The brain builds new connections through social contact

Did you know that communication is a huge factor in increasing organisational learning and collective intelligence? Through individuals’ participation in dialogue, conversations and even their use of social media, learning is boosted significantly.

A recent study on social learning at the University of Washington shoiws that social relationships play a significant role in adult learning.  Self-managed learning, done collaboratively with high levels of interaction with others is far more powerful than just reading or watching or listening.  This is because knowledge retention, which is an important aspect of learning, especially as we get older, is only possible when accompanied by human interaction.  Adults need to be socially stimulated to learn.

The use of social media such as forums, twitter, blogs, and other online communities is thought to build cognitive flexibility.  As people using these channels and tools are regularly multi-tasking (ie twittering whilst in meetings), it is thought that this behaviour builds new pathwasy and connections in the brain.  Use of such communications tools is thereby increasing innovation in individuals’ thinking, and helping them to learn and apply learning.

If I think about how I have learnt the skill of video and photography: much of it has been ‘self learning’ through a  mixture of ‘hands on’ trial and error (this is the ‘activist‘ in me) the use of online communities such as expert forums, blogs, twitter, online video and then interacting with other individuals via phone, email etc to ask specific questions, share my thinking and find solutions to my problems.  From this I notice that my own learning improves rapidly, but that by communicating with others, the collective wisdom increases.

It is through dialogue and conversation with others, with the help of communication tools such as those provided through social media, that we learn to learn and learn to innovate.  So learning is really about communicating through conversation and dialogue.  And communication, applied in this way, can boost organisational learning and group collective wisdom; and be a source of innovation.

Productive dialogue and conversation within organisations can increase the organisation’s knowledge capital and increase competitive advantage through learning and innovation. But much of organisational communication and conversation is not productive.  Here are some of the common blocks to learning through dialogue and conversation:

1. Too much opinion stating – people attempt to influence others to their way of thinking rather than understand others point of view
2. Defensiveness to having one’s point of view challenged – being too attached to our opinions and not willing to stay open and curious to others’
3. Assumptions and conclusions – rather than focusing on fact, we tend to be blind to missing data and easily make conclusions and assumptions. This leads to a failure to separate fact from fiction.
4. Lack of reflection in action – not many people have yet developed the ability to reflect on one’s thinking in the midst of action (a great aid to improved dialogue)
5. Poor use and understanding of the deep vs. surface structure of language – ie deletions, generalisations, distortions etc that we all make in everyday conversation (heavily related to 3) above)
6. Lack of good questioning and listening skills – to elicit inquiry of other’s perspectives. 
7. Lack of deep curiosity about others views and opinions – especially when they are different to ours.