Rapid Learning Cycles - Why They Matter!

To say the world operates fast today is an understatement. Never in our history has the world moved more quickly, with greater interdependencies, and breakneck disruption than today.

Acknowledging this has tremendous ramifications for the longevity and success of your business. For, if one denies such conditions exist, corporate death is imminent. This is undeniable. But, for those who do acknowledge such facts, an opportunity exists to dominate one's industry; to create a competitive advantage of the highest order.

Now, the key to doing this; to competing effectively in this fast, fluid, and interdependent world is to adopt Rapid Learning Cycles (RLC). So, what are these? Rapid learning cycles reflect both a philosophy and an approach to corporate learning and innovation.

As a philosophy, RLCs reflect agile thinking, agile learning, agile execution. But more than this, rapid learning cycles represent an attitude that to compete in a world obsessed with speed, we must pulse faster; accelerate our value delivery. As an approach, RLCs reflect work organized and executed as weekly 'sprints' where the goal is to identify weekly what matters most and then focus intently on achieving such goals.

Historically, there was little need to pulse this fast, but today it represents but the price of admission in most industries. Each word in the phrase Rapid Learning Cycle tells. For example, the 'rapid' part tells us that we must pulse quickly; with our thinking, our actions, and our value delivery. 'Learning' tells us that our intent, and focus should be on learning; today and every day. Last, 'cycle' connotes that the pattern of being rapid, generating learning never ends; a process in perpetual motion.

Rapid Learning Cycles are here, and they are here to stay! Most companies that have adopted Lean and/or Agile methods have implemented some form of RLC's. It has been my experience that 'weekly cycles' work best as they reflect and acknowledge the speed at which business transacts today.

It seems weekly, that course corrections of some kind are needed to corporate strategy, to operational processes, to sales tactics, hence we need an operational improvement method that meets us where we are. Rapid Learning Cycles. Embrace them.

Utilize them. Live them. The very future of your company will come to depend on them.

Related Reading

• De-load Moments: The Magic of Toggling Fast and Slow

• Experiment Your Way Forward

• Agile: A Social Technology for Our Times

Facing a complex change challenge in your organization? Book an OD consultation with Henosis Partners.