The pardox of a learning organization

There are two other things that companies need to do to get smarter that are also contrary to common practice. The first is letting people do new things, a decision that often has costs in terms of short-term efficiency. It is obvious that learning at the level of the individual involves a certain amount of beginner’s clumsiness—whether one is learning how to play a musical instrument, speak a new language, or make investment decisions. The irony is that even as companies want to become learning organizations, they don’t want to be places where people can learn new things— because that requires putting people in positions where they do tasks they don’t yet do very well.

What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management by Jeffrey Pfeffer