![]() ![]() But my hotel, apart from some broken crockery, was unscathed. Tokyo had been struck by a major earthquake the night before. The next morning, I heard the dramatic news. After a few minutes the shaking stopped, and, undeterred, I went back to sleep. Some beds have vibration as a feature, and I wondered whether this bed had been activated by mistake. It was pronounced but unthreatening, and in a way quite pleasant. Some years ago, on a visit to Tokyo, I woke up in the middle of the night in my hotel room with my bed shaking. The learning is then disseminated across the entire military system, thus producing a shared process of improvements over time. The process requires intellectual and moral honesty, a relentless pursuit of root causes, a “no blame” mentality and delivery of specific plans to address any problems. I have participated in a number of simulations at the US Army War College and have been struck by the unwavering ability of the facilitators to arrive at “ground truth,” which is often painful to acknowledge. The US military has perfected this technique and applies it rigorously after every engagement or simulation. ![]() It is a simple but powerful methodology, responding to these questions: What was meant to happen? What actually happened? Why did it happen? How can we prevent it from happening again? ![]() The main form of learning required in these situations is the After-Action Review (AAR). Examples are natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, or occurrences like the terrorist attacks on 9/11. These are sudden, catastrophic, and short-lived events, but they leave an aftermath of destruction. As described below, each demands its own unique method of learning. Crises fall into two basic prototypes – Episodic Crises and Emergent Crises. ![]() In other words, we must learn strategically. However, the specific learning techniques we apply must match the situation we face. As Virginia Rometty, the former CEO of IBM, put it: “In the future, the most important quality any worker can possess will be the propensity to learn.” Learning in a crisisĪt times of crisis our ability to learn rapidly becomes the overriding factor for success, and often of our survival. Our challenge is to cope with increasing disruption and change. We can sum up recent progress in one word: acceleration. The agrarian age lasted for about 10,000 years, the industrial age for 200, the information age for 50, and the conceptual age is a mere 20 years old. The graphic below describes the four revolutions that have ushered in the modern era.* All the major advances in history have involved a process of discovery, much of it based on trial and error. Human progress depends on our ability to learn and adapt. “Darwin asserted that if anyone or anything is to survive in this world, it must learn to adapt.” - James Simon ![]()
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