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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Institute a culture of learning to boost organizational performance and agility What makes organizations successful? Today, most successful companies are learning organizations. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to join their ranks and bring your organization up to the head of the class. This book is a practical, actionable guide on how to boost performance, successfully manage change, and innovate more quickly. Learning organizations are composed of engaged, motivated employees who continually seek improvement, which leads to organizational agility and the ability to innovate ahead of the curve. When you encourage learning at every level, from the intern to the C suite, you gain a more highly skilled workforce with a greater ability to act in any situation. Building an Innovative Learning Organization shows you how to create this culture in your organization, with detailed explanations, practical examples, and step-by-step instructions so you can get started right away. Written by a recognized thought leader in the training industry, this informative and insightful guide is your roadmap to a more effective organization. You will discover how to: * Attract, retain, and motivate the best employees * Become a more innovative and agile organization * Create a culture of continuous self-improvement * Encourage learning at all levels and translate it into action Learning and education doesn't end at graduation--it's a lifelong process that keeps you relevant, informed, and better able to achieve your goals. These same benefits apply at the organizational level, making the culture self-sustaining: learning organizations attract top workers, who drive the organization forward, which attracts more top workers. If you want the best people, you have to be their best option. Building an Innovative Learning Organization gives you a blueprint for building a culture of learning, for a stronger, more robust organization.
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CONTENTS
Cover
Praise for Building an Innovative Learning Organization
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
What Successful People Have in Common
What Successful Organizations Have in Common
About This Book
Chapter 1: Why Become a Learning Organization?
The Learning Advantage
A Framework for Building a Learning Organization
Chapter 2: Building a Learning Culture
How to Recognize a Learning Culture
How to Build a Learning Culture
The Right Leader
The Right People
The Right Behaviors
The Right Resources
Learn How You Are Doing
Chapter 3: Developing a Learning Plan
The Components of a Learning Plan
Form a Team to Develop Your Learning Plan
Chapter 4: Setting Learning Goals
All Goals Are Not Created Equal
How to Set Learning Goals
Chapter 5: Creating Competency Models
Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSAs)
Four Types of Competency Models
Competencies for Today and Tomorrow
Developing Competency Models
Using Your Competency Models
Examples of Competency Models
Chapter 6: Selecting the Right Learning Methods
Formal versus Informal Learning
Five Primary Learning Methods
What's the Most Effective Learning Method?
What Drives the Selection of Learning Methods?
Putting the Learning to Use
Chapter 7: Assessing the Results of Your Learning Plan
Key Assessment Questions
Assessment Methodologies
Chapter 8: Managing Your Organization's Learning Operation
The Components of a Learning Operation
The Role of a Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
The Role of a Learning Management Service
Chapter 9: Call to Action!
Become an Activist in the Service of Learning
Be an Education Activist
Learning from Experts: Excerpts from Sarder TV Interviews
Authors and Educators
Learning Managers and Learning Professionals
Partial List of Chief Executive Officers, Chief Learning Officers, Chief Information Officers, Authors, and Thought Leaders Interviewed by Sarder TV
References and Resources
References
Useful Websites
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Chapter 1
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Praise for Building an Innovative Learning Organization
“To survive and succeed in today's turbo-charged environment, organizations must not only learn, but innovatively learn. Sarder's book incorporates the best ideas of organizational leaders from around the world and skillfully crafts them into a highly practical narrative that guides and enables readers to build their own innovative learning organizations. This book will soon become a classic in the organizational learning arena.”
—Dr. Michael Marquardt, President of the World Institute for Action Learning, Professor at George Washington University, and author of 25 bestselling books including Building the Learning Organization and Leading with Questions
“Learning with and from others has always delivered optimal value for me. Building an Innovative Learning Organization takes the best experiences and expertise from leading practitioners and makes them available to everyone. The content of this book encompasses hundreds of years of valuable insights from successful leaders who have not only built highly successful learning organizations, but have been able to enhance and sustain them through complex, turbulent times. Reading this book will deliver similar if not more benefit than the opportunity to network with some of the best minds in the learning field. You owe it to yourself to include this on your upcoming reading list.”
