Learning in the Project System
Jon M. Quigley
While learning is associated with making errors in most situations learning from successes is commonly forgotten. Let us think about B.F. Skinner and positive reinforcement. Incremental and post-job reviews usually focus on the shortcomings of an activity and project. Instead, we must ask ourselves why we did better at the activity to understand how to capture it and make that success repeatable. This positive activity helps with motivation and shines a light on something done better than the last time.
When asking the questions above, we must capture the learning and how it relates to the organizational structure. For example, when we look at an error in one section of a process, do we only look at that part? Is the corrective action done with blinders? This is why we are looking to discuss systems thinking or understanding. We cannot look outside of our area without understanding the system. We treat this material at length in our book Continuous and Embedded Learning for Organizations (Shawn P Quigley and Jon M Quigley) found at Amazon.