Once upon a time in a land far far away comes a tale of two men. The younger gentleman had traveled far and wide to find the older wiser gentleman. When he finally found him he spent many a minute telling the gentleman about how far he had traveled, all of his accomplishments and the reason for his search. The younger man pleaded with the older - wiser man,
"Oh wise man, how I would love to sit at your feet and learn what you know. Please teach me as I want to learn everything you have experienced and become wiser myself."
The older - wiser gentleman quietly asked the man in to partake of his lunch, as he was just sitting down to his midday meal. The man quickly came in to the table to sit down. As the older man sat down he noticed that the younger man was searching for something and asked him how he could serve. The younger man replied,
"I hate to be a bother, but do you possibly have salt?"
The older man turned to the cupboard, pulled down the salt and gently sat it on the table. The younger man, quickly turned the salt shaker over and began shaking salt over the prepared food. As he took his first bite, he made a horrible face and he quickly asked for a glass of water. The older gentleman slid him over his own cup of water and waited while the younger man finished the drink and gasped out,
" I mean no offense good sir, but the food on this dish is horribly over-seasoned and salted. May I suggest that the person who committed this egregious mistake be asked to leave your household until they learn what is enough and what is too much?"
The older, and much wiser, gentleman gently stood up, walked to the door, and asked the younger man to follow him. As he led him out the door he quietly said,
"Young man you have indeed traveled far and wide to find me. Unfortunately I am not the one to help you, as you, yourself, said that the person who does not know what is enough and what is too much should be asked to leave"
As the younger man gaped at him in astonishment and confusion the older man took pity on him and decided to share a 'little' bit of wisdom with him, as he had traveled so far to find him. He continued,
"Earlier you told me you wanted to learn what I know and experience what I have experienced. What I know, is that one who salts his food before tasting it is simply unable to have enough of an open mind to even begin to comprehend what I can teach him. You are headstrong and determined - and that is good - but if not coupled with humility and an understanding of the importance in owning your own decisions you will never learn and become wise yourself. I cannot help someone who is close minded, quick to blame others, and unwilling to apply the standard you have set for others to yourself."
Then the older and much wiser gentleman proceeded to wish the younger man good luck in his journey, returned to his house, and closed the door. As the younger man walked away, he could be heard muttering...
"It was JUST salt......"
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So.. that's the story and I'm sticking to it! Now before any of you run off to SNOPES.COM to determine if this is reality or fiction let me just ask...Does it really matter?
We all know what the moral of the story is - an individual who is close minded, unwilling to try new things, which MIGHT possibly fail, and has an inability to admit mistakes is never going to be a true learner.
Learning is about being open to new experiences, it's expanding your mind to include things you never thought of before. It's changing your patterns of thinking and hopefully through the learning comes growth.
Without growth - we as individuals become outdated, stale and stuck. As a corporation or a business it's much, much worse. We simply become obsolete. How many of you know a business owner or two that didn't shift to digital photography or the DVD? A great example is Barnes and Noble - it didn't shift early enough to digital sales and tablets and they are taking a HUGE hit. Amazon is crushing them with the Kindle and online book sales. Bookstore? What's a bookstore?
Do we want to live that out in our personal lives and our professional jobs? EMBRACE becoming a learning organization. Do some research! Look up what a Learning Organization looks like and test yourself against the prototype! Can you grow? Can you change? Are you willing to communicate and support the learning of your staff and embrace an ongoing philosophy of improvement?
These are the types of questions you have to ask yourself in order to thrive and survive in our rapidly changing environment. BE THE CHANGE! Be the environment that encourages and supports continuous employee learning, risk taking and out of the box thinking.
I wish you best of luck on this journey - SW
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"A Learning Organization is all about uncovering what we don't know."
"A Learning Organization is not about what we can do today but tomorrow."
"Learning is the Silver Bullet to successfully completing our objectives."
"We live and die based on Learning!"
Quotes from Gus Valen, Owner of The Valen Group - 2014 - thevalengroup.com
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