Past performance is no guarantee for future success
Tanmay Vora
How long can we rely on our past experience?
I may have worked with the best company in the past. I may have managed large and complex projects in the past. I may have done significant process improvements in the past. But does that guarantee success in current role/organization/environment?
We change jobs. We change roles within a job. Business environment changes. Organizations change. In a rapid changing scenario – to what extent does past experience guarantee success?
Management as a profession is so much situational and contextual that one’s past performance is no guarantee for future success. I am reminded of note at the end of mutual fund prospectus that reads “Past performance is no guarantee for future returns”. I realize this more and more when I see super-experienced people falter.
A few years ago, I met a very senior professional who joined our organization. He had more than 15 years of experience managing large and complex assignments at one of the large IT houses. In one of the initial interactions, this is what he said to me, “You know, I have managed multi-year, high-value projects with a team size of more than 400 people. But in this new job role, my success really depends on what I do here and now – based on a changed context and situation. That is what will matter. My experience may help, but it can certainly not guide my basic thinking process in a new context.”
He gave an apt answer to my question. Experience is a great enabler – but changing contexts demand fresh thinking without which one stagnates.
Learning, unlearning and re-learning is a constant process.
Do you agree? Your comments are welcome to take this conversation forward.
I 100% agree with the statement “Learning, unlearning and re-learning is a constant process” And I also believe that Learning new things is not a problem greater then unlearning the things.
“We cannot plant new crops without first uprooting the old roots and giving the new seeds a chance, we need to unlearn before we can learn a new. In other words, while normal learning is facilitated by conditioning approaches, no new learning or breakthroughs take place with this approach.”
Thanks Kutub – you are right on when you say that unlearning is more difficult. It is very easy to get carried away by what you already know, more because our past experience provides us a shell that protects us from the unknown.
But unfortunately, problems are never uniform and same applies to solutions. Each issue has to be thought about differently. Asking right questions depending on situation is a best way to spark new thinking.
Thanks for writing in.
This reminds me of Darwin’s law of Evolution. You can not live if you do not change with change of nature, otherwise nature will change/ remove you.
It’s eternal Truth.
Thanks for commenting again, Niraj.
Yes, Darwin said – “It is not the strongest of speices that survives, but ones most adaptable to change”. His theory stands true even today.
My experience states that many people don’t get this. Even while working with a smaller organization, they would keep boasting of great process improvements and implementations they did in their past career elsewhere. That is ridiculous because times have changed, workplace realities have changed. How can you then rely on old ways of working?
Keep reading and keep commenting.