When self-awareness hits home

I was positively surprised in a team Action Learning session some time ago. Two very high-potentials, extremely sharp and well-spoken, contributed heavily in the first half of the session. Not to say they pretty much monopolized the discussion. Their peers sat and nodded most of the time. But then again, their contributions were really top notch.

As the session progressed, and the Action Learning coach invited the team members to share their personal reflections and learning, both spoke out to say they "had to be more quiet" and "give more chance to others to participate". Now, that happens quite often. What happens more rarely though is that they actually changed their own habit without much prompting.

They were both more quiet but explicitly encouraged others to share. Even if they had some great ideas, they refrained from expressing them. They encouraged the entire team to contribute and share. The dynamic of the team changed from one with two dominant figures to that of a team working together.

During the reflections at the end of the session, one of the initially dominant ones shared a well-known quote, which was poignant because she had just demonstrated how to apply this wisdom, rather than just being able to rattle off the quote. "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

High-potentials are often those of who the organization thinks they are a level above the other, today and in the future. If this potential can be combined with a genuine self-awareness and actions to work on their own shortcomings, then you have in your hand a few gems. Rare but really valuable.

Learning meetings ... ?

I just read an article of one of my favorite authors in the latest issue of HBR. Michael Watkins is a very good resource when you are interested in career transitions and he is pretty much the expert in this little-researched area. In this article however, something caught my eye ... and makes me react.

Watkins explains that as a leader of a team, you should have three types of meetings. Strategic meetings to make the big decisions on business models, vision, strategy or organizational evolutions. Operational meetings to review forecasts, short term performance and adjusting plans. And finally, you should have "learning meetings". These meetings are "scheduled on an as-needed basis, often after crises or in response to emerging issues. They can also focus on team building."

Wow ... what a let-down ! Learning meetings ?!

So let me get this straight. There are meetings where we "do" stuff like operational things and strategy things. These are the doing meetings. And then when we do not do anything, and if we have some time on our hands, we can have a "learning" meeting to think and learn ... I strongly disagree with this view of what learning means and how it should be integrated in the way people work. My other favorite author and thinker - and father of Action Learning - Reg Revans says

"There is no learning without action and there is no action without learning"

and from what I seen in my experience, this is the only way to make learning a continuous and integral part of how to grow a team and a business.

If learning is something that is distinct from the "real" work that is being done ... it means you are relegating it to the back seat. The only way to really learn is to make learning part of every meeting, project, and activity.