Scalable learning will be the key to institutional success as we move deeper into an exponentially changing world. But to really scale learning, we’re going to need to adopt a very different approach to strategy – the “zoom out, zoom in” approach. This post will explore why these two approaches are so tightly connected.
Scalable learning I’ve written a lot about scalable learning. In our research on the Big Shift that is transforming the global economy, we’ve come to believe that all our institutions will need to make a fundamental shift from a scalable efficiency model to a scalable learning model.
Over the past century, the scalable efficiency model has driven the growth and success of large institutions around the world – corporations, governments, universities, NGO’s, etc. In this model, the primary focus is how to perform complex tasks very efficiently and reliably at scale. The way to achieve this has been to tightly specify and highly standardize all tasks. In a more stable world, this produced significant efficiency.
But here’s the challenge. Our world is no longer stable. It’s evolving at an accelerating rate with growing uncertainty. Customers are also being more powerful and less and less willing to settle for standardized, mass market products and services. The combination of these two forces creates a paradox: scalable efficiency is becoming less and less efficient.
So, what’s the alternative? Scalable learning. In a rapidly changing world, the ability to learn faster at scale will increasingly determine success.
Let me clarify. By learning, I don’t mean training programs or the sharing of existing knowledge. I’m talking about learning in the form of creating new knowledge by confronting situations that have never been seen before and developing new approaches to create value. That kind of learning occurs in the work environment on the front line. It’s learning through action, not just sitting and reading books or thinking great new thoughts.
And it will encourage us to come together into tightly knit workgroups rather than working in isolated cubicles. No matter how smart any one of is, we’ll learn a lot faster if we are working closely with a small group of others who are equally committed to achieving higher and higher impact. In short, this form of learning will require redefining work for everyone at a fundamental level and the adoption of new practices within workgroups to accelerate learning.
If we understand the implications of scalable learning, we’ll realize that it’s in fundamental conflict with the scalable efficiency models that prevail in all our institutions today. We’re going to have to choose which institutional model to adopt and, if we choose scalable learning, it will require us to pursue a broad program of institutional innovation, rethinking every aspect of our existing institutions.
And, here’s a key observation: scalable learning will actually be much more efficient at scale than the traditional scalable efficiency model. Rather than tightly specifying and standardizing all tasks, the most efficient way to respond to rapidly changing contexts will be to help participants on the front line to learn faster about the new approaches that will deliver the most value efficiently.
The challenge This shift will not be easy. It will be extremely challenging, requiring transformation of all our institutions. It will require leaders to overcome the resistance of the immune system and antibodies that exist in all large institutions.
To do that, institutional leaders will need to develop the conviction and commitment to embark on that challenging journey of change. Many things are holding them back. One key obstacle is the widespread view that learning is an expense and something to be tightly managed in the name of scalable efficiency. Leaders need to discard that conventional view of learning and begin to see how critical learning is to creating significant new value, while at the same time helping the institution to become more efficient. What can help them do that?
Zoom out, zoom in approach to strategy This is where a new approach to strategy can play a key role. It can help leaders to see that learning is actually key to unlocking significant new value for the institution. It’s not an expense, but something that can be unleashed to quickly deliver rapid improvements to performance.
Institutions have increasingly moved to reactive forms of strategy where the key goal is to sense and respond as quickly as possible to what is happening at the moment. This approach fosters incrementalism and tends to spread the resources of the institution across a growing number of initiatives, so that nothing receives a critical mass of attention or resources. It’s actually very inefficient.
That’s why I’ve become a big proponent of an alternative approach to strategy. It’s called the zoom out, zoom in approach to strategy, an approach that’s outlined in detail here.
In brief, this approach focuses on two time horizons in parallel. The zoom out time horizon is 10-20 years and addresses two key questions: What will our relevant market or industry look like 10-20 years from now and what kind of institution will we need to be to be successful in that market or industry?
The zoom in time horizon focuses on a very different time horizon – 6-12 months. On that horizon, the key questions are: what 2-3 initiatives could we pursue in the next 6-12 months that would have the greatest impact in accelerating our movement towards that longer-term opportunity and do we have a critical mass of resources against those 2-3 initiatives in the next 6-12 months?
Tying strategy back to scalable learning The power of this approach to strategy is that it focuses the institution on a long-term opportunity to create unparalleled value and impact by harnessing the exponential forces that are re-shaping our global economy and society. In an exponential world, those opportunities will require fundamentally different approaches and organizations relative to the ones we have today. It will require profound learning at scale in the form of creating new knowledge, not just sharing existing knowledge.
