Higher-Order Learning

When leaders engage in higher-order learning, they experience a continual improvement in their capacity to learn. Leaders who develop higher-order learning are not limited by their pre-existing experience but learn to transfer their learning to new situations. Learning no longer becomes constrained but can be applied to a variety of situations. Leaders seek out new and unfamiliar situations and continue to learn. Higher-order learning involves three progressive steps: learning from experience, deliberate practice, and meta-learning. Stress, multiple competing demands, and emotional burnout conspire to undermine higher-order learning. Higher-order learning marks a turning point in learning-directed leadership as it is one of the more complex of the leadership practices to master. As leaders adapt to new challenges, the way they learn must adapt as well. Leaders develop the ability to meet new and unexpected challenges by developing higher-order learning. Those who demonstrate higher-order learning are more agile and flexible in their learning and thus are more likely to learn in the face of stress, novelty, and ambiguity. The result of higher-order learning is a consistent focus on relevant information, simultaneously balancing the larger mission with short-term tactics, taking action in the face of ambiguity, and managing multiple, even conflicting goals.