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Social Learning Is a Human Superpower. AI Can Make It Better.
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Social Learning Is a Human Superpower. AI Can Make It Better.

Charikleia Kaffe, Martin Reeves and Adam Job
Boston Consulting Group, 2024
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Organizations that thrive in the face of uncertainty are those that can harness the power of collective intelligence, via “social learning.” The organizations with a competitive advantage in the future will be those that encourage an ethos of curiosity and experimentation, while constantly sharing new insights — derived from both humans and machines — throughout the organization. Gain insight into how to embrace social learning as an iterative process, while gaining tips on how to “supercharge” your capacity to learn and grow with artificial intelligence.

Summary

Organizations that hope to remain competitive must harness the power of social learning.

Social learning — the ability to learn and collaborate with others — is one of the biggest “superpowers” humans possess. Just as social learning gives humans an advantage as a species, it also helps companies distinguish themselves from their competition. However, as the pace of knowledge generation and obsolescence simultaneously increase, companies must acquire knowledge more quickly, increasing their rate of learning. When institutions embrace social learning, the insights individuals gain get scaled and institutionalized within your organization’s operational framework and knowledge base.

According to organizational theorist Ikujiro Nonaka, social learning occurs in an iterative five-step process:

  1. Notice and experiment — Individuals spot something “intriguing or unusual,” such as an anomaly, that sparks further investigation or experiments.
  2. Learn what works — The learner analyzes any insights that arise, comparing their ideas with existing perceptions and documenting their findings.

About the Authors

Charikleia Kaffe, Martin Reeves, and Adam Job are professionals with Boston Consulting Group.

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