No time to learn ?

I often hear that managers (at any level) are so busy they have no time for organizational learning or learning in general. They are loaded with back-to-back meetings. Or visitors they have to take care of. Urgent events keep them busy. And of course emails, and reports, and more emails. When you talk about learning, they refer to the training program  that was fixed during last year's budget period and which is probably very similar to the one the year before. There really is no time left, not at the end of the day, nor the end of the month. There is simply no time. Someone told me recently that it seemed there were fewer and fewer hours in a day (I checked, there aren't).




Reg Revans curve on learning vs change

Learning does not mean studying or going to a training course in a hotel room. Training is about discovering the solutions or best practices for yesterday's problems. Learning is about using the experience that exists in a team, asking questions about the situation and reflecting on how actions should be taken in the new and changed environment. Learning allows your team to develop solutions for tomorrow's problems. Reg Revans said that if an organization can learn faster than the rate of change in its environment, it will prosper. If the organization learns slower than the rate of change, the organization will eventually collapse.

Everybody is aware that changes are happening faster and more intense than ever. Technology, social media or supply chain models change faster than in the past. In the past, when changes happened more slowly, the way teams learned allowed the organization to stay ahead and develop new business opportunities. When changes accelerate exponentially, these ways of learning no longer work.

The way a team learned in the past, can no longer sustain the organization. If we cannot learn faster and therefore grow with these changes, failure is ahead.

If you don't manage to learn, as an individual, or a team, or an organization, it's only a matter of time until you are overtaken by the changes around you. Maybe it is urgent to think about when you will make time to learn.


Blind(folded) trust ?

At a recent workshop in a hotel, a large corporate group next door was organizing a seminar. At the end of the seminar, there was a trust building exercise where participants were blindfolded and, using only the verbal instructions from their team members, were to finish an obstacle course. This was to symbolize how we should trust our team members to achieve the goals. Great fun of course and hearing from the excited shouting and laughter, the levels of trust were skyrocketing !

So then what happens the next day in the office ? Of course, participants will be sharing/posting/liking loads of pictures about the great seminar. But I mean, what will happen about trust ? Will people talk about the learnings from the trust building exercise, or more about the choice at the buffet ? Will they refer to the lessons from the blindfold exercise next time there is a conflict between departments ? Will they look back at the pictures when contradictory department goals lead to tensions ? Will there be even the slightest learning about trust that will help to move the team to the next level of performance ? You know the answer.

You don't need obstacle courses or blindfolds to build trust. Or a hotel and a trainer. In fact, creating these completely artificial circumstances are pretty much a guarantee that the link with the work situation is non-existing. Trust is created when people dialogue with each other. One on one or in small groups or in larger groups. At work. Asking questions, really listening to what others bring into the conversation, building on ideas and working on a project within a team. Addressing issues when they arise. It takes a bit of time, yet it is simple. We really make it complicated by pretending an out-of-work play will have any impact.

It's great to have fun once in a while. But if you count on blindfolds to develop trust in your team, you'll be tripping and falling flat on your face !