Learning Is a Personal Contact SportLearning doesn’t happen to you; it happens through you. You are
not an empty vessel that some teacher fills with learning. You must
be an actor on the stage, completely immersed in the play of your
life, not a spectator in the second row. You “gotta wanna,” a moti-
vational speaker once said. She’s absolutely correct. You must want
to learn something very badly so that you’re willing to invest the
personal effort to truly be different. And your “gotta wanna” will
encourage the “gotta wanna” in others.
An executive I know knew things weren’t going as well as he
wanted in his business. He tried many “new” approaches to engage
his people in the business. After listening to a tape recording of one
of his meetings, he developed a strong case of “gotta wanna” that
began a multiyear journey during which he committed to learning
new ways of dealing with people. Today he’s a different leader
whose business has grown many times over and who has been cho-
sen Executive of the Year by several leading business publications.
His “gotta wanna” learning disease infected his entire organization.
Show Up in the Learning Arena Ready to ParticipateLeaders go first. No one in an organization will participate in learn-
ing activities if the leaders do not lead the way. This means being
an example, being enthusiastic, and being positive about learning
opportunities.
Learn-by-Doing Is the Learning Arena
Doing activities are great learning “arenas” because people learn
best from doing. So find opportunities to do for yourself and others,
and then make certain that you and everyone learn from the doing.
Kurt was a talented design engineer working for a large oil-
refining company in the Netherlands. He wanted to learn more
about hydrogen-based fuel cells so that he could become an expert
in designing manufacturing facilities to produce them. He believed
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