that hydrogen fuel cells would take a large portion of the current
hydrocarbon gasoline market, so he wanted to be ready when that
happened. He visited several of his friends who worked for auto-
mobile companies that were developing fuel cell engines. He pro-
posed a six-month assignment to intern at two companies to learn
more about their hydrogen fuel cell technology and how these cells
might be manufactured. The board recognized the opportunities
and threats that Kurt had uncovered and saw the need to play in
this newly emerging arena. They met with him both during and
after his internship to ensure that both he and they maximized the
learning from his assignment. Today Kurt leads the company’s fuel
cell program and reports directly to the board of directors. He took
the risk, his leaders encouraged him with time and resources, and
he and they all learned and gained.
Use on-the-Job Assignments as Valuable
Learn-by-Doing Activities
Job assignments are great L^2 opportunities. Seize the opportunities
they provide for real-time learning-by-doing for yourself, and
encourage others to do the same.
Recently, I watched a great L^2 in action. Lui, head of the
Toronto office of a $2 billion company, had transferred to Toronto
because he wanted “a North American leadership experience” to
add to his background. During the first day, Lui, Richard, the
executive vice president, and I visited several potential customers
and partners. On the way back to the hotel that night, Lui said
to Richard, “It’s really exciting to watch how you always ask
how their business is going, what they do personally, and what
things are important to them. In my previous assignments, I’ve
always tried to overwhelm the other person with the long list of
benefits they’d get from working with us. You turn it around and lis-
ten to them first. I learned more today in these conversations than
I could have learned in years using my old system. I’d like to learn
that skill.”
UNLEASH THELEARNINGEPIDEMIC 177