Hyper-learning

Hyper-learning, How to Adapt to the Speed of Change, by Edward D. Hess, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, 2020

Why does it matter at this point how we learn, how we use our brains when we have so much technology to do all that for us?  Digital or analog, we've managed to reach beyond what we thought we were capable of.  From Eniac to bamboozled web apps its clear that in less than 50 years we've changed the demands on brain function.  When I started in tech, FORTRAN was the man - then we moved into what I call ordinary human territory.  By the time I got into manufacturing management consulting, whatever I could bring to express factory problems in numbers - inventory and customer orders and replenishment flows - even when, as at Briggs and Stratton, the facts out on the carburetor line belied what the system told me - moved us forward in giant steps.  And happily tech grew well and famously until...until it left our hands.  What I had struggled with to program - simple statements linked to other simple statements, game scores, crazy predictions - became so powerful (and easy), I could make mistakes faster and bigger than I had dreamed back in the sixties. 

Which brings us to brain function, brain growth, scars, dead ends and continued new programming,  whether we consciously want it or not!  Dr. Hess thinks we can get control of this hyper-growth, that we can at least develop a modicum of discipline and new rituals or protocols to continue our human tech run.  We'll see, said the blind man (I can say that because I was born blind and gradually regained sight, an experience that left me with great respect for the gift of sight). 

Hyper-learning, says Dr. Hess, requires us to learn, unlearn, and relearn, all the while working and living outside our normal comfort zone. AI, integrated automation, virtual and augmented reality and big data plus analytics are already common workplace tools.  The kicker is that these technologies are now embedded in millions of jobs, from law and accounting, through manufacturing, healthcare and even recreation services.  Those of us who want to keep working have no choice but to selectively and carefully learn and let the right technologies into our lives. 

 When we manage to select and master new technologies, what remains?  A different challenge, one that is being noted especially during the pandemic - "the other side of the brain" - becoming emotionally connected to other humans in positive ways, leading and engaging, and building caring, trusting and compassionate relationships. What the author clarifies in Part I of Hyper-learning, the necessity of finding a new way of being, is clarified by Chapter 5, "The Marvin Riley Personal Transformation."  Thank you Dr. Hess for giving us these positive examples to fill in the dots.  Here the author uses Marvin's story "in his own words" to show WHY Marvin undertook his transformation journey, WHAT about himself he wanted to change, and HOW he went about it.

Here goes:

I remember the damp cold air and never feeling warm.  I remember the constant desperation attempts to pay the water bill or the electricity light bill.  I remember never having money to go on field trips and being left behind.  I remember playing tackle football on the grass field with the concrete sidewalk running through the field.  I remember being burglarized by the neighbors in the apartment downstairs.  I remember drugs being sold about three houses down from mine.  I remember always checking behind me when I was walking home.  I remember the chilling seriousness of my mother's voice and the dry callousness of my father's hands.  I remember everything was loud:  the music the voices, the cars, and the sirens.  These memories are so much more than memories.  These memories are building blocks for who I grew to become.

And here is how Marvin Riley looked back on the environment that shaped him, "and in many ways, this environment is and was me.  My mental models were and are still influenced every single day by this foundation."

It's not safe

Life is hard

Trust no one

Be tough and be ready

Hustle to get yours

Watch your back

It's survival of the fittest

Marvin moved through college and into the work world with his values intact.  He was a high achiever and fed his ego with winning; although the promotions kept coming, occasionally he would reflect on his methods and he began to question his own humanity.  But the pivotal moment came on a trip to Paris when his eyes opened to a different culture; he realized that he had surrounded himself  with carbon copies of himself - winners at all cost, football lovers, people who loved engineering but not marketing.  And he noted during the financial crisis as he laid off numbers of people around the world, that these winners lacked empathy and were oblivious to ordinary human compassion.  They worked solely to the numbers.

But a 360 public feedback session tore Marvin open.  He felt the horror of what he knew he had lost and he committed to change.  After that, a series of events - a CEO mentorship, more feedback, and daily meditation and music helped him move forward.  Work became "the raw material to develop myself."  Hmmmm.  It wasn't enough, so he continued - through a download of the book Learn or Die (also by Dr. Hess) to a deliberate restructuring to create "the perfect workplace."  Essentially Marvin was rebuilding himself to be a better human.  In fact, he formed a daily routine that allowed him to develop more human skills as he became more skilled at leading workplace changes that would support a better balance between technology and human needs:

*  exercise (aerobic and anaerobic)

*  daily meditation

*  journaling

*  intentional practice of inquiry vs. advocacy

*  expressing gratitude

*  active constructive response

*  behavioral self-assessment:  open-mindedness, curiosity, listening, humility, mindfulness, collaboration, courageousness, empathy

*  daily reading (nonfiction and fiction to improve perspective taking)

Marvin's story is encouraging because when he essentially created "a new Marvin Riley" he proved that we can in fact add reasonable dimensions to a one-sided dehumanized life.  We can create surprises and feel happier about the people we work with.  We can in fact give our employees more to rely on.  

Dr. Hess blesses us in Hyper-Learning with more great personal stories, like those of Susan Sweeney and Adam Hansen, all transformations that many of us might like to attempt, but for which we often require unwelcome help from mentors and guides.  We could use a couple dozen more of these bright blessings, real buildable alternatives to decades of human pain and unrest.  I must say that my first reaction to Dr. Hess' book title called up memories of rooms filled with CPUs and noisy line printers, and it was only until I read past the Table of Contents that I realized Dr. Hess has given us a book for our times, one to help us think through becoming better humans when technologies seem to rule, but humanity is what we really need. 

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Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com