Post 540 - Peter Drucker once told me, "There are only two profit activities in business: innovation and marketing. Everything else is expense." Drucker said his intellectual model was Walter Bagehot, the famous editor of The Economist. Like Bagehot, Drucker saw the tension between the need for continuity and the need for innovation and change as central to society and civilization. There are only three basic business strategies: Operational excellence (low cost models), Innovation, and Customization. That's it. Everything else is a derivative.
Andrew Hargadon, an expert in technology management, management of innovation, entrepreneurship and new product development at UC Davis Graduate School of Management, calls innovation “a phenomenon of networks connected by 'technology brokers' - people or organizations that link isolated groups and industries to integrate previously unrelated viewpoints and technologies to resolve new problems." This suggests that innovation occurs by bringing together different ways of looking at common and mundane ideas. For example, Gutenberg married two different tools - a coin stamping tool-and-die process, and a winepress - to come up with the printing press. New ideas come from having different perspectives and juxtaposing different theories. However, only innovation that depends on technical platforms or infrastructure that others lack will provide a sustainable source of competitive advantage. Little lasting advantage accrues today solely from developing clever technical applications.
According to Theodore Levitt, "Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things." Texaco provides a useful example. Worried about political obstacles to its overseas exploration plans in the late 1980s, Texaco began turning more of its attention to increasing production in its domestic fields. In 1992, Stephen Hadden, then a 40-year old petroleum engineer, was sent to the declining, 100-year old Kern River oilfield in California to help breathe new life into its operations. A minor miracle resulted: Production increased from 80,000 barrels a day and surpassed 100,000 by 1998. Production per worker surged from 150 barrels a day in 1992 to 250 barrels in 1995, and Texaco raised its estimates of recoverable oil at Kern River by 66 million barrels, good for another ten years of production.
The turnaround began when Hadden assembled a group of 25 engineers, geologists, technicians, field workers, and outside contractors, and put them through a nine-month brainstorming program where they developed proposals about ways to improve operations. He abolished the old lines of authority and replaced them with a team system, thus freeing the field workers from many traditional management restraints. As Hadden remembers, “We simply started a conversation with each other asking why we were where we were.” The brainstorming team met each morning to discuss problems and to develop new ways of dealing with them. As a result, employees were given new powers to act on their own, including freedom to communicate with other departments without management approval.
They also had unrestricted access to a new central computer system that stored data on all aspects of operations, including each well’s history and the location of underground rock formations. Information that previously took weeks to obtain could now be retrieved in minutes. The computer was also linked to Texaco’s research laboratories in Houston. Initially, the new approach resulted in mostly small improvements. But the daily meetings eventually led to innovations that revolutionized how oil was extracted as technicians introduced a new method of injecting lower-pressure, lower-heat steam into much larger sections of the underground layers of rock and sand. As a result, Kern River increased its recovery rate from 50% to 66%, and eventually push this to 80%. Hadden says his operating strategy was, “to stay out of the way and give people the resources they needed to get the job done.”
An OECD study of the Japanese automobile industry estimated that 60% of innovation in Japan came from the place of work, not from the universities or the research departments. To get this level of innovation, you must allow freedom. But to have a network, you have to have a certain amount of control. Also among the prerequisites for innovation, employees should have a sense of security and a sense of possibility.
Writer-director Brad Bird of Pixar says, “Involved people make for better innovation. Passionate involvement can make you happy, sometimes, and miserable at other times. You want people to be involved and engaged. Involved people can be quiet, loud, or anything in-between - what they have in common is a restless, probing nature: ‘I want to get to the problem. There’s something I want to do.’ If you had thermal glasses, you could see heat coming off them.”
Useful knowledge is widely dispersed and expensive to collect. What economist F. A. Hayek called “competition as a discovery procedure” allows companies to find new ideas through decentralized trial and error, through adaptation and improvisation. Without a peripheral view of the data however, it's easy to get blindsided when something new turns up. Trends are easy enough to predict but abrupt innovations are harder to anticipate. There’s an aphorism that any time you jump three orders of magnitude, (say from 10 to 10,000) you have a whole new science.
