Reward and Recognize Learning and Learners
There are many ways to reward learning. Many organizations
include the achievement of learning objectives as part of their
incentive compensation plan. Many others use individual recogni-
tion as a reward. One company I know has a recognition program
for employees who bring new and valuable outside learning into
their organization. Much like the rewards it gives to sales staff, the
company invites forty to fifty of its best L^2 s to a resort for a few days,
where they share their learning experiences. This is one way in
which the company encourages its people to develop L^2 capabilities.
Make Knowledge More Powerful Than Rank
Who makes the best decisions? It used to be the people in charge:
parents, teachers, bosses. Today it’s not so simple. Getting the best
decision often means getting the person with the best knowledge,
not necessarily the person in charge, to make the decision.
Sam, a mid-level engineer for Minneapolis-Honeywell, a man-
ufacturer of temperature controllers, led the accounting team for
the company’s largest customer. In an effort to reduce costs, the cus-
tomer requested a reduction in the controller’s temperature sensi-
tivity. Sam refused the request, since granting it would mean
putting an inferior product on the market. The customer called
Honeywell’s president and demanded that Sam make the adjust-
ment. Honeywell’s president explained that Sam was in charge and
knew the situation best. He urged the customer’s engineers to work
with Sam to come up with a cost-effective way to solve the
problem. The story ended happily: the engineers found a win-win
solution, much along the lines that Sam originally proposed.
Today’s organizations are looking for L^2 s who demonstrate that
knowledge is more powerful than rank in an effort to develop a
learning infrastructure for an entire organization of L^2 s who create,
capture, share, and use knowledge “... maximize the business
advantage we gain from the finest minds we employ.”
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