LSW #11 Learning to learn, brittle personalities and our need to be right
Why professionals struggle with learning
Chris Argryis, one of the pioneers of organizational learning, wrote a highly cited and influential article in 1991 titled Teaching Smart People How to Learn.
In Learning How to Learn, I capture some of the important ideas from that article.
Amongst other gems, he highlights how highly educated professionals are also one of the hardest to teach and who struggle with learning given their background.
Their default posture tends to be failure avoidance. Most of them have only experienced success so far and haven't tasted failure yet. They develop what he calls "defensive reasoning routines".
This can be especially true for high performers and this posture ends up being an achilles heel when circumstances require them to pivot. Learning something new invariably requires staying open to the possibility of failure, feeling temporarily dumb, and being potentially wrong.
And yet, 16+ years of schooling and college prepares us to do the exact opposite of being good at learning. I combine Argyris' idea of "brittle personalities" with Carol Dweck's research on fixed and growth mindsets.
Unfortunately brittle personalities are all too common in knowledge work. You will find traces of these in your own behavior and amongst your team members. Awareness is half the game in bucking this trend. Being aware of these tendencies puts us in a much better position to counter it and grow.
In a rapidly changing complex economy, the ability to learn is one of the best hedges against volatilty and uncertainty. But most of us are not prepared for it.
Learning how to learn is one place to start changing that dynamic.
The need to be right
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote:
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
One of the biggest impediments that works against clear thinking is our need to be right aka our egos. In order to become better thinkers we have to overcome this tendency.
In his classic Teaching Thinking, Edward De Bono puts it this way:
The need to be right at all times is a more powerful objective than most in determining the direction of thinking.
A person will use his thinking to keep himself right and then believe whatever position that thinking has generated. This is especially true with more able pupils, whose egos have been built up over the years on the basis that they are brighter than the other pupils.
Such a person finds it very difficult to admit a mistake and almost as difficult to acknowledge the value of someone else’s idea.
Thinking is no longer used as an exploration of the subject area but as an ego support device.
Thinking is used to support an initial judgment. The objectivity required in truly skillful thinking is completely lacking. Yet the arguments that result may be brilliantly logical and consistent.
In your interactions this week, pay attention to your "need to be right".
Notice the discomfort you feel when you stay open to the possiblity that the other person might in fact be right and you mgiht be wrong. Over time this will improve.
Reflection Questions
Are you wanting to be right or are you truly open?
What if you are in fact wrong on this particular topic?
What is your attitude towards failure?
In what areas are you afraid of looking stupid?
How might that be hampering your learning and future prospects?
Leader’s Library
My piece captures key highlights from Argyris' article. But it is well worth a read by itself in it's entirety.
If you are leader with a team full of highly educated, well-paid professionals or you work with one, this is a worthwhile read.
You can find the full article here.
That's it for this edition. Have a great week!
– Sheril Mathews