Even Amid Social Distancing, Vicarious Learning Can Work

Main navigation Johns Hopkins Legacy Online programs Faculty Directory Experiential learning Career resources Alumni mentoring program Util Nav CTA CTA Breadcrumb Even Amid Social Distancing, ‘Vicarious Learning’ Can Work Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Assistant Professor Christopher Myers explains how we are able to proceed to be taught from the experiences of other folks during the social restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Vicarious studying” is a term for how we study from the experiences of others, particularly folks in our on a regular basis personal and professional lives. But can it achieve a time of masks, quarantining, and dealing from house? Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Assistant Professor Christopher Myers, who has made a analysis specialty of vicarious learning, explains in the following Q&A how its principles can prove efficient even amid the social-distancing necessities of COVID-19. The academic director of Executive Education at Carey, with joint school appointments within the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Myers has written a paper on vicarious learning during the COVID-19 disaster, recently revealed in Behavioral Science & Policy. He can also be among the many co-authors, together with Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Kathleen Sutcliffe, of a paper on resilient management within the face of the pandemic, in BMJ Leader. CHRISTOPHER MYERS: Vicarious learning refers to the strategy of studying from someone else’s expertise. This kind of learning is one thing we do on a regular basis in our personal and skilled lives â€" when we speak about “not reinventing the wheel” or “learning from others’ mistakes,” we are talking about reaping the advantages of vicarious learning. Even as kids, we learn so much vicariously: If we see our father or mother contact the hot stove and get a burn, we be taught from their experience that we shouldn’t contact the range (without having to experience the ache of a sizzling range first-hand). At work, we'd be taught vicariously from a colleague’s expertise on a similar task or project, or try to implement a new strategy primarily based on how an analogous strategy was rolled out at one other loca tion. MYERS: Learning vicariously (rather than by way of our own trial-and-error technique) is particularly essential when stakes are excessive and time is brief, and when there isn’t a clear, nicely-established “right answer” for how to respond. As the coronavirus crisis has unfolded, we’ve seen all of these elements â€" so it can be extremely helpful to learn from the lessons of others’ expertise with the virus. For occasion, we’ve seen efforts to learn and apply classes from different nations that encountered the virus earlier in the pandemic â€" with leaders around the world making an attempt to duplicate early successes and keep away from repeating the identical mistakes made elsewhere. MYERS: One of the challenges of vicarious studying is that it requires contact. To learn from someone else’s experience, you have to be uncovered to that have and see the way it turned out for the opposite individual. At work and at residence, this typically takes the form of obser vational studying (truly watching and witnessing another person’s experience “live”), however we will additionally study vicariously from stories or narratives of others’ experiences. When we ask colleagues for advice at work, as an example, they might tell us a narrative of a time they faced an analogous challenge and the way they handled it, so that we can be taught vicariously from their successes and mistakes, somewhat than “reinventing the wheel” on our personal. Unfortunately, the same precautions which are helping us curb the spread of the virus (corresponding to physical distancing and stay-at-residence orders) make these extra typical forms of vicarious studying tough. If we aren’t in the workplace, it’s onerous to look at a colleague’s expertise or stop by their desk to ask advice. This is the place important communication and social media have emerged as extraordinarily helpful platforms for connecting individuals to re-create these kinds of learning int eractions. For example, a lot of well being care professionals have been using Facebook groups and other digital communication instruments to share their experiences and spread greatest practices (or spread the word on what practices to keep away from). As we’ve all seen and experienced, these digital platforms usually are not always a perfect substitute for face-to-face interaction, but they'll preserve a number of learning benefits that may in any other case be misplaced amid physical distancing. And in sure circumstances, these platforms can amplify the benefits of vicarious studying by connecting a broader group than would normally be able to be taught from the teachings of somebody’s experience. For instance, in one Facebook group for robotic surgeons that I have studied in earlier analysis, we noticed that this group brought collectively surgeons from everywhere in the globe, allowing individuals to share their experiences â€" and get useful advice and suggestions â€" from a a lot wider group than they might have if they had been simply sharing experiences with these in their native hospital. MYERS: In my work, I focus a lot on well being care professionals’ learning, however I suppose in these turbulent times vicarious learning is essential across all professions. We are in largely uncharted waters in terms of many administration practices and enterprise leadership choices, and every new determination a pacesetter makes is in essence a small experiment in attempting to address the obstacles created by the pandemic. It would be an asset in all industries for as many people as possible to be taught the lessons of those experiments, so that we'd only have to make a nasty determination once (and share the data from it so that others can learn), rather than allowing leaders throughout industries and geographies to keep making the same dangerous selections that could possibly be avoided. “Digital platforms are not at all times an ideal substitute for face-to-face interplay, but they will protect numerous studying benefits that might in any other case be lost.” Christopher Myers, PhD MYERS: Despite these advantages of vicarious learning and the alternatives for harnessing digital communication instruments, coverage within the well being care industry has not quite caught as much as these new forms of studying. Many of the requirements and commonplace practices for health care professionals’ learning (such as continuing schooling necessities) still emphasize impartial, formal modes of learning. Particularly in terms of digital tools and technologies, the platforms and protections available for health professionals to be taught from each other on-line are still fairly limited. Having a user-friendly, reliable, and HIPAA-compliant platform for participating with other well being professionals on-line can be a great asset, as would coverage modifications to supply these on-line interactions with similar authorized protections tha t are afforded to in-person discussion and studying among well being professionals. We’ve seen fairly speedy coverage change in other elements of the well being trade in response to the pandemic (such because the rapid adoption of cost models for telehealth), and my hope is we will see related innovations in alternatives for vicarious learning amongst well being professionals. Christopher G. Myers, PhD (Management & Organizations, University of Michigan) is an Assistant Professor and Academic Director of Executive Education at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, with joint school appointments in the School of Medicine and Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality. His research explores questions of studying, growth, and innovation in organizations, in addition to how people be taught vicariously from others’ knowledge and experience at work, and he focuses particularly on learning in health care organizations and other knowledge-intensive industries. Posted one hundred International Drive