Teaching Difficulties: 4 Reasons why People Don’t Want to Learn

4 reasons people may not appear to want to learn:

1. Pride - They don’t think they need to learn anything – This is the one that frustrates us the most, and it’s the one we accuse people of the most. It’s true, arrogance is common in leadership, but it can also rear it's head amongst those who need to be led. Many leaders feel they are in a position because they are the only ones who could do the job. Everyone around them may know that’s not true, but they can’t see it. They don’t care to learn from others, because they aren’t willing to admit or see they have anything to learn. Sometimes those who still have much to learn are too proud to admit it.
2. We don't know what we don't know - They don’t know they need to learn anything – It may sound similar, but this is a different reason. It isn’t arrogance than causes this one, but rather ignorance. We’ve all been there at times. Many times we assume that we know the answers already. It isn’t because we were not interested in learning more, it's just that we didn’t know there was more to learn and the older we get the more we realize how much we don’t know yet. Some of that comes with maturity and age. Some of it comes with experience, but, many times we don’t think we need to know anything more because we just don’t realise the shortcomings in what we believe we know.
3. Credibility - They don’t want to learn from you – This is a hard one for leaders to accept, but it’s actually quite common. It could be a relational issue or a positional issue…it might simply be a personality clash, but for whatever reason, it keeps them from desiring to learn from you. If you are a parent of teenagers, you will know that your kids are good at learning more from others than they do from you. You can welcome appreciate the people who provide positive advice. We have all worked with leaders who are supposed to be leading us, but in fact, we knew more about a subject than they. It takes a very humble or enlightened person to learn from those you’re supposed to be leading. Allow your people to learn from whatever sources they prefer, as long as they're accurate.
4. Learning styles -Maybe they want to learn on their own – There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as they remain approachable and open i.e. teachable. In fact, as long as your people are learning and progressing they should be encouraged in every way. Some of the best lessons in life come from simply trying something and perhaps you succeed or perhaps you come near to failure. Give people the freedom to explore their environment independent of you. Support them in their efforts and give them permission to fail and a license to succeed. It will help them, you and any organisation you are attached to, to grow and develop in ways you could not imagine.

We all are aware that you can’t teach someone who doesn’t want to learn.

That’s why the best leaders, teachers, parents etc. spend more time motivating the learner than they do teaching them.

In the book “Switch”, authors Dan and Chip Heath call it “motivating the elephant”. If you, as a leader, desire people to learn from you, first motivate them so that they really want to learn.

10 Books Every Leader Should Read

1. The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. A masterpiece of evidence-based management. A strong argument for "the devil's in the details."

2. Influence by Robert Cialdini. A classic book about how to persuade people to do things, how to defend against persuasion attempts, and the underlying evidence.

3.Made to Stick Chip and Dan Heath. A modern masterpiece, an immediate classic. How to design ideas that people will remember and act on.

4. Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman won the Nobel Prize, this book is surprisingly readable. A book about how humans really think, and although it isn't designed to do this, Kahneman also shows how much of the stuff you read in the business press is rubbish.

5. Collaboration by Morten Hansen. He has another bestseller jointly penned with Jim Collins called Great By Choice. The best book ever written about what it takes to build an organisation where people share information, cooperate, and help each other succeed.

6. Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. It is the best creativity book ever written, possibly the best business book ever written. Gordon's voice and love of creativity and self-expression, and how to make it happen despite the obstacles that unwittingly heartless organizations put in the way, make this book an essential read.

7. The Pixar Touch by David Price. You can read how Ed Catmull, along with other amazing characters, after amazing setbacks, weird moments, and one strange twist after another, realized Ed's dream after working on it for decades. Jobs was rarely rude or obnoxious in his dealings with people at Pixar because he knew they knew more than him, and even he was infected by Pixar's norm of civility.

8. Men and Women of the Corporation Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The classic book about the gender dynamics in organisations. This is the book that brought us the phrase "Homosocial Reproduction," the tendency of groups to bring in people who look and act just like them. This book is beneficial because it gets beyond gender to show how corporations really work, albeit in a not very flattering but instructive light.

9. Leading Teams by J. Richard Hackman. When it comes to the topic of groups or teams, there is Hackman and there is everyone else. If you want a light feel good romp that isn't very evidence-based, read The Wisdom of Teams. If you want to know how teams really work and what it really takes to build, sustain, and lead them from a man who has been immersed in the problem as a researcher, coach, consultant, and designer for over 40 years, this is the book for you.

10. Who Says that Elephants Can't Dance? By Louis Gerstner. Organisational change is difficult, especially in a huge and old established company. This book shows it isn't impossible and how one leadership team did it in one of the most iconic companies. People believe Apple is impressive but corporations come, blossom and then go. Let's see if Apple is still around in 25 years.

Thought Leader Interview: Didier Lombard

A formidable transformation is taking place in the global telecommunications industry. Over the past few years, the operating margins for many telecom companies have shrunk rapidly, as mobile phone service has overtaken fixed-line service, data traffic has outpaced voice traffic, and the old bread-and-butter phone service has become commoditized.

Meanwhile, global demand for data services has increased massively, especially with the emergence of video streaming and downloading on the Internet. This “data tsunami,” as it’s been called, has grown in intensity with the proliferation of data-enabled smartphones.

Cisco Systems Inc. estimates that the total volume of data circulating on mobile networks will grow from 0.09 exabytes (97 million gigabytes) per month in 2009 to 3.6 exabytes (3.9 billion gigabytes) in 2014, roughly doubling every year.

Even with new technologies for compressing data, the ability of mobile networks to absorb this traffic remains limited. The net result is a major challenge for telecommunications companies: finding the capital to build all the networks needed to handle this data while still maintaining the loyalty of customers and the goodwill of regulators, and fending off new Internet-based competitors such as Google, Skype, and Facebook.

The Thought Leader Interview: Didier Lombard

The Best Leaders Teach Others To Lead

"There's nothing you can screw up that I can't help fix," she was often heard telling her students at Air Force Fighter Weapons School (the Air Force equivalent of Top Gun). And it is this philosophy that makes Lori Robinson a great leader. She understands she's only as good as those she leads.

When a leader spends more time reprimanding people for making mistakes, they will quickly create a culture in which people will fear making mistakes. Innovation and productivity suffer because the team will play not to lose instead of playing to win.

Worse, few if any will want to take personal accountability for their actions. They will point fingers or come up with excuses. And if people don't own their own decisions and actions then they will never feel a part of something bigger than themselves. They will rarely go out of their way to help their colleagues, the group or the company.

That's not the case for those who General Robinson commands. She is renowned for working to clear a path for others so that they may succeed. She has earned remarkable loyalty from those who have ever served her. In fact, those who have served under her have gone on to have remarkable careers of their own. And it is this that makes Lori Robinson a brilliant leader. She does all she can to serve those who serve her.


Click to download the excerpt about Lori Robinson in Start With Why

What makes a good Leader?

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Climate Control and Europe Leaders - Greenpeace Campaign Copenhagen

Posters featuring the aged heads of Obama and the leaders of key European countries, have been placed all over Copenhagen International Airport by tcktcktck.org and Greenpeace

Picture: AFP/GETTY