SMART PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN ‘AGAIN’ AFTER ALL BY RHEA SUZETTE MOCORRO

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Chris Argyris pointed a very timely dilemma if not the most common concern in any organization or company. And that is most people don’t know how to learn. Regardless of academic background and position, there are members of the organization that are not good with learning. The most shocking revelation of all is that these individuals hold key leadership positions in the company.

 Argyris with his article looks at the human behaviour patterns that in turn can block learning. This also explains why most educated professionals are prone to such. This is exhibited by the way they defend themselves in case of problems. They often put the blame on someone. Hence, this keeps them from examining their contribution to the problem. This alienates them to know the core of it. Without knowledge that in a way or another they help in the problem, there is that tendency that they too would be facing the same concern in the future. The good news is there are ways for companies that can tweak such response in order for them to learn. Companies need to be able to realize their ways and reason their behaviour. Aside from that, companies must be able to focus on organizational learning and continuous improvement programs. By injecting these items, this blocks down an employee’s defences that could hinder their growth and learning.

There is no denying that the article written by Arygris is one realization about smart people. I was taken aback of the title alone simply because this touches two quite ironic sides, smart people and teaching them. I have always thought of smart people as epitome of knowledge. They breathe in brilliant ideas. They might also eat books during breakfast and never failed to learn new things. Every single day would be an opportunity for them to exude their intelligence prowess to their peers and constituents. No wonder many would be in awe when they speak. And when they decide, everyone would convene and agree.

However, it also presented an irony on how smart people need to be taught to learn. There is no denying that they have the knowledge however they seem to have forgotten that they too should be able to continually acquire it and learn it still. That is why when presented with problems; they have their own way of dealing it and even worst blame others who are lower than them. They tend to take another side and pinpoint things that were wrong externally. They say things that such occurred because these are out of their control and they must no longer be held responsible for it. Instead of taking the blame and learning from it, they tend to digress and even more shelter themselves.

As I read through the article there is no denying that it was an eye opener and a reflection as well on my end. There have been times that I too have difficulty doing the double loop learning. Aside from that, I tend to harden my shell whenever problems arise. When I assess myself since I was young, my failures have been a handful. This is primarily because of my strong support system and me being sheltered and protected by my parents. That is why I tend to acquire great academic credentials and mastering every bit of skill that I feel would be helpful in my career. When I was subjected in the role of administration, that notion collapses. Then I started to have doubts about my capability. Yet, I still want to project that smart persona in front of my officemates so I could earn their respect and trust. I personally feel that being smart would mean those things. That is why, for every project that was assigned to me I see to it that it would be impeccable and beyond expectations. However, I always fell short. Then I tend to put the blame to the people whom I assigned too. I always see their mistakes and I will always tell them to improve in this area and do this and that next time. I forgot to evaluate myself as to what I could have done wrong. Where did I fell short? It was always single loop learning rather than double loop learning. Hence, when I am given another project, it would still have the same concerns and the same amount of problems. Then I know why.

Such can also be linked to teacher’s evaluation. This is one way to reflect how a teacher is good in his or her field. When a consultation would take place with regards to their poor evaluation, they always have something to say. They would mention that the room in the first place is not conducive to learning, the class is so big for them to handle, the noise outside is something they could not bear and students are just not smart for their class. Yet, they would still have the same reasons every semester. And that is part of their defensive state in which blaming is simply coating what is really wrong within. And they forget to ask and explore from such poor classroom management failures. They screen out criticism and hence putting the blame on anyone and anything. That is not learning after all. In the end those problems would still be problems and it would become a never ending unsolvable cycle.

In life, it must always be a continuous cycle of unlearning and learning. Unlearn habits that are not currently working. Break the tradition if it no longer benefits you and start to learn new processes and ideas that would be timely and relevant. Transformation is key not only to the organization but most especially to yourself. You may be smart because you are backed up with a lot of titles and designations but in the end there are still many things in life that do not work anymore hence the process of unlearning must take place. And there are new strips of knowledge that we can gain each day that are worth learning today. As Dijkstra once said, “Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning”.