ENEMIES TO LEARNING... WHY SOME MANAGERS JUST WON'T LEARN

We all know we need to learn to remain viable. As Ray Stata of analog Devices has said, "The rate at which organizations learn may become the only sustainable source of competitive advantage." Over the long run, superior performance depends on superior learning. If anything, the need for understanding how organizations learn and how we can accelerate that learning is greater today than ever before. In an increasingly dynamic, interdependent and unpredictable world, it is no longer possible for anyone to "figure it all out at the top." The old model, "the top thinks and the local acts," must now give way to integrating thinking and acting at all levels. "The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of the people in his or her organization, " according to former Citibank CEO Walter Wriston, "is going to blow the competition away."

Many young companies work feverishly to "get things out the door", with little time spent on the important question, "what are we learning here". There is a cost for focusing on production to the exclusion of learning and building a learning organization. Your organization can be very different from other well-intentioned business units by declaring learning to be as critical to your culture as is production.

In our last letter we noted that many well-intentioned, bright, hard-working managers ended up being demoted or fired. We suggested that often, when they are promoted, they do not notice that additional skills and competencies might be needed to succeed. This condition might be a result of what we call "management blindness", the failure to know the things we don't know we don't know. We claim that management blindness is an enemy to learning, that is, it acts to prevent us from seeing what we need to learn if we are to succeed.

Let's take a quick look at some other enemies to learning, then see why these are important to recognize in our work with others.

Complacency or arrogance is another block to learning. Related to management blindness, complacency reveals itself by a lack of need for learning or improvement in managerial ability. The manager does not see a breakdown or opportunity, thus there is no need to address his or her skill set. Often the complacent/arrogant person says or thinks, "I know this already."

John is an energetic young CEO who has many strong competencies. Yet, he is weak in the area of building his management team. Everyone but John feels the need to have the team work in a smooth, coordinated collaborative manner however this is not happening. Instead, managers are carrying out their various responsibilities on their own, causing numerous problems. When managers complain that they are not getting the support they need from other managers, he indicates they need to have a meeting. However, John apparently unaware of the seriousness of the breakdown, fails to set up a meeting to address his managers issues.

Arrogance can also stem from confusing opinions with knowing. Knowing is the ability to take effective action in a given area. John has a strong opinion about managers and how they should work together but he has demonstrated he does not know how to take action that would alleviate the stress and concern of his managers. John believes the managers should sort everything out by themselves and not need a "boss" to help them in the process. His strong opinion has his managers locked into an unworkable situation, with no relief in sight. John feels that he is right, thus there is no room to confront him or open up a conversation with him to support his managers.

Complacency, a failure to take appropriate action, can also be the result of a manager confusing incompetence in an area with "stupidity"- then declaring he or she cannot learn in this area. Rather than sharing this with someone who might help them learn how to deal with a given situation, they keep to themselves. Thus, they fail to grow.

Jim, a rather dour individual, felt he just could not learn how to be more friendly with his executive staff. He had decided his demeanor was genetic, thus non-alterable. He felt stupid and incompetent in the soft skill areas of management, deciding he could never change. When it was pointed out to him that he could in fact change certain behaviors, he resolutely followed the coaches' suggestions and quickly found he was becoming more effective in his daily interactions.

Arrogance can also show up in cultures in which it is extremely important to "look good". Fear of revealing that you do not know something, that you won't "look good", acts to suppress the natural desire to learn. These cultures unwittingly hinder an individuals desire to learn.

Another enemy to learning happens when companies fail to allocate time for learning or neglect to plan for learning activities (management training, debriefings, etc.). Completing work takes all the time. "Get it out the door" is the underlying imperative and for the most part this is understandable, given the nature of some industries. There is a hidden cost, for example, the failure to grow managers as they produce typically leads to severe breakdowns as the company grows.

An assignment: Take a look around your work environment and observe situations in which an opportunity to learn something shows up, but is rejected or missed. Make assessments about that situation, for example, "What could have been learned in that situation?" "How might we have benefitted from exploring that situation?" If you're up to it, ask your staff or someone you trust to point out situations in which you have ignored opportunities to learn and grow.

In our next letter we will explore the Defender, a very interesting construct. Till then---- get back to work and stop wasting your precious time learning anything!