Are you a learning organisation?
When I was seven years old I had a burst appendix and spent a month in hospital. At the end of this time I had to learn to walk again because my muscles had lost so much strength.
A month ago I broke my wrist and, now that I am free of a cast, I am working to regain the flexibility of my fingers and wrist movement. However, my real concern is the weakness of the muscles in the upper part of my forearm that were unaffected by the fracture. Four weeks rest and they seem to have atrophied.
We know that the brain works by building links between cells as a result of frequent use. We also know from research that companies that are committed to excellence grow and increase their profits at twice the market rate.
So what are the lessons? What must we as managers and coaches do to ensure that our organisations achieve their potential performance? Clearly, the answer is to keep using the talents of our staff, and to give them every opportunity to stretch and develop. It is a frequent complaint of young graduates that, when they start their first work experience, their talents are underutilised. Perhaps the reason that older staff do not complain is that they get used to any easier life – how challenging is your culture? Are you a true learning organisation?
The human being is built to develop and grow. If we are to get the most out of our people, we must respect this, supporting them and continually expecting more.
A management consultant or executive coach can help an organisation to review its culture, processes and strategies to ensure that the human resources are being properly used. I was very much involved in the early days of Investors in People, and this is an excellent model. It does not promote training as such, rather, training and development focused on achieving organisational goals.
In many parts of the world, July and August are times for a break in the working year for rest and recreation. This provides an excellent opportunity to review where you and your organisation are going. As the world’s economy faces a slowdown it is even more important to make the best use of your resources, and this should include human resources as well as other assets.
Excellent organisations use quiet times to invest in the future.
Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.
An international facilitator, he coaches and
facilitates directors and boards in transition:
helping them to make progress by
bringing structure and clarity
to their thinking.
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