Skot Waldron:
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Hi, welcome to another episode of Unlocked. I am Skot Waldron. And here, we talk about unlocking the potential of organizations and people. And here, today, we have Alas Garda. And he has written yet another book. He wrote two books in Arabic years ago. And he has written two more books in English. One of them has just been released. And it is all about having a learning-driven business. And what does that mean, learning-driven business? So, it's all in this premise. And Garda starts out talking about how learning is a choice. Okay? It's a choice. And we have to choose whether we're going to learn. And he says something pretty interesting in this interview too. He said something like... It was around the idea of not many of us, on our to-do list, every day, will write down, "I'm going to learn something new today. I'm going to learn today."
How many of us make a conscious decision to learn? How many of us, as organizations, create opportunities for our people to learn? So, that's what I want to talk to him about today. And I hope you're going to get some good stuff out of this interview. Garda has a lot to offer. And let's do this. Here we come Garda.
All right, let's do this. How are you today, Mr. Alaa?
Alaa Garad:
Thank you. All good, Skot, so all well. Thank you very much for having me.
SKOT WALDRON:
Good. Well, congrats on the new book. It launched here in the states just a few days ago. But it released in May in your area of the world over in Europe, and so, super, super excited to talk to you about this, The Learning-Driven Business. What's the premise of the book? Start out telling us a little bit about why you even wrote this book in the first place. You've written a couple books in the past, two in Arabic. This is your second one in English. What's the premise of this one?
ALAA GARAD:
In fact, I would say this book, I consider, is part of my legacy. This is something I really thought of for years, not only thought of, but work towards writing this book, ie being an assessor for quality awards and standards like ISO or European foundation for quality management, EFQM, I really had the privilege to assess a few hundreds of organizations over the past 20 years. And with every company or every public department that I assist, I have learned a lot. And I was so keen to document this learning. On the top of this, I did a doctoral thesis for five years in the topic of organizational learning. I'm always curious about how organizations learn, and how individuals in the organizational context... How do they learn and how they apply this learning to the workplace?
So, it's not a secret that what really makes a big difference between companies is how quick or how fast they learn, and they make u-turns, and they make amendments to their policies and system. So, that topic really, I would say, I'm passionate about. And I always read about it. I also have curiosity about these different techniques of organizational learning. So, the core or the main element in this book is how organizations learn and how business are improving, based on these learning techniques or learning mechanisms. So what I did, I wrote much of my experience, and also my co author professor Jeff Gold through the book, plus empirical evidence as well. So, data speaks louder. So, I was keen to bring some evidence from industry to the book.
SKOT WALDRON:
That's great. You quoted Dr. De Bono. And you said, "Learning is to do with business and success. Learning is necessary to run a business effectively, and at every opportunity, if you see them, is to make it a success. The world is changing. People are changing. Long off have written this book for people to succeed." A testimony for the book and for you.
So, this is all about helping people succeed. Why is organizational learning so instrumental in helping people succeed?
ALAA GARAD:
That's a very good question. Learning, on the individual capacity, or even outside the context of organizational... I mean, the organizational context, it is instrumental because it's a choice, because we take the decision. We are the ones who decide if we want to learn or no, and to which extent we want to go. That's number one, because the learning process is a cognitive process. It happens in our brains.
But it is our choice first to acquire the learning, and to decide to learn, and to really devote the quality time and have the ability to learn. But then, the next step is to action this learn. Because we may learn so many things, but not everyone is capable or serious about putting this learning into action. We know obesity isn't something good, but not everyone really take action to exercise and to lose weight. And we can apply this to all concepts. We know that if we improve our academic performance, or we acquire a new professional certification or skill set, we will become better. We can increase our income. We can do better. But till today, only 8% of people around the world achieve their objectives because they don't take proper action.
SKOT WALDRON:
Wait. Did you just say 8% percent?
ALAA GARAD:
8%. According to Inc com, the Inc portal, they did a large piece of research and they came up with a conclusion that only 8% of people around the world achieved their goals.
SKOT WALDRON:
Are these personal goals, or are you talking to corporate as well?
