Give Me That One Thing

If I were given a chance to seek one thing that I want more, it will be the much enhanced ability to learn and apply the learnings. This is one thing that I wish for everyone in my life and perhaps even in the whole world.

The differential ability to learn and apply the learning is what determines the performance, happiness, success and growth of every individual, organization, society and country. This learning has to be commensurate with the desires, aspirations, goals and vision of that person or entity. That can be in the area of love, relationships, happiness, peace, health, hobbies, money, material pleasures, progress, growth, success and so on.  It has to be aligned with the environment, culture, circumstances and need of the hour.

The learning has to be continuous. We are living in a highly dynamic and hyper connected world. More people are travelling & migrating to new lands. Developments in one end of the world and ensuing benefits get communicated to the rest of the world at a rapid pace. The expectations of the users are increasing day by day. What was an acceptable competence, behaviour and performance some time back is considered below par now. There is more and more clarity about responsibilities, performance indicators and behaviour expected from various roles and positions. Newer technologies and better processes also demand continuous learning.

I recall from my younger days when seniority and ‘not being bad’ in current position used to be enough to get promotions. In those days, after every promotion, one had to again go through a probation period to prove his eligibility through performance in new & higher role and position. Most of the people used to grow only in the same vertical where they started their career. This chosen career was also, mostly, in direct continuation of the education one got in graduation.

System today has changed. People are expected to shoulder higher responsibilities associated with the aspired position while in the current position itself. They are expected to contribute in areas beyond and beside their normal role. They are expected to irrefutably demonstrate the capabilities distinctly needed for the next position. Promotion now is more of a legitimization of increased responsibilities and contribution.

More and more people are changing the verticals and functions. Lateral growth is as exciting as vertical one. Every change requires advance and continuous learning. Naturally, no one wants to give a different assignment to a rookie. The decision making authorities want to be sure that the candidate has the required competence and frame of mind to deliver the desired performance.

I myself started from production, went to teaching for short time, then to materials management followed by a very long stint in maintenance. While in maintenance I got involved in technical and soft skills training. Next stop was conformity assessment / quality assurance. From there moved to business management of maintenance services. Started with electrical maintenance, added instrumentation & automation and finally added mechanical. Over a period of time, the fields of energy optimization and then condition monitoring & reliability improvement got added. Later with change of job, operations management got added to my portfolio besides spares business. In these 8.5 years, got a chance to serve & learn about at least 10 more verticals in industry, infrastructure & energy sectors besides my longest served sector of petrochemicals.

The need for continuous learning is not only in professional world. We need to continuously learn in personal arena also. Expectations from and requirements in childhood, youth, post education phase, pre marriage days, post married life and after parenthood are totally different. As our children grow, we need to know about and learn about many more things.

Another important area needed continuous learning and evolution is relationships. At work we have to learn to consciously manage relations with superiors, peers, team members and inter related functions. We need to learn networking. In personal life, the relations with parents, siblings and friends keep changing. Introduction of spouse and children brings forth a whole lot of new relationships. Each relation is unique yet dynamic.

The need for continuous learning also comes with change of location or travelling. We need to learn different languages, practices, customs and cultures. We need to learn about the infrastructure and facilities there. We automatically get lots of information which becomes part of our database and might prove useful in some other context.

Whether we want it or not, try or not, we are continuous receiving lot of information from the environment. Television, news papers, social media, discussions at work & in personal space keeps exposing us to a large quantum of new or different information and messages.

Still, my own observation is that very few people are aware of the quantum and variety of learning they need to do in order to achieve the quality of life they aspire. Many people still believe that being good at the present requirement is enough to ensure their growth.

Why is it so?

One factor is lack of feed forward. Most of the times we give and receive feedback retrospectively. Where were we good or bad? What could we have done more or differently? But very rarely we give or receive advance and explicit intimation or information about the requirements or expectations. In school and college we study against a prescribed and published syllabus. Whereas in professional and personal life, we rarely come across a well defined or documented curriculum.

I have rarely come across a person who wants to perform badly, act wrongly and be a failure. In most of the cases, they are not aware of the expectations from them.

Second factor is the absence of objective evaluation of competence, attitude or behaviour. Most organizations still follow subjective evaluation methods. Personality assessment is still not widely prevalent and in fact not even accessible.

Third factor is laziness, inertia and short sightedness. Conscious learning requires effort. It requires sacrificing certain immediate pleasures.  Some short sighted believe that once they have secured a job, the need for learning is over. Some start to learn new or more things but are not able to sustain the interest.

Fourth factor is fatalism. Some people wrongly believe that whatever is in their fate will come to them automatically. This is not true. Even if everything is pre-ordained, that too can come only with the help of right effort. And right effort requires right competence, attitude and behaviour.

Many believe that it is someone else’s responsibility to teach them. They forget that the world and every one in it can only provide learning opportunities. It is an individual’s responsibility to learn. That is why in a class taught by the same teacher, all students score different marks. Same situation has different impact on various individuals.

Some people are not able to differentiate between information and knowledge. They keep reading, hearing & assimilating lots of things. However, anything is knowledge or competence only is it is applicable in course of our living.

Some people do want to learn but do not get sufficient support. While there are enough institutes available for formal education, very few proper institutes are available for continuous learning and development. Whatever is available is so costly that most people can’t afford it.

I also feel that there is a dearth of good teachers, coaches and leaders. The quality of learning opportunities being generated is not enough. A good coach can help individual realize and unlock their true potential. A coach can help people improve their learning ability. A leader is able to inspire people to aspire more and stretch to realize that higher aspiration.

I strongly believe that if we have to continually improve the quality of life available to each one of us, we must collectively create an atmosphere that demands, encourages and facilitates higher and accelerated learning. At the same time, each one of us has to wake to the need of continually enhancing our competence, behaviour and application.