ABSTRACT
Even outside the realm of start-ups, there are many features of more traditional organizations that make it difficult for people to draw lessons from experience. Learning often comes from an error detection and correction process, but in many organizations, admitting to mistake can get a person in trouble. Returning to the health care industry for another example, although a person might consider hand washing a requisite duty for hospital employees, especially for nurses and doctors assigned to treating patients, this requirement is not always practiced. In an effort to find new ways to ensure that its employees routinely washed their hands, Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital conducted an experiment. Philosophers of science have explored many ways of arriving at knowledge. The most common source of knowledge for most of people is personal experience. Most people tend to believe information they acquire by interacting with other people and world at large and to conclude that their experience reflects truth.
