Continuous learning is key to the success for individuals and for businesses. The world is changing so quickly that skills learned a few short years ago could already be redundant, writes David Gilroy.
Young people are a lot smarter than we give them credit for. A seventeen-year-old is responsible for charting the course of my life. Despite pressure from parents, this person determined that I should not apply to go to university regardless of my A-level results. They judged that I must avoid academic life, enter the world of work, and find a job best suited to my skills. Of course, that person was my younger self, and the decision paid off. I joined Sainsbury’s which at that time was fully committed to training and developing young people. I learned my basic retail and people skills there and I will be forever grateful. This provided the platform to live a debt-free life, start a family early and get onto the housing ladder. All of which I am benefitting from today.
Retailing and wholesaling continues to be a great career option for young people, and it is all about continuous learning. More importantly it is about taking responsibility for your own development. When I started with Sainsbury’s I was taught many of the fresh food trade skills such as butchering meat and bacon, wiring cheese, plus all the associated stock management and hygiene methods. Critical to my development they instilled in me the “JS way”. A set of values that remain core to great retailing today. While the values are a constant, all industries move on and many of those skills have become redundant. New skills must be acquired and mastered. Anyone serious about building and maintaining a career must be continually and critically reviewing their own skill set and ensuring that they are keeping up to date with the latest methods and practices.
In mid-career I determined that my skills were degrading and becoming less relevant. I enrolled to take a master’s degree in business administration; the ubiquitous MBA. I was managing a small company at the time, and it was tough going. Studying all waking hours and sacrificing family time. The first subject was statistics. I’m sure that it was designed to shake out the ambivalent and faint-hearted. It worked. Over a third of the cohort packed it in after two months. By now a mature student with twenty years of real-world work experience under my belt, I was mentally ready for academia. Invigorated and fired up I consumed all the learning with a zealous fervour. I read every business book and manual I could lay my hands on. I packed so much literature into my assignments that I had to brutally edit them down to hit the word count. The first draft of my dissertation started at 120,000 words. I am proud to report that I secured the degree and attained a high mark. Then a strange thing happened. I took all this newly acquired knowledge back to the workplace expecting to soar like an eagle. Instead, I found myself unable to make decisions. Even simple issues would require a protracted personal internal debate. I had become paralysed, fearful, endlessly evaluating the pros and cons of every situation. Getting things done, previously a strength, had disappeared. As renowned musician Ricky Beato says: “thought is the enemy of flow”.
The MBA had addled my brain. I was locked in a loop of endless internal argument, and I needed to rediscover myself. I focused on simplification, distilling every problem to the core and making fast decisions. I cleared out all my business books and vowed never to read another one. Until I came across Richard Harpin. He set up and built HomeServe and Growth Partner. He is a serial and successful entrepreneur, and he occasionally writes for The Sunday Times. He is a firm advocate of lifetime learning and I was surprised to learn that he is an avid reader of business books. He reckons that there is always a gold nugget to find in a business book which he can take away and apply to his business. This prompted me to return to them. Only this time in a more selective way. And with Christmas approaching and thinking that you may be short of Christmas present ideas, I humbly recommend these three.
“Leading” by Sir Alex Ferguson, co-written with Michael Moritz
I plead guilty as charged to being influenced by sport and music and the learnings they offer for all enterprises. Although set in the world of football this is a serious business companion. The co-authors are both highly successful in their given fields. Ferguson delivers the real-life gritty applications while Moritz provides the intellectual underpinning. This book is very readable, entertaining and stresses the importance and techniques for adaptability, evolution, resilience, risk-taking and handling pressure.
“Principles” by Ray Dalio
Dalio offers a structured approach to personal and organisational growth built on self-awareness, systematic thinking and open mindedness. I particularly like the section on viewing organisations and life as machines with inputs, outputs, and feedback loops. He advises individuals to step back and look at their lives as machines, aiming to continually improve by refining processes and finding solutions that work consistently. His emphasis on transparency and data driven decision-making resonates as does his focus on patterns and embracing reality and dealing with it.
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear
If you are looking for a manual to refer to on day-to-day progression this, is it. The book is a practical guide to building good habits and breaking bad ones by focusing on small incremental changes which when compounded over time lead to significant improvements. Effective systems and processes will drive real progress rather than solely focusing on outcomes. Clear recognises our human weaknesses and offers ways to overcome them. On personal and organisational change, he recommends his “four laws”. Making it obvious, making it attractive, making it easy and making it satisfying. And he emphasises consistency over perfection. Was the MBA worth it and does academia add any real value to business? That’s a firm yes from me. Despite the temporary loss of decision-making ability, I found it transformational. I discovered that personal learning and development is incredibly rewarding.
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