Learning Learning

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One key to organizational success has to do with the capacity of people to learn — learn from mistakes as well as learn from successes. The call for organizational learning has escalated over the years ever since our culture and economy transitioned from a “we make things” focus to what is called a “knowledge society.”

Today, knowledge workers are highly valued as you know, but the real asset of a knowledge worker goes far beyond what she or he “knows”. Simply put, no one can hold all of the knowledge they need to do what they do today, much less tomorrow.

The strongest asset of a knowledge worker is her/his ability to figure things out, find information, gain knowledge, as well as transform experience into knowledge. This means three things to me.

First, the knowledge worker has to excel at investigation (using her/his networks, tools, etc.)

Second, because of the pace of change, he/she must have a high tolerance for ambiguity. Aristotle once said something like: the more you know, the more you realize how much more there is to know. Another way of saying that is: the more you know, the more you realize just how much more there is for you to learn. It is ironic perhaps, but those who are knowledgeable are likely more aware of their limitations than those who are less ambitious about gaining knowledge.

Third, to truly grow in knowledge, one has to be able to accept that they aren’t as knowledgeable as they can be or should be. In other words, you have to be self-critical, able to identify your “weak” areas, and be okay with not being as good today as you can be tomorrow.

Fundamentally, there are three categories of learning that help us grow our knowledge. These categories are: single loop learning, double loop learning and triple loop learning.