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It finally dawned on me one
day.... AS you know,
some of us (like me) have to learn the hard way. I guess it's
just part of having an active-learning style. With that being
said, I finally realized that not everyone wants to learn to solve
problems. In fact, I think and feel most people are not
interested in learning for learning's sake, although I don't have any
hard evidence to support that assumption.
However, if I'm correct, then the governing
variables (or what we believe to be the best interpretation of reality
for each one of us) probably need to change. I suspect this is
one thing that is holding up my own success as well.
In business today, I think everyone would feel
that we have accelerating complexity. In some ways, complexity
is compounding itself at the rate of
Moore's Law. If you accept that, then no amount of learning
will allow you to know enough to solve your problems. That may
seem depressing to some of you and perhaps others will see it as
opportunity. The emphasis
on much of our lives has been placed on learning. We see
this through elementary school all the way through our formal
education. I've even heard most pundits say, education is the
answer. Yet, I finally realized that learning and education are
NOT the answer. Here's
the hard part: If
learning and education are not the answer, what is?
Working together.
Yes, I know, some of you have been saying this
all the time, haven't you. Ok, well excuse those of us who
haven't heard you. I'm fully in agreement, although not
necessarily in favor of working together to solve problems.
First off, all my skills have to do with working alone. It has
only been recently in the past say 7 years that I've even begun to
awaken to the proposition I've just presented, so go easy on me, if I
don't get everything right here.
The one thing I do realize from all of this, if I
can tie back into my thesis, is that people have other reasons for
being human than learning. Of course, we all learn everyday, so
that is a given. What I'm speaking to is the need to keep up,
stay up and stay ahead of everyone else with what you can and "should"
learn. Most people who know
me realize I'm a consummate learner. That's why it has taken me
so long to learn that not everyone wants to learn how to solve their
problems! In fact, I'm guessing that most people just want to
solve them and move on. Since, I've been subject to or embedded
in my own "desire to learn" for so long, I just assumed it was the
way. I know what you're
saying, we who have blind spots are often the last to see them.
Ok, so where does this lead us in terms of the professional
development systems we create in business? Actually, if we begin
to change the locus of learning to just in time learning, or just in
case learning, we can fudge things pretty well. I think most
people will want to learn when it is to their benefit, if in fact they
can see it as a benefit, so that is one thing we have to do, help them
experience the benefit of
learning. The next thing
that has to happen is that we have to help people work together
differently. I suspect this is going to create some radical
changes in how we design systems, organizations, communities and
hopefully the world for the better. Instead of learning JUST
reading, writing and arithmetic, perhaps we could learn how to work
together instead of following rules to achieve conformity. Following
rules puts us right back in the old me and my thing versus you and
your thing, which limits our ability to work together.
At this time, I'm certain I can't even
conceptualize how we have to go about this new locus of learning, yet
I do see that if we don't we'll continue to create additional negative
consequences as we all fight for the rewards gained by working alone
or in competition with one another.
Perhaps, enlightenment in this sense is just the
realization that we're climbing the ladder, but it's up against the
wrong wall! I'm interested
in exploring this topic to a greater extent to begin to understand and
learn in my own way, who I have to become, how I have to reshape my
beliefs and what I have to do to move into the light of this new
awareness. If you are interested in the pursuit of this set of
assumptions, why don't you drop an email
here
and I'll keep you in touch with like-minded people as we begin a
dialogue on what it takes to work together to solve problems even when
it doesn't require us to learn. |
