A 'Learning' Experience

I was working with an organisation a while ago and during that time was invited by the CEO to attend a half day presentation by a ‘generation’ expert that was to be given to the senior management group. This group, which comprised around 12 members, regularly had sessions where outside experts gave presentations on a variety of topics. I was pleased to sit-in on the session and listen to the presentation, which in my view was a really good one.

The CEO messed up terribly however at the conclusion of the half day session.

Without asking for feedback from anyone in the group, the CEO announced that he felt the content from the presentation was really valuable – and he expected everyone in the room to implement aspects from it. He then went around the room and asked every person when he could expect a report on the outcomes from whatever it was they were to implement.

This was an amazing move! The CEO didn’t ask for feedback on what people had learned or how they could personally apply aspects from what they’d learned. He unilaterally decided this was good content and he ‘required’ his people to do something with it.

This wasn’t the worst of it however.

The CEO then decided it would be good for the speaker (remember, he was an external consultant) to receive ‘feedback’ from each of the managers in the room. One by one, each of the managers provided the consultant with ideas on how they thought the presentation could be improved. I watched the consultant visibly deteriorate, as each manager implicitly felt pressure to provide improvement suggestions of higher intellectual value than those previously provided.

In setting this up, the CEO created a clear message. These ‘experts’ (ie the managers) were in a position to ‘teach’ the consultant how to be a better presenter – thereby completely removing any semblance of responsibility on them as learners to apply the content he had kindly shared. They were no longer learners – they were armchair critics.

Perhaps this also provided them an ‘out’ in terms of applying the session content – any shortfalls in their application of the content could be attributed to the shortfalls in the consultant’s presentation, which they had publicly shared!

It seemed remarkable to me that there were fundamental and competing messages underpinning this entire event. On the one hand, the CEO was telling his people that ongoing learning is a vital ingredient to future success. On the other hand, he was saying that he as the CEO decides what is important to learn and that they as a group are better teachers than learners.

As we gain more experience, and are involved in a range of professional and personal development initiatives, many of us become jaded from hearing messages we’ve heard before, or from being subject to less valuable ‘learning’ experiences.

A consequent trap therefore, is for people to go through the motions in learning contexts without serious consideration of what might be gained personally or collectively. Maybe this is worth pondering...