De Baak - Courses

Learning for life

Leadership development within major Dutch multinationals often occur through a training programme at de Baak Management Centre VNP-NCW. De Baak is the most significant training institute in The Netherlands. The most senior programme in their portfolio is called de Baak Senior Executive Programme (BSEP).

The persons who apply for de Baak Senior Executive Programme say in their intake interviews that they want to learn something. However, they generally do not have anything specific in mind – they say they do not know what to learn actually, but express a need to move on, to deepen and to broaden their outlook.

I have not really defined my learning goals. I expect that the experiences exchanged put me to reflect on my own knowledge and behaviour. That will inherently impact my way of leading and so my environment. I see it as an opportunity to enlarge my horizon in many respects. [1]

Among all the requests for education that de Baak annually receives, it is about 1500, there are about 25 with this particular request – a small population indeed. One might wonder why that is so? One reason is most likely that the notion of “learning” in our Western culture is usually seen as a process of progressive accumulation of knowledge, an add-on to what one already knows. And when it comes to leadership and doing “tough” business it is usually seen as the surest way to go.

From a cognitive perspective [2] this view on learning represents the first stages of learning. As such it is necessary for a later stage, which is characterised by “unlearning”.

Important elements of the early phases of learning are memorising and individuation of content, i.e., to acquire new knowledge or skills and to make it “mine”; fitting with personal values and intentions. To know something in this way presupposes more or less active knowledge of its contrast.

Learning through comparison is tightly linked to contrast categorisation. [3] This is achieved by creating mutually excluding relationships of opposites. As such it is a strategy that supports a dualistic conceptual structure composed by pairs such as good – bad, true – false, and so on. It is useful in the learning process because it is a help for memory and it facilitates quick and unambiguous recognition of whatever content one wants to learn. It can provide security and help in that you “know-that-you-know” and “know-what-you-know”, so, to create a personal understanding of what you have learnt.

Un-learning on the other hand, implies detachment from knowledge which is restricted to the conceptual understanding of content; it assumes readiness to live with some degree of “non-duality”. Un-learning starts to influence the learning process when the former strategy has lost its explanatory value and relevance. For most people it means to “forget” habitual ways of interpreting the world, to give up identifying with a particular role. It normally coincides with a wish to know that which is not a thing but the essence of all things. “Non-knowing” implicates difficulties to define, circumscribe and even talk about ideas and experiences that one has had or is seeking to have.

Unlearning corresponds to stages of spiritual development as offered within the world’s mystical traditions such as Sufism and Zen. [4] The teachings and practices within these traditions aim at loosening the tight relationship between ego and interpretation of the world; to help people get out of a mind-set which are conditioned by the ego. Zen, the path of mind-fullness, offers for instance Koans, [5] paradoxes that cannot be resolved by mere intellectual activity. Sufism teaches how to open the heart and so to realise the core of everyday matters.

People applying for BSEP, saying that they want leadership development but that they do not know how to specify it, seek some degree of un-learning and non-knowing.

It is therefore neither surprising that the BSEP attracts people who are in their forties and fifties, facing a new stage in personal and professional life - Nor that they accept to be taken out of their familiar context and to enter a path that leads in an un-known direction.

What is the business case for following such a personal development programme?

What is different in the leadership approach of ex-BSEPers? When answering this question three months after having completed the programme, delegates tend to report two main changes, (a) Greater integration, and, (b) More conscious use of intuition.

Participants say that their increased awareness of themselves and hence greater integration of previously unknown traits, issue forth a more encompassing leadership style. They find it easier to distinguish between the different elements of decision making processes, for instance, the rational and the emotional considerations are weight into the total picture. Because of this broader and more complex basis for decision making, they also feel less personally attached to any particular outcome. This in turn prompts more sustainable and less short-term solutions. Moreover, contrary to what one may assume, detachment brings greater satisfaction than effectively realizing a single-minded chase of a “wanna-have” solution.

Their understanding of colleagues’ point of view is increased with the effect that they can tolerate more and different approaches both to management and to entrepreneurship. As a consequence their professional environment comes to stimulate creativity and diversity more consciously.

In recent discussions with people I must say that my way of looking at things and the way I behave in the discussion has changed surprisingly. I ask my self what my vision is in the first place and then focus on getting support or criticism of my ideas and then change them as appropriate. With this approach of having an established vision I feel I can easier structure my mind and proceed to define next steps – which enables me to get people working with and for the necessary steps to be made for achieving the long term goals! [6]

Intuition is defined as the ability to consciously (or unconsciously) put into practice tacit information retrieved from the individual’s sensing faculties.In a recent conversation Prof. Dr. Bierman, referring to his current research on the role of intuition in decision making processes, stated that so far he observed that the body knows before the mind what is a safe and what is a dangerous option to choose (in a test situation). The body quickly learns to register and distinguish between alternatives, but the “listening” to the body is a delayed process that sometimes does not occur, e.g., research indicates that subjects with anxiety do not trust their “gut-feeling”. A condition for intuition is thus to inhibit conventional thinking, trust the impulse, be open-minded, and so learn to read pre-conscious signals. We both agree that some of the best leaders in the world has (had) just this capability. [7]

Intuition as a source of information is an ever more important factor. Due to the overload of information, prompted by new technology, the multiple features that are involved in any form of decision making as well as the complexity by which many operations are executed requires speed and focus which cannot possible be obtained solely by a rational thinking process. Leaders today must develop and learn to put into practice their intuitive faculties.

Similarly leadership and management of modern networked and diversified organisations call for a great amount of flexibility to ensure safeguarding the business’ purpose, and subsequent alignment of efforts. There are no fixed rules that can guarantee success and there is no way that a leader can comprehend, assess and respond to the needs of the market, the employees – what motivate them and not - or to meet with customers’ demands - simple by thinking about it. Without intuition any leadership style will soon be outdated.

How do you evaluate un-learning?

Most delegates talk about the programme in terms of a “creative space”. The time they spent together with each other was planned and prepared to stimulate free exploration of ideas, emotions, habits and hopes – the own ones and those of the others. By looking at everyday life and issues of leadership whilst entering a new venture point by creative means, new dynamics occur. The amount of such free, creative space is a kind of measurement of success. It is not one single factor, like faculty, venue, programme director, individual participant’s story etc that “does it” to participants, but rather the joint journey towards emergent experiential knowledge. The quality lies in the shared containment of such creative space.

We are in the early phases of developing creative un-learning programmes at de Baak, and the effect of following such a programme obviously only reveal itself over time. So I cannot evaluate this process and I doubt than any honest evaluation would add comprehensive understanding in terms of effects.

But the Sufis have spent a couple of thousand of years to refine the method of unlearning and I believe in Hazrat Inayat Khan saying:

It is not necessary for us to be told that we have progressed; we ourselves will know when our heart goes forward; and by loving, forgiving, and serving, our whole life becomes one single vision of the sublime beauty of God.” [8]

Dr.Karin Jironet

De Baak Management Centre VNO-NCW