Epilogue

Epilogue

Two years ago, I was involved in coaching three project teams.  All put together that was a group of sixty engineers.  We observed and practiced several small steps to improve over the first three months.  Considering the pace of each team, we worked together and identified certain medium-term improvements.  For this, I had scheduled meetings with each team. In one of those meetings, we had a white board session to collect inputs from all team members.  There were more than fifteen distinct ideas and suggestions.  Some of them were advanced practices or implementation of state-of-the-art tools.  But none of those were unfamiliar to the team members. Dedication, teamwork and regular practice would take them there. 

One of the volunteers in the team noted down all those fifteen items and read it out to the team. 

During my concluding talk, I asked one of the team members.

‘So, Ravi, what do you think are going to be our next steps starting tomorrow?’

Ravi was a very open, and down-to-earth engineer with four years’ experience. He did not think much as I asked this question. He was instantaneous in his response.

He said, ‘I think the management will send us to training programs on these topics.’

This answer came as a surprise to every one of us!  We had no words to answer but our body language expressed our astonishment. Ravi understood it immediately. And he continued.

‘Of course. We learned about the importance of self-learning. We will try. I think all these topics can be learned through some practice. I am not sure. Er…somehow we are habituated to class room programs!’

That broke the silence.  And the discussion continued for some more time to set the action plan right.

Let me reiterate. Ravi was a very open and down-to-earth engineer.  His answer was genuine.

Sadly, yet we have not cultivated the habit of self-learning enough. We need to do a lot more to imbibe self-learning skills in us.

In another instance, I was with one of the senior leaders of a large corporate. He was heading the learning and development team of his global operations.  They were well known for their training programs with several national and international awards and recognitions. He wanted to do something more and something different to improve training effectiveness. He wanted some ideas.

I asked, ‘Do you think learning should happen in class rooms? According to me, learning has to happen on the shop floor. What do you think? Have you heard of perpetual learning?’

He liked what I said and went on to experiment with it.

We have heard of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is about continuing traditional learning over our lifetime.  This is about personal and personal development through traditional courses, degrees, classroom training programs, e-learning, certifications, self-learning etc.

What is perpetual learning?  Perpetual learning is about learning from our day-to-day experiences as individuals and teams.  This does not involve a dedicated time unit for learning as learning is fused with all other activities.  This is about collaboration and learning from communities of practice.

I am sure you and all of us practice perpetual learning to some extent. We need to make it a habit.  According to Dr. Donald M Norris, President and Founder of Strategic Initiatives Inc., ‘Lifelong learning is an industrial age metaphor. Perpetual learning is a knowledge age metaphor.’   Read Donald’s article ‘Perpetual Learning as a Revolutionary Creation’ - it is waiting for you on the Internet.

Try perpetual learning!  We belong to a dynamic industry.  Perpetual learning will make us more adaptable and nimble.  It will amplify our ability to succeed.


The Runway                                                                                                        Table of Contents

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