Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 - (Page 16)

STRATEGIES The Purpose-Driven Learner Watch out for that Frisbee! • BY FRED HARBURG hen moviegoers ﬁrst met Dustin Hoffman, he was “The Graduate,” ﬂoating in a pool wondering why he had spent four years studying and what he should do now. Corporate learning professionals do well when they take Hoffman’s plight very personally because purpose is at the center of an effective learning agenda. Most undergraduates argue that they are earning Fred Harburg is a a degree so they can eventually get a job and make private consultant, a living. We tuition payers are relieved that making writer and speaker a living is in the plan, but is it a sufﬁcient answer? in the disciplines of Research from Central Michigan University reveals leadership, strategy and that 85 percent of all undergraduates change their performance coaching. majors, and on average, they do so three times in the He has held numerous ﬁve years it takes them to graduate. international leaderI would guess that most students would rather ship roles at IBM, toss a Frisbee in the campus quadrangle than attend GM, Motorola and classes. Most of us were pretty fuzzy about our aims at Fidelity Investments. that age, and I certainly enjoyed playing in the quadHe can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. rangle. College is clearly a time of exploration, and the complexity of understanding one’s life purpose is daunting at any time. But we are understandably anxious about the fact that private college costs are skyrocketing past $50,000 per year, and the average college student seems to have no idea what they want CLO-RADIO to study or why. CLO magazine columnist Fred This common dilemma Harburg discusses how the on college campuses has human element of change initiaa parallel in the corporate tives often gets overlooked and classroom. When particiwhy this can cause problems for pants show up for a corpoorganizations in a podcast titled rate training course, the ﬁrst “Change Series, Part III.” Listen thing they often hear is the at www.clomedia.com/podcast. learning objectives. But learning objectives are not enough. The real question is one of purpose. A list of skills to be acquired or understanding to be gained falls far short of providing a compelling reason for learning. A learner’s most profound question — consciously or subconsciously — is, “Why do these objectives matter?” and “Why should I listen to this at all?” Research shows that you have approximately four minutes to answer these questions compellingly. If you fail to do so, you have lost the student. The idea of purpose as prime mover is not conﬁned W to learning — it is part of a much broader need. We in the learning world can beneﬁt from the observations of Dr. Viktor Frankl, the famous Viennese psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor and author of Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl took profound exception to Freud’s position that man’s basic motivation was the pursuit of pleasure. He also dismissed Adler’s belief that the drive for power was the primary motivating force. Rather, he credibly argued that one’s foremost concern is to ﬁnd meaning in life. Unlike Sartre or other existential philosophers, Frankl denied that man invents meaning. He believed that people come into the world with a purpose. He speciﬁcally felt that purpose can be revealed by looking at three types of experiences: 1. The creation of fulﬁlling works or deeds. 2. Meaningful relationships with people or things. 3. Very difﬁcult situations that challenge people to choose their attitudes, thoughts and responses. These moments of full engagement yield rich information that can disclose a purposeful path. Frankl graphically described his observation of fellow concentration-camp prisoners. Prisoners who lacked or lost a sense of the purpose for their lives would lie down and die. They merely “willed themselves to death.” Frankl also described frail and sickly prisoners who seemed certain to die but survived beyond all probability. These prisoners had some compelling reason to live. They had a purpose for surviving, and the power of their purpose sustained them in the midst of the most degrading and malicious acts of which men are capable. We have all seen athletes of lesser talent beat those with greater skill, power and endowment. We have seen hard-working, but less-gifted students outperform those with greater intellectual capability. A large part of the explanation for these peculiar twists resides in one single word: purpose. These underdogs who inspire us have a compelling reason for striving that causes them to triumph against the odds. These lessons are poignant for learning leaders. Help students understand their purpose, make the purpose of learning offerings clear and help learners ﬁnd the intersection between the two. When we do, we unleash a mighty force for learning and living. But don’t forget to enjoy the Frisbee and befriend that coed on the beach blanket, because life is about relationships, too! CLO 16 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • July 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com/podcast http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five A Customer-Driven Approach to Molding Tomorrow’s Leaders The Home Depot: Accelerated Leadership CLO Profile Birth of a Salesman: Selling Learning to Solve Business Issues Selling Learning’s Potential at Siemens Transform Corporate Learning With a User Network Wiki Training Increases Productivity for RMC Vanguard Mortgage Lessons From the Feds: Mapping Learning to Strategic Initiatives Department of Labor Centralizes Content Synchronous and Asynchronous: What’s in a Name? Coping With Cultural Barriers to E-Learning The Manager’s Responsibility for Employee Learning Case Study Business Intelligence In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

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