Learning from experience

Key Ideas

The key idea behind the article below is that learning is most effective when grounded in the workplace, in practice.  Learning from experience – both the good and the bad!

Key Outcomes

Some of the key outcomes from embracing this process are:


How LifeTree can help

Coaching is a key to enable learning and is particularly appropriate as it significantly enhances learning from experience.  Recent research has shown that coaching can leverage learning significantly (88% as opposed to 22% with training alone).  And that payback on coaching can range from 529% (Metrix Global Survey) to 2000% - 3000%! (Geoff Hinsley Study)

We not only deliver outstanding executive coaching, but we also work with organisations to develop their coaching capacity.  These programmes are designed to meet your specific needs; working with your internal team (HR/OD and or Managers) to help develop the capability of the organisation as we work in partnership with you on implementing your coaching roll out.

In LifeTree we have developed cutting edge coaching methodologies and are in the process of developing strategic collaborations with a San Diego based consultancy and a UK based business school.


Paper by Deborah Farley and Joe Lafferty,
LifeTree, Dundee, Scotland, UK, © June, 2005

 

Learning from experience

from CCL Handbook of Leadership Development

Learning new approaches, behaviours, and attitudes is no simple task.  It is neither easy nor automatic.  In fact, some management development experts contend that the payoff for trying to develop one’s weaker areas is not worth the required investment in time, effort, and resources.  These experts argue that the key to career success lies in identifying and capitalizing on one’s strengths (Buckingham and Clifton, 2001).  In our view, this would be a great strategy if the demands of our rapidly changing world would only cooperate by slowing down and allowing us to settle into our comfort zones and if we were not interested in facing new challenges by moving up, across, or between organisations.  Certainly, capitalising on strengths is a vital element of both career success and satisfaction in life, but like everything else one can overdo it.  Our research suggests that the price for doing so is often derailment. 

Over the years, CCL research has shown that the failure to learn, develop, and change in the face of feedback or transition is one of the most frequent causes of executive derailment (Leslie and Van Velsor, 1996).  Executives who remain successful and effective over time are those who can learn from their experiences and use that learning to develop a wider range of skills and perspectives so that they can adapt as change occurs and be effective in a wider range of situations.

Yet there is a huge conspiracy in life to keep a person doing what he already know how to do.  Conspirator number one is the person himself – because his immediate need for short-term success seems more assured if he simply sticks to what has worked from him in the past.  This is also easier and less painful.  Conspirator number two is everyone else, since most people are happier when they can assessing someone to roles in which the person has already demonstrated the capacity to perform.  Since everyone is trying to “do more with less”, others are less likely to have the time, inclination, or incentive to place someone in a stretch assignment where she may need to be monitored and mentored as part of the learning process. 

In actuality, it has been our experience that one rarely has to remind people to capitalize on their strengths.  Indeed, most people are more likely to err in that direction quite naturally, And why not?  It is easier, safer, and less risky to focus on challenges already encountered and to repeat strategies and tactics that have worked in the past.  The real danger lies in getting stuck in the comfortable patterns that grow out of prior success experiences and personal learning preferences.

According to our research (Bunker and Webb, 1992), most managers are not active and continuous learners.  Most people learn easily within their comfort zone but find it more difficult to learn when operating under new challenges.  Most people prefer to stay with the behaviours that have made them successful in the past, even if the conditions of the past no longer apply.  As a result, a type of inertia develops.  We have come to call the experience of overcoming the inertia “going against the grain”.  To go against their grain, leaders must let go of proven strengths and comfortable ways of learning long enough to acquire new ones.

Significant learning events almost never come packaged only with positives such as success, pride, accomplishment, fun, challenge, reward, achievement, growth, and triumph.  Indeed, when people are asked to describe how they felt during the pivotal learning events in their lives, they will almost always counter balance the positives with the negatives they experienced along the way, such as self-doubt, fear, discomfort, uncertainty, frustration, hesitancy, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed.  So it is not surprising that the natural tendency is to shy away from significant learning challenges.  In order to learn, people must be strong and secure enough to make themselves vulnerable to the stresses and setbacks in the learning process.

But there are people who are natural leaders.  By virtue of their personalities or early life experiences, they have the personal resources and skills to learn easily and almost effortlessly.  Yet they are the exceptions.  Most people require considerable support for their learning, whether on a continuous basis or just at certain times in their lives when growth and development have for some reason become more difficult.  (Van Velsor and Musselwhite, 1986)

The Ability to Learn from Experience

Learning from experience is a way of thinking about learning that is somewhat different from what most people are used to.  People typically think of learning in terms of academic activities, like reading and listening to lectures.  Although our research tells us that the majority of an individual’s learning over the course of her career happens on the job or from life experiences outside the classroom (Douglas, 2003; McCall, Lombardo, and Morrison, 1988; Ruderman and Ohlott 2000; Van Velsor and Hughes-James, 1990), people often do not consider current experience in thinking about how they best learn.  People often do not consider how they could improve their ability to learn from experience, and it does not occur to most people to spend time reflecting on their experiences, to extract from them the lessons learned.

So when do people reflect?  Usually when they have a failure; when something does not work, people try to dissect the experience to find out what went wrong.  It is the rare person who regularly reflects on his or her successes – “what did I (or we) do that made that situation turn out so well?”  Also, it is often easier to see what needs changing in the attitude, behaviours, or approaches of others than it is to see one’s own inclinations to get stuck in comfortable ways.  People tend to collude with themselves in rationalising away learning challenges that fall outside of their comfort zones.

In our view, the ability to learn from experience involves all of the following:

These, then are the components of the ability to learn from experience.  We believe that each of these components can be develop in all individuals and that the ability to learn from experience can thereby be enhanced.  We also recognise that for most people, this will not be easy!

(from The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development Second Edition pp 208-210)

Download article as pdf

You can download the article as a pdf by clicking here.

Purchase Book

The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development Second Edition is an excellent resource for professionals in the leadership development field.  You can purchase the book by clicking below.