Liberating Murphy's Law: learning from change

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine learning groups as complex systems and to address three issues about learning in organizations: learning from change; factors affecting learning; and learning leading to growth and renewal.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was conducted at a Singapore Engineering firm to explore its two‐year change intervention experiences. Data were gathered at two stages: laddering, non‐directive interviewing with 45 employees; and focus group discussions with 20 leaders.

Findings

Learning from a state of not‐knowing gives rise to a new problem‐solving dimension, enabling individuals to thrive and survive in complexity. Understanding constraints that seemingly truncate change is ironically a generative device that frees people from being trapped by Murphy's Law.

Research limitations/implications

Change provides the stimulus for learning in complex contexts and paradigms where reciprocal relationships are sought to stabilize feedback loops and revitalize decision making. Mediating the variety of learning dynamics is an integration of two metacommunicative activities: dialogue and reflection.

Practical implications

Leaders are the connecting tissues to facilitating a learning that is highly interpretive and socially constructed. Process leadership is characterized by leaders assuming appropriate stewardship and walking the talk. A shared vision is necessary for contextualizing change and stabilizing learning conditions.

Originality/value

Combining Murphy's Law with the complexity of organizational dynamics gives rise to a new understanding of learning in unpredictable contexts. It is a learning that creates a projection of language which transcends time and space, a learning that presents itself as an intertwined activity celebrated by complex systems and processes.

Citation

Yeo, R.K. (2009), "Liberating Murphy's Law: learning from change", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 67-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910939090