This is very powerful on two levels. First, it helps to focus learning efforts. In a rapidly changing world, the risk is that there is so much potential for learning that we could easily spread ourselves too thinly and consume all our time and attention on learning things that are quite peripheral to the impact we are trying to achieve. By zooming out, we can focus our learning efforts on the most significant opportunities for impact.
Second, by framing an unprecedented opportunity to create value and impact, the zoom out approach can help to inspire participants to engage in learning aggressively. Remember, when we talk about learning in the form of creating new knowledge through action, there’s likely to be a lot of failure along the way. That’s very risky and naturally generates fear. The zoom out approach helps to move people from fear to hope and excitement as they begin to focus on an amazing opportunity.
But, there’s more. The zoom in approach helps to focus participants on the action they can take in the near-term to achieve impact and accelerate their movement towards the longer-term opportunity. That’s a significant opportunity to learn through action. As we pursue the zoom in initiatives we can begin to see what impact is being achieved and learn how to evolve our approaches to generate even more impact over time. These near-term initiatives will also help us to refine and evolve our view of the longer-term zoom out opportunity as we begin to see whether we are achieving the impact that we anticipated.
This zoom in approach helps to generate tangible impact in the near-term that is also powerful on two levels. First, it addresses the need that all our institutions have to demonstrate impact quickly. If we just focus on a 10-20 year opportunity without addressing the need for near-term impact, we risk consuming ourselves in initiatives that may or may not produce results for a long time with a lot of wasted resources and investment along the way. On the other hand, by framing the short-term initiatives in the context of a very big longer-term opportunity, we reduce the risk of falling into incremental moves that may produce short-term results, but ultimately lead us to a dead-end.
Second, the emphasis on near-term impact also helps to overcome the skepticism and fear that naturally arises if we are presented with a very big opportunity that has never been achieved before. By focusing on delivering short-term results, we again help to move participants from fear to hope and excitement.
Bottom line By pursuing a zoom out, zoom in approach to strategy, we can build conviction and commitment to the imperative of shaping scalable learning institutions. Focusing participants on an unprecedented longer-term opportunity to create more value and impact makes it clear that significant learning will be required – simply becoming more efficient with our tried and true approaches will not get us there. If it’s a really big opportunity – an exponentially big opportunity – it will also make it clear that this learning will need to be scaled rapidly throughout the institution.
At the same time, focusing participants on a small number of short-term initiatives that can quickly deliver tangible results helps to focus learning through action. It also overcomes the widespread belief that learning is an expense item that needs to be tightly controlled in the name of efficiency. Now, learning through action will produce significant near-term impact on metrics that matter. In fact, learning is a by-product of initiatives designed to find ways to increase impact, rather than an investment that may never yield returns.
Learning is not an expense. Properly focused, it is a key to unlocking expanding value creation, while at the same time improving efficiency. Zoom out, zoom in can make those economics much more tangible while at the same time helping participants overcome fear and develop excitement about the opportunities that learning can unleash.
But, what about investors and their relentless quest for short-term earnings and nothing else? I’ll avoid the temptation to make this post even longer, and instead invite you to stay tuned for my next blog post that will address that question.
You mention learning in small workgroups. Are they scalable? Can we have enormous habitats of many small workgroups working on a new problem? Something like AmericaSpeaks' 21st Century Town meetings, but not just in one place on one day? How do you get everyone in a large organisation to take part in a learning activity (e.g. in an offline and online political party conference)?
Posted by: Davidrnewman | September 01, 2019 at 01:07 PM
Solid. Creating scaled learning environments is imperative, and what I've done with my career. But it hasn't been easy, because that shifting between scales causes dissonance with the mentally inflexible. A longer conversation for sure.
Posted by: Chuck Pezeshki | August 07, 2019 at 01:29 PM
Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I absolutely agree that Institutions must build a learning culture that creates new knowledge and that learning should not be seen as an expense - and not an opportunity - but a mission critical challenge. Zoom in and out for strategy can be a way to link it.
We have build a digital platform that does exactly what you explain here. It creates new knowledge in an uncertain world linked directly to the strategy. The methodology is called Challenge Based Development and our platform is called Acadal.
Happy to share more info 😀
Posted by: Morten Dalum | August 07, 2019 at 08:17 AM