According to current thinking, change is a new constant that brings with it uncertainty. Economic globalization has given rise to a number of phenomena (such as regional disintegration policies, Brexit, and struggles for primacy within the market), and this has led to increasing protectionist action, highlighting the fact that, as a result of constant change, the present and future are uncertain.
In this scenario, the role of leaders in organizations is crucial, as their vision must always be one step ahead of uncertainty, enabling them to read the signs and respond effectively; as such their decisions become the rudder that keeps the company on course.
The CEO must not only be attentive to these signs of the potential future, but must also be constantly up to date and, where necessary, must establish succession processes that will ultimately enable the company to transit through scenarios shaped by biology. New needs bring new challenges, and the current tendency is to focus on strategies which help CEOs to construct solid learning and tools with which to think and act disruptively within their markets. As such, institutions wishing to be involved in CEO training processes must be open to equally innovative and disruptive methodologies.
Learning has become the key ingredient in the development of a company from a “traditional organization” into a “Smart organization”. As such, CEOs are always willing to learn, but their time, demands and general dynamics may mean that learning is not as effective as it might be, especially when it comes to enrolling on a traditional program. The CEO therefore needs training processes which will guarantee minimal entropy in learning. The five methodological learning principles that CEOs are interested in when looking for a course are the following:
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Immersive methodologies |
Attitudes |
Description |
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Shadow Learning (SL) |
Hackschooling Disruption Fun and Exciting |
This methodology promotes situated learning that is completely experiential and immersive, allowing the individual to identify the challenges and respond to them in an agile, focused and comprehensive manner. Beane (2019) analyzes of the origins of this type of learning, finding that its significance stems from work to identify, strengthen and apply key skills to the work of an organization. |
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Organizational Chaos Learning (OCL) |
This methodology poses challenges which must be solved in different ways, through the design of strategies, tactics and operations to get through a crisis. Chaos is controlled and channeled to revitalize all of the members of the organization, giving them direct injections of disruptive, incremental, revolutionary or continuous innovation. Díaz García and Alarcón Ortiz (2015) refer to the importance of having a corporate designer, and although their vision was set in the year 2040, we consider that, rather than waiting, this kind of learning should be introduced as soon as possible. |
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Real Role Play (RRP) |
This methodology involves a certain situation and set of agents, each of whom has a different role. Although RRP follows the basics of traditional role playing, the main difference lies in the use of real-world contexts and circumstances. The approach fosters empathy and promotes collaboration between members of the organization, and these contribute to the development of a set of values which help to shape shared goals and perspectives within the organization. Some helpful illustrative examples of Role Playing may be found in the Revista Retos Directivos journal. |
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Simulation Learning (SiL) |
This methodology promotes learning from those experiences which cannot be reproduced but which may occur spontaneously. These experiences involve application of negotiation and conflict resolution skills in order to achieve positive and shared results. A study conducted in 2018 by Mendoza-Maldonado and Barría-Pailaquilén offers a good example. |
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Data Learning (DL) |
This methodology is based on Reporting for the analysis of tendencies. Its main function is to provide CEOs with the analytical and projective speculation skills with which not only to rapidly analyze the description, but to infer and provide the step-up necessary for the organization. This type of learning can also incentivize new market scenarios as described by Russon in 2019 and by Kavilanz in 2011, who referred to the role of technology in business and Startups. |
Each of these high-impact methodologies will be assessed in terms of three fundamental elements, namely Hackschooling, Disruption and Fun and Exciting. Current business processes are highly demanding, and development of these attitudes is fundamental.
This type of learning concerns life, work, family and school: means, not ends. It provides CEOs with much-needed spiritual peace to support the optimal development of their other intelligences. The role of apprentice instils an attitude of self-management of learning and, in turn, fosters a proactive spirit among collaborators. Promotion of this type of thought inspires a new and disruptive view of the traditional notion of learning and training. Institutions must seek to escape the rut of linear innovation and generate disruptive conditions in which to train CEOs. Hackschooling therefore implies comprehensive training that prepares the individual to innovate as they learn and prioritizes productivity (the notion of a product of quality) rather than production (the notion of a product of quantity). Murillo (2016) would address the subject by looking to the future, and the combination of our present and his future gives us the guidelines by which to implement the approach.
