14 Nov We Learn When We Talk

Nancy Dixon focuses on the human side of knowledge management.  Leveraging the research of Johnson and Johnson, she points out that through cooperative exchange, we learn through dialogue and conversation.

“Johnson and Johnson, researchers at the University of Minnesota, have shown that we organise information in a different way when we are preparing to explain our thinking to others. The information not only becomes more logically organised, but new connections are made, often in the act of speaking. It is fair to say, “We don’t learn when we listen, we learn when we speak,” or  write, or even create a visual representation of our understanding. Giving knowledge workers the time needed to put their thinking into words, not only shares the organisation’s knowledge, but creates it.”