Showing posts with label Reinventing management. Innovation.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reinventing management. Innovation.. Show all posts
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Promising areas for innovation in the future.
Post 519 - In 2009, a research team at McKinsey revisited and retested assumptions about key global trends that they believe will define the years ahead. They identified five areas where the stresses and tensions will be greatest and that therefore offer the richest opportunities for companies to innovate and change. These are:
• The productivity imperative.
Economies in the developed world will need to generate significant gains in productivity to support continued economic growth. The most dramatic innovations are likely to be those that accelerate economic productivity.
• The global grid.
The global economy is growing more and more connected. Complex flows of capital, goods, information, and people are creating an interlinked network that spans geographies, social groups, and economies, which in turn allows large-scale interactions at any given moment. This expanding grid is generating new business models and accelerating the pace of innovation. It also increases the chances of destabilizing cycles of volatility.
• Pricing the planet.
A collision is shaping up among the rising demand for resources, constrained supplies, and changing social attitudes toward environmental protection. The next decade will see an increased focus on the productivity of resources, the emergence of large clean-tech industries, and more regulatory initiatives.
• The market state.
The often contradictory demands of driving economic growth while also providing the necessary safety nets to maintain social stability have put governments under extraordinary pressure. Globalization applies even additional pressure. How will distinctly national entities govern in an increasingly globalized world?
This research is exploratory rather than definitive. Just how these forces will unfold and how they will interact is still a work in progress. However, McKinsey’s research, extensive one-on-one contacts, and broader survey data provide confidence that these topics should be framing every organization’s strategic conversations about how best to chart its future course. The opportunities for smart strategy will likely be most promising where the stresses and tensions will be greatest.
• The productivity imperative.
Economies in the developed world will need to generate significant gains in productivity to support continued economic growth. The most dramatic innovations are likely to be those that accelerate economic productivity.
• The global grid.
The global economy is growing more and more connected. Complex flows of capital, goods, information, and people are creating an interlinked network that spans geographies, social groups, and economies, which in turn allows large-scale interactions at any given moment. This expanding grid is generating new business models and accelerating the pace of innovation. It also increases the chances of destabilizing cycles of volatility.
• Pricing the planet.
A collision is shaping up among the rising demand for resources, constrained supplies, and changing social attitudes toward environmental protection. The next decade will see an increased focus on the productivity of resources, the emergence of large clean-tech industries, and more regulatory initiatives.
• The market state.
The often contradictory demands of driving economic growth while also providing the necessary safety nets to maintain social stability have put governments under extraordinary pressure. Globalization applies even additional pressure. How will distinctly national entities govern in an increasingly globalized world?
This research is exploratory rather than definitive. Just how these forces will unfold and how they will interact is still a work in progress. However, McKinsey’s research, extensive one-on-one contacts, and broader survey data provide confidence that these topics should be framing every organization’s strategic conversations about how best to chart its future course. The opportunities for smart strategy will likely be most promising where the stresses and tensions will be greatest.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
How to create learning conversations.
Post 492 - As Abigail Adams once said, “Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” It’s the learning speed of the slowest many, not the brightest few, that counts. To encourage people to learn from each other, here are some ideas to improve the quality of conversations throughout the firm:
- Remember good conversations.
“Learning is using what we already know” according to Plato. So ask people who work together to remember a time in their lives when they had a really good conversation and to note what made it so memorable. By remembering what they already know, they'll be more likely to generate mutual respect, practice care-full listening, and capture collective insights in their ongoing interactions.
- Find the right setting.
The typical conference room is cold, impersonal and sterile. People usually find it difficult to think creatively in spaces like this. Consider creating informal living room settings with comfortable seating and natural light instead. Create a hospitable environment where people can function socially as well as conceptually. Think in terms of "hosting a gathering" rather than "chairing a meeting."
- Create a visual space.
People are more likely to discover shared meanings together when they can literally see what they mean. That's why they scribble on napkins or write on white boards when they're working together - it helps them clarify their thinking. So creating space where visual images and common data can be explored together usually helps to encourage breakthrough thinking.
