LEARNING
WITH PRIDE AND ACCEPTANCE
Learning
is a continuous process aimed for improving one’s action and behavior. In an
organization, employees are accountable for the outcome of their operations.
With the expectation of producing favorable results, employees give their best effort
to excel in their respective work. Along the execution of their tasks, they met
challenges and failures as part of their daily routine. As they say, there is
no such perfect execution. For some, it is very easy to accept their mistakes
and learn from it with a promise of doing better in the future. This is the best part of learning, learning
from our mistakes and shortcomings. For others, instead of finding ways to
improve their performance, they blame other people and make excuses of their
failure.
In
the organization, leaders are expected to give coaching and feedback. Feedback
is a gift from someone for the awareness of
strengths, capabilities and superior skills. For the bad traits and shortcomings,
it is an opportunity to learn for improvement. Yes, I agree that in our life it
is very difficult to accept negative feedback. We tend to avoid it and make
some justifications. However, we do smile and in great spirit when others
commend and praise us for doing something exceptional. Leaders in the
organization play a very important role in communication, especially when
delivering not so good information. Instead of scolding and being
confrontational, leaders should create an environment where together with their
subordinates they can freely discuss the approaches and strategies to tackle
the problem and challenges. We tend to keep silent and be passive when our
leaders attack us.
In
the Leadership book of Goldsmith,
Baldoni and Mcathur, they discussed that many leaders seek approval from
others, telling them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.
Delivering tough feedback is often difficult as it can strain relationship;
nevertheless giving honest feedback ultimately shows caring. A forceful way to
show that you care about others is your willingness to change your own behaviour.
For those who resisted feedback manifested two characteristics: 1.) arrogance -
Some leaders assumed that they were doing fine and refused any feedback 2.) insecurity – leaders felt that it would demoralize
them.
Smart
and skilled professional with good academic credentials are very successful in
everything they do and they hardly experience and encounter failure and criticism . This event will lead them to
be defensive and the worst blaming others instead of taking responsibility of
their actions. Criticism is not welcome.
Learning difficulty is experienced as smart people think that everything is in
order and perfectly right, not knowing that in this world, we never stop
learning for improvement and excellence. The quest for continuous improvement
is directed to all members of the organization regardless of their position in
the hierarchy. Everyone is subjected to scrutiny and examination as to their
performance and actions. Well paid and
well compensated, they are expected to deliver results. In the conduct of
performance evaluation, they are not measured in comparison with other employee
but with their own capacity and performance. Mediocre performance will lead to
guilt feelings and defensive reaction as they feel that they fell short of the
expectation and their performance in question.
I
will relate all what has been written in the article of CHRIS ARGYRIS to the
organization where I am currently working. In my twenty two years of fulfilled,
fun filled, fast paced, very dynamic and complex career in a multi-national
organization, the interplay by different mix of smart and skilled personnel is
very evident. First, there are the stockholders
of the corporation whose motive is purely focused on the profit derived from
their investment. They do not care how the corporation is managed and executed
by their trusted partners and leaders, the management team. With great
responsibility and expectation from their employers, the management team will come
up with policies and procedures, standard routines, circulars and memorandum.
All of these are formulated in support for all their activities with the
assurance that what they are doing is in conformity of what has been provided
for them to follow and adhere. Performance of operating units is measured in a
timely manner, depending on the need and the complexity of their work. For those involve in the production
process, the best measure is per shift and daily basis. Same with sales and
marketing. The rest of the organization is either measured weekly, monthly,
quarterly and annually. The result of each operation will be
consolidated and reported as one section, then as one department, then as one
division, then as one factory , then as one market and then as one zone up to
the level of the headquarter. Measures are simple, as there are agreed target
and parameters for each objective. The result of the operation will either be a
“HIT” or “MISS” or to make it visible, a representation of colors (green for
hit) and (red for miss). For each of the misses, you have to conduct the 5Whys
or the Go-See-Think-Do (GSTD) or have the fishbone diagram for the root cause
analysis. Root causes related to method, machine, material and environment can
be easily identified and given proposed solution. The concern now is on “man”
as one of the root cause of the problem. When being interrogated and asked, he
become defensive and starts blaming other people.
Smart
employees in the organization blame their co-employees in time of trouble and
when objectives, targets and undertakings are not achieved. The business which
is built on the motive of generating more profit views the shortcomings and
misses as lost opportunities contributing to the decline of the business
performance. From this point of view, it
is a mortal sin to commit mistake or render service par below what is expected.
