I was recently thinking about the process of learning and how applicable this has become to my work. In my opinion, an early and still successful explanation of the way we learn comes from Bloom during the 1950s. For those not familiar, Bloom’s Taxonomy identifies three domains of learning, each of which are divided into progressive tiers. The domain I deal with most frequently is the Cognitive. In my work, I continually find myself educating both potential and existing clients, to help them achieve Internet Integration, which requires a high level of cognitive learning on their part.

Transitioning from eCommerce to eBusiness, via Internet Integration, essentially grows the required ‘height’ and ‘width’ of the Cognitive Domain, by challenging the student (in my case, business personnel) to incorporate many different sources of information. Not only must they contend with the frontend (user) and backend (technical) aspects of the Internet, but also other (offline) marketing, economic and financial components, distribution and customer management systems, and their own internal business processes.

Too often we see a breakdown at the very early stages of Knowledge and Comprehension, due to information overload. Furthermore, the sheer amount of information leaves open many opportunities for misunderstanding, which can cause more serious problems as they move upwards towards Application.

Likewise, during Application and Analysis, there is a high likelihood of misjudgment due to data paralysis or siloed decision-making. For years, while performing eCommerce optimization, I have seen these failure points. One friend recently told me that his agency ‘reads’ statistics to him during monthly meetings; this is a classic example of a misapplication of knowledge.

I rarely see businesses reach the Synthesis and Evaluation stages, during which it is expected that the learner take the knowledge they have gained and applied, and proceed to add to, adapt and/or innovate. Only at the Evaluation stage can a true ‘Performance Framework’ be activated, and eBusiness be achieved. I see this stage as the merging of the creative and the business mind (or the synthesis of the artist and the economist.)

The Performance Framework is the centerpiece of Internet Integration, establishing the means and methods for an efficient self-auditing, performance-driven business model. In order to achieve this, however, we must respect this taxonomy of learning, and avoid these common pitfalls I have outlined.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 15th, 2010 at 11:19 am and is filed under Blog, Management Learning, Performance Frameworks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.