KEEP LEARNING — there’s always the next new thing to learn

Peter Drucker -- The Man Who Invented Management

“The only job security is found in your own ability to keep learning!”
Peter Drucker

“Through learning, we re-create ourselves.”
Peter Senge

The jury is in.  The job you have today will not be the job you have tomorrow.

Yes, you might actually change jobs.  We are living in an age of job insecurity – not job security.  But even if the job title is the same, in the same office or cubicle, with the same responsibilities, how you do your job will change – possibly dramatically – in the blink of an eye.  The job you have/the job you perform will simply change — constantly, maybe dramatically.  If you do your job tomorrow the way you did your job yesterday, it may not be there the day after tomorrow.

So, there has never been a greater need to keep learning than there is today.  Peter Drucker was ahead of the curve on this one.  And Peter Senge is the one who introduced us to the concept of a learning organization.

Here are the five features of a learning organization:
• systems thinking
• personal mastery
• mental models
• shared vision
• team learning.

It’s the personal mastery that we have the most control over.  Either we work at personal improvement, personal development, and ultimately personal mastery – or we don’t.  The success, or blame, lies with each one us individually.

Peter Senge

Here is some major Senge insight: “People with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence, and their growth areas.”  (emphasis added)

Obviously, one way we attain personal mastery is by reading good books – and implementing what we learn.  In fact, you have not learned until:

You have learned:
when you can do,
and then you actually do,
the skills that are needed to take your next step.

In an earlier blog post, An Era Starved for Substance — Some Thoughts on the Value of a Good Book Synopsis, I quoted from a woman who attended a book synopsis that I presented.  She liked the event, and stated:  “I think we are really needing some content, some substance these days.”

I agree – we live in an era starved for content, because we all need to keep learning.

There may be a number of good ways for you to keep learning.  But the need to keep learning is really no longer debatable.  Keep learning, or fall behind — ever more behind by the year/month/week/day.

One way you can keep learning is to read good books.  And we try at the First Friday Book Synopsis, where we present two synopses of good business books, to make each of our sessions a true learning experience.  I think we succeed.

Keep Learning – there is always the next new thing to learn.

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Many of our past synopses, with audio + handout, are available at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  Check it out.