10 Key Behaviors for Learning in Organizations

Learning behaviors are all tied together by just one thread: learning with other people.

Gaining new competencies through “deep learning” is not the same thing as the way you learned in school. Nor is it the same result that you gain from doing a lot of research on a problem and developing an understanding of the problem. Furthermore, there is no real correlation between understanding a problem and being able to resolve it. In contrast, deep learning lasts and is a way of being, a mindset and an orientation. It’s absolutely necessary to put deep learning front and center because the internet has increased close-mindedness and made profound, deep learning very difficult and sometimes impossible. In Chris Argyris’ well known HBR article, “Teaching smart people how to learn,” the author points out that success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning (even more today than when he wrote this), but most people don’t know how to learn.”

What starts you on the way to learn a new competency is the experience of “constructive disorientation.” The strong sense that something’s wrong, not working, could work better—or just very frustrating. And you believe there must be a way to resolve that issue. That “something wrong” has your brain ruminating, focused on the issue and working hard. In short, frustration is the spark for learning, critical reflection it’s engine, and relationships are the fuel.

Of these three issues, the one that’s often ignored is the role of other people in making learning happen. There is a terrific amount of theorizing and research about learning with other people. Jon Wergin of the University of Nebraska has focused on all the major learning issues in his fascinating new book, Deep Learning in a disorienting world. Since this is the kind of book most business people, except for the HR folk, won’t pick up, here are the 10 key behaviors—with my brief notes added...

1. Human nature grows from within, but it must be completed through relationships. That’s John Dewey, who many of you know, had more impact on education than just about any other person in history. He brought the notion of pragmatism to education, radically and permanently reorienting education from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. In other words, Dewey was the creator of the nuts and bolts of learning. What he’s revealing, bluntly, is that you’re both inept and inhuman without quality relationships.
2. Real transformation is most likely to occur and is most powerful when it’s followed by dialog with one or more other people. In other words, no matter how effective we think our change has been, interaction and feedback from others is necessary to confirm, to improve and even to reject. Why? See #3...
3. Disorientation and even frustrations that are not in the presence of others can make existing beliefs and behaviors more powerful and more resistant to change. What happens without human interaction is that we keep the same lens on experience and processes—often failing to recognize that there are other lens, other ways of understanding. And rather than challenging our mindset, we frame a problem the same way we’ve always framed it, missing the difference and forcing it back into the old model even though there is no real fit.
4. Your identity (belief in or concept of self) is always negotiated with conscious and unconscious interaction with others. So that interactionally developed “self” is a major factor in motivation to learn. Thus, the notion of a “real you” is pure nonsense. Furthermore, the person who grew up in a family that always sent negative messages will often find growth very difficult. The family that sent constructive messages to the children will make growth a normal experience. The messages, negative or positive, consistently received by the child and adolescent, will tend to have great power over behavior.
5. Deep relationships are an important and even necessary part of self-actualization and learning. People who are isolated and overly independent have far more difficulty learning than those who have deep relationships. Relationships require constant development and maintenance. And without mentors and sponsors, deep learning can become profoundly difficult and we will revert to old, often inadequate patterns.
6. “Relatedness,” the feeling of connection with significant others is one of the “three pillars” of self-determination theory. The richer and more secure the connection, paradoxically, the more independent and freer the person is to explore, grow, risk, fail and transform. The opposite is also true: the less secure the connections, the less the person is able to explore and grow. Risk and failure in such settings become frightening and limiting.
7. Relational affirmation is a key pathway to a person’s best self. That assumes that the affirmation is coming from a person who is trusted, authentic, and has related expertise, all of which makes the judgment valid and motivational for the receiver.
8. Adaptive learning in organizations requires a communal understanding of the adaptive challenge and how that challenge will be addressed. In other words, learning must be contextual. It must fit the work and organizational situation. We tend not to learn outside of significant curiosity and context demand
9. In both problem-based learning and action learning, the learning occurs in groups, with group members responsible for stimulating, informing and challenging others. There is very little difference between problem-based and action learning. Problem-based begins with a complex, ill-structured problem for which a solution is unknown. Think about this kind of issue as an inadequate diagnosis coming out of medicine, in which some symptoms are known, but the problem not diagnosed adequately or fully. Action-based grew out of business from situations in which current processes are inadequate or no longer working. Both kinds use groups, depend on some prior knowledge and engage in questioning and dealing with assumptions and known definitions until the group arrives at an agreeable solution. Business uses groups—with an expert facilitator--even more than medical organizations.
10. Reflection on practice and process is most powerful when done with other practitioners. This becomes especially true when protocols and processes are new and/or especially creative. Other experts are highly useful for analysis, alternative perspectives and confirmation. Reflection is a learned behavior, basic to all learning.

Of all the necessary issues about learning, I chose to emphasize the importance of learning from others, not just because most don’t use these well-research facts and truths, but also because many are completely unaware of them. Our gross individualistic culture gets all the attention. But the fact is that the rampant cultural individualism and business and political libertarianism are pathological myths. They reject the inherent relational nature of the person. And by doing so, they limit the person’s potential for learning, growing and success.

I consider three or more to be a group, and two, the receiver and the sender, as dyadic learning. Just about all strengths have a downside, but three can inhibit group learning and sometimes prevent it entirely. The three most serious learning traps are the lack of belief diversity, the failure to criticize suggestions and consider alternatives (groupthink), and the lack of consideration of power differentials. As a general rule, professionals tend to skip over or ignore the degree to which unequal access to financial, cultural or social capital affects opportunities to learn deeply.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s view that people must be either self-reliant or conformist is a false dichotomy. Living effectively in the world requires not only how to live with others, but also how to learn in the presence of others.

**John F. Wergin, Deep Learning in a Disorienting World. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2020.

**An earlier favorite on the subject, from a slightly different angle, is the college text by David W Johnson and Frank P Johnson, Group Theory and Group Skills, 11^th edition coming out in June, 2021. The Johnsons have always been ahead of the learning curve—and they are very practical, providing options that can be put into practice immediately.