If a company hires smart people (let?s say those with 3.5 or higher GPAs from good business schools) and recruits experienced people from only top organisations, success should be assured, right?
Not really. If success were essentially a matter of IQ and grades in schools, most companies would have the talent and bench problem solved. IQ is quite valuable. While a high enough IQ makes for good analytical ability and acquiring new technical knowledge, it doesn?t guarantee that one will be able to acquire new behaviour as easily. New behaviours are the currency of high learners. This means that when we hire MBAs with a 3.8 GPA from a top B-school, how well they will learn a new behaviour is unknown. All companies more or less know this and have taken stabs at dealing with the problem through interviews or references, but neither of these are reliable sources.
Aviva is always on a look out for students who are (i) extraordinarily curious and open, (ii) highly motivated and inquisitive, and (iii) who want to put their knowledge and skills to work in a diverse international environment. How do we do this? We look for learning agility.
So what do agile learners look like:
* They are willing to feel and look stupid: admit you don?t know what to do but hit it with everything they have got
* They are keen observers of themselves, others and situations: agile learners are sense makers, and a great way to make sense of events is to pepper them with questions
* They are comparers: agile learners search for past parallels, ask others
* They make sense through rules of thumb: they keep lists, such as guiding principles and trends that they use to view situations
* They are likely to have measures of success and failure.
I am here reminded of the story of a US Navy pilot who talked about how he mastered takeoffs, landings, formation flying, and all the complex steps in between. And then he was told that the next challenge was landing on aircraft carriers. No amount of practice on the ground can prepare you for landing on an aircraft carrier. You have to take into account shifting winds and the affect the waves have on the ship. If you are planning to pull this off, you need to think quickly. You need to adapt and react very, very quickly. Such volatile situations happen in business, too.
Aviva has learnt that agile learners thrive in difficult situations. They are clear thinkers who know themselves well and like to experiment. They also like to learn and can quickly apply new knowledge. Most importantly?and not surprisingly?agile learners deliver results, even in new situations.
But how do you do develop learning agility? Research tells us there are three particularly important elements. First, you need a rock-solid commitment to learning. Second, it?s critical to put yourself in challenging situations. Third, you must be relentless in seeking and accepting feedback about your performance.
That?s the power of learning agility. It?s often the difference between average and superior performance. In these economic times, we need as much of it as we can get. These are the kinds of B-school students we would like to recruit to be our future leaders.
The author is director, HR, Aviva India
