TEACH ING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO LEARN By Larah Grace R. Fermill

TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO LEARN

The above article written by Chris Argyris' on how smart people should be taught to learn presents situations on how an individual develops and becomes effective and efficient at work. The essay also focuses on individual tendencies to be very defensive when it comes to reasoning out work related problems in the organization. Most of the time as mentioned by Chris Argyris', a manager or may it be a subordinate would be likely to, pass on the blame to others in the group when questioned or assessed about something contributing to the problem itself. However, as was written on the essay, he mentioned two methods to prevent this "defensive reasoning" from happening and that it would then lead to a more effectivity and productivity in the organization.

The examples given by Argyris' on defensive reasoning makes a lot of sense in the corporate world. Many of us are not really used to receiving constructive criticism, that we can get defensive and not take these comments positively. I can personally relate to this, as I have been experiencing many of these circumstances as well. When working as an account developer I have encountered many problems with clients being the front liner under sales department with Coca-Cola Bottler's Philippines. Learning from my workmates who have been working with the department for more than 10 years is really very challenging. They know the basics and they know how to win customers trust & loyalty. I really believe that they are better qualified to give constructive criticism because they are trained to act for that purpose.

Another thing that caught my attention is that it packs an ordeal to our existing community. Most of us are change agents in some form or fashion, whether with direct operational control, or as either internal or external consultants. The hit comes from the fact that the example dysfunctional organization are consultants themselves. So in that aspect, we all need to read this and take a long, hard look in the mirror and examine our individual selves.

Here are also some lines that i get noticed upon reading the article. Change has to start at the top because otherwise defensive senior managers are likely to disown any transformation in reasoning patterns coming from below. If professional or middle managers begin to change the way thet reason and act, such changes are likely to appear strange - if not actually dangerous - to those at the top. The result is an unstable situation where senior managers still believe that it is a sign of caring and sensitivity to bypass and cover up difficult issues, while their subordinates see the very same actions as defensive.

I am very much able to relate with the above. It really is very difficult to be open and honest in an environment which does not even value transparency, acceptance and honesty. The article also presents the dilemma of blaming others particularly "clients" as mentioned in the article and instead looking inward, "ourselves", assessing what could we have done and what we ought to do comparing it to what we actually did already in response to the event of the problem.

On the critical side, I must say the essay is somehow helpful that it paved the way to opening the reader's eyes presenting how we could prevent from doing defensive reasoning. Argyris' focused more on showing how we can tell if someone is using defensive reasoning and gave examples on how to correct or avoid it instead. Upon reading, I was expecting I could read something about ways to refrain from doing defensive reasoning and ways on developing it.

Although a solution was described in the article on how each professional should look within their own behavior to continuously improve themselves, for me this is not true most of the time. As experienced, since on the example a group scenario was showcased, everyone should be conditioned to have one frame of mind. What I meant is that in a group assessment there really is at a minimum, one person that would somehow place the blame to someone else and would not admit being at fault at some point of the situation. These may not be absolute but often it happens. This would practically negates the ability for the group to look within themselves and improve future actions. The article for me is just a mere presentation of existing behavior and does not provide effective solution to the issue. The good news is that in the article, Chris Agyris not only points out the problem, he gives an example of leaders who have overcome it. But they did so only through hard introspection and challenging their only assumptions about themselves, their organizations and their leadership styles.

In summary, the article of Chris Agyris' Teaching Smart People How to Learn really moved me to examining myself on accomplishing my tasks to my current job. Am I the kind of person who blame others for a problem or do I assess myself first and check if I have done everything at my end to cater the needs of my clients before I complain. I was able to reflect on these things and served as a warning to me in the future. I was very challenge on the idea of learning to reason about my behavior in new and more effective ways for me to be very productive as well. As presented on the article, we as professionals, or managers, or subordinates should develop more on being a "double-loop" type of learning individuals. We do not just content ourselves on doing routine task rather understanding every single task and decision given to us. Improving and looking for better solutions or approaches to the existing manner may then lead us to better results in the future. We continue to learn and being open to it is best. According to Bill Gates "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." Be open to things and never let it serve as a stepping stone.