By becoming a disruptive person, the CEO is transformed into an agent of change, well-prepared to confront uncertainty. Disruption is therefore an attitude which pushes agents within an organization to find as yet untapped developmental resources, leaving behind the bureaucracy and monotony of “lean process” and maintaining a spirit that is always fresh. In 2018, CNN released a video about disruption in companies, illustrating the importance of constant interpretation of reality and a focus on the needs of society with the help of a long-term perspective. As such, further work is needed towards approaches such as these, particularly among CEOs.
3. Fun and Exciting
The emotional capital of a work team is crucial to its potential to achieve objectives. A CEO knows that the team need to be on top form and that it is not the number of desk hours that count, but the elements of fun, creativity and excitement involved in their work. In this way, co-working becomes more than simply a workspace – it is a space for construction through emotions and shared vision. A team whose ideas are heard—a team which is trusted—is a “smart team” that will achieve its objectives. A study by Moccia (2016) provides useful insights into the subject of happiness in work.
The presence of these attitudes and approaches within the team and on the part of the CEO him- or herself are key to the success of the entrepreneur and, as such, to their capacity to foresee the future. Among the works which shed light on this issue are Moccia (2016), Mariscal Orozco and Lay Arellano (2016) and CNN (2019), to name but a few.
CEO learning tendencies are not only a fundamental part of their reflection processes and activity in general; they also provide evidence of the potential of alternative education in the construction of new, more effective ways of managing learning.
Thus, alternative education not only supports the development of microcompetencies and specific skills but is key to finding new ways of validating learning and revitalizing the adaptation process of members of an organization.
The challenge to become a Smart organization is motivated not only by uncertainty but by the relentless advance of technology. The latter drives creative processes which lead to the construction of hybrid realities in which the physical, the virtual and the biological combine to create a limitless world whose potential is defined by those who dare to carve out their own destinies. Practice communities exist whose operations incorporate all of the dimensions involved in the geometric development of the reality of each of the companies and those who make them work. Since 2016, Mariscal Orozco and Lay Arellano have been publishing a series of works to help understand the need to live virtually.
CEOs who are conscious of this dynamic find in traditional institutions obsolete frameworks, motivating them to develop their own alternative training mechanisms to provide agents who maintain a HADIFE (Hackschooling, Disruption and Fun and Exciting) attitude with the tools they need to enter a high-performance team; tools whose effects are reflected in immersive methodologies such as those mentioned above.
Of course, training is continuous within organizations and must be the subject of ongoing HADIFE-based meditation that considers more immersive methodologies to provide new CEOs with what they need to keep their hand firmly on the tiller and a course set towards their own future – a future that is creative and non-traditional.
Training of CEOs is multidimensional and involves a series of conditions that drive development of geometric learning. Learning implies consideration of the training possibilities that exist for horizontal leaderships. Training in the productive sector involves not only the mechanical aspects of an individual’s expertise; today’s global context requires us to think about company training as a process that incorporates a variety of aspects which, as yet, have not been addressed in terms of a curriculum.
Immersive methodologies are an example of this. While they offer potential methods for promoting disruptive thought within the team, they must also adopt the HADIFE perspective by incorporating elements which drive the union of immersive methodologies, reality, and experiential learning.
On one hand, the challenge lies in encouraging CEOs to explore the methodologies proposed and add others which will guarantee effective immersion and results for their team. On the other hand, there is room for more in-depth exploration on the part of education providers, particularly higher education institutions, of what is happening in the present and what the future may bring. As such, these institutions must urgently strive to connect with reality and, by doing so, act within the ever-present now. The challenges are not only operative, but curricular and, to a major extent, strategic and ontological. As such, we must re-think the relationship between this institutional nature and its raison d’être now and in the near future.