Learning How to Learn

In an era of endless disruption, learning is an organization’s only sustainable competitive advantage.

Willie Pietersen

 

https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/articles/ideas-work/learning-how-learn?utm_source=execed&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=native

Very interesting article….

In a 1997 Harvard Business Review article with the propitious title, “The Living Company,” Arie de Geus declared: “In the future, the ability to learn faster than competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.”

Of course, change has always been with us. The list of corporate casualties is a long one: Kodak, General Motors, Sears Roebuck, US Steel, Borders, Pan Am, to name a few. But they represented a slow descent to the bottom. Today’s digital environment brings sudden revolutions that can change the rules of success almost overnight. Witness the rapid demise of Nokia and Blackberry, two giants of the smartphone industry, in the wake of the 2007 launch of the iPhone.

“Welcome to the Exponential Age,” as Robert Goldman, chairman of the International Medical Commission, once said….

… the following five precepts have proven to be powerful drivers of organizational learning.

Define what to learn

Learning is a demanding pursuit. The human brain typically comprises about two percent of our body weight, but consumes roughly 20 percent of our metabolic energy — more than any other organ. There are many ways to deploy that energy. To be strategic, organizational leaders must direct intellectual resources toward the right goals through a process of guided learning.

By far the most advantageous learning is outside-in. This means incessantly honing practices to achieve a superior understanding of the external environment before looking inward

Learning is a journey, not an event.”

In too many companies, learning is treated as a seasonal occupation, something that is given its due at strategy time, then brushed aside as they turn their attention back to operational matters. But change doesn’t stop on the outside, so no company can afford to stop learning on the inside.

Questions are more important than answers

Learning is engendered by asking the right questions. Most advances in knowledge through history have stemmed from a searching question dauntlessly pursued. In fact, producing answers without the right questions can be downright dangerous. As noted by the eleventh-century poet and philosopher, Solomon Gabirol, “A wise man’s questions contain half the answer.”

Socrates, as we know, was the great exponent of learning through questions. His method was revolutionary. Before him, learning was mainly about mastering the art of rhetoric — demonstrating knowledge by making impressive speeches. Socrates turned this method inside out.

Learning from mistakes

Decision making is not the pursuit of certainty; it is about choosing actions in the face of uncertainty. It involves taking risks. In today’s turbulent environment, outcomes are harder to predict than ever before, and the chances of being wrong are rising. Nevertheless, unless organizations are prepared to take risks, they cannot expect to reap rewards.

Faced with this challenge, many CEOs urge their employees to take “prudent risks.” And failures are often punished, creating a culture of risk aversion.

Getting away from the urgent to think about the important

In the words of futurist Paul Saffo, “Our dilemma is the growing gap between the volume of information and our ability to make sense of it.” Our problems accumulate at a rapid pace. How can we make creative decisions in such an intense environment?

The remedy lies in understanding how our brain works. The evidence is clear. When we have been hammering away at a problem, the secret is to not go on hammering; it is to withdraw and change our mental state.

Nikola Tesla is famous for inventing the induction motor, which can run on alternating electric current without rapidly burning out. But it was a huge struggle getting there. Tesla slaved obsessively for years with countless designs but was stymied and gave up in despair. Some months later, while walking in a Budapest park, the answer flew into his head unbidden. In that unexpected instant, the tremendous industrial value of alternating current was unlocked.

This could never have happened without his prior mental engagement — there is no substitute for hard work — but the breakthrough came when a different set of stimuli opened his mind.