Your future success is dependent on your ability to learn. Will you allow yourself to take a strategic pause to learn?
The title of this article may evoke childhood memories, which is not my intent.
What I am really asking is the “when” part. That is, where do you find the time? The reason I am asking is that I think your future success is directly dependent on your ability to learn.
Learning is more than simply acquiring new knowledge. It is “a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and increases the potential for improved performance and future learning.”1
Wow. That is a mouthful. Note the key concepts in that single sentence:
- Learning is a process
- Learning occurs as a result of experience
- Learning leads to change
- Learning increases the potential for improved performance
At this point, maybe I should explain what I do for a living. I am a consultant that helps organizations harvest, study, and learn from their organizational data. Organizations need to keep pace with societal and technological advancements to continue to successfully offer their product or service to the marketplace, and that pace is ever-increasing.
I work with several clients who have difficulty finding the time to truly explore these new technologies. The issue I see most often is that it is overwhelming to do so. Implementing a data and analytics strategy requires involvement from many layers of the organization who don’t naturally talk to one another. Many organizations’ cultures simply do not cultivate an environment for study, experimentation, and innovation. It requires shared learning.
“Many organizations’ cultures simply do not cultivate an environment for study, experimentation, and innovation. It requires shared learning.”
So how do you get to a place of shared learning? Well, you need a process for learning and an environment that creates the opportunity to experience something new, see how it could be applied to improve performance in your organization, and a commitment to changing the way you do things.
At Keller Schroeder, we have a workshop designed around consciously taking time to learn. Our Executive Strategic Pause Workshop brings together layers of the organization from several disciplines (Operations, IT, etc.) to discuss many dimensions of a business, from culture to strategy to process and supporting technology. In the session, attendees take stock of their current state, contemplate an improved future state, and discuss the gaps between the two. The overarching theme of this workshop is – how do we learn?
Data and analytics are the lifeblood of organizational learning. So…when are you going to learn? Fill out this form today to schedule your Executive Strategic Pause Workshop.
1Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., and Norman, M.K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Written By:
Tom Vargo
Vice President
Data Strategy Group