ALAA GARAD:
They're life goals. It could be entrepreneurs who want to establish their startups or business, or it could be personal goals. You know the life goals and including career. And that's because of this gap between what we want to do and what we actually do. So, we know that we can do many things. And this will make us in a better position. But not all of us take action to make this happen. And not all of us survive till the end-all. We will face hurdles. We will face obstacles and challenges. But those who are really very consistent, insisting on achieving their goals, will do. But they equip themselves with skills, with even newer behavior. If there is a need to change their behaviors, they are capable to do this. And no one can really help us but ourself. So we have to start. We have to initiate this.
And then, by doing this, we help ourselves to acquire new knowledge, new skills. But then, others will help us. The world will help us if we help ourselves. So, we know exactly what we're looking for. I know this is easy to say, but the point that not everyone really takes this notion seriously and goes to their to-do list and write, "To learn." I bet that very few people there, in to do list, "to learn something new." And very few people will come at the end of the day or the end of the week and say, "Oh, what did I learn this week? Or what did I learn today? And how this learning can makes me better." It's not a [inaudible 00:10:02] to be only in the business context, but in our social life, in our interaction with everyone. So, learning is a very wide terminology, very broad. And also, it means different things to different people.
And this is why Jeff and I were keen, I wouldn't say to build a framework, but to build some sort of a roadmap of a manifesto for individuals, organizations, and very soon governments. We plan our new book about the learning governments or learning-driven governments, so how they put the learning into action and become better. The good news. Also, this is not something new. I mean, we have so many of success stories. We have so many of case studies and use cases for individuals, organizations, and governments that learn, and improve their performance through learning. And in fact, they didn't need to do really massive financial investment. Because thanks to the technology, we have overflow of resources and tools that we can use to improve our learning.
SKOT WALDRON:
Okay. I'm putting you on the spot a little bit here. Can you recite one of those experience... one of those case studies? Is there something, one that comes to mind immediately for you that can apply to the audience?
ALAA GARAD:
Okay. That's another good question. I'll put this into a context of something we wrote in the book called suggestion scheme. And suggestion scheme, or suggestion system, is a platform where companies learn from their employees. So, companies can learn from employees, from the competition, from customers, but learning from employees. So, there is an example from PepsiCo where... That was in the late eighties, where the company... The CEO asked or requested employees to bring ideas for increasing the revenue. And one of those employees called Richard Montane, who was from Mexico... And actually, the book was published on the same day was my book on 15th July. He has a book, no?
SKOT WALDRON:
Nice, nice. Okay. Cool.
ALAA GARAD:
Richard was a janitor on $4 an hour, but he [inaudible 00:12:47], Latino sauce. He likes spicy sauces. And the PepsiCo had the company that manufacture or produce cheetahs. Have you come across cheetahs, flaming hot?
SKOT WALDRON:
I've had a couple of Cheetos in my life. Yes.
ALAA GARAD:
Flaming hot?
SKOT WALDRON:
No, no, no, I'm not. I can't do the hot stuff.
ALAA GARAD:
So, Richard Montanez didn't know how to write suggestion or proposal, et cetera. So, he developed the sauce, the flaming hot sauce, and he got some Montane, before dusting in the cheese, and dusted in the sauce, and brought it to the management team. And that idea, and that Cheetos flaming hot, that product, bring in $19 billion to Lay's free. Today, after this huge revenue and the achievement that Richard Montane offered to the company, he is now the vice president of multinational flavors or some production line. And he's a PhD holder. And he published a book called Flaming Hot, told his story. And now, Eva Longoria is producing a film about him.
The story is much bigger than this, but there are so many of these examples, like from Amazon. For example. The guy who invented the premium... the prime, sorry, the prime club, or the prime membership, this also brings huge revenue for Amazon. The invention of this button, one click button to purchase, Amazon made over $240 billion from the patent of selling this idea. So, this whole learning from employees, there are so many other mechanisms that we highlighted where companies can learn from employees, customers. Also, on an individual level, people learn from something we call benchmarking. There's a chapter on the book about benchmarking, which is basically learning from others' experience.
So I benchmark, when you ask a question now, for example. I like your way of asking, so I would learn this and adapt it to match my style, et cetera. So benchmarking, suggestion schemes, customer complaints... Bill Gates said the best source for learning is your complaining customer. You learn best from the complaining customers because they bring you the areas for improvement. They provide you a free consultancy. So, this kind of learning we talk about.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, what are some of the other topics you discuss in your book?