- Slow down so you can speed up.
It's difficult to think when everyone keeps interrupting the conversation. Try using a "talking stick" which is passed to each member so each has an opportunity to share their questions or conclusions as the conversation progresses. This allows many voices to be heard in a respectful way and encourages people to pay attention and listen.
- Honor unique contributions.
People are naturally curious, especially about the things they care about. Encourage those participating in the conversation to share why the exploration matters to them and how they can contribute to each other's learning. Look at diverse points of view as unique contributions to a common journey.
- Build and sustain communities of practice.
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to making them into a community of practice even though they often painted alone. Membership implies a commitment to a common field of interest, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes the members from other people. Members are practitioners who meet regularly to engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. Over the course of time, they build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.
- Remember good conversations.
“Learning is using what we already know” according to Plato. So ask people who work together to remember a time in their lives when they had a really good conversation and to note what made it so memorable. By remembering what they already know, they'll be more likely to generate mutual respect, practice care-full listening, and capture collective insights in their ongoing interactions.
- Find the right setting.
The typical conference room is cold, impersonal and sterile. People usually find it difficult to think creatively in spaces like this. Consider creating informal living room settings with comfortable seating and natural light instead. Create a hospitable environment where people can function socially as well as conceptually. Think in terms of "hosting a gathering" rather than "chairing a meeting."
- Create a visual space.
People are more likely to discover shared meanings together when they can literally see what they mean. That's why they scribble on napkins or write on white boards when they're working together - it helps them clarify their thinking. So creating space where visual images and common data can be explored together usually helps to encourage breakthrough thinking.
- Slow down so you can speed up.
It's difficult to think when everyone keeps interrupting the conversation. Try using a "talking stick" which is passed to each member so each has an opportunity to share their questions or conclusions as the conversation progresses. This allows many voices to be heard in a respectful way and encourages people to pay attention and listen.
- Honor unique contributions.
People are naturally curious, especially about the things they care about. Encourage those participating in the conversation to share why the exploration matters to them and how they can contribute to each other's learning. Look at diverse points of view as unique contributions to a common journey.
- Build and sustain communities of practice.
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to making them into a community of practice even though they often painted alone. Membership implies a commitment to a common field of interest, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes the members from other people. Members are practitioners who meet regularly to engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. Over the course of time, they build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Strategies to create friendly futures.
Post 380 - The third way for businesses to grow and succeed today is by creating intuitive futures. Here, you gain sustainable competitive advantage by finding patterns that connect different elements of your business in new and original ways, or by inventing elements that can be used to create new and unique patterns not previously in effect. Here, innovation and speed win the day.
Competitors often wait to see if new business models will be successful before attempting to copy them, thus providing innovators with a very profitable time while they have first-mover advantage. In addition, if you can incorporate new elements that will take a long time for competitors to copy (e.g. patented technologies or new capabilities), you build in a sustainable competitive advantage. When this is part of an integrated growth strategy, by the time everyone else catches up, you'll have introduced yet another difficult-to-replicate innovation, thus retaining the position of leadership in your industry.
Successful companies today are simple, small, speedy and strategic, and aspire to be global, lean, fast and smart. The challenge is to add speed and capability without adding complexity. When creating the future, the real voyage of discovery isn't in creating new structures but in seeing the world with new eyes. Great strategies come from understanding what’s happening in the world in totally new ways.
As an example, Netflix has made a good business out of what's unprofitable fare in movie theaters and video rental shops because it can aggregate dispersed audiences. It doesn't matter if the several thousand people who rent Doctor Who episodes each month are in one city or spread, one per town, across the country - the economics are the same to Netflix. It has, in short, broken the tyranny of physical space. What matters is not where customers are, or even how many of them are seeking a particular title, but only that some number of them exist, anywhere. As a result, almost anything is worth offering on the off-chance it will find a buyer. This is the opposite of the way the entertainment industry now thinks. Today, the decision about whether or when to release an old film on DVD is based on estimates of demand, availability of extras such as commentary and additional material, and marketing opportunities such as anniversaries, awards, and generational windows (Disney briefly re-releases its classics every 10 years or so as a new wave of kids come of age). It's a high bar, which is why only a fraction of movies ever made are available on DVD.
