Choosing to learn is not the same as choosing to buy a new
sofa or a different car. It relates much more intimately to the most
important “brand” of all, yourself. How you see yourself and how
you feel about this is thus of particular importance.
Rewarding your own learning
Albert Einstein tellingly pointed out the dangers of rewards when
he said, “Our theories determine what we measure.” In other words,
we only reward or value what our theories tell us are important. In
the business arena, this means that MBAs and professional qualifi-
cations are rewarded, while learning about social or emotional intel-
ligence is much less valued.
Few organizations have yet realized that if they want adapt-
able, flexible employees, they should have reward systems that value
those who display these attributes or who can learn effectively.
In too many businesses, learning to learn is not rewarded.
Yet, if learning is the single most potent form of sustainable com-
petitive advantage in the Knowledge Age, it is surely what should
be being measured and rewarded. A few businesses have begun to
appreciate that this is the way forward. In the 1990s, there was
some particularly exciting work led by companies like Skandia in
Sweden. To accompany its traditional annual reports, Skandia pro-
duces a detailed analysis of its intangible assets, the value of its peo-
ple, the company’s reputation, and its customer and supplier
networks. An analysis like this examines and puts a value on the
kinds of things that learning brings to a business: the knowledge of
its customer base and its potential, the capability for innovation
and creativity within the organization, and its human capital—the
levels of competence and potential of the Skandia workforce.
Another Swedish company, Celemi, has gone a stage further
and produced a useful tool to help companies work out their own
human capital value, the Celemi Intangible Assets Monitor. Celemi
puts this into practice in its own business, reporting on progress as
part of its annual accounts. Central to its thinking is the idea that
people learn by undertaking challenging projects and that this
Switching On Your Mind 59
