I recently read a very thought-provoking article over on LinkedIn. It has to do with research around how we move a system like Work beyond it’s current state on ongoing morass.
In the article, it’s suggested that what we need is some “fourth level of knowing.”
Essentially, we have first-person, second-person, and third-person perspectives as elements to consider in all situations. This article suggests an additional level that in some way goes beyond the current three levels.
I question the futility of this.
In systems thinking we have a phrase that I often go back to…
attempting to do the wrong things more right.
The problem being…the more we do the wrong things more right, the more efficient at being wrong we become.
Why is a fourth level of knowing attempting to do the wrong things more right?
Because our knowledge and information models are already obsessively focused on knowledge, specifically the acquisition, retention, regurgitation, and preservation of approved sets of knowledge.
It’s the wrong thing more right because what we really need to be focused on is building / rebuilding genuine learning models.
Getting “better” at knowledge is likely to lead us to continue to focus on improving current sets of approved knowledge vs shifting our system to learning-oriented systems.
Perhaps we could achieve some “fourth level of knowing” through learning, but because a genuine learning model is largely non-existent in today’s model for work, we need to get better at learning through exploring learning, not through better knowledge models.
Whenever we look at a system and observe how much we are doing one thing, it means that there’s another element on the other end of the spectrum likely being significantly neglected. We can’t address this by doing what we are currently doing even “better.” We have to completely change what we are doing in order to bring about some balance between the elements.
Learning to become a photographer over the last 1.5 years has made the dichotomy between knowledge and learning even clearer to me.
There’s a ton of knowledge about the best practices for capturing captivating images but what I had to do is learn how I can and want to become a photographer.
I started by reading some technical manuals but then I quickly realized that this is my art, I must learn my own way into and through it.
It’s specifically the enhanced knowledge-to-learning feedback loop that is inherent to the photographic process that is a core reason for developing ArtThinkMake as a forthcoming platform for re-establishing learning as a core practice in life.
It was my experience that in 15+ years of corporate work, we weren’t navigating knowledge and learning as much as we were simply piling more knowledge on top of existing sets of knowledge. We thought we were learning in that seminar about becoming a better leader but what was really happening is that another approved set of knowledge was simple being layered on top of past layers of knowledge.
It may sound and feel like I’m splitting hairs but the line between knowledge and learning is a very fine but all-too-important distinction to be drawn.
If you come to serious photography with no prior experience, you have no choice but to pursue and apply an active learning model. The most important factor for learning to occur is to immerse yourself into the real-world context and conditions while exploring your talent for it and discovering your personal vision.
What photography made so abundantly clear to me was that it’s not enough to read all of the existing sets of approved knowledge. You have to get out into the real-world context and conditions and practice in real time. For so many years working various corporate roles, we would read about how to change our work in a classroom isolated from the real-world and then return to the office to do things the way we’ve always done them. Thus, we may have acquired parts of a new set of knowledge but we did not learn anything.
My sense is that this is a massive lesson for our education and work systems.
So, what does this have to do with a “fourth level of knowing?”
A fourth level of knowing in an already knowledge-driven model is likely only to result in some “improved” version of first / second / third person knowing. It’s more “wrong thing more right” when what we really need to be focused on is re-establishing learning as a driver of outcomes vs. certainty and knowing.
What we likely need to focus on instead to get back to learning-oriented models is something like “first level of learning.”
It’s a “first level” because we’ve lost our way on learning and we need to get back to some foundational elements of practice.
We need to embrace how learning requires a “first-person” perspective. We need to honor just how important it is that for learning to occur, there are a few inherently intrinsic factors that must be an integral part of the model and process.
While we worry about how will an individual learning oriented model ever work, what we stand to gain is the collective open-mindedness of broader mindsets, thinking, and perspectives when we come together to envision new paradigms and design new models for systems as a group of learners vs. knowledge possessors.
It’s not about better model of knowledge or knowing, it’s about regaining learning as a system driver.
Photography is a wonderful vehicle for delivering this learning.