4.3.6. Learning through experience

4.3.6. Learning through experience Learning through experience in EntreComp

Thread FOUNDATION Discover – Explore Relying on support from others

Learning through experience in EntreComp

INTERMEDIATE

Experiment-Dare

Building independence ADVANCED Improve-Reinforce Taking responsibility

Reflect.

On failures, performance, achievements, collected feedback 1. I can find examples of great failures that

have created value.

2. I can provide examples of

temporary failures

that have led to valuable achievements. 3. I can reflect on failures (mine and other people’s), identify their causes and learn from

them.

4. I can judge if and how I have achieved my goals, so that I can evaluate my performance and learn from it. 5. I can reflect on my (or my team's) achievements and temporary failures as things develop so as to learn and improve my ability to create value. 6. I can help others reflect on their achievements and temporary failures by providing honest and constructive feedback.

Learn to learn. 1. I can provide examples that show that my abilities and

competence have

increased with experience. 2. I can anticipate that

my abilities and competence will grow with

experience, through both successes and failures. 3. I can reflect on the

relevance of my learning pathways

for my future opportunities and choices. 4. I am always looking

for opportunities to improve my strengths and reduce or compensate for my weaknesses.

5. I can find and choose

opportunities to overcome my (or my team’s) weaknesses and to

develop my (or my team’s) strengths. 6. I can help others develop

their strengths and

reduce or compensate for their weaknesses.

Learn from experience. 1. I can recognise what

I have learnt from taking part in valuecreating activities. 2. I can reflect on my experience in taking part in value-creating activities and learn from it. 3. I can reflect on my

interaction with

others (including peers and mentors) and learn from it. 4. I can filter the feedback provided by others and keep the good from it. 5. I can integrate lifelong learning into my personal development strategy and career progress. 6. I can help others reflect on their interaction with other people and help them learn from this interaction. EXPERT Expand-Transform Driving transformation, innovation and growth 7. I can take my team or the organisation to a

higher level of

performance, based on the feedback collected and by learning lessons from achievements and failures

7. I can identify opportunities for selfimprovement in my organisation and beyond. 8. I can design and put in place a strategy

for my venture to continue to generate value.

7. I can learn from the

impact- monitoring and evaluation

activities that I have designed to track the progress of my valuecreating activity. 8. I can learn lessons

from monitoring and evaluation

processes and establish them into my organisation’s learning processes.

Learning through experience in the literature

Thread in EntreComp Learning through experience in the literature Related competences listed in other frameworks Insights from the literature review

Reflect. -

Learn to learn.

• Learn to learn (P) (Tittel &

Terzidis, 2020). • Role of the mentor as the one who accompanies the entrepreneur to reflect on their actions and their results (Deakins & Freel, 1996; cited in Cope, 2005). • Learning from failures (Ucbasaran et al., 2013). • How to learn continuously: analysing, experimenting and revising (Lackéus et al., 2020).

Learn from experience.

• Experiential learning. (Bird 1995/2019) • The entrepreneur evolves as they perform and learns based on experience and continued investigation of new techniques and new methods (Rae, 2000; cited in Cope, 2005). • The learning perspective of entrepreneurship considers entrepreneurship immersed in a substantial learning situation, in which the entrepreneur is learning: a) about oneself, b) the business, c) the environment and networks, d) small business management and e) the nature and management of relationships. (Cope, 2005). • The learning process is the result of critical events where the entrepreneurs learns to copy to take action and make decisions (Deakins & Freel, 1996). • Validated learning is the result of an experimental process with customers. This involves a willingness to experiment and know how to give and receive feedback (Minniti & Bygrave, 2001; cited in Cope, 2005). Learning by trial and error typical of agile methodologies is a type of learning by experience. The knowledge captured from an experiential learning process is considered the new venture’s main asset. • Experiential learning – how entrepreneurs learn: 1) They take part in a concrete experience. Reflection of these experiences allows the experiencer to ask his/herself probing questions as to what occurred and why. 3) From this, the experiencer applies or creates abstract concepts and from this theory-in-action 4) the experiencer changes his or her behavior in an active experiment designed to bring about a different set of concrete experiences. (Bird, 1995/2019) • Entrepreneurship is conceived as a dynamic problem-solving process in which entrepreneurs learn in the light of experience and feedback from the market. “The actual entrepreneurial act is inextricable from the trial and error process of testing out [the entrepreneurial] idea” (Vaughn, 1990: 22; cited in Harper, 2008). • Existence of two types of critical situations: critical situations can be differently coped with by the entrepreneur along on a “continuum”. At one end of this “continuum” there are the critical situations faced by the entrepreneur by activating knowledge and capabilities; at the other end there are critical situations - mainly linked to exogenous factors that the entrepreneurs is not capable of governing. (Capaldo et al., 2004). • Employees learn their job to a great extent while doing their job, in other words through gaining experience and by reflecting on these experiences (e.g., Kyndt & Baert, 2013). In addition, Cope (2005) states that it is commonly recognized that entrepreneurs are actionoriented and that their learning is primarily based on experiences (Kyndt & Baert, 2015).

