WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.174 --> 00:00:01.970 (gentle music) 2 00:00:01.970 --> 00:00:04.370 Collective learning is being powerfully enabled 3 00:00:04.370 --> 00:00:06.540 by today's digital technologies, 4 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:09.470 which augment human intuition with important data 5 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:10.990 that leaders can share, 6 00:00:10.990 --> 00:00:13.320 like how customers needs are changing. 7 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:15.870 The resulting learning within and between teams 8 00:00:15.870 --> 00:00:19.030 can deliver valuable benefits for organizations. 9 00:00:19.030 --> 00:00:20.227 But to reap those benefits, 10 00:00:20.227 --> 00:00:24.220 organizations need leaders who can excel on two fronts, 11 00:00:24.220 --> 00:00:27.360 creating the conditions conducive to collective learning, 12 00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:30.060 but also removing common roadblocks to learning 13 00:00:30.060 --> 00:00:32.600 that often arise as organizations grow. 14 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:34.510 line:15% This digital transformation revolution 15 00:00:34.510 --> 00:00:36.590 line:15% is gonna change the way that we have leadership, 16 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:39.270 line:15% but it's not gonna completely erase intuition. 17 00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:41.580 line:15% It's gonna enrich that intuition 18 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:43.720 with better data driven experiences. 19 00:00:43.720 --> 00:00:46.310 You can now have tools that you may be able to provide 20 00:00:46.310 --> 00:00:48.070 for your branch managers, 21 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:51.030 or for the people that are operating in your establishment 22 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:52.480 on a large organization. 23 00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:53.460 They can understand better 24 00:00:53.460 --> 00:00:55.100 where the customers are coming from, 25 00:00:55.100 --> 00:00:56.610 they can understand better what are the cycles 26 00:00:56.610 --> 00:00:58.000 that are driving your business, 27 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.030 what are the characteristics of the customers 28 00:01:00.030 --> 00:01:03.400 that drive any of the purchasing decisions 29 00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:05.450 that they're interested on trying to convert 30 00:01:05.450 --> 00:01:06.990 more people on and so forth. 31 00:01:06.990 --> 00:01:09.740 And that will allow them to experiment, to learn, 32 00:01:09.740 --> 00:01:13.140 and hopefully also to input those lessons back into a system 33 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:16.306 so other people in a similar position will learn. 34 00:01:16.306 --> 00:01:19.910 So the most important ability anybody needs to learn, 35 00:01:19.910 --> 00:01:21.456 is the ability to learn. 36 00:01:21.456 --> 00:01:24.470 (upbeat music) 37 00:01:24.470 --> 00:01:26.450 The best leaders know how to enable 38 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:28.460 collective learning in their teams. 39 00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:32.010 A few simple but powerful tactics can help. 40 00:01:32.010 --> 00:01:34.620 Not all learning happens in formal settings 41 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:36.040 like in courses and seminars. 42 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.440 One type of learning that I do like a lot, 43 00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:42.460 is the one that happens when experienced people collaborate 44 00:01:42.460 --> 00:01:45.370 with less experienced people in a task. 45 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:48.640 In that context, leadership emerge more naturally, 46 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:51.650 people are more inclined to listen and to understand 47 00:01:51.650 --> 00:01:54.960 the ones that have been there before and to rely on them. 48 00:01:54.960 --> 00:01:57.000 The transfer of knowledge is happening in a context 49 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.700 that is relevant, so therefore is more memorable. 50 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:03.450 As companies grow, sometimes they change in ways 51 00:02:03.450 --> 00:02:07.025 in which learning becomes counterproductive. 52 00:02:07.025 --> 00:02:09.130 [Pensive orchestration] 53 00:02:09.130 --> 00:02:11.330 Even with savvy leaders at the helm, 54 00:02:11.330 --> 00:02:14.200 collective learning can run into some serious roadblocks 55 00:02:14.200 --> 00:02:15.800 as a company grows. 56 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.620 That's because the interpersonal and team dynamics 57 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:21.210 that most influence learning change dramatically 58 00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:23.520 as an enterprise expands. 59 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:25.830 How can you avoid the most common roadblocks 60 00:02:25.830 --> 00:02:28.520 to collective learning in a growing company? 61 00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:32.700 Start by understanding what they are and why they arise. 62 00:02:32.700 --> 00:02:35.240 Sometimes as companies get bigger, 63 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:37.450 loyalty matters more than talent. 64 00:02:37.450 --> 00:02:38.610 There are alliances, 65 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:39.443 there's people sometimes 66 00:02:39.443 --> 00:02:41.540 that would not wanna share information. 