Welcome to Chain of Learning

Katie Anderson: Do you believe in the power of learning and continuous improvement to transform people and organizations? Are you a leader who knows that focusing on people is the way to achieve results? Do you want to develop a thriving, continuous improvement culture in your organization where everyone is capable, confident and empowered to solve important problems at all levels? Then you’re in the right place. Welcome to Chain of Learning, where the links between leadership and learning unite.

This is your connection for actionable strategies and practices that empower you to develop a people centered learning culture in your organization, enable sustainable change, and expand your impact. Let’s set you up to leave a lasting legacy and ensure that your team does as well. I’m your host and fellow learning enthusiast, Katie Anderson. If you’re like me, you believe in learning and continuous improvement. You know the impact this can have on people, teams and organizations.

You have a passion for solving important problems and improving processes. You thrive on the challenge of figuring out how to make something better. And you love learning and improving. But more importantly, you too are inspired by creating connections between people and ideas and what it means to help others learn, grow and achieve more than they thought was possible. That’s how you discovered this podcast.

Maybe you followed me for years, or have read my Shingo Award winning book Learning to Lead Leading to Learn. Maybe you’ve been inspired by a keynote talk I’ve given at your favorite Leadership or Continuous Improvement Conference, been intrigued by concepts in one of my articles for Industry Week, Forbes, or on my website, or if this is the first time we’re meeting and you’re excited by the connection between leadership, learning and impact. I’m glad you’re here. I believe in the power of podcasts as a source of learning. I listen to them all the time.

I wanted to create a place for us to learn and connect with each other regularly and for you to reflect on what you need so that you can be successful to have the impact you want personally and professionally. Because if you’re like the hundreds of leaders I’ve met and worked with, then you know that creating change and shifting perspectives to that of a learning culture isn’t always easy. Developing a people centered learning culture is a noble goal, not just for the success of your organization, but for your own success in connection to fulfilling a greater purpose too. But there are common challenges that many well intentioned, purpose driven, continuous improvement leaders face. Raise your hand virtually if you can relate to any of this.

You’re discovering that changes aren’t sticking and you and your organization are working on the same problem over and over. Your organization loves to roll out tools and templates, yet people don’t really understand the underlying learning and leadership behaviors that support them, and ultimately they add to the complexity of your system. You’ve been experiencing reluctance from other leaders who might not be fully bought in or willing to change their own behaviors, and you’re trying to figure out how to get them on board. Maybe you and your leaders are overwhelmed by too many priorities, so it’s hard to know where to actually focus to make an impact. Align with your company’s purpose and your purpose too.

And perhaps you’re discovering that the skills that have led to your earlier success as an individual contributor, as an expert in your field or even as a great technical problem solver or process improvement specialist are not necessarily going to lead to the impact you desire for real, sustained organizational transformation, continuous learning and needed results. Here’s my intention on chain of learning you will learn from me and other experts to support your goal of creating a people centered learning culture in your organization. You will discover what you need to do to become a highly influential change leader who accelerates the rate of learning and impact in your organization. I can’t wait to share with you insights about what a people centered culture of continuous learning and improvement really looks like and how you can be more effective in leading this change. We’ll also talk about a leader’s role in creating this continuous improvement culture, what I like to call a leading to learn culture by first, setting the direction, giving clarity on the challenges and goals that need to be achieved second, providing support by creating the conditions for learning and growth and third, developing themselves because really we all have opportunities for improvement.

And I can’t wait to share my discussions with global thought leaders such as Carol Dweck, the best selling author of Mindset, Jim Womack, the founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute and author of The Machine That Changed the World and many more. And because I believe that reflection is the beginning of learning, in each episode I’ll invite you to reflect on your top takeaway and the one thing that you will take forward with intentional practice to help you accelerate the rate of learning for yourself and in your organization and amplify your impact. These reflections could be the beginning of a spark that leads to big new things in your leadership style and in your organization. And that’s what excites me. In fact, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of how people in organizations learn and grow.

It’s been the common link through my diverse career experiences starting in academia to management consulting, to leading internal improvement teams at several large organizations and discovering firsthand the challenges and reward of leading in continuous improvement transformations. And now for over a decade since founding my consulting practice and having the privilege to work with thousands of leaders in diverse industries around the world from Fortune 50 multinational corporations to government agencies and healthcare systems to family owned companies all on the path to move their organizations from a traditional hierarchical culture of doing to a people centered culture of continuous learning. And over the past decade through living and working in Japan, partnering with 40 year Toyota leader Isao Yoshino to write my Shingo Award winning book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn, and now leading my Executive Japan study trips. I’ve developed deep insights into how Toyota created its thriving, people centered learning culture and become one of the most successful automobile manufacturers in the world. What I’ve come to understand in my diverse experiences is that the success of any kind is grounded in an attitude towards learning and a connection to our shared humanity, regardless of our background or culture, or even the size of company or industry that we work in.

And for organizations to truly thrive and survive into the future, they must first focus on developing people so that they can create excellent products and services, not the other way around. At my core, I believe when we stay in learning, anything is possible. And speaking of learning together, why chain of learning? Well, chain of learning is one of my core principles because I really believe that no one learns on their own. And it’s why I’ve really started this podcast.

I believe we’re all leaders and learners connected together by the bond between us. There really is no strength in isolated links. I first heard this term chain of learning from Asao Yoshino when interviewing him for our book, and he said he was so grateful to have experienced a chain of learning throughout his 40 years at Toyota in both the US. And Japan. First as a new hire not only from his bosses, but those colleagues around him who helped him learn and to learn how to be successful in his role.

And then as he stepped into management roles, he endeavored to do the same and to pass on his knowledge and the skills for learning to the others around him. A chain of learning is a metaphor for what a successful people centered learning organization is all about the connection and support between people to learn through successes and failures alike, grow and achieve more than they could have had on their own. It’s through a chain of learning that we create impact and that we build our legacy by passing on to others what we’ve learned and the capabilities for learning and leading it’s. This power of our chain of learning, how we can learn and improve and help others do the same. And over my career and life, I have come to understand that my purpose is to connect the hearts and minds of people around the world in a chain of learning, to make our world a better place, to make a positive impact, and to leave a lasting legacy.

So if you’re a continuous improvement leader who believes in the power of learning to transform people and organizations, this podcast is for you. Subscribe today so you’ll never miss an episode. And please share this podcast with your friends and colleagues so we can all strengthen our chain of learning together. Subscribe now and I’ll see you next time.