“You’ll become a dinosaur if you don’t learn.”
People in the organization recognize the need for change, see its value, see their own roles in the process, are willing to adopt new approaches, and possess the competence to move forward with change: At the individual level, we strive to consider each task, however mundane, as an opportunity to learn. Continual learning requires cooperation and collaboration with both internal (dialogue and inquiry) and external (connect to external systems) interlocutors. It is not “not knowing” that is the problem. It is often the lack of doing – a form of knowing. Meaningful connections are made explicitly based on need, rather than prescription, often to solve the problems at hand. Feedback is the key element in how we continually learn. We use feedback to adjust, acclimate, and adapt. We strive to leverage the tension between the learning we do to deliver results and the learning we do to explore and innovate. We acknowledge that this is difficult, but recognize that it is indispensable in order to keep up with the pace of change and to improve our preparedness for the unknown.
Photo: Triceratops skeleton on display in the Galeries d’Anatomie comparée et de Paléontologie at the Jardin des plantes in Paris, France (personal collection).