The ABCs of Learning

All organizational and personal change starts with learning. But what is learning in the first place? It's not just acquiring information. According to Daniel H. Kim, it is a process of accumulating both know-how and know-why:

Learning encompasses two meanings: (1) the acquisition of skill or know-how, which implies the physical ability to produce some action, and (2) the acquisition of know-why, which implies the ability to articulate a conceptual understanding of an experience….

For example, a carpenter who has mastered the skills of woodworking without understanding the concept of building coherent structures like tables and houses can't utilize those skills effectively. Similarly, a carpenter who possesses vast knowledge about architecture and design but who has no complementary skills to produce designs can't put that know-why to effective use. Learning can thus be defined as increasing one's capacity to take effective action.


Robert Merrill, Senior Business Analyst and a project manager veteran, also recommends making time for know-when learning - that is, learning when specific tools and tactics are useful. For instance, a coach knows how to motivate athletes in a number of ways, but a great coach knows when to use each type of motivation. And keep in mind that part of learning is practicing. You never fully learn how to do something until you actually do it.

Take a moment to think about that: learning is "increasing one's capacity to take effective action". That may not be true of all learning - you might want to learn about Roman history, or metalworking simply because it gives you pleasure and deepens your understanding of life in general, not because either pursuit will prepare you for action. But as you plot your professional development, you would be wise to remember that time devoted to learning is a limited resource. So learning that increases your capacity for effective on-the-job action, and that positions you for future assignments with increased responsibility, is your best investment.

According to Morgan W. McCall, Jr., who has written extensively on personal development, that kind of learning is usually the result of hands-on experience. He argues that leaders are made, not born, through the trial and error learning that occurs through actual work: "adversity, challenge, frustration, and struggle lead to change". However, despite mountains of research showing that experience is the best teacher, organizations often sabotage their employees' ability to learn from failure:

The paradox of wanting people to learn from experience, which by definition involves trial and error, yet punishing them when trial resulted in error, highlights a fundamental dilemma for development. That is, for learning to occur, the context must support learning…. At the most basic level, development is directly affected by the organization's business strategy (what it is trying to achieve) and by its values (what it is willing to do to get there). These organizational issues determine what is desired, what is rewarded, and what is tolerated.

As a project manager, you probably can't control whether your organization's business strategy supports and values experiential learning, but you can strive to cultivate non-judgmental project teams that allow for learning from experience.