—Karen Kocher, Chief Learning Officer at Cigna
“Competitive advantage on the business landscape takes many forms. Thought leaders have argued that it is innovation, while others argue it is leadership. Irrespective of the form of competitive advantage that you believe in, there is a singular powerful source for it. The true heartbeat of competitive advantage is learning. Learning as catalyst to competitive advantage is not simply the acquisition of knowledge. It is the ability to live the learning in real time, apply that learning to drive exceptional performance and then to teach that application to the rest of the organization. This caliber of organizational learning is sustainable and saleable. When an organization can do this with unconscious competence, they are poised to win. Russell Sarder, our most passionate CEO of Learning, understands this because he has lived it as a lifelong learner in his business and in his life. His new book, Building an Innovative Learning Organization, takes us deep into the heartbeat of learning to deliver greater value for our businesses while we grow greater value within ourselves by living the learning. Sarder is a radical learner and a profoundly passionate teacher on an epic learning journey. Join him. Your learning will never be the same and your competitive advantage will have an invincible heartbeat.”
—Roseanna DeMaria, Former Chief Learning Office at Merrill Lynch and Former CLO at NYU SCPS Leadership & Human Capital Management
“Sarder's point of view on the connection between learning, innovation, and business reinvention is a must-read for business leaders. His research and conclusions make a compelling argument for lifelong learning for both individuals and organizations. Bravo!”
—David DeFilippo, EdD, Former CLO of BNY Mellon
“Building a learning organization requires enormous changes for individuals, processes, and culture. Succeeding in this challenging venture requires passion, intelligence, and insight. Those three qualities are illustrated abundantly and painstakingly in Russell Sarder's valuable guide, which makes good use of his hard-earned experience.”
—T.J. Elliott, Chief Learning Officer at Education Testing Service (ETS)
“Is the light on? Is anyone at home? As the book cover symbolizes, leaders at all levels need to be alert and aware that learning will keep them from losing in today's global ever-changing economy. Blockbuster and Circuit City didn't learn—and are no more. Learning is no longer a nice-to-have benefit, it is a must-have business skill needed at all levels in the organization. Good ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, and in the globalized economy, all ideas and perspectives are needed. To a coherent overview of the technologies and real business challenges which leaders need to embrace, Russell Sarder adds structures for building a true learning organization, based on his own experience with NetCom Learning, where he is walking the talk. Read this book. Be sure your own light is on, be sure all the people in your organization are aware of the necessity of learning for success, and your organization has the opportunity to live on into the future.”
—Robert M. Burnside, Partner and Chief Learning Officer, Ketchum
“Innovation. Learning. Leadership. These are powerful words too often rendered vapid by their manipulation and commodification, terms that are overused in rhetoric and underrepresented in reality. Yet, in my interactions with Russell Sarder—in his words, his teachings, his guidance, his mentorship—I have come to observe a man who not only pays lip-service to the notion of building a thriving learning organization but does the work himself every single day, modeling by his actions what that looks like and what is still possible. His newest book, Building an Innovative Learning Organization, is culled from his years of experience ‘walking the talk,’ helping those of us committed to the ideal of lifelong learning become more productive, thoughtful, inspiring, and ultimately more successful leaders. He aspires every day to devour every morsel of knowledge and wisdom available to him, and this book represents yet another effort to ensure that his commitment to learning is not simply self-interested but is shared with those around him to build better businesses, better lives, and hopefully, a better world.”
—Daniel Meyer, EdM, CLO of Academica Virtual Education
“I am extremely excited that Russell took the time to write book on such an important topic. By drawing on his own experience in building NetCom Learning as well as the 150 Sarder TV interviews and beyond, he offers curious readers highly practical and interesting principles coupled with strong stories. His framework on how to build a learning organization resonates with my experience and certainly that of BRAC. BRAC, which was dubbed a learning organization in the 1980s, is proud to be a partner of Russell's, and I was honored to be part of Sarder TV. I applaud his initiative!”
