… any more than finding a recipe will make you a great cook.
Bill Bennett reflects on the writings of Alfred North Whitehead on learning. He ends up dismissing the pursuit of “best practices” as secrets to success in favor of a culture of discovery:
- Design your organization so that it develops new capabilities;
- Make it your job, as a leader, to help your organization be better at learning;
- Structure your organization so that your people must engage with important, unsolved problems.
- Establish routines that allow for failure and reward those who try to discover;
- Build a culture that values discovering over knowing, becoming over being;
- Lead by design.
And don’t forget the secret: There is no secret1