Prevention of Learning

If it is important for an organisation to retain what it has done to date, then it needs competences to prevent learning. That which has been proven in the past must not be thrown out in favour of any hype, every fashion, every vested interest or every critic. To preserve stability and to maintain an overview is indispensable for survival.

This is why, in organisations, there are processes which ensure stability: When employing, care is taken to see that the person fits the organisation (presumably that they do not disturb or criticise too much), in IT something is attached to the existing and an add-on is programmed (even when then things no longer completely fit together). New organisational structures are allocated to existing ones, or are built around important people, or the old people remain loyal to each other in the new structure; old loyalties also play a dominant role in the new processes. To put it this way: the new is assimilated and reshaped. It is just as effective that one does not allow oneself to be irritated in advance and to ignore signals in the environment.

What is crucial here, is that such phenomena must not per se, be evaluated negatively. Without the prevention of learning, death threatens. Without learning it usually also threatens, unless the environment remains very stable. This is why, in change projects, it is very important not to attach negativity to those who stand for the old, who are against the project, who stand ‘in resistance’, rather, to do the opposite and see the possible value of this perspective and to honour it.