—Susan Davis, Founder, President, and CEO at BRAC USA
“Innovative people are dreamers, at odds with the unspoken dictum of so many companies that ‘it is better to do nothing than to do something wrong.’ Innovative, creative people do what our first-grade teachers warned us not to do, draw outside the box. They look upon organizations like a field just snowed on where every action can leave a visible mark. They embrace change and often risk failure. They are invested in continuous learning and lessons learned. [But] public, private, and government organizations all too often frown upon their ideas. [Yet] organizations that adopt the mantra of education and learning, ‘dreamers, seekers, explorers are all welcome here,’ are positioned for growth. For without continuous innovation and learning organizations are doomed to stagnation and ultimately failure. A challenge in this century is how to learn from our innovations. Russell explores these issues in an eloquent and innovative way and encourages us to draw outside the line.”
—Atti Riazi, CIO at United Nations
“Russell Sarder's passion for learning is genuine, contagious, and oozes off every page of Building an Innovative Learning Organization. This manifesto of ideas and recommendations on how leaders can, and must, build learning organizations is the right book for the right time. I am confident the book will change millions of lives for the better by inspiring countless numbers of chief executive officers to embrace learning as a primary corporate value and engage young people through learning programs predicated on meaningful internships, apprenticeships, and mentorships. Winston Churchill once said, ‘Empires of the future will be empires of the mind.’ Building an Innovative Learning Organization is the road map on how to build those empires.”
—Gary J. Beach, Publisher Emeritus of CIO Magazine and author of The U. S. Technology Skills Gap
“Russell Sarder is an innovative and ambitious businessman, as well as a voracious and inquisitive learner. Given his commitment to business and scholarship, it's a pleasure to see that he's dedicated a book to some of his most meaningful findings. Enjoy his insights, as this compilation is a derivative of hundreds of conversations with deep thinkers and exhilarating doers.”
—Daniel Leidl, PhD, Coauthor of Team Turnarounds
“Russell brings to life that one thing business has forgotten—learning. Learning is the core of every project, every business plan, every enterprise. The problem with our world is that we tend to see innovation as a big bang thing, a giant flash. In reality, innovation is like water on a rock, a steady, diligent process of perfecting that nurtures authentic products, bringing real value to customers and companies. It is like that famous story of the meeting of Alexander the Great and the Indian ascetic. One sees glory and success as a destination, the other as merely a journey.”
—Hindol Sengupta, Author of Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship Is Revolutionizing the World's Largest Democracy and Editor-at-Large of Fortune India
“Russell delivers sage advice and insight, cultivated by years of practical experience and engagement with many of the most influential business people of our time. The book is a gem.”
—David Hershfield, Chief Product Officer at Auctionata
“Russell Sarder's Building an Innovative Learning Organization is a seminal treatise on the importance of organizational learning written by a world-class entrepreneur. In order to succeed, it's not enough to have basic compliance-driven training initiatives. The culture of learning must suffuse every part of the organization, from the mailroom to the executive suite. Russell eloquently makes the case that learning has the capacity to flatten management hierarchies, encourage collaboration, and help people identify mistakes. An organization that promotes learning is setting itself up for success in a competitive world. Russell's love of learning and intellectual curiosity permeates every page of this brilliant book.”
—Kabir Sehgal, New York Times bestselling author of Coined: The Rich Life of Money and How its History Shapes Us
“Russell Sarder's latest book taps into the most basic human instinct—our ability to learn and adapt—and has intersected that instinct with the technologies of our modern age. Today's organizations' most existential threat is to be made redundant by disruptive technologies. Building an Innovative Learning Organization is the fulcrum that empowers organizations to harness the power of today's learning technologies against that threat. If you move a cannon by an inch, it changes the trajectory of the cannonball by a mile. If you read Russell Sarder's latest book, it will forever change the trajectory of your organization. Read it, be changed and more than survive—thrive!