ALAA GARAD:
Okay. We discussed simple mechanisms, such as reflection on individual level, such as something called after action reviews, where reflection... We learn not from experience. We learn from reflecting on the experience. So, if I'm running on the autopilot, going to the university every day, doing the lecture of the same style [inaudible 00:16:00] et cetera, that's just doing the job. It's not learning. But I learn when I reflect on how the day was today. Did I get the question from students that I wasn't able to answer? Is there a new technology that I'm not using or can benefit me in teaching my topics, et cetera? So, reflection is very helpful. And actually, it is the main way of learning from experience. So, there is a chapter on reflection and how companies, some companies of course, they allocate, they give their employees the freedom or the liberty to have an hour every day or half an hour just to disappear and reflect on some topics.
Maybe they can also have a list of topics or they leave it free to employees to reflect. And at the end of the week, they have a meeting, a group chat, a kind of informal huddle to discuss what did they reflect on what are the ideas they can bring to the workplace, et cetera. So, there are so many companies who are deploying reflection and asking their employees to reflect on the work and find better ways to do it. Another more structured approach in the book called after action review... And I encourage audience to type "AAR".
AAR, if you type this in Google or YouTube, you'll find an abundance of material and success stories from Australia, the civil defense and fire stations, from the United States, from everywhere about... And this actually came from the US army, After Action. This approach was invented in the army in 1992, where after every incident or every phase of the project, the team, on spot immediately, they sit together and ask a few questions. What was supposed to be done? What actually done or happened? Why what's happened, has happened? What went right? What went wrong? Why it went wrong and what to do next time. But quick. It can be only four question or seven questions, but it is just about asking what was supposed to be done or what's supposed to happen, and what actually happened, and where is the gap, and why this gap there, and what do we learn from this gap?
Not who did the mistake, or... It's not a mechanism to blame people or corner them, but to identify the lessons learned. And in the U S army, they have a center called CALL, Center for Army Lessons Learned. It's in the public domain and available for civilians. And many companies, they visit the center and they benchmark with, and they deploy this mechanism, After Action review.
So, I used to organize an annual conference about organizational learning. And usually, it would be two days. So, at the last... After we finished the last day, in the evening, at the same place where the venue is, I sit with the team. And we'll ask these simple questions. What went right? What went wrong? What to do next time? And every time, we come up with really new learned lessons to learn. And we kept improving every year, year on year, improving the quality of the conference and the service to the audience, et cetera. So, this is a practice literally doesn't require any training or anything.
You can watch some videos on YouTube or in the public domain. There is a professor called David Garvin in Harvard University. He is a specialist in after action review. So, you can learn for free, and then we can implement this. But this of course requires a commitment from the top management and requires rewarding also, because it encourages people to keep learning and implement learning when they feel they are rewarded and they are appreciated and recognized for what they do.
SKOT WALDRON:
Workplace culture is something that is very relevant. I love your definition of workplace culture. You talk about hardware, software. It's your own idea. Tell us about how you came to this idea of workplace culture and what it is.
ALAA GARAD:
Yeah. At some point in time in my career, I worked in technology and computer networking. And as you know, in any computer device, we need the hardware and we need the software, the programs that we use. I apply the same concept with companies, with businesses, that the building, the artifacts, the policies, procedures, et cetera... I consider this as hardware. And culture is the software, because culture is something intangible. We can't really touch it. We can't buy it. We can't... It is hard and requires a lot of time to be developed first and maintained, as the software can be infected with viruses can become a very toxic culture at the workplace. But I would say learning-driven leaders and CEOs, managers, chairs, chairmans, et cetera, they are able... And this is actually the main job they should focus on, cultivating the right culture.
Deloitte conducted a survey, I think, to 600 companies, a few years ago. And they found out that only 12% out of these 600 companies believe that they have the right culture, only 12%. And we're talking about companies in the first world, if we would stay in the Europe, in the US, et cetera. So, what is the right culture? That's the job of leaders to understand what is the right culture in the company and how to cultivate this and how to be patient enough to make sure that this little seed is growing. You have to water it to ensure, gave it the required fertilizers, and make sure that it is growing. And it's everyday job of leaders to have or to cultivate the right culture, the right software in the organization. And once you've done this, you are done really. Because if people believe they have the right culture and they feel engaged, then they will take the ownership.
