Learning Experience

By Joseph Greco, MSOD

It may seem like a paradox but we want for ourselves not what we are missing but more of what we already have. Management consultant Richard Farson, author of the book Management of the Absurd, found the following through his research: Olympic athletes want greater athletic ability and scholars want more knowledge. A person who speaks two languages desires to learn a third.

While this may be a natural tendency, is it the most productive and successful strategy? My mentor, Jim Rohn, noted, How strange we humans are. We curse the effect and nourish the cause. Someone defined insanity as doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results. Thus, a contributing strategy to success would be to resist the natural tendencies and question the status quo.

Change is not easy. Were it otherwise, very few of us would be overweight. Instead, we would be well read. So now you know its normal to keep doing the same things and more of them. But you have to start somewhere if you want to see changes, and awareness is the first step. We first must get over our fear of change and criticism. Thats why it is important for a chief executive to have a board of directors or an entrepreneur to have a board of advisors. If you dont have someone to hold your feet to the fire, there is a great chance you will devolve. Thats not an encouraging concept, but if youre the boss and typically surrounded by yes people, who is going to tell the emperor that he has no clothes?

All of this discussion assumes that your goals are not being met as planned or changes are not forthcoming as required. If everything in your business is going as well as you want, read no further. But I would like to hear from you. Or maybe you need to hear from yourself as you may not be extending your reach for goals beyond your grasp. I expect your growth would be stymied.

We need some help and objectivity to know where the changes or improvements need to be made. If you just continue to develop talents in your areas of strength, you will risk being one dimensional or lopsided. A cactus will grow an arm on one side and then nature dictates the next arm will be on the other side of the plant for balance.

How do we achieve our balance? Successful leadership demands a variety of skills or competencies. You need to be well versed (or just versed) in a number of areas including finance, communications, marketing, psychology, manufacturing, technology and human resources. You may become an expert in a number of fields, but that is unlikely. However you can open your mind and learn more than you think possible. Increase your understanding by asking questions and getting some training and education.

So many of our challenges are complex and demand an appreciation of systems thinking. To sort out messy or non-simple problems, an appreciation of the functioning of the entire system is required. You would be able to more quickly develop and adopt solutions when you have increased understanding of disparate areas. Dont be caught in the philosophy that when youre a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Farsons book states, The difficulty for all of us is that our absorption with what we do well may blind us to what will enable us to do even better. The particular challenge for managers is to remain mindful that organizations can set themselves up for trouble when they rely solely on doing the things they are already doing well and fail to see what they really need to do. With regular scrutiny, you may determine to change or switch out of a successful business at the peak of success. The choice of timing should be yours. Do you regularly review your product line and services and ask if they still fit into your corporate strategy? Has your strategy changed but not your services?

A few months ago, VF Corporation sold its low-margin underwear business. The stock market punished this move with a drop from 81 to 75. Obviously, the market did not appreciate or value the bold thinking of the VF managers. Jim Cramer on CNBCs Mad Money recognized the move as intelligent and far-sighted. He supported the stock, and I believed him and bought in at 76. The stock has recently reached 88 again, and Cramer thinks it will still go higher. Have you seen the fabulous list of brands (with high margins) that VF has accumulated? It wasnt that they werent making money with the underwear brands, but rather it wasnt the best use of their resources. Selling off that business was a bold move that I imagine left a number of people inside and outside the company unhappy. But the management is to be applauded for acting in the best interest of all the stakeholders to improve value by thinking outside the box and not continuing to just do the comfortable activities.

The idea that we learn from our failure is built into the notion that we learn from experience says Farson. That experience is the best teacher. But to learn from experience means that we have to process it. In some way that makes it available to us. We have to analyze it. And most of us for one reason or another dont do that. We dont want to take the time and energy; we dont want to know the unpleasant aspects of it, we dont like to look deeply into our failures.

And for a very good reason: it is uncomfortable. But to grow we need to be exposed to some discomfort. The alternative is to avoid predicting change and suffer through a crisis that will likely be unscheduled. Experience could be the best teacher but seldom is. Organizational consultant Robert Tannenbaum says, Too many senior managers at the job for 30 years dont necessarily have 30 years of experience. They have more like one year of experience repeated 30 times.

Dr. Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine, in a pensive mood said, I am rebuilding my life out of the ashes of success. What an opportunity to jump from peak to peak as opposed to climbing out of valleys. The discomfort or difficulty you may endure when you learn new subjects or consciously change direction will be mitigated by the very fact that you have chosen the course before the decision was forced upon you. The results will be more rewarding when you take charge of your destiny and create your own learning experiences.

Joseph Greco is president of Greco Apparel.
Visit Greco on the web at: www.grecoapparel.com