Definitely this will affect your performance evaluation and eventually to your
bonus and remunerations. The best thing for you to do is being defensive giving
all the reason that you have done your best and that it is somebody’s fault
that leads to mediocre performance. Some viewed it as some sort of corporate
punishment. Advancement in terms of promotion will be put aside and it will
take time and more effort to regain the confidence. People in the organization
learn the art of projecting oneself always on the good side.
In
closing, it is true that it is very difficult for smart people to learn from
their mistakes, shortcomings and
mediocre performance. They do not have the courage to accept it. Fear of losing good image and reputation in
the organization prevents them from growing. They used to be at the top as high
performer, sought after and model of the organization. Mistakes and
shortcomings is seldom or never experienced, thus once encountered or
experienced as if it is the end of their career. Acceptance of mistake must
start from deep within. It is only then that we start learning again.
Your title “Learning with pride and acceptance “ projects the green (Hit) and red (Miss)signals. It appears to be a tug –of-war between PRIDE AND ACCEPTANCE. It’s just like watching a game if who will emerge victorious? Will it be Pride or will it be Acceptance? However, in an organization that is TQM driven, it seems that the situation would hardly give way to make people in the organization, particularly the Smart ones, not to become defensive after saturating the 5 Whys or the Go-See-Think-Do or the fishbone diagram for the root cause analysis. While it is true that TQM seeks for continual quality improvement (CQI), what is foremost in understanding how organizations learn is always equated to improvement of performance. Thus, the opportunity to reflect and examine closely oneself is impaired. I admire your conclusion when you said, “Acceptance of mistake must start from deep within. It is only then that we start learning.”Then and only then can we give justice to this concept of Angyris : “Hence, our inquiry into organizational learning must concern itself not with static entities called organizations, but with an active process of organizing which is, at root, a cognitive enterprise. Individual members are continually engaged in attempting to know the organization, and to know themselves in the context of the organization. At the same time, their continuing efforts to know and to test their knowledge represent the object of their inquiry. Organizing is reflexive inquiry….”
ReplyDeleteDr.Salvador Aves
I am reminded of the necessity of silence as training of a personnel so that he/she would slowly be led to look at himself/herself while working in an organization. To accept one's participation in the low performance of an entity is a PROCESS, it cannot be done overnight. This is also the beauty of learning and organizations must make this a lifetime to commitment to train their personnel beginning from the top position to institute a lasting and accepting environment for learning.
DeleteReading the article , making review and sharing from the group helped me for my full understanding why we leaders behave this way in our organization. No amount of training, focus group discussion, feedback and coaching sessions will equal to the full admission of our shortcomings. Hoping someday for the full transformation of my organization where truth, openness and sincerity will be in place. This is the true essence of learning. It is only then that we can assure of our continued competitiveness to excel and maintain the lead in the industry.
ReplyDeleteFeedback can come from the external and internal factors. If the organization will only consider the external information then it is not effective at all. Internal information is as much as important in decision making especially if betterment of the company is at stake.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that we actually don't need to commit mistakes just for us to learn but when we do the learning is more profound and meaningful. But it should not hinder the value of acceptance that the mistakes are somehow consequences of our wrong decisions and wrong actions. Pride is good but as they say too much of something is bad enough.
ReplyDeleteThey say one has to guard one's reputation. And maybe this is even more serious for a leader than for a mere follower. But for a real leader, what kind of reputation does he or she needs to protect? Would he or she want to be known to be a leader who committed a mistake and learned from it? or a leader who committed a mistake and never ever learned from it? Because as humans, nobody, whether a leader or not, is exempted from committing mistakes. So somehow, committing mistakes is one equalizer in our lives as humans; what sets the difference is whether one learned from it, over another or whether one learned more over another, etc. Learning from one's mistakes is a choice, in the end. Again, consistent to my thesis in my reaction paper, the basic ingredient to this, is still humility. Am I humble enough to accept my mistake? And then, am I willing to learn from it?
ReplyDeleteAs you said: "There is no such perfect execution." There may be failures but these are rich opportunities for learning. Instead of dwelling on the shortcomings, why not dwell on what triggered the thought processes that lead to that failure? We can learn from that and avoid future mistake.
ReplyDelete