—Vincent Suppa, Founder of HR Avant-Garde and Adjunct Professor at NYU
“The world is facing unprecedented challenges and megatrends—global demographic and global power shifts, urbanization, climate change, resource constraints, and new levels of transparency and disruption to business models driven by new, ubiquitous technologies and data. Only the most flexible organizations will make the shifts necessary to make their companies more resilient and help the world meet new challenges. Russell Sarder's Building an Innovative Learning Organization will help companies prepare for a new, volatile future by teaching them why it's so important to change, making a strong case for putting learning at the heart of an organization, and giving leaders frameworks and tools to get them there.”
—Andrew Winston, Author of Big Pivot, Green to Gold, and Green Recovery
“How can your company thrive in the midst of rapid change? In Building an Innovative Learning Organization, Russell Sarder explains why we must expect and embrace change, and why lifelong learning is the key to continued success. He provides an essential framework for both job seekers hoping to work for the best companies in the world, and for executives who must stay ahead of the curve in a global, borderless business environment. This book will enable you and your organization to capitalize on emerging trends and develop an ongoing learning plan that drives your competitive advantage.
—Dorie Clark, author of Stand Out and Reinventing You and adjunct professor at Duke University, Fuqua School of Business
“Russell's commitment to advancing his enterprises is eclipsed only by his deep and passionate desire to see people and organizations better themselves through meaningful learning. Building upon his first book, Russell does a tremendous job of identifying a well-grounded framework for organizations and individuals. My hat is off to the man once again as he continues to push all of us to think, learn, and grow in new ways.”
—Russ Edelman, CEO at Corridor Company, Inc. and Coauthor of Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office
“Long before he became known as the ‘CEO of Learning’ and the host of Sarder TV, Russell Sarder was a well-known entrepreneur and the charismatic CEO of his own training company, NetCom Learning, where I taught many Project Management and Train-The-Trainer courses. Working with Russell, I was immediately impressed by his intellectual curiosity, and his keen interest in listening to others to learn what makes them succeed. I think these are key qualities that make him so effective in his interview series for Sarder TV, where he excels at bringing out the best in his interview subjects. I'm sure that the concepts, tips, and quotes captured from his Sarder TV interviews will help training managers improve the learning environments for their people, with the result of improving the efficiencies and profitability of their companies.”
—Jeff Furman, Author of The Project Management Answer Book
“Russell Sarder's love of learning is a contagious energy that gets into the bones of anyone who encounters him. Sarder TV was built on the principles of the new economy…the Love Economy. Sarder's approach of trade and reciprocity is as ancient as it is new. Today learning isn't optional. No longer will we find professionals who have not taken a course or read a nonfiction book since college. Russell Sarder sees the Internet and video as a way to share stories and some of the key learnings of thought leaders from all walks of business, the best practices that have built empires. Rather than reinventing the wheel, Sarder's book gives you fuel to fire up your life and your profession.”
—Karin Bellantoni, President at BluePrint SMS
Building an Innovative Learning Organization
A Framework to Build a Smarter Workforce, Adapt to Change, and Drive Growth
Russell Sarder
Cover image: laiby / iStockphoto
Cover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2016 by Russell Sarder. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Peter Senge interview excerpts © 2015 Peter Senge.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Sarder, Russell, 1973- author.
Title: Building an innovative learning organization : a framework to build a smarter workforce, adapt to change, and drive growth / Russell Sarder.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015036835 | LCCN 2015048173 (ebook) | ISBN 978-1-119-15745-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-119-15746-5 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-119-15747-2 (ePub)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational learning. | Organizational change.
Classification: LCC HD58.82 .S27 2016 | LCC HD58.82 (ebook) | DDC 658.3/124–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036835
Dedication
For my parents, who raised me to become a passionate lifelong learner.
Preface
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.1
—Henry Ford
When people discover that I launched NetCom Learning at the ripe old age of 21, they often ask, “Russell, how did a computer scientist from Bangladesh end up starting a business? How did a guy without any business experience become CEO of a successful company?”