Just compare the new on-line and the old off-line businesses: The average Blockbuster carries fewer than 3,000 DVDs. Yet a fifth of Netflix rentals are outside its top 3,000 titles. Rhapsody streams more songs each month beyond its top 10,000 than it does its top 10,000. In each case, the market that lies outside the reach of the physical retailer is big and getting bigger. Or take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are. Google, for instance, makes most of its money off small advertisers, and eBay mostly serves niche and one-off products. By introducing new business models that overcome the limitations of geography and scale, Netflix, Rhapsody, Amazon, Google and eBay have discovered new markets and expanded existing ones. They were among the first to realize that the biggest money is in the smallest sales.
Great strategies are often counter-intuitive, based on developments outside the company’s current field of knowledge or where discontinuities in technology, demographics or lifestyles are reshaping industry boundaries. These “white spaces” represent new areas of growth that fall between the cracks because they don’t naturally match the skills and capabilities of existing business units. The companies that built the best sailing ships didn’t learn to build steamships. The people who manufactured horse buggies didn’t go on to build automobiles. Companies miss the future not because they’re stupid but because they’re blind.
In a dynamic world, conventional wisdom is an oxymoron. Long years of experience in an industry can be a detriment rather than an asset - think of the reasons given for the removal of Fritz Henderson at General Motors earlier this week. Since business models are only useful for a limited time, managers need to constantly revise the ideas and ruling metaphors that guide their perceptions. Smart companies change before they have to. Lucky companies scramble and adjust when push comes to shove. The rest disappear. The best way to see the road ahead is to start moving forward because clarity emerges more readily from error than from confusion. Great strategies move companies in new directions and are quickly refined through rapid experimentation and adjustment. In a business environment where progress depends on serendipity and spontaneity, high risk and high rewards go hand-in-hand.
Competitors often wait to see if new business models will be successful before attempting to copy them, thus providing innovators with a very profitable time while they have first-mover advantage. In addition, if you can incorporate new elements that will take a long time for competitors to copy (e.g. patented technologies or new capabilities), you build in a sustainable competitive advantage. When this is part of an integrated growth strategy, by the time everyone else catches up, you'll have introduced yet another difficult-to-replicate innovation, thus retaining the position of leadership in your industry.
Successful companies today are simple, small, speedy and strategic, and aspire to be global, lean, fast and smart. The challenge is to add speed and capability without adding complexity. When creating the future, the real voyage of discovery isn't in creating new structures but in seeing the world with new eyes. Great strategies come from understanding what’s happening in the world in totally new ways.
As an example, Netflix has made a good business out of what's unprofitable fare in movie theaters and video rental shops because it can aggregate dispersed audiences. It doesn't matter if the several thousand people who rent Doctor Who episodes each month are in one city or spread, one per town, across the country - the economics are the same to Netflix. It has, in short, broken the tyranny of physical space. What matters is not where customers are, or even how many of them are seeking a particular title, but only that some number of them exist, anywhere. As a result, almost anything is worth offering on the off-chance it will find a buyer. This is the opposite of the way the entertainment industry now thinks. Today, the decision about whether or when to release an old film on DVD is based on estimates of demand, availability of extras such as commentary and additional material, and marketing opportunities such as anniversaries, awards, and generational windows (Disney briefly re-releases its classics every 10 years or so as a new wave of kids come of age). It's a high bar, which is why only a fraction of movies ever made are available on DVD.
Just compare the new on-line and the old off-line businesses: The average Blockbuster carries fewer than 3,000 DVDs. Yet a fifth of Netflix rentals are outside its top 3,000 titles. Rhapsody streams more songs each month beyond its top 10,000 than it does its top 10,000. In each case, the market that lies outside the reach of the physical retailer is big and getting bigger. Or take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are. Google, for instance, makes most of its money off small advertisers, and eBay mostly serves niche and one-off products. By introducing new business models that overcome the limitations of geography and scale, Netflix, Rhapsody, Amazon, Google and eBay have discovered new markets and expanded existing ones. They were among the first to realize that the biggest money is in the smallest sales.
