A learning culture

A learning culture values curiosity and invites innovators to “think like scientists”. Individually and collectively innovators are constantly aware of what they don’t know, doubt existing practices, and stay curious about new routines. A comprehensive study of startup founders from diverse fields reveals that those who “think like scientists” bring in forty times as much revenue as those who don’t. A learning culture demands psychological safety, high competence and accountability. Leaders model and encourage teams to question the status quo, push the limits, fail regularly, and reward continuous experimentation in low threat environments.

Individually and collectively innovators are constantly aware of what they don’t know, doubt existing practices, and stay curious about new routines.

Image: Generated by MidJourney; prompt: abstract image of “Agile Innovation”

Microsoft Education teams step away from day-to-day work multiple times a year to Fix, Hack and Learn. Tens of early prototypes emerge in a single week many of which hit the market. For all their appetite for failure, innovators have no appetite for incompetence. They set exceptionally high performance standards. They accept that you don’t know what you don’t know, and often you have to learn as you go. Failures provide valuable lessons about paths forward. However, failure can also be a result of poorly thought-out designs, flawed analyses, lack of transparency, and bad management. The latter are signs of incompetence. Failures due to incompetence are not to be celebrated. They are addressed and weeded out regularly.

References: Think Again, Adam Grant, Zero to One, Peter Thiel