Fast Learners For Fast Companies: Bob Guns
Deciphering Verbal Cues: Mary Demetria Davis
Corrections or additions?
Author: Melinda Sherwood. Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on January
26, 2000. All rights reserved.
Survival Guide: Learning on the Job
Top Of PageFast Learners For Fast Companies: Bob Guns
An organization that focuses on creating fast-learning
employees is the only kind of business that can stay competitive in
today’s market, says Bob Guns of Probe Consulting of Summit
(908-522-9202). “The increasing pace of change, competition, and
globalization is driving our organizations to a point that if they
don’t learn faster they’re not going to survive,” says Guns, a
consultant for companies like Merck, Duracell, and Allied Signal.
“The primary way to competitive advantage is to learn faster than
the competition.”
But learning is much more than the regurgitation of information, as
we’re often taught in school, says Guns. “Learning in the work
place is for me a process of figuring out what works or what works
better,” he says. “It’s different than school learning which
focuses on acquisition, not the figuring out processes. Figuring out
processes have to do with stimulating creativity, new ideas, and
problems
that have to do with problem-solving, making decisions, planning,
and implementation.”
Guns talks about “The Faster Learning Organization: The Key to
Sustainable Competitive Advantage,” on Tuesday, February 1, at
8 a.m. at Pitney Hardin Kipp & Szuch, 200 Campus Drive in Florham
Park. Call 609-419-4444. Cost: $30.
Guns earned a bachelors in education at the University of British
Columbia, Class of 1965, and completed his PhD at the University of
Oregon. After several years consulting, he wrote a book called
“The
Faster Learning Organization,” based on research he conducted
on companies’ attitude towards learning in the workplace.
What he discovered, much to his amazement and disappointment, is that
many employees are not open to new ideas in business. “Either
they feel that they know it all, or they’re afraid to learn because
they associate learning with a lot of bad experiences in their
past,”
he says. “It’s really quite depressing because you think that
adults would be reasonably open to learning. I was startled with the
results. It doesn’t reflect well on our corporations.”
In “The Faster Learning Organization” Guns describes two
different
types of operations: a performance-based organization, and
learning-based
organization. “Performance-based organizations focus on a bottom
line for this particular quarter and give little credence to
learning,”
he says. “Learning-based organizations make an investment in
learning,
and focus on the longer-term, larger picture.”
Performance-based organizations are doomed to fail eventually, says
Guns, because to stand the test of time a business must be able to
face change and stimulate leadership. To do that, businesses must
make their employees life-long learners. “You want to make it
easy for people to learn” so you integrate it into the day-to-day
operation, he says. “At the end of a project people should get
together and ask what did we learn from this?”
Other keys to a faster-learning organization, says Guns:
Challenge leaders and have them challenge staff. Goodleaders stretch their employees without backing down, says Guns.Provide the necessary support and tools to help youremployeeslearn, psychologically, financially, academically, and socially.Accelerate learning in key areas where the company isgrowing, or in the direction it is moving.Establish entrepreneurial teams that can spin-off ideasfrom the parent business.Hire faster learners.How do you spot fast learners? That’s something we still don’tknow, says Guns, who has embarked upon research with Technology NewJersey to answer that question. Gun guesses that curiosity is a traitof the fast learner. “That would be manifested by people askingquestions, asking good questions, and listening attentively,”he says. He also thinks people who network a lot may be fasterlearnersbecause, he says, “when people build expert and influencednetworksthat they can draw from they keep their learning at the leadingedge.”Top Of PageDeciphering Verbal Cues: Mary Demetria DavisCommunication styles are often an impediment to learningin an organization, but because the way we communicate is so personal,and somewhat intangible, these problems are often ignored. A boss,for example, may find he or she is constantly unable to communicateto an employee an idea or need; colleagues may find they’re neverquite on the same page, and managers may find that they just can’tmotivate a particular person.Different communication styles usually indicate different approachesto learning, and sometimes recognizing these differences is essentialto completing a project, or getting a point across, says MaryDemetriaDavis, a consultant and practitioner of neuro-linguisticprogramming,the science of how people communicate. With Ed Andriessen,anotherconsultant, Davis cofounded the Princeton Center for Neuro-LinguisticProgramming, an institute that teaches people how to employ differentcommunication styles to forge better relationships, in business andelsewhere.Davis will be giving a free introduction to Neuro-LinguisticProgrammingon Monday, February 7, at 7 p.m. at the Lawrenceville Library. ThePrinceton Center for NLP begins sessions on February 19. Call609-716-8441.”NLP works well because it expedites the process of communicatingeffectively,” says Davis, who spent 20 years as a crisisinterventionconsultant for the U.S. Postal Service, and has a BS in businessadministrationfrom SUNY New Paltz, Class of 1963. “You learn to pick up certainlanguage patterns. Some people may be visual — why do some peopleneed post-its? With NLP you become more sensitive to other people’spatterns, so if you’re talking to someone you can step out of yourown way and listen effectively. You can then identify ways to buildthat communication to build rapport and speak the other person’slanguage.””When we look at language we can see how people motivate ordemotivatethemselves,” says Davis. A proactive person, for example, prefersto dive into projects, whereas a reactive person prefers to weighall the options carefully. The problem arises when two such peopleare forced to work together. A proactive person may be demoralizedby the reactive person’s cautiousness. “If I’m proactive andyou’rereactive, and you say `Mary, I want you to analyze this,’ you’re goingto lose me,” says Davis. Likewise, some people like lots ofoptionsand to act entrepreneurial, while others are glued to a process.”Ifyou have somebody who likes to work independently and you put themin a cooperative state, that particular person is going to start toshut down,” says Davis.The next time a communication problem arises with a colleague orfriend,Davis suggests doing the following:Rather than asking why, ask how. In other words, don’tfocus on why a problem is occurring, but focus on how you canaccomplishthe goal. The “why” question is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”If you’re focusing on a problem, it’s only going to bring upa problem,” says Davis.Use the word “might” when asking people toconsidera new solution, i.e. “You might think about doing it thisway.”Says Davis: “It takes away people’s defenses.”There is room in an organization for every kind of learner,says Davis, but managers and coworkers need to know how to energizepeople, how to speak their language. “As a boss you have to thinkabout making it all cohesive,” says Davis. “By changing justone or two words you can communicate more effectively.”Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
