Welcome!

You have opened a wonderful collection of essays. So, let me congratulate you. You must be a learner!

I hope you do not feel alone and scared. I hope you are not sneaking into some janitorial closet for a furtive glimpse at the wisdom and insight of some of the world's most thoughtful learners and learning advisers. I hope you do not feel like a criminal or a thief, stealing company time for learning.

I hope, instead, you have this book open at your desk – for all the world to see that you are a learner and that you know learning matters to your organization as much as it does to yourself.

Sometimes, I know, taking time at work to learn can feel odd. It can feel somehow taboo – an activity that must be justified by more than its own rewards. Sometimes it feels that our lives in organizations do not quite make sense. We know in our hearts and souls, and, increasingly, from our experience, that our work is impossible without learning. We know that any number of critical, recurring challenges – from customer service and quality to innovation, technology, and values – cannot be met without learning. But, still, we act as if learning is something to be done in private time instead of organizational time, and with strict, clear, complete, and overwhelming justification by the bottom line.