THE JAVELIN INSTITUTE

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA USA

JUNE 2020

FOREWARD

The purpose of this Learning Strategy Guide is to share a learning philosophy and explain why learning is critically important to leaders. While many of the concepts in this guide touched on by subject matter experts, this publication seeks to compile today’s best practices in a consolidated format and provide them for aspirational goal setting. Learning is an institutional priority and a professional expectation for all. This mentality is key to becoming a more effective leader leading learning organizations.

The most important factor in this Learning Strategy Guide is the importance of continuous learning throughout your career. Continuous learning is essential to maneuver life because it enables leaders to quickly recognize changing conditions in the marketplace, adapt, and make timely decisions against a thinking competitor. The skills required in business must be learned, developed, and honed over time – if neglected, they quickly atrophy. Leaders leverage the art and science of learning, technologies, and learning environments that reflect the changing operational environment to tailor learning and provide each other with constructive feedback. Leaders hold other leaders to high professional standards of performance, conduct, and discipline – to include learning. As leaders rise in roles and responsibilities, continuous learning and developing our professional skills are a leader’s expectation. We must make the most of every learning opportunity, fostering our stakeholders’ learning while continuing our own.

Continuous learning is important to leaders because of the fundamental nature of business and its ever-changing character. The nature of business carries a combination of fear, uncertainty, ambiguity, chance, horror and, above all, friction that leaders must prepare to counter and overcome. Leaders must seek out education and training opportunities that simulate these conditions. We must train how we lead. As leaders, we must understand how important learning is and be committed to the principles laid out in this Learning Strategy Guide. Our professional responsibility – as leaders – is to engage in continuous learning so that we may best support our fellow leaders, our stakeholders, the organizations we serve, and the communities in which we live.

Sam Palazzolo

Principal Officer, The Javelin Institute