Great strategies are often counter-intuitive, based on developments outside the company’s current field of knowledge or where discontinuities in technology, demographics or lifestyles are reshaping industry boundaries. These “white spaces” represent new areas of growth that fall between the cracks because they don’t naturally match the skills and capabilities of existing business units. The companies that built the best sailing ships didn’t learn to build steamships. The people who manufactured horse buggies didn’t go on to build automobiles. Companies miss the future not because they’re stupid but because they’re blind.
In a dynamic world, conventional wisdom is an oxymoron. Long years of experience in an industry can be a detriment rather than an asset - think of the reasons given for the removal of Fritz Henderson at General Motors earlier this week. Since business models are only useful for a limited time, managers need to constantly revise the ideas and ruling metaphors that guide their perceptions. Smart companies change before they have to. Lucky companies scramble and adjust when push comes to shove. The rest disappear. The best way to see the road ahead is to start moving forward because clarity emerges more readily from error than from confusion. Great strategies move companies in new directions and are quickly refined through rapid experimentation and adjustment. In a business environment where progress depends on serendipity and spontaneity, high risk and high rewards go hand-in-hand.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Evaluating three strategies for survival.
Post 379 - When living with continuous change, it seems to me there are at least three ways to develop strategies for survival and success:
1. Plan for the predictable.
Study the latest developments in your industry. Learn what your competitors are doing. You can find this out from suppliers, customers, previous employees, consultants, websites, trade shows and trade magazines. Study demographic and economic forecasts and monitor announcements about relevant new technologies. Then plan to take prompt action based on trends that appear self-evident from a review of all these data.
The good news is that you can stay up-to-date this way. The bad news is you'll never get ahead of your competition. What's evident to you will be obvious to many others as well. And once others see you make a novel move, since they have the same capabilities that you have, they'll rush to copy it. So, this represents a necessary but not a sufficient strategy for industry leadership.
2. Plan for the unpredictable.
In a world where uncertainty is the only certainty, you're bound to face unanticipated developments and surprises. As a result, only the most adaptable and flexible organizations will survive and prosper. Incremental change, by itself, will no longer be enough. The organization structures that are right for today will likely be wrong for tomorrow. Sustained success will require harnessing creative initiatives that transform as well as adjust. Winning structures will move away from complex vertical organizations built from simple building blocks to simpler, flatter organizations built from ever more complex building blocks.
Smart companies don't try to respond to every fluctuation in the marketplace. Instead they try to spot what's really important to achieve their goals and focus their time and resources on these factors. They work on influencing their future by continually adjusting their organizations to eliminate weaknesses and exploit opportunities. The most successful managers will make their share of mistakes, but they'll quickly learn to fine-tune their intuition.
3. Create your own future.
Unconventional market-leading businesses seldom come from looking only at existing business models. Instead, they redefine them in terms of needs and benefits rather than in terms of products and customers. Here, the secret is to anticipate your customers needs and to organize to meet them in ways that your competitors can't match easily or quickly.
More on this tomorrow.
1. Plan for the predictable.
Study the latest developments in your industry. Learn what your competitors are doing. You can find this out from suppliers, customers, previous employees, consultants, websites, trade shows and trade magazines. Study demographic and economic forecasts and monitor announcements about relevant new technologies. Then plan to take prompt action based on trends that appear self-evident from a review of all these data.
The good news is that you can stay up-to-date this way. The bad news is you'll never get ahead of your competition. What's evident to you will be obvious to many others as well. And once others see you make a novel move, since they have the same capabilities that you have, they'll rush to copy it. So, this represents a necessary but not a sufficient strategy for industry leadership.