“For one reason,” I respond. “My love of learning.”
My passion for learning is the dominant force in my life. My parents raised me to be curious, to read, and to ask questions, and in the process they helped instill in me a deep understanding that learning is the key to a successful, satisfying life. It is this passion for learning that took me from a middle-class boyhood in Bangladesh to my success as a leading American CEO.
Today I see that without realizing it, I built a framework for learning that has helped me focus on what I need to know and allows me to keep growing and developing new skills. I set learning goals and identified the competencies I needed, and then determined the best methods for mastering those competencies. I surrounded myself with mentors and hired coaches; took courses in sales, marketing, communication, accounting and finance, leadership and management, and more; and read everything I could get my hands on. I applied everything I learned, using my business as a laboratory to test new skills and concepts.
As I developed more and more knowledge and expertise, I discovered that I could apply my personal learning framework to my business. By developing and implementing a learning plan that encompasses all levels of the organization, we have become a learning organization that is able to respond quickly to change and distinguish itself from the competition.
I believe that learning is the key to success for everyone and that everyone is capable of continuing to learn and grow throughout their lives. Dr. Edward Hess says it clearly in the title of his book: Learn or Die. The book is about learning organizations, but the statement is true for everyone, everywhere. Lifelong learning offers us the solutions to so many of the world's problems. Learning lifts people out of poverty, as evidenced by the success of effective learning programs for disadvantaged populations in developing countries and inner-city communities. Learning is the means by which we will find a way to save our environment before it's too late. Learning from our mistakes is how we keep from making those same mistakes again and again.
What Successful People Have in Common
There are a number of things that are important to success. Intellectual curiosity is important. People who are motivated and want to do well. But people who are self aware and understand their strengths and their weaknesses and work to improve themselves, who put people around them who help them play to their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses, make a big difference. Learning is a huge part of success. I say this to every young professional who is beginning a first job. More important than anything is learning.2
—Hank Paulson
The people we seek to emulate—people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Mahatma Gandhi—have certain characteristics in common: They are passionate about what they believe in, they work hard and stay focused on their goals, they are confident and competitive—and they are all lifelong learners.
But learning is not only vital for success in life and business; learning also makes us mentally stronger. When we learn, the connections between our brain cells grow stronger, and new pathways are etched into our brains. As Dr. Frances Jensen, a neuroscientist and author with Amy Ellis Nutt of The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults, told NPR's Terry Gross in 2015, “The whole process of learning and memory is thought to be a process of building stronger connections between your brain cells. Your brain cells create new networks when you learn new tasks and new skills and new memories. Where brain cells connect are called synapses. And the synapse actually gets strengthened the more you use it.”3
What Successful Organizations Have in Common
If you are not learning, you're not moving forward and you can't be competitive. You can't even see what's coming towards you. For instance, what good is it if you're building the best buggy whip for a horse and buggy when cars are the disruptive innovation that's on the landscape? If you truly are committed to leading your organization and taking it to the next level, you have to always be making sure you're not building the best buggy whip.4
—Roseanna DeMaria
Successful organizations, such as Google, General Electric, the U.S. military, and Columbia University, also have certain characteristics in common: a flexible business model, a strong leadership team, sufficient resources, a clear understanding of their market segment, a clear focus on what drives profitability, and a clear understanding of their purpose—why the organization exists. They share another vital characteristic as well: They are learning organizations, able to remain competitive and continue growing in a rapidly changing global environment. They value, promote, and support learning at all levels and have learning plans and systems that enable them to translate that learning into action.
Learning organizations are better able to compete because they are more able to innovate and respond quickly to change in a world where change is one of the few things we can count on. The leaders of those organizations know that they can't move forward by standing still, and they can't pull ahead of the pack by doing things the same old way, year after year. Not satisfied with the status quo, they are constantly seeking ways to improve their products and services and differentiate themselves from the competition.
