The end of the year tends to be conducive to thinking about past and future. Today I was reading in the New York Times The Big Zero by op-ed columnist Paul Krugman. He names this decade "The Big Zero" because he contends this “was a decade in which nothing good happened, and none of the optimistic things we were supposed to believe turned out to be true.”
Worst yet, besides zero job creation, zero economic gains for the typical family, zero gains for homeowners, zero gains for stocks, “what was truly impressive about the decade past, however, was our unwillingness, as a nation, to learn from our mistakes.” He concludes that this was “the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing.” If true, what a bleak, sad, and unfortunate statement!
No matter what new learning and results you want to achieve, you will need to make positive behavior changes in order to get there. To expect otherwise is to fool yourself. It’s like trying to start a car that is out of gas. You might turn the ignition key again and again to no avail…until you see you are out of gas. You could do this all day long, but unless you put gas in the tank, you’re not going to start the car. The problem is that many times we don’t even know we are out of gas even though all the signs are there.
At one of the Christmas gatherings I attended this year, I heard the story of a costly mistake when a person (which contrary to stereotypes and to my glee, was a male) failed to realize he was out of gas. His car stopped in the highway and he could not get it to start again. Not noticing he was out of gas, he called to be towed to the closest mechanic. After the unscrupulous guy gave him an estimate of more than $500.00 for changing the gas pump among other things, he decided instead to have the car towed to his trusted mechanic. More than $300.00 out on towing fees he learned from his mechanic that all he needed to do was to put gas in the tank!
We might laugh at the story, but it seems a big part of our zero learning this past decade happened just like the hapless motorist. We failed to recognize telltale signs of economic and ethical trouble. There was also refusal to learn from mistakes. How can this be possible? Why don’t we learn? Why do we keep repeating over and over the same mistakes, be it in families, businesses, or politics? Why does history keeps repeating itself? Let me propose a few theories.
Why don’t we learn?
1. Learning requires going out of our comfort zone. People like comfort, even if dangerous. The known is comfortable. There is no need to think. You can coast on auto-pilot. You don’t have to take risks (even if it is MORE risky to stay as you are.) Therefore, you keep repeating over and over what does not work anymore.
Some years back I interacted with a small manufacturing company in the mid-west. It was family owned. After the father and founder died, the son took over. He had money of his own, and not much experience at the plant. He did not want to put too much effort or thought in the company, but wanted to keep it open out of sentimental reasons. As a result, he decided to just keep doing what they had been doing successfully for the past 40 years. The problem was that it was not working anymore. For the last 5 years they had lost 1.5 million dollars each year, which the son just kept subsidizing out of his pocket.
Needless to say, after a loss of 7.5 million dollars, even someone with as much money as he had, eventually realized that they could not keep doing “business as usual.” Therefore they hired consultants to help them turn things around. Our work was like pulling teeth. The company had stopped learning for so long, and everybody felt comfortable ignoring loses. They kept doing things without thinking. It was very hard to get them to analyze, brainstorm, innovate, and learn from their mistakes.
We observed complacency among bankers, manufacturers, politicians, Wall Street gurus, and the public, where they thought they knew what they were doing. They also failed to heed warning signs that all was not well. We are also seeing how even after all the disastrous economic mistakes that have taken us to the present darkness, all the same sectors seem not to have learned anything and to go back to repeating similar mistakes. Why? It’s easier than the hard work of thinking differently, changing paradigms and long entrenched habits, reflecting enough to take wise action, and taking individual responsibility for change.
During most of your waking hours you are operating from habit and inertia; you’re not even consciously aware of what you’re doing. If you want better results to happen, how can you stay aware enough to learn? How can you kick yourself out of your comfort zone into the learning zone?
2. Learning requires altruism. Many people are selfish and care only about their personal interest. They forget that “what goes around comes around.” They don’t think about the greater good. They can’t think about others. They only care about their position, bank account, name, and/or comfort NOW. By focusing only on themselves, they discount others and don't feel the need to learn. But, Wait! Don’t we all do this to a certain extent? It’s just not as noticeable as when leaders and/or famous people do it. How can we learn to think not only about our own good, but also about the good of others? How can we let go of immature, childish egocentric thinking and think about others too?
3. Learning requires reflection. We don’t seem to want to take the time to reflect and learn. Caught in a perpetual “going through the motions” cycle with little meaning or purpose we become like robots. We keep busy for the sake of being busy. When was the last time you stopped to reflect about what you are doing as an individual, a family person, or a business leader to see if it is working? What can you learn from last year’s failures and successes? What do you plan to do different next year? How can you improve the quality of your life, relationships, business, and contribution to society?
4. Learning requires humility. If you think you have all the answers, you'll never listen and learn anything new. Many people think that admitting you don’t know something is either a weakness or a sign of lack of intelligence. Small children learn an amazing quantity of things during the first 3 years of life. In fact, humans learn more in the first 3 years than what they learn the rest of their lives. How? Children are not afraid of asking questions, of learning through trial and error, of making mistakes, of falling and getting up again to try once more. If you ask more questions and listen better, you will learn more.
5. Learning requires the context of daily action. Being coached on the job, correcting errors immediately before they become bad habits, daily assessing success and performance, taking responsibility, changing the approach if it is not working, are all part of successful learning. Reading, seminars, conferences, classes all have their place, but the transfer of learning does not occur apart from daily action. We learn by doing, by reflecting in how well or badly we acted, and by planning and visualizing how we can do it better next time. If any part of this ccle is missing, learning does not "stick."
6. Learning requires honesty. Honesty about performance, honesty about practices, honesty about problems, honesty about mistakes, honesty about data, honesty about trends, honesty about results, honesty about what works and what does not work. Only by honestly facing what is, can we create what we want it to be. Only by honestly admitting what we don’t know, can we find ways to learn and know. Only by honestly analyzing current data can we implement successful change and improvement. Only through honesty can we gain credibility and build trust.
7. Learning requires courage. It is easy to be paralyzed by fear. Fears are proliferating in people’s lives today, with very detrimental results. As a psychologist I know the impact of positive and negative "affect," or mood on people and organizations.
Studies show that positive affect pumps up creativity, learning, and productivity, while negative affect (like fear) stifles it and leads to mistrust, cynicism, isolation, and lack of learning. Not exactly the stuff we want in our life! No wonder Edmund Burke said: "No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as does fear."
We hear threatening phrases, by bosses, peers, family, and the media—to mention just some. They evoke fear and paralyze us. Fear of not finding a job, of being discounted, of looking “bad,” of falling short, of not understanding—you name it! The worst part is that it can create a culture of fear where everybody ends up “collaborating” to enlarge the fear, until it becomes like the “big ugly monster” of our childhood nightmares.
Action, even fearful action, leads to learning and results. Action eventually dislodges fear and frees learning and creativity. In the present economic climate, there are only two kinds of organizations: those who have failed, and those that are going to fail unless they start learning and taking courageous action that will move them forward!
Take “the road less traveled” and commit to learning and success in the New Year!
What are your views? What do you think about this subject? Your comments are welcomed and appreciated!
