Exploring Measures to Promote Learning and Unlearning in Projects.

Abstract

Using a case study from the oil and gas sector, this paper attempts to identify the measures used by the project organization to foster a mindsett of learning and unlearning to improve project performance. The findings suggest that the focus was on two dimensions. Firstly, to facilitate knowledge seeking and knowledge sharing by encouraging the team members to recognize the dependency between tasks as well as encouraging team members to acknowledge own limitations. Secondly, by fostering a mindsett of unlearning by encouraging the teams to question the established truths and rules and to seek to identify new ways of doing things. Findings from this study may also suggest that the practice of setting common goals for performance improvements on regular basis is not only helpful in creating sense of purpose and unity, but it also creates more appreciation to the role of learning and unlearning in the project.