(Published in Manila Standard Today under the Greenlight column, November 2, 2009)
As I write this, I am in a classroom in INSEAD Singapore, attending a two-week executive education on business and management. Coincidentally, it’s also my birthday today, October 29, and I’m away from my family.
My teenage daughters, Frances and Renee, had asked why I would sacrifice a birthday celebration with them, and instead go back to school. In an apologetic way, my cursory answer was that the schedule was fixed beforehand; but what I told them with great pride was that it’s an invaluable opportunity to learn from the fourth-ranking business school in the world.
I went on in saying that the most important personal asset in your life is your education; that you should never stop learning. As a Chinese proverb goes, “learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
Indeed, as an adult learner, I am one of those business executives who are sent by their companies to business school and training camps to learn new skills and knowledge, with the objective of applying these on-the-job; and ultimately resulting to enhanced business results.
Companies spend tons of money in running training programs. But are companies’ getting their money’s worth? Are management training programs effective? What if two competing companies used the same training program with the same approach and content? Who will eventually have the advantage?
Trainings and executive education are not as effective due to a number of factors: inadequate training materials, lack of qualified trainers, deficiencies in program design and evaluation, excessive reliance on conventional techniques, and others. Learning institutions and human resource departments already know how to address these issues.
But perhaps the most important factor is the learning process itself – does one know how he or she learns in an optimum way. The manager or employee that continuously learns how he or she learns has the advantage over his or her competitors and even peers.
To most adults, learning is an acquired skill and not an innate talent. You can improve your learning capacity at any age in various ways. One is to understand your learning styles such as learning through seeing, through listening, and through touching or experiencing. Another is to understand your strengths so that you can match what you learn with the format that works best. Still another is to use the facilitator to intervene when you couldn’t relate to the lessons. Lastly, it’s just simply asking one’s self “How does this relate” or “What’s my take away from here”.
How I maximize my learning in the executive education I am attending now is to combine all of these approaches, with emphasis on the experiential aspects such as case study discussions and reflections at the end of each session. I also draw diagrams and frameworks on paper to show relationships of variables, as I am more of a visual learner.
As competition becomes stiffer and knowledge becomes the most important asset of organizations, the victors will be those whose managers and employees learn how to enhance their learning. They will need to evaluate what they learned and benchmark their performance with the application of new-found knowledge. Then they will further enhance their learnings on how they learn. This will be the source of competitive advantage of companies in this age of knowledge.
After attending this management program in INSEAD, I will definitely find opportunities to apply the learnings to my work, and share these to my students. And when I get back home, I shall tell my daughters that now I’m wiser, not older.
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Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle University Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com, or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
As I write this, I am in a classroom in INSEAD Singapore, attending a two-week executive education on business and management. Coincidentally, it’s also my birthday today, October 29, and I’m away from my family.
My teenage daughters, Frances and Renee, had asked why I would sacrifice a birthday celebration with them, and instead go back to school. In an apologetic way, my cursory answer was that the schedule was fixed beforehand; but what I told them with great pride was that it’s an invaluable opportunity to learn from the fourth-ranking business school in the world.
I went on in saying that the most important personal asset in your life is your education; that you should never stop learning. As a Chinese proverb goes, “learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
Indeed, as an adult learner, I am one of those business executives who are sent by their companies to business school and training camps to learn new skills and knowledge, with the objective of applying these on-the-job; and ultimately resulting to enhanced business results.
Companies spend tons of money in running training programs. But are companies’ getting their money’s worth? Are management training programs effective? What if two competing companies used the same training program with the same approach and content? Who will eventually have the advantage?
Trainings and executive education are not as effective due to a number of factors: inadequate training materials, lack of qualified trainers, deficiencies in program design and evaluation, excessive reliance on conventional techniques, and others. Learning institutions and human resource departments already know how to address these issues.
But perhaps the most important factor is the learning process itself – does one know how he or she learns in an optimum way. The manager or employee that continuously learns how he or she learns has the advantage over his or her competitors and even peers.
To most adults, learning is an acquired skill and not an innate talent. You can improve your learning capacity at any age in various ways. One is to understand your learning styles such as learning through seeing, through listening, and through touching or experiencing. Another is to understand your strengths so that you can match what you learn with the format that works best. Still another is to use the facilitator to intervene when you couldn’t relate to the lessons. Lastly, it’s just simply asking one’s self “How does this relate” or “What’s my take away from here”.
How I maximize my learning in the executive education I am attending now is to combine all of these approaches, with emphasis on the experiential aspects such as case study discussions and reflections at the end of each session. I also draw diagrams and frameworks on paper to show relationships of variables, as I am more of a visual learner.
As competition becomes stiffer and knowledge becomes the most important asset of organizations, the victors will be those whose managers and employees learn how to enhance their learning. They will need to evaluate what they learned and benchmark their performance with the application of new-found knowledge. Then they will further enhance their learnings on how they learn. This will be the source of competitive advantage of companies in this age of knowledge.
After attending this management program in INSEAD, I will definitely find opportunities to apply the learnings to my work, and share these to my students. And when I get back home, I shall tell my daughters that now I’m wiser, not older.
-------------------------------
Reynaldo C. Lugtu Jr. teaches management and marketing courses in the MBA Program of De La Salle University Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business. He may be e-mailed at rlugtu2002@yahoo.com, or visit his blog at http://rlugtu.blogspot.com.
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