Forgetting and Learning

While watching a PBS program on the "Botany of Desire" today, I was reminded of how important forgetting is in learning.

The program discusses THC (the psycho-active chemical in cannabis), a neurotransmitter with a similar shape (anandamide), and the importance of being able to forget (one effect of both chemicals) to avoid being paralyzed by fear or overwhelmed with contextually irrelevant data. A summary is available at "Cannabis, Learning, and The Botany of Desire" (pp. 14-ff).

Karl Weick, in his classic "The Social Psychology of Organizing", discusses the same issue as it relates to organizations. One section addresses the importance (and difficulty) of organizational "forgetting." In it he quotes a Journal of Applied Behavioral Science article discussing Albert Speer's (Hitler's minister of armaments) use of Allied bombing raids to enable organizational forgetting:

"These raids were 'helpful,' according to Speer, because they destroyed the filing facilities, those containers of paper which enable organizations to establish traditions, procedures, and so on, which are mainstays of bureaucracy. Speer was so enamored with the results of these bombing raids that, upon learning of the destruction of his ministry in the Allied air raid of November 22, 1943, he commented: 'Although we have been fortunate in that large parts of the current files of the Ministry have been burned and so relieved us for a time of useless ballast, we cannot really expect that such events will continually introduce the necessary fresh air into our work' (Singer and Wooten 1976, pp. 86-86).”

Organizational learning currently focuses on acquiring, structuring, storing, and retrieving information. As the volume of information explodes and hyperconnectivity moves many decision contexts into the complex domain, forgetting may need to be added as a core learning competency.