The following article is dedicated to George Guzzardo. George is one of the hungriest students I have ever met. His ability to learn and grow is inspiring to me and many others. George exemplifies a learning individual and has created learning organizations wherever he leads.
“The only significant competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.” – Peter Senge
I love this statement and I believe this is the key advantage of one organization over another. Without the ability to learn and grow quickly—changes in the marketplace will diminish your ability to compete. The only way to have this competitive advantage is to have leaders who develop teams inside of the organization. Without leaders and teams your organization is a dinosaur waiting to go extinct. Take a look where you work. Do you see teamwork or a bunch of individuals attempting to get ahead? No group of individuals will ever consistently beat a team working together. In order to build this teamwork—you must teach service before self. This is not a natural condition and requires discipline from the leader and team to accomplish. This is another reason why leadership is so essential in today’s marketplace. Leaders create the culture and the culture sets the norms and values expected from the team.
Learning faster is so important because everyone has access to the latest technology and management techniques. It isn’t the ideas themselves, but the implementation of the ideas that make the difference. I have been part of great learning organizations and I have been part of terrible learning organizations and the contrast is glaring. In a learning organization, new ideas are sought out and discussed. The attitude is, “If it ain’t broke, break it!” Learning organizations know the competitors are changing and growing and they must also to be competitive. Learning organizations take pride in dealing with change and love pushing the envelope for self and team improvement.
Non-learning organizations are another matter completely. The dinosaur organizations believe the only good ideas come from the top of their corporate hierarchy. They do not believe they must sell their ideas to gain the law of buy in. Typically, they only have a couple of ideas per year—because ideas mean possible change and dinosaurs do not like change. Because their dread of change, these slow organization will petition government or create rules to stop people from innovating. They know they cannot compete on the open market and so develop barriers to continuous improvement. The people stuck in these cultures become frustrated and stop creatively thinking. The shameful part is the organization is not using its greatest resource. The people and the ideas they have are every organizations greatest wealth. To not partner with the people and create a team culture is corporate suicide.
Look at where you work. Is your management hungering for new ideas and creating a team to develop and implement best practices across the organization? Or is your organization a dinosaur that resist change and feels threatened by anyone who suggest improvements the managers did not develop? The leaning organizations are the future and the non-learning organization will be relegated to the junk yard of history. Wherever you are working, managing or leading—help develop a learning culture. Step up your personal leadership and get your team on good books and CD of the week. A learning organization has learning individuals that have been molded into a team. This is your assignment if you plan to live a life of meaning and excellence! God Bless, Orrin Woodward
