What if learning to learn is learning to lead authentically and effectively?

When something doesn’t go to plan what is your response?

How do you move forward from whatever didn’t go to plan?

What does it mean for next time?

All these questions hint (or are trying to hint) at learning. How do you learn from setbacks, from things not going to plan? How does your response affect your ability to learn and to move forward in a way that means next time you’re more able to apply your experience from that time it didn’t go as you wanted?

If it was written objectively, learning is simple: we identify a gap either before or after an event and we then acquire what we need to bridge that gap.

Yet, at least writing this, it doesn’t feel that simple.

What if part of that challenge is because learning at its heart is in some ways about accepting failure and our own imperfection?

For example, I notice my pattern when I recognise a gap is procrastination or if I’ve done something and it didn’t go to plan I instantly want to do it again. While that latter approach can be useful, what is behind it is not necessarily learning but an effort to prove to myself that I can do it, that I am good enough.

So what do we need to enable us to learn more readily?

What gets in the way of us learning? What makes it harder than it needs to be? 

What does this mean for how we lead and live?

When did we get less good at learning?

If you observe a child they are constantly learning, testing things, trying things. It means lots of falling over or finding out that some things don’t taste nice or aren’t fun, but it is a constant process of trial and error. Now it makes sense that as we get older we cannot be that sponge-like in every moment however it shows we have an ingrained ability to learn.

So what happens to it? 

What can we do to reconnect to that simple process? 

How do we get in the way of our own learning and applying that learning? What is the impact?

And what does any of this have to do with leading?

What does this have to do with leading?

In short, leading is about making decisions, they could impact only us or they could impact many people, and the old cliche that not deciding is a decision applies here too. 

If we consider learning, decisions are a core vehicle for learning. Each decision contributes to something we can learn from, whether it is as simple as that dish I chose wasn’t what I will pick next time to I want to change career or move to another country. It is also a decision to learn, to apply that learning and how we apply that learning. 

So in reconnecting to the process of learning, we are able to make better decisions in our context, aware they still may not get us to where we want and that we are always learning.

It is reminiscent of the start up saying: ‘fail fast’ which is really another way of saying try things and know that learning from where it doesn’t work you’ll most quickly find the right direction (‘right’ being a relative term).

So learning is at the heart of leading, it is key to making the best decisions in our context.

When I think of my own experience leading it was least effective and most difficult when I thought to lead well I have to be right. That mindset makes it very hard to decide because it is saying I cannot get it wrong, because wrong isn’t good enough in that mindset. 

Yet when free of that expectation it was empowering, for me and for others. There was space to learn because there was space to fail, because there was an acknowledgement of being human, being imperfect and fallible. 

While there was no silver bullet it came down to being open to not getting it right in the spirit of trying to get it as right as is possible. 

What do we need to allow ourselves to fail fast and learn?

When you think of the idea of failure and failing what do you notice? What is your relationship to it? 

What is the impact of your relationship to failure on your ability to learn and to lead?

What do you think failing says about you? 

What if you knew that whenever you are failing you are learning, you are growing, and creating the opportunity to get closer to what you want? 

Ultimately failure is also a marker of trying. Whenever I ask someone what they have to do to be at peace regardless of the outcome of something, giving it their best attempt, trying, is almost always the answer.

Learning and having a go, in my mind, is the route to that peace. 

So what would enable you to learn from each moment to live and lead in the way you want? 

What if we knew we never got it right and we’re only ever getting better?

What relationship to failure and the possibility of not getting it ‘right’ would enable you to learn and so lead more? 

What would you need to be able to learn more smoothly, free of self-criticism? What would you be doing differently? 

If we knew we are always learning, what would that free us up to do?