One reason that learning organizations gain the advantage is that they can attract, retain, engage, and motivate the best employees. Even during the recent recession, when many thousands of people were looking for work, organizations found it difficult to recruit good employees—and that is still the case. Learning organizations recognize that few people come equipped with all the necessary skills; instead, they seek employees who are willing and able to learn, have open minds, and are unafraid of change. Learning organizations also understand that today's best and brightest want more from their jobs than the security of a paycheck. Instead, they constantly seek opportunities to grow and develop their abilities.
About This Book
In this book, I share the framework that has helped both my organization and me succeed. You'll discover:
Why learning organizations have the advantage in our rapidly globalizing, highly technological world; the key changes that affect an organization's ability to succeed; the characteristics of a learning organization; and a framework to guide your journey toward becoming a learning organization (
Chapter 1
)
The importance of an organizational culture that values and supports learning at every level, how to recognize a learning culture, and what it takes to build a culture that attracts the best employees and helps the organization to continually improve (
Chapter 2
)
How a learning plan helps you make your vision of a learning organization a reality, the components of a learning plan that serves as the foundation for your organization's transformation, and how to develop an effective learning plan that ensures your learning programs and activities are aligned throughout the organization (
Chapter 3
)
The importance of developing learning goals at all levels of the organization, from senior executives to entry-level staff; how to create a goals cascade that aligns organizational, team, and individual learning goals with the organization's values, mission, and strategic goals; and questions to ask when setting learning goals (
Chapter 4
)
What competency models are and how they serve as the foundation for recruiting, planning learning programs, and more; the four primary types of competencies an organization needs; the ways in which competency models are changing to address the needs of twenty-first-century organizations; and how to develop competency models for your organization and use them to assess learning needs (
Chapter 5
)
An overview of the different ways in which people learn, the value of informal as well as formal learning, the five primary learning methods for helping people strengthen competencies and develop new competencies, criteria for selecting the best learning methods to meet individual and organizational goals, and ways to help ensure that people are able to apply what they learn (
Chapter 6
)
The crucial role of ongoing evaluation to the success of your organization's learning plan, an overview of evaluation methodologies, how to develop measurement criteria, and questions for selecting the right evaluation methods (
Chapter 7
)
How a comprehensive system for managing your learning operation helps ensure that your learning plans and programs remain aligned with your mission, vision, and business needs; how such a system keeps everything running smoothly and lets you respond quickly to change; the components of an effective learning operation; the roles of a CLO and a learning management service; and how to select the right learning technologies from a dizzying array of options (
Chapter 8
)
Why the ability to succeed and thrive depends increasingly on not what people know, but how well they are able to learn; what you can do to promote learning in your organization, in your community, and throughout the world; and how to become a lifelong learner yourself (
Chapter 9
)
About the Sarder Learning Framework
This book is not a scientific tome or an academic treatise. My learning framework, which has been tried and tested in my own company and with many of my clients, is based on real-world experience and knowledge gleaned from a vast array of sources, including:
Respected authors, such as Peter Senge, Michael Marquardt, and Edward Hess
CEOs and CLOs from Fortune 500 companies
More than 50,000 NetCom Learning clients, who come from a vast range of organizations, including AOL, Coca-Cola, United Healthcare, Comcast, and the Walt Disney company
Our NetCom Learning partners, who include Microsoft, Oracle, Autodesk, and Adobe Systems
Learning professionals, including the more than 1,000 learning professionals who have taught classes for us over the past 17 years
Learning from Others
My constant search for opportunities to learn from others led me to start Sarder TV, an online media company that provides exclusive interviews with more than 150 leaders, authors, and learning professionals who share their insights about the ways in which learning is key to success. Because I believe so strongly in the power of learning from others, I have included excerpts from many of those interviews in this book. My hope is that sharing what others have learned will help you build a stronger organization, one that is able to succeed in the world of today and tomorrow.
—Russell Sarder, October 2015
Notes
1.
“Henry Ford Quotes.” BrainyQuote. Accessed August 21, 2015.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford103927.html
.
2.
“What Made You Successful?” By Russell Sarder. Sarder TV video, 1:10. July 1, 2014.
http://sardertv.com/made-successful-hank-paulson
.
