New Learning: Emergence can also be viewed from the perspective of new forms of learning that are demanded when new elements are added to an existing condition. We return to Michael Polanyi, who proposed that all significant learning requires the integration of something new with an existing body of knowledge. The form in which this new learning takes place can never be fully specified for this form itself would be new and would have to be integrated with what already exists—thus necessitating yet another level of learning and integration.
Unfortunately, most of the work on emergence and learning concerns the emergence of new learning in an established setting rather than the learning that must occur when there is emergence in the setting—producing a new set of challenges. In turning to the insights offered by Polanyi, we would have to push back on those who advocate emergent learning.
We would suggest that the “rules” and “procedures” of emergent learning will need to be integrated with the content of that which is being generated via this process. This new integration of process and content requires a higher level of learning—and the potential of an emergence in the setting. It might even be when the emergent learning process is being fumbled or when participants rebel against this process that “real” learning occurs—filled with surprise, a whole lot of dithering, and eventually a new form and new insights.
Reflective Inquiry: The central question at this point becomes: how do we learn in the midst of surprise, dithering and new forms? Polanyi would suggest that there is no easy answer—for any answer we might offer would have to be newly integrated with the challenging, emergent setting we now face or even live in. Keeping Polanyi’s cautionary note in mind, we can suggest that there are processes of reflective inquiry which can be thoughtfully engaged when confronting (and seeking to lead) in an emergent setting.
First introduced by Donald Schön in The Reflective Practitioner (Schön, 1983) reflective inquiry concerns the ability to consider actions to be taken based on critical consideration of one’s own attitudes, perspectives and existing practice. Along with this self-critical practice comes flexibility (agility) and continuous adaptation to the changing conditions that come with VUCA-Plus—and emergence. It is not enough to learn from one’s experiences; one must also learn about the very process of learning from one’s experiences.
In other words, experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning; deliberate reflection on experience is essential. Together with his colleague, Chris Argyris, Schön would differentiate between the learning from a specific experience (what they labeled “single-loop learning”) and the learning that takes place regarding the learning from multiple experiences (“double-loop learning’) (Argyris and Schön, 1974; Argyris, 2001). Effective reflective inquiry is based on this second order (Double loop) learning.
