If you were to make “roomali roti” it would probably take you a difficult 30 minutes to produce a warped and uneven one, while it takes about three minutes for those man who do it in great style and to scintillating effect in the restaurant. Apart from the tools and the hearth, the important reason for your poor show is the learning curve. It is the same when you have your wheels changed at the normal garage and the way they do it, in seconds, for Schumacher at the pit stop on the racetrack. We all know the age-old adage that practice makes a man perfect. But learning curve is more than a saying – it has many dimensions, uses and implications, particularly for the HR manager. In some ways, it is the dynamics of the learning curve that earn his bread.

The theory of learning curve, emanated formally from the world of engineering, mathematics and statistics. The earliest was probably the work of J.P.Wright, who introduced in 1936, a mathematical model describing the learning curve while examining the factors affecting the cost of airplanes. It was evident that the average labour cost decreased in a predictable pattern in an exponential manner that was a linear curve when plotted on a log-log paper. Since then, this theory has been used fruitfully in many areas such as strategy, production, education, discovery, agriculture, surgery and lately in I.T. Depending on the context, learning curve has been defined in several ways. At the bottom of all is the belief that the input cost, or time, per unit produced decreases by a set percentage every time the cumulative output doubles. Thus, a 80 per cent learning curve, as in the manufacturing context, assumes that the effort taken to produce further volumes of products will be only 80 per cent of the first set. Has this any thing to do with HR Management?

Obviously, training and Organization Development interventions should be deeply involved with learning curves, understanding the philosophy, its application, measurement and implications. In some ways, effective Human Resources Management assumes that learning curves come to their rescue as otherwise the returns to the investment will be unjustifiable – there ought to be a direct positive correlation between integration of learning curves into HRD and cost-effectiveness of training.

In recent times, there is increased attention to the impact of learning curves on top management efficiency as well and the overall management of cost and compression of time. Studies in Europe have concluded that the top management teams` homogeneity and other characteristics contribute to better learning curves and greater cohesion in strategy making and its effective implementation. The learning curve obviously is at the crux of reduced delivery time of various I.T projects and their cost. The continued demolition of cost in General Electric and introduction of new products at 3M cannot be achieved by mere exhortations or pressures - it must have some thing to do with high level of integration of strategy, tactics and learning curves.

It appears that group processes and leadership have a telling effect on learning curves.. Atul Ganwade (“Complications” Metropolitan Books, New York, 2002) reports the study by a group of Harvard Business School researchers. This group, which was examining the learning curves of several sectors, studied the learning curves among surgeons. They followed 18 cardiac surgeons and their teams as they implemented the new technique of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. The new operation involved a small incision between the ribs instead of opening the chest down the middle. Though less painful and messy, the new technique was difficult as the incision is too small to admit several tubes and clamps for re-routing blood to the heart by-pass machine. The surgeons had to operate in a narrow space. The entire operation needed new instruments, new ways of doing things, new conditions, new procedures and obviously newer complications.

In the case of the new heart procedure, the researchers from the Harvard Business School found that whereas all teams received the same training and came from top institutions, there were wide disparities in the performance of the teams, in terms of the time taken. In the course of 50 cases, it was seen that some teams halved their operating time while others failed to improve at all. More importantly, the researchers found that the crucial variable was not so much the competence or reputation of the surgeons but how the team practiced and improved on the learning curve. They found that one of the quickest learning teams was actually led by a surgeon who was quite in experienced. But, he chose to pick team members with whom he worked well before and kept them together through the first 15 cases before allowing any change in the team. He had the team go through a dry run and then deliberately scheduled six operations in quick sequence so that little would be lost in between. He convened the team before each case to discuss in detail and afterward to debrief. It was evident that the surgeon was tracking all conditions and the results carefully and was open to inputs from the other members.

In contrast, the slowest learning team had among the most reputed and experienced of the surgeons. But, the leader chose his team randomly and did not keep it together. He did not prefer any briefings, debriefings or tracking of results. The processes adopted by the two teams were very much in contrast that caused the differences in the learning curves.

A study by McKinsey also noted that the most effective teams, focusing initially on working together, get early results in their efforts to deal with important business issues and then reflect together on the manner in which they did so, thus discovering how to function better as a team. It appears that even in the case of airlines and NASA it was evident that certain group processes (such as the team member’s understanding of social and cognitive aspects) appear to have contributed to better working. A study of the IT firms in Belgium and Netherlands also reiterates the importance of the processes that improve the learning curves.

Lest we think we have found the target for the HR managers, - to concentrate on the team processes to improve the learning curve – one must know that there are complexities as well. For instance, one may have made efforts to perfect the group processes and achieved leadership in the learning curve among competitors. But the very learning curve can become the curse of a team that refuses to adapt!

Lets us take the case of the learning curve of those making cow-dung cakes for fuel or in a radio manufacturing company (Murphy brand ? ). If the teams have not been able to absorb the new technologies, products or market requirements, for whatever reason, the competitive advantage will be short-lived. However, for those who have mastered the old, there is a sunk cost, atleast in the short term, that they find hard to write off. Yet, if the surgeons do not accept new procedures, tools, technology but are on a high on the yesteryear, it would bring no joy to anyone. One wouldn’t want a “Sushrutha” team to do surgery now howsoever high it may be on the learning curve. It implies that teams must have a super imposition of a dynamic of learning curves that are sensitive to new developments. This is where the learning curve becomes important even in discovery, innovation and change and indicates the potential of a meta –learning curve.

It appears that the processes adopted by the teams should be of prime concern for the HR managers to ensure that performance improves and they have better yields from the learning curve. Eventually, organizations still need to demolish costs and time on a competitive basis and simultaneously, increase their ability to innovate, discover, adapt or change tack at a short notice. They require competitively better learning curves on several dimensions. It will be a good idea if HR managers start benchmarking teams on the basis of learning curves on multiple criteria and processes and correlate them with strategic results.

While one I will not mind a long wait for a warped “romali roti” or changing of wheels, one would certainly not want his skull opened for a brain surgery for three hours for what should take 30 minutes! Nor would he like his skull to be pried open by medieval masters of Science than potential novices of the modern technology!