Learn From History or Not

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."?– Georg Hegel

Is that statement true? I have been arguing both sides of the issue in my head for the past couple of weeks. I can find examples of not learning from history and examples of learning from history.

What is it that drives us to ignore what has happened in the past? And what do we lose by not stepping back to consider what can be learned?

It might be hubris – over confidence in our ability to not make the same mistakes - whether the mistakes are our own or others.

We may convince ourselves that this situation is different, so the same thing won’t happen again.

Often, we may put blinders on so that we don’t see the obvious clues pointing to mistakes that could be lessons or warnings.

And sometimes we are just so busy that we don’t take the time to reflect on the past in order to inform the future.

This idea that we don’t learn from history can feel like a cyclical process in which a certain kind of problem will reinvent itself and show up again and again.

And yet we can learn from history.

If we keep hitting the same pothole on a road, we will adapt our driving to avoid it.

Regulations are in place so that we don’t ever again experience a stock market crash like Black Tuesday on October 29, 1929.

More lifeboats are on cruise ships because of what we learned from the sinking of the Titanic.

Innovation is often the result of learning from the past in order to solve some mistake or problem.

So, how can leaders leverage learning from history – both recent and long-term? It requires slowing down and reflection. It requires post-mortems of projects, lessons learned and raising the bar to do better next time.

It means thinking beyond ourselves to the families, groups, teams, organizations, and society we belong to and understanding the impact of our decisions on these systems we live and work in. And realizing that systems are made up of people.

And it takes courage to learn from history because it means breaking patterns of thinking and considering new perspectives and points of view. One of my clients called it “systems busting.”

Consider these questions:

When did you not learn something from history? What did it cost you and others? What could have been saved by recognizing that something needed to change?

When did you learn something from history? What was the result of that learning? What was gained or lost in the process? What changed?

The ability to step back and be reflective is a key ingredient to strategic thinking and a necessary skill for a Super Leader. And I would argue that more curiosity and impartial self-reflection would benefit all of us in our professional and personal lives.

What do you need to learn from history?