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sn’t it true that preparing leaders for an unknown world has always been the case for us human beings? Let’s remember the three so-called dramatic changes that we have experienced thus far: agricultural, industrial and digital. Leaders, organisations and educational institutions nowadays are facing major issues related to preparing a new generation of leaders. It is difficult to predict what
We must constantly maintain the learning/ unlearning balance, otherwise we can end up trapped in making obsolete decisions is a very effective process because it is based on four steps: the ability to make a quick and sound diagnosis of a given situation (what works and what doesn’t); coming up with ideas to improve the situation at hand (what we can do better); implementing and making things happen (translating good ideas into results); and getting something out of the experience (there’s no need to reinvent the wheel all the time). But there were times in the evolution of humankind when learning was not good enough. What had been working for years, or even centuries, had become obsolete and sometimes counterproductive. The learning process of the past is nowadays being questioned and challenged. This happens when for some reason the existing systems don’t work anymore. The basic ways of living and working together are questioned by people encouraging us to take off our rose-tinted glasses and fight for a better life in which inequalities are unacceptable. Sometimes some external, force majeure -type events such as epidemics, new technologies or wars, force existing leaders to review and adapt their behaviours, which leads to change. Perhaps we need to unlearn what we knew before to be open to change – and here comes the critical question: How to learn to unlearn? “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react and reinvent”, according to Bill Gates. Unlearning is a natural process that must be managed systematically and effectively for the sake of survival and transformation. Unlearning is about constant change; it is a part of making an organisation agile and evoking natural curiosity in people. It is about deciding what kind of assumptions, values, behaviours and practices we need to keep and adjust – and which ones we must get rid of –in our organisations. Unlearning also implies that, as a leader, you should be ready to raise questions about the traditional way of seeing and understanding things. As leaders we must
kind of programmes we should invent to make sure that the next generation will be ready and able to meet the challenges of this new world in the making. Let’s face it, the straight transfer of knowledge and skills from existing leaders and experts is irrelevant and ineffective. What worked yesterday is obsolete today and will be more so tomorrow. To put it differently, the question in front of us is this: What should leadership development focus on so that a new type of leadership can be created and be in line with the requirements of the time? One obvious answer is that we can achieve that objective by involving the younger generation in constructing the world of the future. In other words, we must give them a chance to ‘invent’ themselves as leaders. George Bernard Shaw expressed this perfectly when he said: “Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself”. Importantly, it should start not when people are ready to join the so-called working environment, but much earlier. Business schools and universities should offer their students programmes that will not only brief them about the main characteristics of the brand new world they will live in, but also actively involve them in the exploration and search for different leadership profiles, ie new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. The active and creative involvement of these new leaders must focus on at least three major facts, namely: this new world will experience ongoing and fast-paced permanent change; artificial and non-organic intelligence will play an important role in shaping it and how it functions; and leaders will increasingly focus on the human side of the collective (ie social and economic) life and leave artificial intelligence to perform tasks that it can do much more effectively and in a much shorter time than human beings. Let us examine the concept of the ‘unlearning organisation’. As Chris Argyris, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, put it: “Individual learning is a necessary but insufficient condition for organisational learning”. Organisations have, over time, developed some very good ways to cope with change. By using internal means (in-company development programmes) and external facilities (universities, business schools) they have offered leaders the opportunity to keep abreast of change and develop themselves. The process of learning Learning has always been a major way for people to survive and grow. Learning how to learn has become increasingly important because of the requirements of this new world that lies ahead. It
26 | Ambition | MARCH 2023
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