How To Break The Crazy Cycle: Embrace The Value Of Learning

Maybe you know this famous quote from Henry Ford:

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

This is sometimes referred to as the ‘crazy cycle’. You don’t like the results you’re getting and you want change, but you’re not willing to do anything different..

Companies that want to break the crazy cycle embrace the value of learning.

Learning = cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge; accumulated knowledge

Such companies that promote and live this value are securing the future of their businesses and they are defining the future of their industries.

Interestingly, different companies define learning differently.

Example Learning-Focused Companies

Some companies, like Lincoln Financial Group and Goodyear Tire, simply include learning as a core value. Ideally these companies exemplify a culture of learning.

Other companies provide some clarity around what this means to their organization.

Here are a few Fortune 500 companies that embrace learning as a core value, and how they define it.

• Best Buy – “Learn from challenge and change.”
• Darden Restaurants – “We learn from others as they learn from us. We learn. We teach. We grow.”
• Grainger – “Seek and accept feedback and build upon both successes and failures”
• Ingram Micro – “We continually acquire new knowledge to improve performance and enable growth for the company and for ourselves.”

Then there are a few that provide a detailed explanation of this value, such as Baker Hughes:

We believe a learning environment is the way to achieve the full potential of each individual and the company.

• We expect development throughout each individual’s career by a combination of individual and company commitment
• We learn from sharing past decisions and actions, both good and bad, to continuously improve performance
• We improve by benchmarking and adopting best practices

Such varied definitions are great. But who really benefits from having a culture of learning?

Benefits of Learning

When an organization embraces and clearly defines the value of learning, everyone benefits.

Customers: can expect a future filled with innovation and industry leadership.

Employees: can expect to grow personally and professionally, and remain part of a viable business.

Owners & Shareholders: can expect to profit from their investments over the long term.

Suppliers: can expect to participate in new opportunities for growth.

So why don’t more companies include learning as a core value?

Maybe their leaders are waiting for something to change,  but they’re caught in the crazy cycle.

 

Who else benefits from a learning-focused organization?

 

Today’s value was selected from the “Knowledge-Skillfulness” category, based on the e-book Developing Your Differentiating Value.