If your organization is going to adapt, it needs to be able to learn. This is a simple principle. Children learn by interacting with their environment, like the toddler who burns her hand on the stove and learns not to touch it when it is hot. Organizations can learn too, but it is a bit more complicated than simple reaction. Let's start by looking at how adults learn. Below is a simplified version of the Kolb Learning Cycle.
1. We experience things.
2. We make observations/judgments about those experiences.
3. We turn those observations into generalizations/abstractions.
4. We apply those generalizations to future experiences.
(this cycle repeats)
I'll illustrate with an example. An employee makes a suggestion in a staff meeting, and their manager yells at them. (we experience things) The employee observed that the suggestion (about ending the meeting on time) made their manager angry - and the anger was embarrassing. (we make observations). The employee decides that making suggestions about ending meetings on time is a bad idea - that it simply ends in embarrassment (we make generalizations). At the next meeting, the employee remains silent on the topic. (we apply those generalizations).
Pretty basic eh? As humans we are learning all the time, and applying those learnings to our lives. The rub is that in most organizations we tend not to learn as a team, and we tend not to make a conscious effort to learn from our work experiences in a useful, usable way.
Leaders who want to maximize organizational learning can do so by creating times and places where teams can intentionally learn together from experience. I call this the process of "institutionalizing reflection." Reflection simply means looking back on what has happened.
Jumping off from the Kolb learning cycle, reflection can look like this.
1. A team has an experience (finishing a project for example).
2. The team asks "What happened? What was it like? What did we experience?" (Looking Back)
3. The team asks "Given those things, what did we learn? What worked? What didn't work?" (Reflecting)
4. The team decides what (if anything) should be done differently next time based upon what they've learned together, and they move on with the next project.
If this sounds odd, I assure you it's not rocket science. Microsoft is already taking advantage of institutionalized reflection through a practice they call (rather gruesomely) "post mortems". In these meetings they look back at their work and deconstruct it, (dissect it?) and reconstruct some learning from it. They repeat this process regularly, building on their learning.
So, as leader what does this mean for you? The biggest reason that institutionalized reflection does not happen in most organizations is simply that there is no time built in for it. We leap from one initiative to the next without taking the time to learn, and this can often lead to unnecessary repeating of mistakes. As a leader, you can build the discipline in your team to pause and go through the cycle of reflection.
The best part? In addition to being incredibly helpful these sessions can also be pretty fun. It is a chance not only to learn, but to recognize contributions and assess progress.
Go! Learn! Reflect! I don't think you'll regret it.
Sources:
Kolb's Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (1984)
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