In a World of Perpetual Newbies, we all must join the Perpetual Learners Group – (insight from Kevin Kelly’s The Inevitable, & thoughts on learning organizations)

maybe a future selection for the FFBS

In this era of “becoming,” everyone becomes a newbie. Worse, we will be newbies forever. That should keep us humble.
That bears repeating. All of us—every one of us—will be endless newbies in the future simply trying to keep up.
Endless Newbie is the new default for everyone, no matter your age or experience.
Now we know: We are, and will remain, perpetual newbies.
Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces that Will Shape our Future

A learning organization is the business term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself. The concept was coined through the work and research of Peter Senge and his colleagues.
Learning organizations develop as a result of the pressures facing modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the business environment.
From the Wikipedia article

——————

Here’s a problem that you face — as do I.

You do not know enough.
If you are not ever-alert, you will be left behind.
This problem will only get worse.
You are now, and forever, a perpetual newbie.

You must, and others all around you within your organization must, join the perpetual learners group.

Recently, I spoke to a room full of learners. They are a part of an impressive learning organization. The organization pays for sessions like the one I led. I spoke for nearly two hours, presenting my synopsis of the excellent book by Cal Newport, Deep Work. It really is a book about genuine, perpetual learning.

An accomplished facilitator/colleague followed my two hours with two hours of facilitated table-group learning activities. You know: “how do we put this to work in our organization, and in our own work lives?” discussions.

But, of course, the people who attended will be the ones to decide if, to demonstrate that, they have learned anything.

But, it generated a few thoughts. Like these:

#1 – You will have a learning organization when you have leaders who themselves actually learn, and then provide genuine resources for others to keep learning. And those resources include time dedicated to learning, and money to bring in folks who can help them learn.

#2 – You will have a learning organization when the people embrace their perpetual learner responsibilities. In other words they all have to ask, always and perpetually, “what next new thing do I need to learn?”.

#3 – You will have a learning organization when you see the evidence that stuff has been learned, that learning has in fact taken place: systems change for the better; products and services change for the better; new ideas are plentiful, and the best ideas are implemented.

Here’s what I know. We are all newbies in a need-to-keep-up and need-to-keep-learning world. Perpetual learning may be the only path to follow in such a world.