They will learn. They will be self-driven. They will be learning-driven. They will be keen to bring good ideas to the company, like our friend, Richard Montanez, and so many other success stories. So, this why we started the book actually, and we brought the base... In the book, we thought of the learning-driven organization model as a house. And the pillars of this house are the mechanisms, the different methods to learn. And the base of the house is the culture. No matter how strong the pillars are without having a proper solid base, the pillars are useless. So, culture is crucial.
SKOT WALDRON:
I have a little analogy I use that's similar to that. Right? And it's that foundation...
It's sometimes... I mean, you can't see it. It's underneath the house. It's under the ground. Right? And sometimes, we don't even think about it or care, because we like the glamour. We liked the things we can see and touch and... But as soon as there's a crack in that foundation, then we care. Right? Then, all of a sudden, we're like, "Oh my gosh, there was a crack in the foundation. Now, my whole house might tumble and fall down." Right?
Then, we care. Instead of investing in a strong foundation, sometimes we're just like, "Ah yeah, hurry up. Just get it done. I want to see like the pillars."
ALAA GARAD:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SKOT WALDRON:
So, I love that analogy. That is so good, the software hardware thing. I wanted to make sure you brought that up. So, where can people get ahold of your book?
ALAA GARAD:
The book is available on Amazon. And I think it's... Luckily, I mean, it's a matter of like, but we called it the Learning Driven Business. There is no other similar title, even around this title. So, the learning-driven business, it's on Amazon and it's on Bloomsbury. So, if they go to bloomsbury.com/ldbusiness, learning driven business, it is available on Bloomsbury. And I'm more than happy also to arrange, for your audience, a discount from the publisher. So ,I can send you the code.
SKOT WALDRON:
Oh, great.
ALAA GARAD:
And your audience can use it. I think they can give us 25%.
SKOT WALDRON:
Oh, that's awesome. Thank you so much. That's really great. I really appreciate your wisdom and your insights here, Alaa. Thank you so much. Thank you for writing this book in English for us, and not Arabic as you did your first two books. That way, I can read it. So, I appreciate that. And good luck in all your journeys.
ALAA GARAD:
Thank you very much, Skot Waldron. It was really a pleasure being with you and also listening to your questions. It's enlightened me. And I like also your analogy of the foundation. And thanks to your audience for watching this. And please, let's stay in touch.
SKOT WALDRON:
I love a few of the examples that he mentioned in here about Pepsi and the employee that came with this idea of the Flaming Hot Cheetos, which will also not eat because they're too spicy for me. Yes. I'm one of those. And then, we've got the other individual from Amazon who came up with this idea of Prime, prime membership. Right? Have you ever heard of that? I think many of you have. This premise of learning. How do we learn as organization? Sometimes it's from our internal staff. Sometimes it's from other organizations. Sometimes it's from history. There's all types of ways to learn. And I love the principle of this. He says, "We don't learn by experience." Many of us would go, "What? Of course, I learn from experience. I learn from every experience I have." But he says, "No. We learn from the reflection on those experiences." It's one thing to go through the experience.
It's one thing to have the experience, but it's another thing to reflect back on that experience and think, "Hmm, what can I take away from that? What can I do better next time? What did I learn? What went well? What didn't go so well?" Sorry about that. The principle of learning, of reflection, of understanding what we can build on, is really, really vital. The hardware, the software... Hardware; the procedures, the principles, the processes. The Software: culture.
Toxic culture is like having a virus in your software that is creating a toxic, toxic environment for your system to actually work. It won't function. It won't. And that principle is awesome. So, thank you, Alaa, for being on the show today. Thank you for listening. If you want to learn more about me, go to Skot Waldronwaldron.com. You can find my YouTube channel. And there's lots of interviews there. There's lots of learning tools there to help you in your journey of being a healthier person, all around, leader, and individual outside of work. So, I hope that you will take some of those tidbits and apply them to life. Thank you everybody for being here. This has been another episode of Unlocked.
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