When Agile Learning Creates Competitive Advantage
Have you noticed in recent years that an increasing number of people can do things that you would have thought requires specific domain knowledge? Non-experts can now become what is known as citizen physicians, citizen developers, citizen scientists, citizen journalists, citizen data scientists, or citizen engineers etc. These are the people who are empowered with help of clever software, technology or AI to diagnose themselves without consulting medical doctors, build cloud based applications without knowing programming languages, conduct scientific experiments without having formal scientific education, or voice their opinions without formal journalism training. Put differently, access to global information and knowledge networks empower people to take control and to build confidence in solving complex problems. This further fuels the process of creating and sharing useful knowledge.
Yuval Noah Harari wrote in his bestselling book Sapiens that knowledge is power and “the real test of knowledge is not whether it is true, but whether it empowers us. […] truth is a poor test for knowledge. The real test is utility. A theory that enables us to do new things constitutes knowledge”. He goes on to explain that “most people have a hard time digesting modern science because its mathematical language is difficult for our minds to grasp, and its findings often contradict common sense”.
That’s why science is reserved for only those who trained themselves to understand it, which of course takes time and prevents people from being experts in multiple domains. But what is happening now is that the growth in data-science, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, automation, new efficient data structures and data transmission technologies, incentify and empower domain experts to team up with data-scientists, statisticians, and programmers to commercialise new innovative business models. These startups are small enough to be satisfied with small initial markets and their products allow for a whole new population of customers to be created who can now access and benefit from the disruption. Not only are people empowered by these disruptive startups to do things outside of their own domains, but also they can do it quickly and effectively. The competitive advantage is all about finding answers to difficult questions faster than anyone else can. And since to a degree we are all non-experts, now we can pose difficult questions outside of our domains and are empowered to create useful solutions, fast. This is the learning with which these non standard resources provide us with, and it’s quite addictive. Learning now involves much more than spending fixed hours at University, or consulting with colleagues or networking with others – it also transitions over into our everyday lives. It empowers us with an abundance of information and knowledge and offers access to special tools, products or services. In other words, we are transitioning into an economy that embraces cross-domain learning, knowledge sharing and problem solving.
Learning is something that we generally take for granted — also it’s not a very sexy term that makes you jump off your chair when thinking through your business’s competitive advantage. But when we notice the growing effects of empowerment we can begin to see the shift from traditional rigid educational framework to a more agile life-long learning experience. I define agile learning as an adaptable learning style which allows us to rapidly move through fast changing environments. Visualising it in this way opens a whole new world of opportunities where you can leverage agile learning as a competitive strategy which will allow your business to both grow and endure in a fast changing competitive environment. And in the context of unprecedented growth in technology entirely new industries are forming, product life-cycles are shortening, climate change pressures are increasing, data is growing exponentially, products are increasingly more complex, and all of that against projected shortfall of engineers and scientists — innovation is becoming increasingly harder to achieve. This is the exact moment when growing value in cross-domain life-long learning experiences can be crucially important.
Agile learning as part of our everyday life can be a competitive advantage in a world in which knowledge and information is abundant. But what does it really mean? This is the most concise explanation I can offer.
Firstly, a little bit of history to put things into perspective.
During the industrial revolution only privileged children could attend schools and universities. Knowledge wasn’t a strategic resource, because opinions of factory workers didn’t matter — there was only one best way to operate machines and manage manufacturing processes. Only money capital could drive expansions and economic growth. One of the leading contributors to the study of post-industrialism, Daniel Bell, points out in his article written for Physics Today in 1976, that “generally entrepreneurs during industrial revolution created successful and growing businesses with little theoretical or scientific knowledge but with access to money capital”. In 1833 things began to change when the UK’s parliament passed the Factory Act making two-hours of education a day compulsory for all children working in factories. Over the coming decades legislation progressively increased the minimum working age. Next came the Education Bill that made all children between 5 and 12 to attend school. The wide spread sharing of knowledge commenced. Soon later science-based industries started forming which fundamentally derived from the application of the findings of theoretical knowledge.
Today information and knowledge are abundant and learning is part of everyday life for rapidly growing portion of our population. People generally have the freedom to choose what they learn, which is a decision derived from their own self-interest or personal welfare. The empowerment that drives our societal transformation often takes place outside the organisation. However, as people grow curious and hungry for knowledge, linking their agile learning with organisational needs will add more context to otherwise endless scrolling through social media, news media, side projects, or hobbies.
If you acknowledge that agile learning is your organisation’s competitive advantage, you will begin to look at people not only as the ones who apply their skills and work towards goals and targets set by their managers, but also as knowledge-people who have the power to influence your decisions and choices when setting up these targets in the first place.
Like during the industrial revolution partially used machines or engines were viewed as wasted resources, today one’s mind is empowered and has the potential to create specific knowledge that can be strategically aligned with company’s goals — and we shouldn’t waste it. Imagine a gas station with fuel tanks always being half empty because the management cannot figure out how to fill them up to the top. They will pay higher property tax because more storage space is required by not using the full space capacity. Also they will spend more time and effort managing the infrastructure to ensure the continuity of fuel supply. This is the analogy I like to think of in the context of agile-learning and competitive advantage. The capacity and value of what people carry in their minds is growing, and the way you manage it can improve innovation, reduce costs, and distinguish you from the competition. Put differently, organisations have to move beyond promoting open and collaborative work environment or setting top-down targets and goals. Growth organisations will also have to manage inverted influence and a starting point is to understand, listen and align with self-interest of employees and to stimulate agile learning that will generate strategic knowledge.
This is a win-win for both individuals and organisations striving to maximise their own self-interests.
Bottom line
Some companies are much better than others in adjusting their business models to effectively leverage agile learning of their employees as a competitive advantage. If you happen to work for such a company, I’m sure you feel its impact on both your own and your company’s well being. If you don’t — perhaps this is your chance to make a difference.
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