Back from a tour de force of the American South, I am struck by the issue of learning from lessons and tests. The matrix goes something like this:

 1. When in school or other entities intended to “teach” us things (such as military training for young officers), we are presented lessons and then tested on the lesson.

Have we absorbed and retained the learning?

 2. Often in life — business, families, military — we are tested first and from that testing we must learn a lesson.

Do we absorb and retain the learning?

There can be a huge cost associated with not absorbing or retaining the learning. An organization — or a leader — who fails to absorb and lead is not a successful organization or leader. It is costly to fail repeatedly.

Is there a better way to learn when we are beyond the formal arena for learning? Meaning out of school or training?

That is the realm of “coaching” or “peer networking.”

Coaching — particularly for a C-suite occupant is easy — hire a CEO coach. For goodness sake, hire someone who has actually been a CEO.

Along the same continuum, I recommend peer networking such as YPO (Young Presidents Organization), Vistage, TAB (the alternative board), or other local peer networking opportunities.

Pro tip: network with CEOs who are more accomplished than you, further up the learning curve. Osmosis will do its magic.

There it is, dear reader. It is always cheaper in the long run to learn the lessons, be tested on them, and absorb/retain them than doing it all over and over again.

Happy New Year! The year 2020 is going to be a bang up year.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.