2. Plan for the unpredictable.
In a world where uncertainty is the only certainty, you're bound to face unanticipated developments and surprises. As a result, only the most adaptable and flexible organizations will survive and prosper. Incremental change, by itself, will no longer be enough. The organization structures that are right for today will likely be wrong for tomorrow. Sustained success will require harnessing creative initiatives that transform as well as adjust. Winning structures will move away from complex vertical organizations built from simple building blocks to simpler, flatter organizations built from ever more complex building blocks.
Smart companies don't try to respond to every fluctuation in the marketplace. Instead they try to spot what's really important to achieve their goals and focus their time and resources on these factors. They work on influencing their future by continually adjusting their organizations to eliminate weaknesses and exploit opportunities. The most successful managers will make their share of mistakes, but they'll quickly learn to fine-tune their intuition.
3. Create your own future.
Unconventional market-leading businesses seldom come from looking only at existing business models. Instead, they redefine them in terms of needs and benefits rather than in terms of products and customers. Here, the secret is to anticipate your customers needs and to organize to meet them in ways that your competitors can't match easily or quickly.
More on this tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
It's a time to invest in intuition.
Post 378 - In today's uncertain world, most managers still try to create the future by extrapolating trends and developments in the business environment. However, inventing really innovative futures depends primarily on intuition. The great American artist, Andrew Wyeth, who died earlier this year, once observed, "I spend weeks out doing drawings and watercolor studies I may never use, I throw them in a back room, never look at them again, or drop them on the floor and walk over them. I feel the communion that has seeped into my subconscious will eventually come out in the final picture." Like Wyeth, business owners can also use their curiosity to fuel intuitive creativity.
For example, when Leonard Riggio turned a small Manhattan book store into the Barnes & Noble book chain, he studied industry trends and conducted detailed market analyses. However, he also relied on his educated instincts to tell him what consumers really wanted. Riggio believed shopping was a form of entertainment, so he introduced stores with a soft-colored library atmosphere and plenty of welcoming public space where customers could linger, feel at home, and meet other people. He put coffee shops in his superstores, hosted readings and book signings - anything that would entice and entertain and keep people browsing through the shelves. Riggio viewed books as consumer products and believed people bought them not just for their content, but for what they said about their taste, cultivation, and trendiness. He understood that it took more than a structured, quantified analysis to invent the future. It also took what Wyeth would have called "art."
Synthesizing experience into strategy means developing an intuitive feel for the future that often eludes others. This creative process involves:
• Acquisition (gathering up ideas and impressions)
• Association (putting them together and recognizing connections)
• Expression (giving them a new voice)
• Evaluation (making them better) and
• Perseverance (staying the course until they catch on).
The most creative managers go beyond statistics and reports, mulling over ideas and instincts that lead them in surprising directions that no amount of quantitative research can stimulate. They look to see beyond the data. Relying on many intangible sources of information (hearsay, gossip, etc), they observe, internalize, comprehend, and synthesize as they assemble viable patterns. As John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA basketball, once remarked, "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
For example, when Leonard Riggio turned a small Manhattan book store into the Barnes & Noble book chain, he studied industry trends and conducted detailed market analyses. However, he also relied on his educated instincts to tell him what consumers really wanted. Riggio believed shopping was a form of entertainment, so he introduced stores with a soft-colored library atmosphere and plenty of welcoming public space where customers could linger, feel at home, and meet other people. He put coffee shops in his superstores, hosted readings and book signings - anything that would entice and entertain and keep people browsing through the shelves. Riggio viewed books as consumer products and believed people bought them not just for their content, but for what they said about their taste, cultivation, and trendiness. He understood that it took more than a structured, quantified analysis to invent the future. It also took what Wyeth would have called "art."
Synthesizing experience into strategy means developing an intuitive feel for the future that often eludes others. This creative process involves:
• Acquisition (gathering up ideas and impressions)
• Association (putting them together and recognizing connections)
• Expression (giving them a new voice)
• Evaluation (making them better) and
• Perseverance (staying the course until they catch on).
