It would seem that converting apprehension to appreciation, savoring Awe, and anticipating Flow are moments of feeling-learning. We don’t even have to launch our kayak to begin the process of learning. At the moment when we have decided to engage the turbulent environment of the river, important lessons are available regarding our courage, resilience—and potential risk-aversion.
There is additional learning. Peter Vaill mentions several kinds of learning occurring in the whitewater world. In setting the frame for presenting these forms of learning, I turn to the fundamental insights regarding learning offered by Jean Piaget, the noted Swiss biologist and observant child psychologist. Piaget (2001) distinguishes between the assimilating and accommodating dimensions of all significant learning. Piaget proposed two sides to every coin of significant learning. One side of the coin is Assimilation. As a learner, I must have an existing frame of reference for any new experience. Without this frame, I will not be able to make any meaning of the new experience or will label it and absorb it inaccurately. The other side of the coin is Accommodation. I must somehow adjust what I now know or believe, given the new experience. If nothing changes, then nothing is learned.
When turning apprehension about the whitewater world into an opportunity for new learning, I must first do some assimilating. I must find a way to move beyond just Awe regarding the turbulent world face. I must somehow make this world of whitewater make some “sense.” There are three actions I might take. First, I can appreciate what I already know and what I have done in other whitewater worlds.
Second, I can remain clear, as Vail (1996, pp. 187-188), proposes, about mission and purpose. Why am I on the river? Why the ocean? And why am I seeking to learn something new? Why am I traveling on the river or leaping into the sea? I am leaving firm land “on behalf of” something of importance. I am reminded of the Tarot card of the Charioteer. He is traveling forward–yet carrying his chariot with him. At a more mundane level, it is like a snail carrying its shell while moving through its environment. My mission and purpose are the chariot and shell.
Third, I launch my kayak on the turbulent river or face my board toward the Surf, knowing that I will make mistakes. I must frequently correct myself. The capacity to correct oneself is one of the reasons to embark on the journey in a kayak rather than a less “agile” canoe or skiff. Vaill (1996, p. 82) submits that a successful reflective learner will view the learning process as “continual experimentation rather than a system that gives the learner only one or two chances to ‘get it right’.’”
With this dynamic process must come some safety and security. We must balance the challenge with adequate support (Sanford, 1980). No one is a perfect navigator of whitewater environments. A safe place (sanctuary) proves valuable when engaging in Vaill’s “continual experimentation.” I suggest that support is found within one’s own Head and Heart when reflecting on the painful moments when we fail to “get it right.”
As Argyris and Schön (1978) often emphasized, one is successful in facing challenging times not by avoiding mistakes, but instead by learning from these mistakes and avoiding the same mistakes a second or third time. Ongoing organizational learning is based on this tolerance of mistakes but intolerance of repeated mistakes. The term “action research” is often used to describe the tight feedback-based process identified by Argyris and Schön. With the process of action research –and action learning in particular—in place, we are moving from assimilation to accommodation when adjusting to the mistakes that have been made.