3.
“Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone and Should Protect Their Brains.”
Fresh Air
, NPR video, 38:12. January 28, 2015.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/28/381622350/why-teens-are-impulsive-addiction-prone-and-should-protect-their-brains
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4.
“Why Building Learning Organization?” By Russell Sarder. Sarder TV video, 6:15. April 20, 2013.
http://sardertv.com/building-learning-organization
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Chapter 1Why Become a Learning Organization?
With tougher competition, technology advances, and shifting customer preferences, it's more crucial than ever that companies become learning organizations. In a learning organization, employees continually create, acquire, and transfer knowledge—helping their company adapt to the unpredictable faster than rivals can.1
—David Garvin
We constantly hear about the success of Google, which has topped Fortune's best companies list for the past five years, where job applicants beat down the door to get in. We may not know as much about the other companies on the magazine's Best 100 list, such as Allianz Life Insurance Company, SAS, Edward Jones, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. What we do know is that, like any successful organization, for-profit or nonprofit, corporate or private sector, those organizations have this in common: They understand the value of learning.
The fact is that organizations don't succeed by staying the same. The landscape is littered with companies like once hugely successful Blockbuster. When Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September of 2010, the prevailing theory was that it had been put out of business by Netflix or was a victim of the recession. In reality, Blockbuster put itself out of business. It went under because it failed to keep up with the changes in technology that gave customers options for the way they accessed film entertainment. Decision makers said, “Blockbuster is never going to go out of business. The Internet is too weak, too slow. There's not enough bandwidth.” Yet, in the same difficult economy, Netflix thrived. The reason? As technology and customer preferences changed, Netflix looked ahead and was able to adapt.
Those lessons are everywhere. In Good to Great to Gone: The 60 Year Rise and Fall of Circuit City, Alan Wurtzel, son of Circuit City founder Sam Wurtzel, describes the collapse of one of the first and most successful big-box stores. At its peak, Circuit City had more than 700 stores and annual sales of $12 billion. But facing growing competition from upstarts such as Best Buy, Circuit City's management stubbornly held on to the business practices that had made it successful, unable or unwilling to change its business model to meet its customers' changing needs.
It's happening today. Amazon.com and Google hope to disrupt the package delivery business with drones that can drop packages right on your doorstep, bypassing UPS and FedEx. The Wall Street Journal quoted a UPS representative who said, “There remain numerous reasons why drones are not a feasible delivery method at this time.”2 No one denies that drone technology isn't there yet and regulations still need to be put in place. But it seems more than possible that those obstacles will be overcome sooner rather than later, and when that happens, today's package-shipping companies could very well find themselves going the way of Blockbuster.
It could happen to us all.
Key Changes That Affect Success.
Change comes in various forms. Our business models and strategies, which may have worked just fine for years, may no longer keep us relevant in the face of a global economy and changing customer preferences. We can no longer count on a stable, malleable workforce, because today's workers are quick to change jobs in search of new opportunities. Technology is changing so rapidly that we almost have to run in place to keep up, and we must keep up to stay ahead.
Changes in Technology
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without…talking about the other.3
—Bill Gates
Seven Technology Trends
In a recent survey, GlobalWebIndex found that adults now spend close to two hours a day on social media.4 Google processes more than 1 billion search queries every day. Every minute, more than 100 hours of footage are uploaded to YouTube—that's more content in a single day than all three major U.S. networks broadcast in the last five years combined. Facebook transmits the photos, messages, and stories of more than 49 billion people, almost half of the Internet population and a fifth of humanity. The Wall Street Journal projects that 28 billion devices—ranging from wearable devices to vehicles—may be connected to the Internet by 2020.5
Technology is changing the way we live, the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we get our information, and the products and services we want and need. We can compete only by anticipating and keeping up with the technology and leveraging it to drive our businesses. Today, that means understanding the potential impacts of seven technology trends: mobile, social, the Internet of Things, 3-D printing, big data, the cloud, and security.
