In the past, when leaders have approached the subject of learning in order to bring about organizational change, they have pointed to the Human Resources department and said, “let them do it!”

The Human Resources professionals have known all along that “our leaders must do it!” Perhaps, you are beginning to smell a wisp of that popular Old Brain cologne, Blame.

Organizational development best practices have for years focused on learning to learn and have not had the impact we desire. Let’s investigate for a moment…

What if, in order to bring about critical organizational change, something about learning is true that we are not using well?

Several things come to mind when thinking about learning and real change:

       Responsibility for learning would be fluid and multi-faceted, with many people responsible.
       People would pursue learning on their own.
       People would trust others to help and support their learning.
       A general understanding across the organization would be that continuous learning feeds business results.

How does the learning process work now in most organizations?

Big or small, there are some similarities in how we think about learning.

       First, hiring is aimed at getting the “complete deal” in the door.

We want technical skills, we want people who play well with others (social sensitivity), and we want critical thinkers. We focus our hiring efforts in narrowing down the vast numbers of resumes to The One Person who fits this bill.
       Then, we expect to turn this person free to Do Their Job.

Sure, some of us put a bit of effort into the orientation process so that the new person can get off to a warm start. But in the end, we have an expectation that in fairly short order, he’s up and running from a performance perspective.
       We do not expect this employee to be perfect - we are willing to help when he stumbles - for a while.

Especially, if he is responsive to our help and doesn’t stumble over the same protruding object repeatedly, we continue to provide help.
       If the employee does a good job, we are happy.

If he does not do a good job, we are unhappy. In either case, we want to hold this person accountable for doing his job in a consistent fashion, typically within a dynamic environment.

If we continue with this model, nothing in our business results is going to change dramatically. We might have a good year, we might grow some, but over time, things will pretty much reflect how they’ve always been.

What do we do?

First, we ask that you imagine a different kind of organization. One where people start out performing well, understand how to be successful going forward, and support each other’s success.

This is a far cry from our current state, as a rule…. so, talk about organizational change! Here is an undertaking of serious proportions!

If you buy the concept, here are some things you can do immediately and have an impact:

       Change your hiring perspective.

Hire for the whole person, who has aspirations, career goals, strong skills, emotional baggage, and dreams of greatness in something.

This requires that you know your organization and what you are looking for well enough to see how this person’s package lines up with a realistic view of your package - the organizational environment.

This knowledge on your part includes having a clear “path” for success over the years you would like to keep this employee (a) in this position and (b) with your company.
       Get serious about learning for yourself.

If you want other people to be serious about developing themselves and keeping “learning” as a continuous life process, model it for them.

Demonstrate the slow, incremental and painful process of real change - allow people to see you struggle, stumble, and succeed.

Show how listening plays in the learning process. The more you try to look smart, the more you diminish the idea of learning! Try, instead, to look as if you care enough about what is going on that you will both apply what you currently know and learn what you need to know to move forward.

Start here, and invite others in your organization to begin here as well. It has been said many times - every journey starts with a first step - yours.

By Diane Marentette and Richard Trafton, Ph.D., authors of “A New Brain for Business” and founders of The New Brain for Business Institute, www.newbrainforbusiness.com, where they translate good science into good business. For more information, please write to us at info@newbrainforbusiness.com.