Healthcare professionals collaboratively building a bridge of knowledge and empathy.

Unlock Team Potential: How 'Learning to Learn' Transforms Integrated Care

Nico Varela in Health & Wellness November 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover the relational model that empowers healthcare teams, enhances collaboration, and drives better patient outcomes."

The healthcare sector is undergoing massive changes that are affecting the structure of healthcare organizations as well as how healthcare professionals do their jobs. Healthcare systems are attempting to provide integrated care, and this requires organizational restructuring. Unfortunately, integration efforts often fail to produce positive outcomes. However, reframing integration as a learning process will lead to more success. The best way to fuel learning is through knowledge exchange between diverse professional and organizational communities.

By concentrating on the social and cognitive factors that affect learning in complex adaptive systems, healthcare organizations can promote learning behaviors and create an environment where collaboration is improved. The ability to learn how to learn is key. This will shape the degree to which various professional groups can successfully share knowledge and self-organize to deliver integrated care.

This article examines how a “Learning to Learn” (L2L) approach can foster a relational and transformational model of learning, ultimately leading to improved integrated care delivery. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics between individual and collective learning behaviors in overcoming barriers to knowledge exchange and synthesis.

Why Traditional Approaches to Integrated Care Fall Short

Healthcare professionals collaboratively building a bridge of knowledge and empathy.

Many traditional models conceptualize integration using a linear structure-process-outcomes framework. These approaches often overlook the dynamic complexity of integration as a self-organizing phenomenon where collective learning emerges organically, not through rigid, pre-defined processes. In complex systems, the capacity to learn must be cultivated because everything does not happen by design. Collective action related to integration depends on shared learning within the context of established values, structures, and social interactions.

A relational approach emphasizes that learning and change stem from interrelations, not simply from top-down policies or reorganization efforts. This perspective underscores the importance of integrating different types of knowledge to establish shared meaning. Often, healthcare settings grapple with conflicting paradigms rooted in varied professional experiences and knowledge. These differences can create social and cognitive barriers, hindering effective knowledge transfer.

Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS): CAS theory views organizations as open systems with diverse, interacting agents. Patterns of interaction drive system behavior, leading to unpredictable outcomes.
Cultural-Historical Understanding: This perspective highlights how an individual’s evolving relationship with their environment shapes new 'consciousness' and alters their reality.
CAS and Learning: Recent studies in integration, applying a CAS lens, suggest that inter-departmental processes are better understood as managing patient trajectories within flexible boundaries.

Furthermore, command-and-control management styles can stifle self-organization within healthcare systems. Integrating diverse knowledge types is crucial for establishing a shared understanding. Health and social care often struggle with conflicting professional paradigms. Strong social and cognitive barriers exist between professional groups and organizations, making knowledge transfer difficult. Professionals may learn to achieve goals within their existing paradigms, disregarding external knowledge, which results in cognitive disorder and ambiguity.

Transforming Healthcare Through Relational Learning

To effectively implement the L2L behaviors and conditions, healthcare organizations must transform into settings that support continuous learning and adaptation. By shifting the focus from rigid design principles to fostering social and relational knowledge exchange within networks, healthcare can become more adaptive, innovative, and ultimately, more effective in delivering integrated care.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.3390/admsci3020009, Alternate LINK

Title: Learning To Learn: Towards A Relational And Transformational Model Of Learning For Improved Integrated Care Delivery

Subject: General Business, Management and Accounting

Journal: Administrative Sciences

Publisher: MDPI AG

Authors: Peter Tsasis, Jenna Evans, Linda Rush, John Diamond

Published: 2013-06-21

Everything You Need To Know

What is the core concept that drives better patient outcomes in integrated care, according to the text?

The 'Learning to Learn' (L2L) model is the core concept that drives better patient outcomes. It fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and self-organization within healthcare teams. By focusing on how teams learn and adapt, the L2L approach helps overcome barriers to knowledge exchange and synthesis, leading to improved integrated care delivery. This relational model emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics between individual and collective learning behaviors.

How does the 'Learning to Learn' model differ from traditional approaches to integrated care?

Traditional approaches often use a linear structure-process-outcomes framework, overlooking the dynamic complexity of integration. In contrast, the L2L model views integration as a self-organizing phenomenon where collective learning emerges organically. It emphasizes relational aspects, focusing on how interrelations drive learning and change, rather than solely relying on top-down policies or reorganization. This relational approach fosters social and relational knowledge exchange within networks.

What are the key challenges in integrating diverse knowledge types within healthcare settings, and how does L2L address them?

Healthcare settings often face conflicting paradigms due to varied professional experiences. This creates social and cognitive barriers, hindering effective knowledge transfer. The L2L model addresses this by emphasizing the importance of integrating different types of knowledge to establish shared meaning. By fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation, the L2L approach helps bridge these gaps, enabling healthcare professionals to learn from each other, thereby promoting knowledge exchange and collaboration.

How does the application of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory help improve integrated care?

CAS theory views organizations as open systems with diverse, interacting agents. By applying a CAS lens, inter-departmental processes are better understood as managing patient trajectories within flexible boundaries. CAS theory highlights that collective action related to integration depends on shared learning within the context of established values, structures, and social interactions, emphasizing the need for adaptability and self-organization rather than rigid, pre-defined processes. This perspective helps organizations understand the dynamics of knowledge sharing within their complex systems.

What are the practical implications of transforming healthcare organizations to support continuous learning and adaptation, and what role does the 'Learning to Learn' approach play?

To effectively implement L2L behaviors, healthcare organizations must transform into settings that support continuous learning and adaptation. This involves shifting the focus from rigid design principles to fostering social and relational knowledge exchange within networks. The L2L approach facilitates this transformation by emphasizing the dynamics between individual and collective learning behaviors. This helps overcome barriers to knowledge exchange and synthesis, ultimately making healthcare more adaptive, innovative, and effective in delivering integrated care. It encourages a collaborative environment where professionals are continuously learning and adapting to improve patient outcomes.