Getting Better at Getting Better

Agency, curiosity, learning, and knowledge — A virtuous cycle 

Have you noticed how some organisations seem to have a natural ability to get better, then there are many that edge their way to improvement, while some seem to languish or even deteriorate?   While there may be many reasons for this, it's worth looking at those natural improvers for a bit of insight.

In any group of people, whether a small team or a company, that is making good and rapid progress, you often find that people notice things that aren’t working, ask questions, explore possibilities, learn something new, and then actually do something about it. In other organisations, equally capable people can encounter the same problems repeatedly, work around them, shrug their shoulders, and carry on.  

The difference isn’t necessarily intelligence, experience, resources, or even motivation. It may have something to do with four very natural human capabilities: agency, curiosity, learning, and knowledge. And crucially, it’s what happens when they start reinforcing each other.

Four natural capabilities

• Agency is our sense that we can make something happen. We believe we can act, that our actions can make a difference, and we’re prepared to do something about it.  
• And sure, while acting, we come across challenges and new situations, and this creates fertile ground for curiosity. If I believe I can influence something, I’m more likely to wonder why it works the way it does, question assumptions, notice gaps in my understanding, and ask whether there might be a better way.
• Curiosity encourages learning. We investigate, ask someone, observe, experiment, read, try something and occasionally get it wrong. Our understanding and abilities change as a result.
• That learning develops knowledge, which isn't just more information stored away somewhere in our heads, but greater understanding and an increased capacity to act.
• And that brings us back to agency. 

This isn’t really a neat linear process, because each influences the others in different ways. Knowing more, understanding more and being better able to do something increases our capacity to make something happen. Which gives us greater reason to be curious, learn and develop still more knowledge.  And together, they can create a powerful virtuous cycle.

From individual behaviour to organisational culture

Imagine that someone notices that a process isn’t working particularly well. They believe they can do something about it. They investigate to find out why it’s being done that way. They talk to a few people, investigate alternatives, and perhaps try something different. They learn something, develop a better solution, and put it into practice. Their success reinforces their own sense of agency.

But other people are watching too. They see that asking questions is acceptable, that challenging the way something is done doesn’t get you slapped down, and that trying something new is possible. And, importantly, that sometimes things actually do change. So perhaps they start doing it too.

The virtuous cycle begins to move beyond the individual and becomes part of how the organisation works.

Unfortunately, it can (and does) work the other way as well. If people repeatedly discover that they can’t influence anything, their agency declines. If nothing is going to change, why ask questions? If we stop asking questions, opportunities for learning diminish. And if we stop learning, our knowledge and understanding gradually become less able to deal with a changing world.

The cycle can reinforce itself in either direction.

You probably don’t need a training course

Agency, curiosity, and learning aren’t management techniques, they’re natural human capabilities.  Knowledge develops from using them.

So the challenge isn’t to teach people how to become curious, send them on an agency course, or launch another organisational initiative, but it is to create an environment in which these capabilities are able to flourish.  And that means paying attention to what happens when someone asks an awkward question, challenges an assumption, admits they don’t know something, experiments with a different approach, or suggests changing something that’s been done the same way for years.

Then, what does their experience teach them? Do it again? Or, don’t bother next time?

Of course, curiosity might lead someone to recognise a gap in their abilities, decide they want to learn more and conclude that a training course is exactly what they need. Great. That’s the cycle working. The important thing is that it started with the person's desire or need to learn.

Getting the cycle turning

As a leader, you don’t have to manufacture curiosity, learning, or agency in your people. Much of it is already there. But you can create the conditions that either encourage or suppress it.

So look around your organisation and ask:

• Do people believe they can make a difference?
• Are questions and challenges genuinely welcomed and responded to constructively?
• Do people have opportunities to investigate, experiment, and learn?
• Does what they learn actually translate into different decisions and actions?

And perhaps most importantly, when someone tries to make something better, does their experience increase their agency - or diminish it?

You may not need another programme, initiative, or training course.  Perhaps the first step is simply to stop getting in the way. 

Ad Futurum

Graham