There are sentences you read sometimes that just push you back in your chair. You know what I’m talking about. You see just the right combination of words that convey a thought so profound you not only marvel at the intelligence behind it but the beauty of the simplicity. Words that, even though scant in number, ignite a firestorm of thinking – lightning across your neurons.
That happened when I read a post about – wait for it – BP and their “gaffe in the gulf.”
The entire post by @cvharquail is fabulous. But the real brilliance in the post is the headline. The headline was so good I didn’t need to read the entire post. The simple 11 word headline said everything contained in the next 1,093 words.
What were the words?
“BP’s Beyond Petroleum: Hypocrisy, or Caught in the Act of Learning?”
Actually it is only the last 6 that jumped out at me and made me stutter-step.
What a perfectly profound way of describing ALL growth – whether that be organizational as outlined in the Authentic Organizations post – or growth as individuals – or the growth of employees.
Caught in the Act of Learning
Learning looks a lot like failing most of the time.
I keep coming back to parenting when I think of managing. In essence we are “managing” our children through the various life stages. Part of that managing is allowing them to fail in order for them to learn. Our goal is to make sure we don’t allow catastrophic failure – don’t allow our kids to make mistakes that are permanent and/or they can’t recover from. I won’t go into detail – you know the ones I’m thinking of.
The picture at the right (click for bigger version) is my daughter at 23-months. What you can’t see in the picture is she has two black-eyes – the result of “mistakes” made when learning how to walk. We had a big bow window in our house and her hands and feet got out of synch a couple of times as she sashayed down the sill. No one wants a kid to get hurt – and we did try to prevent the injuries – but in reality, as parents, we let our kids fall in order to allow them to learn bipedalism. It’s what we need to do.
Managers Need to Learn To Discern
Most managers see failure as something to punish and reprimand – or at the very least, put a note in the file to bring up when the employee wants a ½-day off to go to a Phish concert.
But as a quality manager you need to know better. You need to be trained to take a step back and look at failures in the context of learning. Is it really a failure – something driven by malfeasance, spite, incompetence? Or did you really just catch someone in the act of learning?
Managers get paid to know the difference between true failure and acts of learning.
Think about it.
Paul, you’ve got me thinking on a Friday morning now. I am thinking about the frustrating times I’ve wondered “why” when things were not going right – was there an act of learning in progress that I missed. Or, on the other hand, were there times when I thought I saw an act of learning when wasn’t one anywhere close?
Yup… it’s tough – that’s why managers get the big money. One thing you can do is ask “why?”
Ask the person to explain the thinking process – that will help identify the cause – was it lack of understanding of the big picture, lack of training on a specific issues/process/machine – was it simply being lazy?
Understand the context for the behavior and the mistake – then you’ll know whether learning is the cause – or something else.
Paul -
Excellent post. The managing/parenting resonates with me, and I’ve actually learned a lot from ‘managing’ my young kids that has helped me be a better leader at work.
BP let their “kids” mess up in that permanent and can’t-recover-from way, regardless of whether it was malfeasance/spite/incompetence or an act of learning. As did America by allowing it’s corporate “kids” play with fire, lighter fluid, and fluffy, the household pet. A destructive combination that ended up blowing up in the faces of countless businesses, people, animals, sea-life, and ecosystems…
Is there room for learning when the stakes are so high?
Kelly, thanks for your comment.
The tragedy in the gulf (and it is a tragedy) is is the result of very complex systems that keep our way of life moving. I believe they should have had a plan in place to fix this – and they didn’t. If you take these kinds of risks I think you need to put in place a plan to mitigate them.
That said – the article I linked to wasn’t about the spill per se – it was about a company in transition – and about how they handled it.
My point in the post is that mistakes are mistakes but in many cases they are the result of learning and we need to discern when they are learning related.
You’re right in that the mistake in the gulf is a mistake with huge repercussions – and when you place bets like that you need to cover your ass. BP didn’t. That’s the bigger mistake.
To answer your question – yes – there is room for learning when the stakes are that high. And it also requires people to look at the recovery system that goes along with it. That was the mistake BP made – not enough effort in the “what if it goes wrong” category.
You came up with one of those great, eye-catching lines yourself Mr. Hebert:
“Learning looks a lot like failing most of the time.”
That’s a zinger worth quoting in the future.
In all fairness Trish – I think I read that somewhere before. I’m rarely good at creating those kinds of lines – just have a great memory.
But – until you hear otherwise feel free to use my name
YES. Difficult circumstances serve as a textbook of life for people.In time of prosperity,friends will be plenty ,In time of adversity,not one amongst twenty.
YES. Difficult circumstances serve as a textbook of life for people.In time of prosperity,friends will be plenty ,In time of adversity,not one amongst twenty.