What have I Learnt? by Dr Bruce Lloyd
‘The whole purpose of life has been to pass on what was learned. There is no higher purpose’ ~ Morgan Freeman’s character explaining what to do to Lucy in the movie of that name.
How to Revolutionise Management - and the world - through revisiting 20 key words: Power / Responsibility / Leadership/ Values / Freedom / Control / Strategy / Data / Information / Knowledge /Wisdom //Change / Progress / Trust / Expectations / Success/ Purpose/ Meaning /Learning & finally Curiosity.
I will briefly explore the meaning of these words; why they are critical? Then, perhaps more importantly, their interrelationship. Many comments are obvious, and will not be new to you. But I hope they will provide food for thought, and further discussion. (10 points: not In any order of importance!)
1. The key issue in Leadership is Values. Essentially, Leadership is about ‘the well informed, Responsible use of Power’. There is a critical relationship between Power - what makes things happen - and Responsibility, in whose interests is the Power being used. It is important to recognise that many (even most?) of the society’s problems essentially arise from the Abuse of Power – ie: Corruption, Racism, Sexism, Bullying, Slavery, etc. Discussions about Power should also include Responsibilities. And it was a pity in my view that the Charter of Human Rights wasn’t actually a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities.
2. As Confucius said ‘if you love what you do, then won't have to work again in your life’. There are plenty of issues with this approach. But books on the 'Future of Work rarely start with a discussion of what we mean by ‘Work’ - and what we mean by ‘Retirement’. Also there needs to be more emphasis on the importance of creativity.
3. We need to be very careful of our Expectations, and how we define Success. It is very easy to become a prisoner of our Expectations. We need to try to find a sustainable view of Success – beyond just financial agenda. (Useful book (1977) 'The Social Limits to Growth' by Fred Hirsh.)
4. It is important to remember not all Change is Progress. Change is a technical characteristic, while Progress is a Values driven word. Again it is important to recognise the vital role of Learning. And the more Change that is taking place, the more important Learning is, if we want to equate that Change with Progress. “If we don’t pass on what we have learned how can we expect to make progress.” Actually we don't really have a problem with Change - if we are in Control of it, or if we Trust those trying to get us to Change. We certainly have a problem with Trust, especially in a world obsessed with Competition and Power. And in most cases Trust comes from ‘a perception of ‘Fairness’’. We also need to understand the need to try to get the 'best of both worlds' between Competition and Cooperation; as well as between Focus and Flexibility – at the same time as avoiding getting the worst of both worlds, which is far too often the case, especially if we don’t understand the underlying issues. Certainly it is rare to find splits of 100% in one direction or the other, but the direction of a 80/20 split makes an enormous difference to behaviours.
5. We need to explore the role and importance of Wisdom, and revisit its relationship with Data, Information and Knowledge. Wisdom definition: ‘Reliable, useful, insights, that have stood the test of time – about what makes relationships with ourselves, others, and the universe, work well’. It is not just about reliable, useful, insights that have stood the test of time (ie technical information). The difference is that Wisdom includes the integration of a values dimension.
6. We need to understand the trade-off between Relationships and Materialism, where, again, it is important to try to get the 'best of both worlds' rather than the worst. If we take an organisational or institutional job it is quite likely we will have little Control over our career - and this can be very stressful. Also we need to be particularly careful of getting too caught up with the financial sector, where the main - even sole - performance measure is money. We also need to be careful about the use of Performance Indicators; they are never perfect, and meaningful feedback loops are essential. The obsession with GDP, rather than Social Progress Indictors, as a measure of societal success, can easily create problematic distortions.
7. We have to try to understand what really motivates us? Entrepreneurs primarily motivated by money will have problems, sooner or later, because they will cut too many corners. The key to Entrepreneurial success is to be committed to a product/idea and how that relates to the needs of potential customers. But they do also need to be able to manage money - but it is important not to be driven by the obsessive desire to accumulate it. In addition, we shouldn’t think being a successful entrepreneur means you will have Control over your life, to be successful in this area requires incredible focus and commitment. It is also important to recognise that if we live in a community of any kind, we aren’t – or shouldn’t be – Free from our Responsibilities. We all want freedom to choose, but are many people experiencing the increasing nightmare of too much choice? The concept of Freedom isn’t absolute and where and how we draw the line benefits enormously from the ability to have constructive conversations about the issues – mentioned again later.
8. Strategy is not just a technical exercise. Strategy textbooks should all start with a chapter that discusses the vitally important role played by people. People that make it all work and it is a dynamic process – where, often effective feedback and associated learning processes are the critical elements. In the end, it is another attempt to get the ‘best of both worlds’ – Focus and Flexibility. (Another book: Kenichi Ohmae - 'The Mind of the Strategist.' (1983)) Also Strategy text-books, and strategy operators in the field, should be aware of the subject of ‘Future Studies’.
9. In the end, in my view, the quality of decisions depends more on the quality of our conversations, than on anything else. Also Board evaluations should focus on whether members feel that quality conversations, particularly about the future, are taking place, and what they feel would help have better quality conversations. And the more change that is going on the more important that issue is.
10. It is important to remember it is much easier to make a committed person competent, than it is to make a competent person committed. If our heart - our Values - are in the right place life isn’t too much of a problem, but if our heart is in the wrong place, our head is going to have a hard time living with it! We all live in a strange, challenging, but amazing and often, incredibly beautiful, world, where we explore in our search for Purpose and Meaning. (see the ‘The Search of Meaning' by Charles Handy.’ And ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl). One word that I believe is critical to the search for Meaning – as well as being critical for successful relationships - is the need to feel ‘appreciated’.
In addition, we need to recognise, and remember, the core childhood insights come from 5/6 words: NO (About Power and the start of developing negotiating skills); Why? (Curiosity and Power) and ‘It's not Fair?’ (Justice); these are basically the same issues at the core of management.
A final reflection. Science has enabled us to make incredible progress in so many areas – thanks basically to effective learning. But that doesn’t appear to be the case in the Social Sciences concerned with attempting to try to improve human behaviours, and that in my view is partly (if not largely?) due to confusion over the key words and concepts that we use. It is essential that we focus on the need to improve our effective learning in this area. If only the relatively simple (?) points mentioned earlier were more widely recognised and acted on, I believe, not only would we have a good chance of Revolutionising Management, but it should also radically improve prospects for a rewarding, and sustainable, future of our organisations, as well as more widely the human race. I haven’t found any magic answers, but I hope these rather random thoughts might help on the fascinating journey called life. And I would encourage others to try to put down in a couple of pages “What Have I Learnt?”
“The measure of a societies commitment to the future is the priority it gives to ensuring that effective learning is passed onto the next.”
But we shouldn’t forget that: “History’s most important lesson is that it’s up to us to make good use of it.”
After all: “What is history for if it isn’t to help us take better decisions about the future?
(As an aside, a fascinating – and potentially useful – research project for someone, would be to study the meaning of all these key words in a number of different languages?)
Questions:
1. Is our educational system really focused on passing on the important issues about ‘what have we learnt’ that are important to produce a better future for society?
2. How do we deal with the paradox that in a world where there are ‘givers’ and ‘takers’ there is an unfortunate (but inevitable?) tendency for the ‘gives’ to allow the ‘takers’ to take too much?
3. The paradox of power is that individuals put an enormous amount of effort into getting it, only to spend even more effort into trying to ensure that it isn’t taken away.