The importance of Learning to Fly

This article is part 3 of a 4-part series on creating a strong and effective team and organizational culture Part 1: “It’s the culture, stupid” Part 2: The Quest for the perfect team begins! Part 3: Learning to Fly Part 4: Coaching for Good  

Learning to Fly

While employees and teams need to be safe to succeed, it is also essential that they create a Learning Culture. The Corporate Executive Board (CEB, now acquired by Gatner) defines learning culture as “a culture that supports an open mindset, an independent quest for knowledge, and shared learning directed toward the mission and goals of the organization,”¹ and researchers claim that “the ability to learn faster than you competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage of the future”² Yet even in today’s fast-paced world, with its fierce competitions, technology advanced and constant change, it is shocking to realize that learning cultures still make less than 10 percent of the current organizations². Although the concept of a learning culture is far from new, appearing in research since the early 90’s, some researchers³ believe that the reason that most organizations are still not implementing a learning culture is not because they do not understand the importance and immediacy of the topic, but because there is no clear path for managers to follow in order to build and develop such a culture.  Yet, recent research presents evidence of the existence of such a path based on 3 core steps: 1. Creating a learning space 2. Sharing knowledge openly 3. Realizing learning stems from the top.

Step 1 – Creating a learning space:

Creating a learning space in an organizations permits taking some time to reflect, and be open to new viewpoints as well as competing and opposing ideas. As recent research shows, being able to accept and use contradicting ideas leads to fresh ideas, increased energy and enhanced learning⁴. Similar to the psychological safe environment discussed above, this learning space is also a space where errors are discussed without fear of reprimands. An example of such a learning space is the Bridgewater Associates “Issues log”⁵. Originally created by founder Ray Dalio, the Issues log is a tool for reporting, identifying and correcting errors and mistakes. Each employee can safely add issues to the Issue log knowing that they will not be chastised for it. However, failure to report an issue or attempts to cover them up are treated harshly.

Step 2 – Sharing knowledge openly:

While in the past learning could occur in small isolated groups, this is no longer the case. In order to create a learning culture there is a need for sharing knowledge. Sharing technical ideas, thoughts and deigns is paramount for the company’s success, as well as sharing mistakes and failures. As an example, the Israeli Air Force (IAF), which is considered to be one of the best in the world, is known for its rigorous debriefing process called After-Action Review (AAR). After every flight the squadron sit down to share their experience and insights. “The AAR is a simple process that uses one of the organization’s most valuable resources – the knowledge resource”, explains Major E, Deputy Commander of the 105th Squadron “The key to a good AAR is the atmosphere that is in the room” says Major Dan Barak,  Head of Perceptions and Theory in the Israeli Air Force “The fact that in the IAF we all fly together, brigadier general pilots alongside lieutenant pilots, lays down the infrastructure for an open dialog” A standard AAR is based on 3 basic questions:

1. What happened? – create a baseline for discussion and note knowledge gaps.
2. How it happened? – discuss planned vs. actual and drill down to find the real cause why some things did not work as planned.
3. How can we do it better next time? – making sure we share tangible information for improvement.

The same AAR method can also be used in organizations today, as shown, for example, in an interesting research testing AAR usage inside a hospital’s surgical teams⁶.

Step 3 – Learning stems from the top:

Like many organizational culture behaviors, learning stems from the top⁷ when leaders demonstrate openness to new ideas, acceptance of conflicts, contradictions, and most of all, errors, the employees follow. Similarly, when leaders share their knowledge and support openness it sets the tone for the rest of the organization. But this effect works both ways, when leaders talk about learning and knowledge sharing but in fact are triggered by fear, pride, politics or lack of humility, this sets the tone for employees as well. As an example of such behavior, I was recently approached by a client of mine who shared this amazing story with me; He was only just promoted to a new job and was asked by his boss to create a new electronic unit for an experimental military device. 2 weeks later my client came rushing into his boss’s office with wonderful news: “There is no need to create this unit! I just spoke with one of my colleagues in the missile division and apparently they already created a similar unit – this will save us 6 months of work!”.” I don’t care,” answered the boss. “I prefer you take the next 6 months and create that unit, rather than ask for a favor from that stupid head of the missile division”... Daniel Coyle, author of “The culture Code”⁸ shares an opposite example: when meeting Ed Catmull, the president and cofounder of Pixar, Coyle shared his amazement of Pixar’s $20 million building in Brooklyn saying “this is the coolest building I’ve ever been in”, Catmull simply answered: “Actually, this building was a huge mistake —the hallways are too narrow, the atrium is too small, the cafeteria is in the wrong place. But the real mistake we made was that we didn’t realize we were making a mistake.” This kind of openness and willing to admit and share colossal mistakes is what drives an organization’s learning culture. Interestingly, this example comes to show another important part of the learning culture that we discussed earlier, Catmull realized in hindsight that he was responsible for creating a learning culture not only by giving instructions and setting down rules but also by designing the building’s structure to allow enough human interaction and casual meeting to occur – or in other words to allow enough spontaneous knowledge sharing. Go to Part 4: Coaching for Good References: 1: Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Bersin, J. (2018). DEVELOPING EMPLOYEES 4 Ways to Create a Learning Culture on Your Team. 2: De Geus, A. P. (1988). Planning as Learning. Harvard Business Review. 3: Garvin, D. A., Edmondson, A. C., & Gino, F. (2008). Is yours a learning organization? Harvard Business Review, 86(3). 4: Lewis, M. W. (2000). Exploring paradox: Toward a more comprehensive guide. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 760–776. 5: Dalio, R (2017) Principles: Life and Work 6: Vashdi, D. R., Bamberger, P. A., Erez, M., & Weiss-Meilik, A. (2007). Briefing-debriefing: Using a reflexive organizational learning model from the military to enhance the performance of surgical teams. Human Resource Management. 7:Vera, D., & Crossan, M. (2004). Strategic leadership and organizational learning. In Academy of Management Review.  8: Coyle, D. (2018). The culture code: The secrets of highly successful groups. Bantam.