Leading Organizational Learning

Figure 17.2.). Learning leaders’ behaviors contribute to the creative
and entrepreneurial activities that define their organizations.
Although our society is enamored with learning behaviors, such as
“out of the box” thinking and acting (risk taking), our education
processes and reward systems are oriented toward “in the box”
knowing behaviors.
Today’s organizations, facing economic and market turbulence
and chaos, are in need of people who are capable of being learning
leaders. These will be people who are willing and able to create and
apply new assumptions to challenging problems and in some cases
to change assumptions, which will lead to innovative actions. As
times and events become more dynamic and complex, leaders who
are learners will be more crucial. Just as knowing equips people well
for yesterday, a learning attitude equips leaders to confront present
and future challenges. Knowing is an essential stage in the learning
cycle, and yet it is not enough. The other stages must be achieved.
Learning is a “contact sport.” Learning is about proactive behavior
that has the learner engage the context. Learning is about being
fully engaged, in the same way that little kids are. Engagement is a
possibility available to most people but chosen by few.

Learning as an Engagement Process

Learning leaders are people who are powerfully engaged. In our
information-based economy, many experts view the ability to learn
quickly and continuously as the greatest competitive weapon. How
do we teach adults and companies to learn at the speed of light?^4
The answer to this question will shape the future for many leaders
and organizations.
To begin responding to this question, let’s return one more time
to childhood learning as an opportunity to reflect on what is possi-
ble. “Small children are the definition of nonstop learning in large
part because they ask millions of obvious and amazing questions
and never take no for an answer. They teach us that learning is not
an assignment but a way of life.”^5 Taken a step further, Peter Vail

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