The CEO as Visionary
Thomas Tierney, Bain & Company's former worldwide managing director,
is the leading advocate for shaping and articulating Bain's learning
vision, which is to "Create the best environment in the world for learning
how add value to businesses." Tierney's passion for learning is reflected in
his vision of Bain as a global community of "teacher-learners."
Tierney believes these teacher-learners share several characteristics, such as:
• Being actively engaged in teaching, probing and learning-all
simultaneously.
• Demonstrating care for their colleagues, and making intellectual
and emotional connections in and beyond their circle of peers.
• Relating to as many people from different backgrounds, experience,
and maturity levels/positions as possible. This is what Tierney calls
"nurturing the bandwidth capacity."
• Reflecting on what they have learned as well as how they learn. After
learning or teaching, these teacher-learners ask themselves, "What
have I learned about learning? What should I explore to enrich my
own learning as a result of this interaction?"
• Keeping their receiver-transmitters on at all times. Teacher-learners
possess a child's mind; they don't presuppose, they listen.
As Tierney sees it, teacher-learners are made not born. A teacher-learner profile is the product of role models, parents, friends, and experiences and of course,
the organization itself, which nurtures and rewards such characteristics.
Tierney's legacy will be to create a professional service organization where each employee can become both a teacher and a learner.
Defining this vision for learning has also spilled over into Bain's consulting practice.
Tierney has pressed the firm to ask such questions as:
How do you design your plant, your facilities and even your floor plan for learning? How do you set up and manage client interactions for learning?
How do you go about recruiting and hiring people who are both teachers and learners?
How do you sustain a teacher-learner approach in the context of instant obsolescence of learning?
By identifying a strong vision for learning, Tierney provides the Bain community of 2,000 employees and 1,500 clients with a clear mandate for how learning is a strategic necessity for the firm.