of this new century, both for individuals and organisations (organisations that learn).
Nonetheless, the chain of values – data-information-knowledge- learning – is missing the last link, which is what really produces wealth (whether personal or organisational). This last link is the creation of meaning2.
Knowledge thus acquires new connotations: it is polysemic, governed by non-fragmentary canons, subjectively built rather than objectively materialised, and its competitiveness lies in the tacit corpus of knowledge that is the fruit of experience. The management of knowledge is indiscernible from the people who create, enrich, disseminate and lend it added value on the basis of the utility of knowledge.
Learning is also undergoing a marked transformation. With regard to people, the new type of learning can be done at any age, in any place and for any length of time. With regard to the organisational sphere, strategic management chooses the so-called "biological" companies, that is, the companies that learn by evolution and adaptation (as opposed to "mechanical" organisations, which simply continue to repeat actions as in the past). In this new business model, the spirit of cohesion, the value of social capital, collaboration networks, relations based on trust and practice communities are the essential springboards for development. In this new learning, whether individual or organisational, individuals once again occupy the central role.
In this context, the major topic of study and debate for this new century is that of the management of people and communities.
In reality, organisations are comprised of ‘thinking individuals with sentiments’ (reason and heart, intellect and emotion) who live in communities of purpose and meaning, as this is the veritable and main springboard for the creation of value, the production of wealth and the progress of nations: we only transform into knowledge the information that we can integrate into congruent templates, and we only truly learn what makes sense.
The intellectual capital3 that is emerging as a driving force of current economies is therefore the result of a wise combination of human capital and structural capital capable of fostering and generating value for organisations. The new chains and networks of value, which are the principal source of wealth and competitiveness, are based on human knowledge and skills, on the one hand; and on the efficiency of organisations in incorporating these intangibles resources in order to innovate and distinguish themselves from the competition, on the other hand.
It should therefore come as no surprise that the government of Singapore, the world’s leading country in standardised knowledge tests promoted by international organisations, structures its new development strategy around four fundamental core aspects of learning4:
- Knowledge Capital: the schooling programme is to be reduced by 20 % in order to allow the pupils to explore solving complex and interdisciplinary problems.
- Imagination Capital: consists of promoting new ecosystems that are ‘friends’ of innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Emotional Capital: aimed at creating the conditions of emotional stability and tranquillity capable of retaining the best international teams and capital.
- Social Capital: orientated towards sustainable employment and the densification of basic community networks.
We are experiencing a new era, an era that is simultaneously complex and challenging. And this new era, as has been the case for at least the past 250 years, is being catapulted forward by technology.
Carlota Pérez speaks in an attractive manner about the lesson that we should gain from ‘historical regularities’5 . On the basis of her research on the technological revolutions that have occurred over the past 250 years, the author reveals that each new economic era is catapulted forward in great technological leaps that manifest themselves in two ways:
- The appearance of powerful clusters of new products and services, as well as new infrastructure networks.
- The consolidation of a new techno-economic paradigm characterised by: new generic technologies of a broad scope, new organisational principles, different business models and infrastructures facilitating low cost (instigators of quantifiable jumps in greater productivity).
According to Carlota Pérez, humanity is now at a ‘turning point’ in the latest technological revolution. The period of establishment of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that has taken place over the past thirty years – with its sequels of ‘creative destruction’ and generalisation of a new social paradigm, the information and knowledge society – could be followed by a period of implementation and prosperity of the full potential of the new, triumphant paradigm. According to the researcher’s analysis, the intermediate period in which we live – the ‘turning point’ – is marked by instability, uncertainty, the end of bubbles of speculation and institutional reorganisation.
If this interpretation proves true, our ‘venerable’ institutions – such as the school, the university, government and companies themselves – will currently be subject to the pressure of the urgent challenge of structural adjustment and ample reform.
The creation of novelty in the fields of knowledge and learning depends on how well people manage to innovate, govern, work, communicate and create value through the new technologies.
Today, e-Learning and b-Learning are powerful tools for fostering the value of individuals and accelerating learning and innovation within organisations. New knowledge and new learning, highly promoted by new communication technologies, are the thread that will enable us to emerge unscathed from the dizzying change that awaits us.
Hence, rather than segmented visions of the issue implied by this or the other technology, what emerges is the major challenge of rethinking all learning according to a different paradigm, in other words, thinking in terms of New Learning.
We have learned from Ancient Greek mythology that it was thanks to Ariadne’s thread that Theseus, after killing the Minotaur, was able to find his way out of the labyrinth and save the others lost in it.
Today, as in the past, Ariadne’s thread can save us.
Roberto Carneiro
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- “75 Years of Management - Ideas and Practice 1992-1997”, Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston, 1997.
- Carneiro, R., “La Educación, el Aprendizaje y el Sentido”, in Encuentro Sentidos de la Educación – Cultivar la Humanidad, OREALC/UNESCO, Santiago, Chile, 2005.
- Stewart, T., Capital Intelectual: A Nova Riqueza das Organizações, Ed. Sílabo, Lisbon, 1999.
- Carneiro, R., “Informação, Conhecimento e Pessoas”, in Caixa em Revista, CGD, Lisbon, 2005, pp. 26-29.
- Perez, C., Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2002.
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