PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - J G March
AU  - L S Sproull
AU  - M Tamuz
TI  - Learning from samples of one or fewer
AID  - 10.1136/qhc.12.6.465
DP  - 2003 Dec 01
TA  - Quality and Safety in Health Care
PG  - 465--471
VI  - 12
IP  - 6
4099  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/12/6/465.short
4100  - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/12/6/465.full
SO  - Qual Saf Health Care2003 Dec 01; 12
AB  - Organizations learn from experience. Sometimes, however, history is not generous with experience. We explore how organizations convert infrequent events into interpretations of history, and how they balance the need to achieve agreement on interpretations with the need to interpret history correctly. We ask what methods are used, what problems are involved, and what improvements might be made. Although the methods we observe are not guaranteed to lead to consistent agreement on interpretations, valid knowledge, improved organizational performance, or organizational survival, they provide possible insights into the possibilities for and problems of learning from fragments of history.