Be a Learner, not a Knower

After 20+ years in leadership development, I am still amazed by the number of people who arrive in my classroom with no expectation of learning anything. These are very busy people…people with big roles and big business challenges…people who DEFINITELY should not volunteer to waste their precious time in a class they don’t need.

I irreverently refer to these participants as “The Knowers” and I can literally FEEL them in the room…like a speed bump I have to go over before I can get to the other people who came eager to immerse themselves in the experience.

“The Knowers” typically fall into one of four categories:

Prisoners – These people have been “volun-told” to come to my class — often by their manager who viewed it as a recognition opportunity.  The Prisioners believe they don’t need to be there or should be somewhere else.  Marking them “Present” will be the only thing they generate with their presence.

The Vacationers – The Vacationers are thrilled to not be at work. The free food and drinks accompanying the class only serve to reinforce that this is TIME OFF.  They often treat the learning as a distraction from their vacation.  Prone to hangovers and clock watching they will encourage small talk vs practice during breakout sessions. 

The Observers – They believe what we are talking about is very, very important…for other people in the room to learn.  They are often well-tenured employees or part of an HR team. They observe the Learners in hopes that we are understanding what they have obviously mastered.  

The Cynics – These are the most common Knowers.  They believe whatever we are talking about won’t work back in their Unicorn Situation.  Their routine skepticism and “been-there attitude” oozes out and contaminates us all.  A Learner may hesitate to contribute if a Cynic is at their table for fear of a snippy comment.  While it is always wise to filter what you are learning through your own experience, everyone recognizes the difference between being a Cynic and being thoughtful. 

In the majority of programs I lead, I get to watch The Knowers transform into Learners during our time together. This can be a bitter-sweet transformation to observe, especially when they have wasted 50-99% of their learning experience by being disengaged in what we were doing/talking about.

One of my favorite transformation moments happened last year when a woman in my class declared with pride that she, “hates all of the apps and chat rooms” she has to use in her job and “finds all of that techy stuff annoying and overwhelming.”  I saw a young man at her table start to slowly shake his head as she spoke.  So I asked him, “What do you think about what she just said?”  And he looked right at her and replied, “What I just heard you say is that you have no intent of being relevant 10 years from now.”  Her eyes…and everyone else’s in the class…bulged right out of our heads. 

At first I thought she was going to leap over the table at him, but instead she just sighed and said, “Yeah, you’re right.  It is more likely that I am going away than apps are going away.”  Deciding she wanted to become a Learner again in that moment made a huge difference.  She ended up creating a Twitter account that week, and the young man at her table helped her learn to “tweet” and wipe the proverbial expiration date off her forehead.

Being the fastest Learner in the room will be a hallmark of successful leaders in the 21st Century.

Things are changing too fast to know it all.  While “expertise” used to be the most highly valued currency in leadership, today it is impossible to possess mastery for long.  Admitting you don’t know, knowing the people who do know, and adopting a growth mindset are all critical survival skills.

I know it is easy to get comfortable and complacent — not allowing your ears to be big enough, or your brain to be open enough, or your mouth to be closed enough — because I catch myself doing it too. But Certainty isn’t a learning condition. Curiosity is.

We hope the people who come into our classrooms are ready to be Learners.  Because we can’t wait to learn from you.