OTHER: Learning networks - • Since entrepreneurship is a cyclical process that involves multiple stakeholders, continuous iterations with them constitute an experiential network learning system (Mäkinsen, 2002; Gibb, 1997). The different agents (suppliers, clients, employees, administrations, consultants, ...) when interacting by means of transactions generate valuable knowledge which is captured by the entrepreneur. It is known that transaction costs decrease as trust increases and this confidence is strengthened from experience-based network learning. • Orientation towards learning: relevant competences of the entrepreneur. Beyond learning through experience, the authors include: “participating in training and development activities, following up on new developments, knowing where to find relevant information and being interested in new methods and techniques that are relevant for their profession” (Kyndt & Baert, 2015). • How to learn: The Anticipation-Action-Reflection (AAR) cycle is an iterative learning process whereby learners continuously improve their thinking and act intentionally and responsibly towards collective wellbeing (see the concept note on the Anticipation-Action-Reflection cycle). Through planning, experience and reflection, learners deepen their understanding and widen their perspective. The AAR cycle is a catalyst for the development of the transformative competencies: each of those competencies depends on the learner’s ability to be adaptive and reflective and to take action accordingly, and to continually improve his or her thinking. (OECD)

• Entrepreneurial people learn the most from critical and highly emotional events, especially negative ones. Some ‘special’ event types that are important in entrepreneurial learning are tackling incidents or setbacks that must be managed, experiencing moments of creative inspiration or realisation around an opportunity, and having social encounters with people who provide new and crucial knowledge and insights. (Lackéus, 2015). • Human learning consideration as a whole-person experience, implying that it is the whole person who learns, not only the brain or the hands or the heart. It is equally important to learn from one’s thoughts (cognitive learning), from one’s actions (learning-by-doing) and from one’s emotions (affective learning) (Lackéus, 2015)

Learning through experience in EICAA-CF The learning competence is very relevant in the literature reviewed. Some authors even state that learning is one of the main competences of the entrepreneur. Cope (2005) considers that entrepreneurship is immersed in a substantial learning situation, in which the entrepreneur is learning: a) about oneself, b) the business, c) the environment and networks, d) small business management and e) the nature and management of relationships. Lackéus et al. (2020) adds that it is equally important to learn from experience (learning by doing), as learning from one’s thoughts (cognitive learning) and learning from one’s emotions (affective learning). Learning from failure is also emphasized in the literature, sometimes referred in broader terms as learning from critical events (Deakins & Freel, 1996). As a summary, learning from experience is well covered in EntreComp regarding the process of reflecting, learning from feedback, learning from failure and learning from experience. EICAA-CF keeps the same structure and just refines some wording. The next table shows how the competence is included in EICAA-CF.

Table 30. Competence “Learning from experience” in EICAA-CF

Learning through experience in EICAA

Definitions:

• Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes about something, from study, practice, example/observation or experience. (Baron, 2006) • Experiential learning starts from assuming that experience provokes knowledge (Kolb, 1984). By doing something, one reflects on how one does it and is able to reach generalizations and discover patterns (Baron, 2006). • Human capital refers to the potential of people to deliver results based on their knowledge, experience or skills (Becker, 1968). Skills and capacity that reside in the people (Gianesini et al., 2018).Human capital is viewed traditionally as a function of education and experience, the latter reflecting both training and learning by doing. • Acquisition: refers to the transformation from experience (and not knowledge) to skills, while transfer is the application of knowledge acquire in one situation to another (Unger et al. 2011). (Gianesini et al., 2018). • Orientation towards learning: refers to the fact that successful entrepreneurs search for new knowledge and skills in order to develop themselves. It refers to participating in training and development activities, following up on new developments, knowing where to find relevant information and being interested in new methods and techniques that are relevant for their profession (Kyndt & Baert, 2015). Hint: • Learn by doing.

Descriptors:

• Use any initiative for value creation as a learning opportunity. • Learn with others, including peers and mentors. • Reflect and learn from both success and failure (your own and other people’s). Thread FOUNDATION Discover – Explore Relying on support from others INTERMEDIATE Experiment-Dare Building independence ADVANCED Improve-Reinforce Taking responsibility

Reflect.

On failures, achievements.

Give and collect feedback Find examples of failures that have led to valuable achievements and the creation of value.

Reflect on failures and achievements

(mine and others’), their causes, and learn from them, so that I improve my ability to provide value. Help others reflect on their achievements and temporary failures by providing honest and constructive feedback. I can take my team or the organisation to a higher level of performance, based on

the feedback collected

and by learning lessons from achievements and failures.

EXPERT Expand-Transform Driving transformation, innovation and growth

Learn to learn.

Understand the need of learning to learn.

Actively search opportunities to learn.

Help others to learn. Anticipate that my abilities and competence will grow with experience, through both successes and failures.

Actively engaging in

opportunities to improve my strengths and reduce or compensate for my weaknesses through a variety of learning opportunities (interaction with others, training, mentoring,…) Even when opportunities for learning are not available in my organisation or network, I will proactively seek them out elsewhere.

Help others develop their strengths and reduce or compensate for their weaknesses.

Reflect on my competence of

learning to learn and design strategies to improve my future learning to learn. (Metalearning)

Learn from experience.

Recognise what I have learnt from previous experiences and in value-creating activities.

Explain the process of learning from

experience and the relevance to the entrepreneurial activity. Learn from the

interaction with

others (peers, mentors, stakeholders) and from the experiences (positive and negative) of the value-creating activity. Learn from my own thoughts, actions and feelings. Learn about the business, but also about myself, my relationships, the customers and other stakeholders.

Help others reflect on their experience and interaction with others.

Help others spot barriers to learning

from experience (e.g., lack of reflection, closed-mindedness, …) and develop strategies to become more effective at it.

(intrapreneurship) Foster a culture of learning in the organisation.