Creating Cultures of Learning

Clear a quiet work space. Stick to a homework schedule. Set goals. Set boundaries. Do not bribe (except in emergencies).

Ellen Weinstein

And check out the classroom. Does Junior’s learning style match the new teacher’s approach? Or the school’s philosophy? Maybe the child isn’t “a good fit” for the school. via www.nytimes.com

As I read this I thought about Gary Harpst's insight that in order for organizations to sustain their operations they need to continuously grow. And in order to continuously grow their members need to continuously learn. They need to continuously learn new skills and new tools and learn anew their strengths and passions. That process of learning, when successful, creates a new source of solutions and leaders to face the next round of challenges faced as a result of an organization's successes. That process of learning, when successful, creates a culture of learning.

And that, a culture of learning, is a culture of innovation.

I also thought about  Steve Denning's 7 Principles of Innovation he shared in his book The Leader's Guide to Radical Management. #3 was Short iterations, short cycles. In his book he titles it Client-Driven Iterations. He wrote:

The idea was to use client-driven iterations to determine whether there was a market, define the service he would provide, and then implement it. He wanted to fail as quickly as possible, recover, and keep honing in on what customers really needed.

This reads like Steve is describing an iterative learning process. That parallels the iterative learning process which seems to be advocated by educational experts in the above NY Times article. Consider:

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time...

Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.

“What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.

Maybe, routine work, in a routine cubicled environment, with routine sets of feedbacks (minus the customer) is not the key to creating a culture of learning, a culture of innovation or a culture of leaders.

And testing's equivalent in business is akin to a customer's feedback. Did it meet their standards, their needs, their wants?

Regular testing, regular customer feedback, in short iterative cycles is akin to testing on a regular basis.

When students studied the same material twice, in back-to-back sessions, they did very well on a test given immediately afterward, then began to forget the material.

But if they studied the passage just once and did a practice test in the second session, they did very well on one test two days later, and another given a week later.

Now the article points out that these different approaches won't turn an A- student into a A+ student without the magic M: Motivation.

The same applies to members of an organization.

But if you create a culture of regular, iterative, successes based on regular, iterative, conversations or tests with customers...if you create an environment where every member knows they will learn and grow in the value they bring, in their abilities to reach their goals, in an environment where their learning/growth/development can be recognized...it seems you will have a culture of Motivation, as each member will find their own metrics to motivate themselves and each other.

This is, as you can see, an open thread. So, what do you think?

If you want to hear more about Gary Harpst's thoughts on creating a culture of learning and its impact on your organization's ability to continuously grow, you can listen here.

If you want to hear more about Steve Denning's 7 principles of innovation and its impact on your organization's ability to continuously grow, you can listen here.