Learning lessons on learning
by Bernard McGrath, Inspection Validation Centre

For NDT operators, exam time can be anytime. However, for the majority of the population, in schools, colleges and universities, we have just reached the end of the exam season. Exams are stressful and they do favour people who have been blessed with good memories or who are better able to cope with the stress of the exam situation. We have all spent time trying to cram in facts, vocabulary, formulae and derivations so that we can regurgitate and apply them to illustrate our knowledge of the subject. Then, once the exam is over, we forget all but isolated items unless we are forced to apply them in our day-to-day activities.

There is an argument that an exam is not a true test of someone's ability; that people can be trained to pass an exam but they are not necessarily then prepared to apply the knowledge gained in practice. Some of my own experience backs this up. I got a better score in a French exam than I did in a Spanish exam, but if at the time I had been dropped in the middle of either country, I would have survived better in Spain than I would have in France.

Continuous assessment and coursework have been, and are, used as alternatives to the dreaded exam, but there is still a role for such a measure of an individual's abilities. Exams do test our ability to apply retained knowledge in a blind test; something that we can be called on to do in both our work and home life. If we didn't have exams to force us to learn or revise, then would we make much progress? Judging by many recent events, the answer is a resounding no.

If you have opened a broadsheet weekend paper recently you will have inevitably come across articles on the war in Afghanistan. The other week there was a piece on a territorial soldier who is the army's first cultural understanding officer. His role is to go out and get among the Afghans so he can advise his superiors about how to achieve their aims. At first glance this appears to be a sensible initiative with an emphasis on initiative. However, to any student of history, or even just a reader of the weekend papers, the question is why did they not do this at the start? The British have been in Helmand province for three years. They fought in Afghanistan as far back as 1880. There is over half a century of counter-insurgency war to learn from. It is as though we have decided to start all over again.

There have been lessons not learnt much closer to home. In responding to a report on increases in Chief Executives' pay when the value of their companies had fallen significantly, an interviewee held fast to the view that if we didn’t pay such high wages then the talent would go elsewhere. You don't need to have learnt about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to know that people who are highly motivated to successfully complete a task are not motivated just by money. There are many stakeholders of major banks and supporters of a well-known football team who can testify that paying high wages does not necessarily produce success. How they must wish their talent had gone elsewhere!

In an era of continuous improvement, working smarter, the learning organisation and life-long learning, we seem to be particularly poor at learning from what has gone before. Whilst people do need to be allowed to make mistakes – "those who haven't made a mistake haven't made anything" is a well-known saying – the focus seems to be on just identifying what we can learn from our mistakes rather than using what we and others have learnt previously to avoid the mistakes in the first place. How many risk assessments identify not learning from previous activities, repeating the same mistakes as previously or ignoring new knowledge as a risk?

When giving talks on the results of the PANI programme, I have tried to encourage the adoption of actions to improve reliability by quoting the saying: "If you always do what you've always done then you'll always get what you've always got". Einstein put it a little more succinctly: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". The only way we will get different and successful results is if we apply an exam mentality: take time out to revise and learn from what has gone before and seek to apply this learning in the situations that we face. We then have to remember not to forget the lessons behind the particular application to prevent us later reverting to old error-prone ways.

Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author's own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, Serco Assurance or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.

Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, 1 Spencer Parade, Northampton NN1 5AA. Fax: 01604 231489; Email: ndtnews@bindt.org or email Bernard McGrath direct at Bernard.McGrath@sercoassurance.com