The most creative managers go beyond statistics and reports, mulling over ideas and instincts that lead them in surprising directions that no amount of quantitative research can stimulate. They look to see beyond the data. Relying on many intangible sources of information (hearsay, gossip, etc), they observe, internalize, comprehend, and synthesize as they assemble viable patterns. As John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA basketball, once remarked, "It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
What do you learn from your mistakes?
Post 336 - According to Abraham Lincoln, “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Acts of daring are needed to make progress in today’s world. So, don’t be afraid to take a risk and go out on a limb - that’s where the fruit is. Townes Duncan, the former CEO of Compronix, remembers, “Seymour Cray was a friend of my dad’s. I asked him what it was like to know the genius who’d built the world’s first supercomputer company. My dad said ‘Well, actually, he wasn’t so much smarter than me. He just made mistakes a hundred times faster.’” People who are afraid of making mistakes may avoid stubbing their toes, but they won’t make much progress.
It’s important to learn from the mistakes of others - you can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. Although many managers today find themselves lacking the new skills and knowledge required to tackle their ever more demanding responsibilities, there’s also a relentless drive to make mid-career instruction more practical, meaningful and efficient. Companies now demand that executive education achieve specific, real-world goals and provide an immediate payoff. The business doesn’t come to a halt allowing people to go off and take training classes. Short-duration long-distance schooling using internet conferencing, with courses custom designed for employees of a single company, is clearly more efficient than losing managers for weeks and months at off-site executive education courses.
While these new technologies are quite effective for knowledge dissemination, they’re less so for leadership development. This usually involves changing people’s perspective as well as giving them additional skills. At senior levels, executives learn best through direct interaction with their peers. People learn when their emotions are tapped, when they connect with others and hear their stories. The emotional part of the brain is the gateway to the learning part of the brain. The deepest learning comes from trial, failure, reflection and feedback. Without reflection, you can’t articulate your experience so you lack the concepts you need to understand your situation. You need this awareness before you’re motivated to change. You need an idea of why the change is necessary.
Westerners tend to think of knowledge as an individual matter - “it’s what I know” - but in practice, the Eastern perspective, which is essentially a group perspective, is more relevant for today because it builds the collective capacity to take effective action. Learning isn’t about transferring information from one person to another. Human beings are not very good at information transfer - machines are much better at this. Learning is about enhancing the capacity for effective action and is different from information transfer in that way. However, we don’t usually distinguish one from the other. Training is something that’s done to people; learning is what people are genetically designed to do for themselves.
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young," according to Henry Ford.
It’s important to learn from the mistakes of others - you can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. Although many managers today find themselves lacking the new skills and knowledge required to tackle their ever more demanding responsibilities, there’s also a relentless drive to make mid-career instruction more practical, meaningful and efficient. Companies now demand that executive education achieve specific, real-world goals and provide an immediate payoff. The business doesn’t come to a halt allowing people to go off and take training classes. Short-duration long-distance schooling using internet conferencing, with courses custom designed for employees of a single company, is clearly more efficient than losing managers for weeks and months at off-site executive education courses.
While these new technologies are quite effective for knowledge dissemination, they’re less so for leadership development. This usually involves changing people’s perspective as well as giving them additional skills. At senior levels, executives learn best through direct interaction with their peers. People learn when their emotions are tapped, when they connect with others and hear their stories. The emotional part of the brain is the gateway to the learning part of the brain. The deepest learning comes from trial, failure, reflection and feedback. Without reflection, you can’t articulate your experience so you lack the concepts you need to understand your situation. You need this awareness before you’re motivated to change. You need an idea of why the change is necessary.
Westerners tend to think of knowledge as an individual matter - “it’s what I know” - but in practice, the Eastern perspective, which is essentially a group perspective, is more relevant for today because it builds the collective capacity to take effective action. Learning isn’t about transferring information from one person to another. Human beings are not very good at information transfer - machines are much better at this. Learning is about enhancing the capacity for effective action and is different from information transfer in that way. However, we don’t usually distinguish one from the other. Training is something that’s done to people; learning is what people are genetically designed to do for themselves.
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young," according to Henry Ford.
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