Download SO, YOU WANT A “LEARNING ORGANIZATION,” DO YOU

SO, YOU WANT A “LEARNING ORGANIZATION,” DO YOU?
INTRODUCTION
Been hearing a lot about “learning organizations.” A brochure for a national tele-conference
crossed my desk this week and triggered some thinking about the subject.
In truth, there’s no such thing as a learning organization. There are, however, organizations filled
with learning individuals. The following Elephant Newsletter lays out a few thoughts on what
you and I can do to encourage individuals to learn.
Encouraging learning is a big topic, the Phoenix has several chapters filled with examples of how to
do it. I’ve come to realize that encouraging learning is more important than encouraging immediate
performance - since learning yields both short-term and long-term benefits, growing the capacity
for both higher current and future performance.
ELEPHANT NEWSLETTER
There’s lots of buzz these days about the “learning organization.” Everyone is looking to find a
“learning organization” to benchmark. Funny thing is no one seems to be able to locate the beast.
There have been a number of fleeting sightings, which like UFOs, seem to disappear in the bright
light of day.
Truth is: the “learning organization” doesn’t exist. Save your time, energy and dollars. The critter
is mythical. There’s no such thing as a “learning organization.” Organizations don’t learn.
People learn. You can have a collection of learners in an organization, but you can’t have a
collection of organizations that learn. Since organizations don’t learn, the question is, “How can
you help people learn?”
Here’s three ideas that have worked for me:
1) Get Serious About Earning Top Financial Returns by Investing in Learning.
Ask yourself, “Are we investing sufficiently in learning to generate the growth and return we need?”
There’s a correlation between investments in learning and shareholder returns. Investments in
training and development were the single best predictor of shareholder return, three to five years
down the road. The editors of Money magazine hit the nail on the head in their March, 1996,
editorial: “Investors should stop chasing after companies that are saving money by laying off
workers and start switching to firms that spend money training their employees. Those who invest in
learning will be tomorrow’s winners.”
For example: worked with a supermarket chain that invests 5% of their gross revenue in employee
training and education. Two unique characteristics of this organization: each one of their 54 stores
carries a personalized-to-that-location merchandise inventory, and they guarantee that no check-out
line will have more than two customers, because they guarantee that “three is free” - in other
words, the third person in any check-out line gets his/her groceries free.
Imagine being able to know how to discover what customers in each location really want to buy and
develop the knowledge to be able to anticipate customer flow demands so accurately that there’s
never more than two people in any check-out line. Thought about that last point as I spent
twenty-five minutes in the check-out line at my local supermarket last week! No wonder this
innovative chain’s sales per square foot are double -- and their margins triple -- their nearest
competitor.
2) Build On-The-Job Learning Experiences.
Learning is not about sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture (no matter how entertaining).
The best learning occurs on the job between a coach/mentor, and a person with a burning desire to
master a specific skill, behavior or thought process. Effective learners don’t just show up to learn
“something,” because their boss/ their mother/ their friend thought it would be good for them. They
show up to learn because they know that their life/ livelihood/ reputation/ status/ “face” depends on
it.
Recently visited several locations in a new company I’m working with. The site manager decided
that his group needed to improve their teamwork. So he asked his HR Manager to arrange for a
teamwork training session. The HR Manager canvassed his files and arranged for a local consultant
to come in and offer a series of four teamwork training meetings. He then put out a sign up sheet and
got twenty-two sign-ups (out of 1,400 people at the location). Typical top down “we know what
training you need.”
Instead, I grazed around the organization asking people, “What do you need to do your job better?
Is it a tool? Is it training? What kind of training, in what?” Not surprisingly, “team work” was
not high on the list of frequently mentioned topics. For instance, asked the production control
manager what he needed to achieve 100 percent guaranteed correct output while cutting turnaround
time from 48 to 24 hours. “Really need an MRP system,” he said. “Don’t care if it’s a local system
that doesn’t connect up with our central computer. Just need something to do a better job of
moving parts through our process. Then, as soon as I get that system up and running, let me have a
day with every associate that does the “check out” so I can show him or her what the system can do
for them. They’ll tell me what else they need to know and what processes we need to change.”
Now there’s a real learning proposal. Listen to how education is focused around doing a better job
for customers. Listen to how it’s all driven from the associate out. Listen to how learning
involves specific on-the-job activities. No wonder that center is the world-class gold standard in its
field.
3) Become a Coach/Vehicle for Other People’s Learning.
“Coach” is an old French word meaning “a vehicle to transport people from one place to another.”
In organizations, a coach helps a person move from one capability or emotional/psychological/
physical “place” to another - from one skill/ performance level to another. Coaches perform a very
valuable function: they help people grow. Whether it’s in a family, a friendship, a neighborhood, a
business or a church, great leaders are great coaches that help ordinary people do extraordinary
things. Yesterday’s leader asked how he or she could best exploit and mine the employee’s abilities
for the organization’s gain. Today’s coach asks “How can I help this person learn to become more
valuable to himself/herself -- as well as all of us?”
Arm Wrestling for Dimes and Learning: A Great Coach at Work.
Watched a world class coach at work recently. He’s pastor of a local church and I watched him
practice his craft at a Youth Group meeting. He convinced a particularly sullen and withdrawn
teenager to assist him in an activity.
“Okay, folks,” he began. “Want to demonstrate an important lesson. I’ve asked Billy to help me,
since I need a really strong guy and we all know how strong Billy is. We’re going to do a little arm
wrestling. The rules are very simple. We’ll wrestle for about five minutes. Now Billy, I want you
to know that I can’t afford to lose in front of this crowd.” He glared at Billy with the most stern
“I’m-going-to-win-this-game” face he could muster.
The two assumed their clasped hands positions around the table, staring at each other. Billy easily
won the first round in nothing flat, as the Reverend didn’t offer any resistance. Billy looked
surprised.
“Guess you won that one,” the Reverend said, moving their hands to the initial clasped hands
position. “Billy, forgot to tell you that your dad promised a dime a win,” He then offered initial
resistance, but went limp again after a few seconds and Billy won again. “Guess that’s two dimes
for you,” he said moving their hands to the original upright position. This time the Reverend
offered strong resistance. Billy struggled for an instance, then a smile crossed his face and his hand
went limp.
“That’s right, Billy,” the Reverend said smiling. “Now you’ve caught on. Let’s both get lots of
dimes. Hey, John,” he said calling to Billy’s father in the back, “Hope you brought a stash of cash
tonight.” With that both Billy and the Reverend quickly moved their clasped hands back and forth
in perfect unison. The audience broke out in laughter and applauded.
“Now Billy,” the Reverend asked, “What’s the lesson here?”
“Cooperating wins me more dimes. Dad you owe me two and a half bucks.”
“Where else can you apply this lesson,” the Reverend asked.
“On the team (Billy plays high school football), in school, and, I guess,” Billy said hesitatingly,
“also with my family.”
Note what this great coach did to teach this important lesson.
He engaged Billy as a coequal player, praising him for his capabilities.
He set up the expectations for Billy’s success and made him the center of attention.
He created a learn-by- doing learning situation. His learning situation also helped the
observers learn as well, though the doer (Billy) always learns more.
He positively reinforced Billy with smiles and verbal acknowledgment.
He asked questions so that Billy (the learner) developed the answer, not the coach.
Bottom line: Billy learned a valuable life lesson and moved to a higher plane of understanding.
Bottom line for us “captains of industry:” want a “learning organization” (or rather an organization
of learning people)? Invest those dollars and yourself in on-the-job learning activities and
becoming a better coach. Simple. Straightforward. Doable.
Let’s get on with it!