Great training: they're hunters and gatherers of insight, opportunities, and talent

T+D, Sept, 2003 by Chip R. Bell, Bilijack R. Bell

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Discovery organizations all have one factor in common: great leaders of learning. These leaders communicate a clear and compelling purpose, provide a safe and supportive work environment, and convey high but attainable expectations. They nurture the spirit of curiosity and are perpetual hunters of insight.

Great training leaders also demonstrate their passion for learning by constantly asking questions of managers and other employees about the customers' experience. These leaders believe that what people see them do is more important than what they hear them say.

Curious people who drive discovery come from atmospheres that are quick to champion and slow to chastise. The experience of support comes when training leaders spend time running interference, providing important resources, and using valuable time to listen and learn about employee needs and requirements.

Great training leaders are clear about their expectations and are enthusiastic about communicating them. They set a powerful tone when they show they're willing and able to learn out loud, as well as encourage others in never-ending discovery.

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Leaders are more powerful role model when they learn than when they teach.--Rosebeth Moss Kantor

Those lines sharpened our observation of the characteristics of great training leaders. With the preoccupation of the training community on, product, program and paraphernalia, it's time to take a fresh look at the importance training leaders play in facilitating powerful and productive human resource development.

Great training leaders nurture the spirit of curiosity and are perpetual hunters of insight. They're continually and noticeably on the prowl for new wisdom. They look around the corners of opportunity, feel the power of discover, and keep an ear to the ground for fresh understanding. They learn all of the time. And they learn out loud.

Great training leaders learn for learning's sake. They almost get an adrenaline rush from always honing their skills, enhancing their understanding, and deepening their wisdom. It's the thrill of the hunt that distinguishes great training leaders. They're restless, hungry souls never satisfied with what they know because they appreciate the fact that antiquated is just around the corner and obsolete is just down the hall.

Great training leaders continually question employees' learning needs, as in the words of a world-class car sales professional, "I'll keep asking and listening and nosing around until something lights up." Leaders driven by curiosity know that until the target of their inquiry lights up, they haven't reached the level of understanding to truly inform anticipatory action.

A culture that values curiosity is inventive and exciting. Walk into the headquarters of USAA in San Antonio, Texas, 3M in St. Paul, Minnesota, or Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, and you can feel the heat of originality cooking in the organizational oven. What you later learn is that you're in a place with an everlasting focus on perpetual growth. The popular label for such an environment is a learning organization. A more accurate description is a discovering organization. The term learning can imply the act of adding to or increasing what's already there; discovering means uncovering or finding. Learning can happen through osmosis, in which you're passively the recipient of growth, without much effort. Discovering suggests an active search and a deliberate exploration.

When Arie de Geus of Royal Dutch/Shell wrote, "Your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage," he was speaking of the power of the hunt for insight, not the glorification of the attainment of competence. What factors are common in a discovering organization?

In their classic book The Management of Innovation, Tom Burns and George Stalker examine the commonalities of the most renowned research and development facilities in the United States that have generated the most patents, Nobel prizes, and industry breakthroughs. The punch line's clear: Discovery was predictable when there were leaders who communicated a clear and compelling purpose, provided a safe and supportive work environment, and conveyed high but attainable expectations.

A clear, compelling purpose

A stroll through Universal Studios Hollywood with president and chief operating officer Larry Kurzweil says a lot about his priorities. He greets guests warmly and asks whether they're having a great time, queries associates about their needs to better serve guests, and even picks up trash. Bill Marriott, chairman of Marriott Corporation, is passionate about the nobility of service to hotel associates and guests. It's not unusual for employees to be queried zealously about their experience by Marriott in the hotel lobby or elevator. Kurzweil and Marriott know that observation is more powerful than conversation--that what people see leaders do is more important than what they hear leaders say.