67 00:02:41.540 --> 00:02:44.350 And sometimes individuals or even groups of individuals 68 00:02:44.350 --> 00:02:47.600 within a company start behaving in a way that is very useful 69 00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:49.610 to them, for their career goals, 70 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:52.720 but very counterproductive for the organization. 71 00:02:52.720 --> 00:02:56.150 So, to improve, it's important that companies 72 00:02:56.150 --> 00:02:59.820 can use their mistakes as learning opportunities. 73 00:02:59.820 --> 00:03:01.440 Now, to learn from your mistakes, 74 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:04.310 you need to be in an environment in which people can accept, 75 00:03:04.310 --> 00:03:05.920 and recognize those mistakes. 76 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:08.520 But also, you have to be in an environment 77 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:12.923 in which once those mistakes are acknowledged and accepted, 78 00:03:12.923 --> 00:03:15.750 the people can act in a way that is constructive. 79 00:03:15.750 --> 00:03:17.870 Because a lot of the times if you're in an environment 80 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:19.960 that is too political or a little bit hostile, 81 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:21.740 if a mistake happens, 82 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:23.670 people can become too accountable to them, 83 00:03:23.670 --> 00:03:25.690 and therefore, they're going to start hiding the mistakes 84 00:03:25.690 --> 00:03:26.720 and if they hide the mistakes, 85 00:03:26.720 --> 00:03:29.213 they're gonna be hiding the learning opportunities. 86 00:03:29.213 --> 00:03:31.720 [Upbeat music] 87 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:33.430 Growth can pose some obstacles 88 00:03:33.430 --> 00:03:34.940 to collective learning. 89 00:03:34.940 --> 00:03:36.780 But companies can still take action 90 00:03:36.780 --> 00:03:38.650 to break those obstacles down. 91 00:03:38.650 --> 00:03:40.400 Keeping employees with the right skills 92 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:42.980 and knowledge on board is a great first step. 93 00:03:42.980 --> 00:03:45.490 But don't adopt a one size fits all strategy 94 00:03:45.490 --> 00:03:47.520 for preventing brain drain. 95 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.410 The right strategy will depend a lot 96 00:03:49.410 --> 00:03:50.783 on the industry you're in. 97 00:03:52.930 --> 00:03:55.530 So to sustain knowledge in an organization, 98 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:57.400 it's really important to keep the people 99 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:58.710 that have that knowledge 100 00:03:58.710 --> 00:04:00.803 and the teams that sustain that knowledge. 101 00:04:01.640 --> 00:04:05.450 So, turnover of employees is really damaging, 102 00:04:05.450 --> 00:04:07.600 there's never a general answer because 103 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:10.490 there's a lot of heterogeneity across industries. 104 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:13.550 So the winning strategy for copper mining 105 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:14.860 might not be the winning strategy 106 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:16.360 for software manufacturing. 107 00:04:16.360 --> 00:04:18.090 For example, in a mining operation, 108 00:04:18.090 --> 00:04:20.360 discipline is extremely important. 109 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:22.720 Reliability is important. 110 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:27.020 Abiding by safety procedures is extremely important. 111 00:04:27.020 --> 00:04:29.820 Software manufacturing is quite different. 112 00:04:29.820 --> 00:04:31.500 You don't care if the software manufacturer 113 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.470 or the software developer shows up at 9:00am, 114 00:04:34.470 --> 00:04:36.180 or maybe at 10, or 11. 115 00:04:36.180 --> 00:04:38.310 You care that they have the great idea 116 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:40.620 that he's gonna help that piece of code run faster 117 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:42.100 and be more scalable. 118 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:43.980 You care about them working with others. 119 00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:46.790 You care also about them being creative, 120 00:04:46.790 --> 00:04:48.690 and maybe coming up with new products 121 00:04:48.690 --> 00:04:50.240 that you haven't thought about. 122 00:04:51.590 --> 00:04:53.660 So how can leaders unleash the power 123 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:56.860 of collective learning in their organizations? 124 00:04:56.860 --> 00:04:59.690 Pair experienced people with less experienced ones 125 00:04:59.690 --> 00:05:02.380 to tackle tasks, so they can learn from each other 126 00:05:02.380 --> 00:05:04.333 in an informal natural setting. 127 00:05:05.170 --> 00:05:07.700 Anticipate how collective learning can break down 128 00:05:07.700 --> 00:05:09.280 as your company grows. 129 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:12.160 For example, if people stop sharing information, 130 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.150 or start caring more about their career 131 00:05:14.150 --> 00:05:16.110 than the organization. 132 00:05:16.110 --> 00:05:18.390 Help people learn from mistakes 133 00:05:18.390 --> 00:05:20.410 and fine tune your company's culture 134 00:05:20.410 --> 00:05:22.630 so people who have the most valuable knowledge 135 00:05:22.630 --> 00:05:24.293 and skills stay on board. 136 00:05:25.475 --> 00:05:28.058 (upbeat music)