Why distinguishing between learning and development is critical

The following article originally appeared in the Autumn 2019 issue of HRINZ magazine.

(Click here to download a .pdf version)

How can you ensure that the leaders in your organisation are prepared for the future of work?

It’s widely acknowledged that the context today’s leaders are tasked to lead in is vastly different from generations past. This is often credited to increasing:

• Volatility from all of the new technologies, business models, competitors, etc springing up around the globe (change today is constant and rapid)

• Uncertainty arising from unparalleled levels of technological and social change driven by exponential growth (even deep historical knowledge and access to extraordinary amounts of data is insufficient to predict the future)

• Complexity from increasing globalisation and interconnectedness (it’s often impossible to know in advance exactly how cause and effect will play out and what the ripple effects of an action will be)

• Ambiguity due to there being no single, clear, tried-and-tested ‘right way’ to proceed in the unprecedented situations and contexts we find ourselves in (decision-making and direction-setting need to occur even when all of the variables cannot be known, predicted or controlled).

Over the last decade or so, we have also seen an explosion in the creation of, and ease of, access to information. This democratisation of knowledge, combined with the rapid pace of change and disruption, means subject matter expertise (SME) and having a bunch of historical information in one’s head no longer holds the same the competitive advantage it once did for leaders.

What’s required of leaders today

Instead of SMEs, today’s times require leaders to have the capacity to remain calm amongst all of the volatility, create a vision regardless of the uncertainty, take action amidst complexity, and make decisions even in ambiguity.

In a recent interview, developmental expert Jennifer Garvey Berger argued that we also need leaders who can resist feeling too certain about their own beliefs (especially when making predictions about the future), who are open to others’ perspectives (even when they challenge their own), and who have cultivated a presence that enables others to operate from their highest potential (rather than driving them to simply comply with their manager’s requests).

In short, leaders are being challenged to expand their worldviews, increase their range of behavioural flexibility, and cultivate greater levels of self-awareness and consciousness in order to be able to make sense of the complexities they face. The fast-changing environment and corresponding shifts in leadership demands that we rethink how we grow and develop organisational leaders.

The critical differences between Learning and Development

The terms Learning and Development are so frequently used together that they are often mistaken for synonyms. But the distinction is an important one, never more so than today.

Take the example of a newly promoted leader who isn’t providing (much needed) feedback to her team members. You might think to send this person to a management course where she’ll learn all about the benefits and importance of providing feedback to her team, as well as different ways to deliver feedback (the sandwich technique, the coaching approach, etc). If the leader simply had a gap in knowledge and the training course filled it, then she should now be able to engage in the practice of providing feedback to her team.

If, however, the leader knows all about the importance of feedback yet still avoids delivering it to her team - say because she’s worried about ruining the relationship she has with her team members or feels shaky and on the verge of tears whenever she attempts to have a feedback discussion - then it’s likely this person needs support to develop the capacity to deliver feedback in a calm, confident and constructive way.

The key takeaway here is that just because someone knows what to do or who she/he wants to be doesn’t mean that this person can automatically do or be it. The knowledge imparted through learning does not automatically translate into capability.

Consider the metaphor of your mind as a cup. Pouring more knowledge, skills, and experiences into the cup can be thought of as Learning or Horizontal Growth. Expanding the size of the cup so that you have greater capacity to do more with whatever’s in the cup can be thought of as Development or Vertical Growth.

While Horizontal Growth is important for expanding the information you have available to you, it’s Vertical Growth that enables you to take a more diverse range of perspectives on difficult challenges, transforms how you ‘show up’ and how you are able to be.

The table below outlines further distinctions between Horizontal and Vertical Growth.

The importance of Vertical Growth in enhancing leadership effectiveness

When we consider the requirements of leadership today, the difference between knowing and being able to embody and execute on what you know is a critical one.

Numerous studies have shown that greater levels of Vertical Development correspond to enhanced leadership effectiveness. To quote developmental researcher Suzanne CookGreuter, “In general, transformations of human consciousness or changes in our view of reality are more powerful than any amount of horizontal growth and learning.”

In his book, Reinventing Organisations, author Frederic Laloux argues that the worldview and developmental level of the leaders in an organisation act as a sort of ceiling for how the rest of the organisation can operate. Laloux writes, “The general rule seems to be that the level of consciousness of an organisation cannot exceed the level of consciousness of its leader.”

Whether an organisation disappears, scrapes by, or manages to thrive in the future of work may be largely down to the quality of its leadership.

Do the leaders in your organisation have a worldview and complexity of thinking ‘big’ enough to navigate the VUCA future they’re facing? Focusing on their Vertical Development will likely be a crucial part of supporting them to become more effective leaders.