Learn to Win

A lot is being made of the momentous meltdown by the NY Mets. If you’re not a baseball fan, you may not know that the Mets blew a seven game lead in their division and wound up second in line behind the Phillies. In the words of rap star Nelly, “second ain’t a winner.” Even if you’re not a baseball fan, there’s something important to be learned from the New York Mets.

According to some, the Mets blew their winning season because they stopped doing the little things that it took to win games. They disengaged. They got complacent. Reportedly, the team’s attitude became one of entitlement. They thought they had it made. And their attitude bit them in the butt. They went from being happy winners to being sore losers.

Disengagement from the job at hand doesn’t just cost teams championships. Gallup Consulting reports that disengagement costs US businesses billions of dollars each year. The disengaged employee has little emotional attachment to his or her job, no sense of contribution to the organization’s mission, and has little loyalty to the company he or she works for. When asked questions like, “Do you know what’s expected of you?” The answer is ‘no,’ ‘maybe,’ or ‘who cares?’

On the flip side, engaged employees know that they’re is making a difference. There is a sense of contribution, loyalty, caring. Engaged employees know that they count and they reward the companies they work for with good ideas and productivity. The distinction between a company with engaged employees and disengaged slackers? Learning.

In a recent article published in the Gallup Management Journal, William Baker and James Sinkula point out that it isn’t just what companies know. Most companies collect lots of data and acquire tons of knowledge. It’s how the information is used that counts. Corporate cultures that value input with a sense of true open-mindedness--that is, management is willing hear suggestions and feedback, recognize errors, and incorporate new visions--those are the ones that come out on top. Companies that know how to put information to work and know learn how to learn rapidly are the ones who win.

Baker and Sinkula say that companies dedicated to continuous learning are far more likely to have engaged employees and, even better, more engaged customers. An engaged customer is one who is so loyal to a particular brand that he’ll walk right past the competitor’s products without a second glance. That’s a customer that business owners would dearly love to have.

GE, an organization famed for its learning culture, has recognized that learning faster will make them better. GE Healthcare recently teamed with the Breakaway Group, led by Charles Fred, to speed the climb of the learning curve. Fred, author of Breakaway: Deliver value to your customers fast, says that businesses in today’s markets can only pull away from their competitors if they learn how to learn more quickly.

In the end, it is management that must lead the way. The keys are:

• Creating a culture that values input--from the factory floor, to the corner office, and every point in between, including from the customers.
• Input is used in a mindful way. Lots of companies collect information but very few reflect carefully on what they’ve learned to get the real lesson. Company leadership must exercise humility--that is, be willing to let go of being right in order to be successful.
• Speed up the pace of learning. The feedback loop between results and lessons learned must be shorter and climbing the learning curve must be faster than ever.

To return to the example of the NY Mets, Willie Randolph had seventeen games between first place and embarrassing loss. He and his coaches collected lots of data and took in lots of information. When the team stopped valuing input and took on a know-it-all arrogance, learning ceased. Only time will tell if they understood the final lesson: No learning, no championship.

Comments

[joe greco]

I understand the above information well, NOW! As a salesman, I am always wanting to be on the hunt driving around from jobsite to jobsite. I get great results from this. Anyway, my Company gave me a laptop and started requiring me to take refreshment courses on selling our product. I was very concerned that my time away from selling would be counter productive. Over time, and with a management team that listened to me about my concerns, not only did I learn even more about my product line and business, I made 30% more sales.