Evolutionary Learning in Strategy-Project Systems

Foreword

There is a saying at NASA that “the safest launch is no launch.” It is a cryptic, reality-based acknowledgment that you can never be certain when it comes to the complex factors involved in launching a rocket. There is an implicit message for objectivists who search for standards of perfection to align before agreeing about the suitability for action. The quote lends recognition that what may be desired in theory will not hold up in practice.

The tension between knowledge management and the learning of organizational lessons provides a similar bind. There is a noticeable contrast between objectivist theoretical epistemology of knowledge and a practice-based perspective (Hislop, 2013; Nicolini, 2011). Specifically, the latter is typically ...