A LIFE OF LEARNING
By USMC General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Ret.)
W
e all know him, or somebody
like him. When he was
young and starting out in
life, he was eager, energetic, and a
fast learner. Everyone thought that
he would rise through the ranks in his
chosen profession and he seemed
to have so many interests. You meet
him now, in mid-life, and you wonder
what happened. He seems to have
intellectually flat-lined. He has few
interests outside of work. At work, he
has settled into a mediocre position
and is content to let things play out as
is until retirement. No real plans after
that. He remains resistant to change
and transformation of any kind.
Two things happened to him. He never
really adopted a life-long commitment
to learning and growing and, he was
never part of an organization committed
to developing its members through
continuous learning.
Lifelong learning requires a personal
and professional commitment. It
means developing a sense of curiosity
about all aspects of your life and the
discipline to feed that curiosity through
self-education and personal growth.
You need a passion for learning and
for teaching. Those who develop a
tremendous wealth of knowledge and
competence, and use that to mentor
and coach, feed that passion. As you
learn and grow, you create a greater
ability to reflect and analyze your
experiences. You become an effective
critical, systems, and creative thinker.
This leads to a level of decision-making
24
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
that makes you a powerful and valued
leader. People who are committed
lifelong learners tend to be visionaries
who think an act strategically. They can
see an alternative future and how to
shape it and succeed in it while others
are stuck in a transactional life, moving
tactically from day to day in a mode of
survival decision-making.
need to develop an environment to
encourage and support this way of
life. The organization must become a
learning organization. This requires
a commitment to the education of
its members, investment in their
development, rewarding and valuing
learning, and creating a team learning
approach to doing business.
There are certain characteristics
of lifelong learners that are clearly
evident. They are always reading.
They continuously devour books,
ebooks, and audio books. They enjoy
stimulating conversations and have
a wide breadth of knowledge and
interests. They always seem to have
some sort of project that they are
involved in. Besides their self-learning,
they seek structural learning. They
eagerly look for opportunities to take
formal professional courses or increase
their educational level. Learning
becomes a way of life that inspires their
personal and professional lives. They
possess a logic and understanding that
is demonstrated in how they define and
analyze problems and issues.
Our society is full of individuals who
claim to be lifelong learners and
organizations that claim to be learning
organizations. In my experience,
however, most of those making such
claims do not walk the talk. It takes a
true, tough commitment on a personal
and organizational basis to make
lifelong learning a reality. I don’t see
survival in this environment for those
that can’t or refuse to commit.
In today’s world, organizations face an
environment that is highly competitive,
complex, and dynamic. To succeed
and be relevant, they need members
who are innovative, exceptionally
knowledgeable, mentally agile, and
highly analytical. Those willing to
commit to a life of learning fit this bill.
An organization that sees clear
advantages to having its members
be
lifelong
learners,
however,
Summer 2016
General Anthony C. Zinni is a retired
United States Marine Corps four star
general and a former Commander
in Chief of the United States Central
Command (CENTCOM). In 2002, he
was selected to be a special envoy
for the United States to Israel and the
Palestinian Authority.
While serving as special envoy,
Zinni was also an instructor in the
Department of International Studies at
the Virginia Military Institute. Currently,
he is an instructor at the Sanford School
of Public Policy at Duke University, a
public speaker, and an author of bestselling books on his military career
and foreign affairs, including Battle for
Peace.
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys