Features

Published May 2009

Become a Chief Meta-Learning Officer

Jay Cross and Clark Quinn

Today’s organizational turmoil is more than just a temporary downturn. The implications will be long-term and significant, calling on CLOs to rethink how they approach their work.

The scope of the chief learning officer’s job is mushrooming. CLOs will neither prosper, nor even survive, if they fail to take responsibility for the overall learning process in their organizations. Here’s why, and what to do about it.

If you’re looking for a way to weather the economic downturn, be aware that this is a permanent climate change, not a passing storm. Most of the time, the global economy is cyclical. It has its ups and downs, but the underlying pattern remains the same. A swing in one direction is balanced by a swing in the other. But what we are experiencing today is fundamental. Things are not going to return to where they were, for we are witnessing the birth of a new world order. We’re moving toward continuous change.

Three hundred years ago, the steam engine replaced manual labor, and industrialists built factories for manufacturing and canals to open up trade. People migrated from farms to cities. Clock-watching replaced working to the rhythm of the sun. Repetitive, mindless factory labor replaced working holistically with nature. Taking orders replaced thinking for oneself. Slums were born. Times were chaotic, but eventually, people harnessed electricity, laid rails, rationalized production and created the unprecedented material wealth we enjoy today.

As we move from the industrial age to the era of networks, once again humanity is in turmoil. Yesterday’s bedrock is today’s soup. Businesses, governments and citizens are becoming densely interconnected. The denser the connections, the faster the cycle time of the networks. Everything is relative because we all depend upon one another. The past no longer mirrors the future. Survivors will be those who learn to deal with surprises as they arrive. The industrial age ended with what we call the “Golden Age of Training.” Training was born in the early 20th century and is likely on its last legs.

Companies are focused on sustainability. Staying alive is more important than quarterly earnings. This is a wonderful opportunity for experimentation on a grand scale. For the moment, companies can invest in longer-term projects without being penalized by financial markets that overemphasize the short term.

Organizations must seize the opportunity to change while things are in flux. It’s time for them to leap from current conditions to the brave new world of the future. Crossing a chasm takes a bold leap; baby steps won’t get you to the other side. Getting to the future will require innovation, luck and perseverance, but that’s the price of staying alive.

This big-picture, longer-term viewpoint is meta-learning, and we CLOs need to become chief meta-learning officers.

The View From the Balcony
Your charter as chief meta-learning officer is to optimize learning throughout the organization, not just in the pockets that once belonged to HR. This takes a broader perspective than what you deal with day-to-day. You’ve got to rise above the noise to see the underlying patterns and then optimize them.

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